Showing posts with label What's on the Web. Show all posts

Monday What's on the Web: DC Green Scene

The DC Green Scene web site (and email service) provides a list of upcoming environmental events in the Washington DC area. I highly recommend subscribing to their weekly email notifications if you live in the DC area. Even if you are unlikely to attend many (or any), it is very useful to know what is going on.

There are typically several listings for every single day, and many of the events are free. Here are some examples, taken from tomorrow's list:

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Monday What's on the Web: The Geological Society Climate Statement

Last November, the Geological Society of London issued a "Statement on Climate Change." It's a relatively clear and straightforward statement that summarizes the current state of our climate and relates it to significant climatological changes in the past.

The Geological Society of London was founded in 1807. It is the UK national society for geoscience, and the oldest geological society in the world. As a highly regarded professional, scientific organization, one should take statements like these very seriously. When individual scientists make statements, it is possible they are tainted by personal bias. When the Geological Society of London makes a statement, it represents thousands of scientists, and carries much greater weight than any one particular scientific paper or one individual scientist's perspective. There are 10,000 members of the Geological Society.

The Geological Society's statement is mirrored by statements made by virtually every other reputable scientific organization on the planet. There are no reputable scientific organizations that dispute the scientific consensus that: 1) the planet is warming; 2) humans are partially to mostly responsible; and 3) the outcomes are likely to be significant and negative for human civilization.

Monday What's on the Web: Reconnecting America

Recommecting America is a web site dedicated to promoting, advocating for and improving Transit-Oriented Development.

This is how they describe their mission on their site:

Reconnecting America is a national non-profit organization that is working to integrate transportation systems and the communities they serve, with the goal of generating lasting public and private returns, improving economic and environmental efficiency, and giving consumers more housing and mobility choices.

Their sister site, the Center for Transit Oriented Development is focused more on that specific topic, but the two are interrelated.

I recommend joining to receive their daily updates, which link through to a tremendous number of articles related to this topic. I learn something new almost every day.

Monday What's on the Web: Compenhagenize

"Each and every day roughly 500,000 citizens choose the bicycle in Greater Copenhagen. This blog highlights who they are, why they do and how it was made possible.

Forty years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 37% of commuters crossing the city boundary ride bicycles each day. That number rises to 55% in the city proper. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere."

That quote is taken from the Copenhagenize.com website, which is thankfully written in English. There's not much to say about the blog. It features stories, snippets, policy thoughts and other aspects related to how Copenhagen is (and how it became) the most bicycle-friendly city in the Western world. Here are a few sample posts:

It's a quick look every day at something cool or interesting about urban bicycling. Take a look.

Monday What's on the Web: Coal Tattoo

I like the name "Coal Tattoo" for this blog hosted by the Charleston Gazette. I think it captures the idea of how coal creates a permanent mark on our landscape. This blog covers the coal industry in pretty close detail. Its primary author is Ken Ward, Jr., who has been covering the coal industry for about two decades. Last fall, Joe Romm at Climate Progress singled out Mr. Ward as a "Game Changer" in the fight against climate change. Here's the one-sentence description they use to describe the blog:

This Charleston Gazette blog attempts to build on the newspaper’s longtime coverage of all things coal — with a focus on mountaintop removal, coal-mine safety and climate change.

The blog is quite active and very up to date, averaging about one new post almost every day. Here are some recent representative posts:

Big thanks to Ken Ward for the work he is doing on behalf of the people of the coal mining regions, the workers, and everyone on the planet who is dependent on a stable climate.

Monday What's on the Web: Extraordinary Observations

Every Monday I highlight other bloggers or web contributors who are making important or interesting contributions to climate, sustainability, transportation or market transformation. Check back each week for another installment.
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Extraordinary Observations is a blog maintained by one of my fellow DC area bloggers named Rob Pitingolo. He moved to Arlington, Virginia from Cleveland in mid-2010 after graduating from John Carroll University with a degree in Economics. He writes about issues of urbanism, economics, transportation and politics at his blog. He also occasionally contributes to Greater Greater Washington.

I like his posts because they tend to be short and pithy and make an interesting ("extraordinary" might be a stretch, but--hey--a little hyperbole never hurt anyone) observation. It's like a little piece of think candy in your day. Some recent posts include:

Check it out. You're sure to find a post or two you like.

Monday What's on the Web: Nasa's Eyes on the Earth

Each Monday I highlight other bloggers or web contributors who are making important or interesting contributions to climate, sustainability, transportation or market transformation. Check back each week for another installment.

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NASA's Climate Change web site is an enormous wealth of information and kept right up to date. In addition to having the enormity of information about climate that it collects, it does so with some nice graphics and interactive displays. There's so much on this site, it's impossible to cover it all in one short blog post. You must visit for yourself. Unquestionably you will find yourself surfing to an area of interest. Some of those might be:

Climate Change Evidence: How do we know?
State of Flux: then and now - NASA photos from the past and the present that visually demonstrate the changes taking place on our planet
Mission - Descriptions of the 16 missions NASA has going that are studying our climate. A great place for space junkies

And there's more, like a sea-level viewer, a climate time machine and other excellent tools. Enjoy!

Monday What's on the Web: National Geographic Environment Blog

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National Geographic is known for many things: great photography, a high quality monthly magazine, adventure, amazing documentaries and more. They have also been reporting on climate change for several years, helping to sound the alarm regarding the seriousness of the threat of climate disruption.

They also have a very extensive blog, covering a wide range of topics. Among the topics they cover are environment and, to a lesser degree, energy.

Recent posts in this category include:

and one of my favorites, because of its clear way of explaining a major concept:

The Carbon Bathtub

It's always a pleasure to visit National Geographic's web site. Here's one more reason to spend some time there.

Monday What's on the Web: Climate Signals

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Climate Signals is an innovative database that uses social media to collect large volumes of very current information and studies related to climate change. Anyone can participate; there is an instructional video describing how to do so.

What makes Climate Signals such a useful site is that the large network is constantly updating the site with the absolute latest and most current information on climate change. It's more current and through even than Google or Google News in my opinion. I use what I find there to help me keep my Twitter account current. Here is a sample of stories and reports collected from a single day (January 19, 2010).

Growing season now 12 days longer over Northern Hemisphere

Warming due to loss of snow and ice twice as strong as estimated

Open water on Hudson Bay at year’s end for the 1st time on record

As with most well-designed sites, there are good keyword and search functions that help the user drill down to what they are looking for. Definitely keep this site bookmarked.

Monday What's on the Web: Mr. Energy Czar

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Mr. Energy Czar is a YouTube contributor who started posting videos about 10 months ago. For the last 3-4 years he has been working to prepare his household for what he believes is an upcoming energy crisis that will be spurred by Peak Oil. Personally I agree with him in the larger sense that there will be large disruptions in our economies as demand for oil outstrips supply during this decade. Whether or not it will be as severe as he believes it will be only time will tell.

Regardless, his approach to reducing his own personal energy use and what he has learned about reducing one's environmental footprint within our current society and economy is very useful information. He has done a great job educating himself and--now with these videos--sharing his education with others.

Whether you can take on the comprehensive effort he is undertaking or just start taking some smaller steps toward improving your environmental actions, the information he provides can be very useful. You don't have to subscribe to his world view to benefit from his knowledge. And you can use it to improve your own personal circumstances and your contribution towards a cleaner environment.

Monday What's on the Web: The Daily Climate

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The Daily Climate does two things: it collects dozens of stories related to climate change from around the world, and it publishes some of its own reporting on its Newsroom page. Its collection of news from around the world is quite comprehensive, and its a great site to bookmark for the latest links to articles of all types. TDC categorizes stories into eleven different categories such as: energy, politics, solutions, acidification and others. It describes its mission as follows:

The Daily Climate works to increase public understanding of climate disruption, including its scope and scale, potential solutions and the political processes that impede or advance them.

The Daily Climate does not espouse a political point of view on the news but instead reports the truth to the best of our ability. Editorial integrity is the foundation of our mission.

Establishing the trust of our readers is a fundamental editorial objective; all of our reporting, editing and publishing adheres to the highest standards of journalism, including honesty, accuracy, balance and objectivity.

Towards that goal, the Daily Climate offers enterprise reporting on relevant topics alongside a unique daily aggregation of global journalism on climate science.

The Daily Climate's aggregation represents the news of the day, irrespective of the opinion or viewpoint expressed, or whether or not material in the article is consistent with our understanding of current science. We often publish several articles from different newspapers covering the same story, as well as multiple editorials and op-eds about the same subject. We take this approach based on the belief that readers who come to DailyClimate.org want to see a wide range of how issues are being covered by the mainstream press.

I think it does a pretty good job of meeting this mission.

Its own reporting is less frequent, with new articles appearing every few days from its several climate writers. Recent articles include:

Fear and loathing in the warming world

Opinion: Feds fall short in pricing climate disruption

Climate adaptation: Adding to a tide of worry

You can subscribe to their daily email here.

Monday What's on the Web: Denial Depot

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Denial Depot

Blog Science for Real People

Denial Depot is a satire blog, written by a satirical genius. Joe Romm finds the only flaw with this blog to be that he doesn't post enough--just a couple of posts per month on average.

This from his description of the blog:

We stand unimpressed by "textbooks", "peer review journals" and so-called "facts". There are no facts, just dissenting opinion. We are infinitely small compared to nature and can't grasp anything as certain as a fact.

If you have a sense of humor and a basic understanding of climate change science and politics, you should find this blog exceptionally entertaining. Here are a couple post links. Enjoy.

CO2 Prevents Heart Attacks

How To Cook A Graph SkepticalScience.com Style

Monday What's on the Web: The Green Miles

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Miles Grant is a fellow Arlingtonian who shares a strong interest in protecting and improving our environment. He is also an assiduous follower of politics--both local and national, with a particular interest in Virginia state politics. His blog, The Green Miles, reflects both of these, with posts that address one or the other or, often, both. Mr. Grant ran for state delegate in 2009, but lost in the local election. He works for the National Wildlife Federation, where he also maintains an active blog focusing on issues specific to that organization.

Recent posts on The Green Miles include:

Recent posts on his blog at the National Wildlife Federation include:

Keep an eye on Miles. It's my hope that he and people like him will be politically successful to help push more progressive environmental policies at a faster pace.

Monday What's on the Web: Shareable

Shareable is a blog that studies the societal and economic opportunities that arise out of networks of sharing. Sharing has become a more talked-about topic of late, and there are more and more companies offering sharing products and services, including Zipcar, B2B Rentals (apartments), Bikesharing, Wikipedia and others.
Media has also been covering it, including Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

This is the kind of idea that will help us Transform to Sustainability, the name of this blog and the idea that major and transformative changes are needed to create a sustainable future. Why does every house need a lawnmower for use about 30-40 hours per year? Or a power drill that might be used 3-4 times a year or less. The amount of "stuff" that is created just to sit around mostly unused can be viewed as a tremendous resource, and Shareable is looking how that resource is being deployed and exploited.

Recent blogs include:
Google Invests in P2P Carsharing Service, RelayRides
The New Mutual Credit
Is Sharing Contagious?

Personally, I belong to Zipcar and Capital Bikeshare, and I have used B2B Rentals when traveling. I'd love to jettison more of my seldom-used stuff if I knew I had access to shareable resources when needed. Check it out: Shareable.net.

Monday What's on the Web: NRDC's Switchboard

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)'s Switchboard is their umbrella page for all their staff bloggers, of which there are many. The quantity of material here is large, averaging more than ten blog posts per day. The range of topics is also broad, including:

and many, many more. Coverage of topical issues, like the COP16 meetings in Cancun is strong and complete. Whatever your issue of interest, you are certain to find one or more bloggers at NRDC who write interesting and insightful posts on it. Enjoy!

Monday What's on the Web: Thanksgiving

Due to traveling for Thanksgiving, there is no What's on the Web this week. Check back next Monday for a new installment. I hope your Thanksgiving was rewarding and safe.

Steve

Monday What's on the Web: Cleantech Blog

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Cleantech blog has been around since 2005, making it one of the older environmental blogs around. There are about 2 dozen contributors to the blog, which covers the cleantech arena. Key bloggers include Richard Stuebi, who has been with the blog since the beginning and Neal Dikeman, who has a background in banking and finance and likes to focus on the types of technologies that can transform our economy in positive ways.

Recent posts include:

The “Smart Grid”: An Overview

GE Buys 12,000 Chevrolet Volts

Cleantech Meets Heavy Steel

Additionally, if you have ideas and opinions related to the clean tech sector, they may welcome you as a blogger.

Monday What's on the Web: Joe Romm

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This week's "What's on the Web" is a repeat from last spring.
Addendum: if you have not read Joe Romm's harsh criticism of the Obama administration's failed climate policies, please read it here.

This week I highlight the blog Climate Progress and its prolific blogger, Joe Romm

. Launched in August of 2006 and supported by the Center for American Progress (where Joe is a Senior Fellow) Climate Progress is an indispensable blog for anyone interested in the "debate," politics, science, media coverage and virtually every other aspect related to the issue of climate change. Climate Progress is very up to date, covering breaking scientific studies, media coverage, news, political actions etc., generally within a day or less.

Joe brings a strong point of view to the issue--a point of view that I share. That is, climate change is the most serious issue mankind is facing, and strong and immediate action must be taken. Joe takes pleasure in debunking and beating up on deniers and delayers. His knowledge of the science is deep and broad. He is the main contributor to the blog, although he also includes guest bloggers. Posts tend to be fairly long and in depth, sometimes including significant detail and always containing significant opinion.

Example titles include:
- Lugar and Voinovich float “half-assed” alternative to comprehensive climate and clean energy jobs bill.
- Must re-read statement from UK’s Royal Society and Met Office on the connection between global warming and extreme weather
- WashPost editorial: “If current trends persist, it’s likely that in coming decades the globe’s climate will change with potentially devastating effects for billions of people.”
- Report: Koch Industries outspends Exxon Mobil on climate and clean energy disinformation

Also, be sure to take in the comments. There are a number of commenters on this blog who add considerable insight and depth to some of the posts.

Monday What's on the Web: Bracken Hendricks

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Bracken Hendricks is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Mr. Hendricks has been a long-time promoter of policies and ideas to reduce the risk of climate change and is well versed in strategies that engage the private sector in this pursuit also. You can read his contributions to the Climate Progress blog here. And you can read his various contributions at CAP here.

Just yesterday, the Washington Post ran a very cogent op-ed by Mr. Hendricks laying out the foundation for why addressing climate change is as much a conservative issue as a liberal/progressive issue. In fact, for those of you who read this blog, you will know that I believe there is a strong confluence between business success and environmental protection, and so I am on the same page with Mr. Hendricks.

Keep an eye on Mr. Hendricks's contributions. He is intelligent and practical and brings strong and pragmatic views in the ongoing challenges presented by climate change.

Monday What's on the Web: Treehugger

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This week's Internet resource is Treehugger. Treehugger adds more than 30 posts a day on topics related to environment, health, and sustainability. This is how they describe themselves:

"TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information."

Note that Treehugger is a Discovery company, which gives it substantial resources to keep it going. Also keep in mind that it is part of the Discovery conglomerate, which is essentially an entertainment company.

With as many posts as they put up, it can be overwhelming. They offer a dozen subtopics to help screen for those posts that are most interesting to you, including "Cars + Transportation," "Travel + Nature," "Business + Politics," etc.

Beyond its postings, Treehugger also includes forums, polls, games, and a series of guides on how to "green" many aspects of life, such as weddings, cars, gift-giving, renovations, etc.

Much of the content is relatively short, without significant in-depth detail, but they occasionally point you to more complete resources.

It's definitely worth keeping an eye on Treehugger, mainly for its ability to find interesting stories from across the sustainability spectrum.

Big thanks to Ken Ward for the work he is doing on behalf of the people of the coal mining regions, the workers, and everyone on the planet who is dependent on a stable climate.

As with most well-designed sites, there are good keyword and search functions that help the user drill down to what they are looking for. Definitely keep this site bookmarked.

Additionally, if you have ideas and opinions related to the clean tech sector, they may welcome you as a blogger.

Steve Offutt

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