Planet Eco Innovation

MONACO, Jan 5, 2009 (AFP) -- Monaco's climate-crusading ruler, Prince Albert II, left on Monday for Antarctica on a month-long expedition to view the impact of global warming at the Earth's southern tip, his palace said.

Prince Albert's trip, which follows a similar journey to the North Pole in 2006, will take in 26 scientific outposts, with meetings planned with climate change experts from 18 countries, a statement said.

The 50-year-old monarch left Punto Arenas in Chile on Monday bound for King George's islands, northeast of Antarctica, and was scheduled to arrive at the South Pole on January 14.

Check out Bill McKibben's essay in the latest Foreign Policy magazine. It's full of straight talk about the reality of climate change, debunking plenty of the skeptics' arguments along the way. For McKibben (a Grist board member, BTW), the real question is whether there's sufficient will in the international community to take on the very hard challenge of climate change. Here's an excerpt:

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor RooseveltI don't completely agree with this statement but it puts into perspective where our greatest effort should be. The discussion of ideas and finding ways to take action on those ideas is the great work that ...

London's Independent newspaper asked climate scientists to answer a simple question: should humanity "prepare a 'Plan B' to curb the worst effects of global warming?" Well, ask 40 eggheads a question, and you'll get a very diverse set of responses. Geo-engineering is the answer! No, focus on carbon sequestration. Wrong again, it's all about adapting to the new climate reality! Check out all the responses here.

Financial damage and loss of life caused by climate-related natural disasters made 2008 one of the most devastating years on record. Cyclone Nargis last June claimed 78,000 lives in Myanmar. The Atlantic hurricane season caused devastation in the Caribbean, Central America and the United States.

As the festive season draws to a close, there is evidence the dawning New Year may carry "green" expectations of environmental action

In Innovating in the Great Disruption, Scott Anthony suggests three disciplines necessary to foster innovation in difficult economic times - placing a premium on progress; mastering paradox; and learning to love the low end. He also discusses the importance of learning;Innovators will need to continue to find creative, cheap ways ...

I'm not sure what the next year will bring but I'm certain that it will be as full of changes as 2008. Change is accelerating. Blogging, which wasn't even in the dictionary when I started this one, is getting competitive:With all of this new competition, the future could be very ...

Last week I wrote an article about the controversial General Teaching Council of England proposed code of Conduct for teachers. Commentators had protested at what they saw as intrusion into the personal lives of teachers. Furthermore, there was a concern as to who was saying what was and what was not acceptable behaviour and how [...]

A new report out from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the EPA's unwillingness to enforce clean air and water standards is turning the huge estuary into a dead zone. Without tough action from the feds, the report concludes, crab harvests will continue to decline, devastating an important industry and threatening others, like tourism.

And if you missed it over the weekend, The Washington Post ran a two-part series on failed efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. The gist: states and agencies tried to hide just how badly the clean-up effort was going in order to guarantee continued funding from the federal government.

The Interior Department is rushing to open up California's coasts to offshore drilling exploration, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today, a move that could lead to oil derricks being built within three miles to the state's shoreline. Government estimates show there could be 10 billion barrels of oil off of California's entire coastline, enough to power the United States for 17 months. But enviros note that could come at a high cost to the marine ecosystem.

source: San Francisco Chronicle

More than a billion gallons of coal ash have spilled from a coal-burning power plant in eastern Tennessee since Dec. 22, when a retention wall at the plant burst. That's billion with a "B," which means the amount of gunk spilled is about 100 times larger than the mess from the Exxon Valdez disaster. Gray sludge has spread across 300 acres, wiped out three homes, oozed into a tributary of the Tennessee River, and made a lot of local residents worried about their health and water supplies. Coal ash contains mercury and traces of heavy metals like arsenic and uranium. In the wake of the spill, high levels of arsenic have been found in some rivers and wells near the spill site, though authorities insist that drinking water is still safe.

Monday's Washington Post notes a fact that's been on many a green activist's mind in the past two months: California lawmakers are set to play key roles in setting the nation's environmental policies. The two congressional committees with the biggest say in environmental legislation are chaired by Californians (Barbara Boxer in the Senate, Henry Waxman in the House), and President-elect Obama has already tapped Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Oh, and don't forget Steven Chu of U.C.-Berkeley being tapped for Energy secretary.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says tumbling gas prices have had the bad effect of making voters less interested in tackling the nation's energy problems. True. But the Republican lawmaker from one of the reddest states in the union says the biggest stumbling block to energy security isn't reliance on fossil fuels and an unwillingness by energy companies to invest in renewables. No, that would be too "simplistic." Instead, Cornyn says its big government regulations that are preventing good capitalists from opening up more domestic energy production. And while he notes some of those new-fangled renewable sources like wind and biomass, Cornyn's op-ed is really all about one thing -- drill here, drill now, drill everywhere.

29 December 2008 -- WHO calls for an immediate end to hostilities in the Gaza strip and urges Israel to ensure immediate provision of fuel and critical life-saving/trauma care supplies.

Alec Couroso has been pondering on the differences between a Personal Learning Environment and a Personal Network. The replies from a Twitter shoutout are interesting. But I am not really convinced. For me the idea of a Personal Learning Environment was never limited to the tools we use for learning or to on-line learning. It [...]

Guess what. The sun doesn't shine as much in winter, so your home solar system won't generate much power in the cold months. Oh, and it might SNOW on your solar panels, so you're gonna have to get out there and sweep them off. But relax solar fans. You've got it better than those wind junkies, who could be hurt or even KILLED by ice chunks being shot off the ends of turbine blades! The N.Y. Times coughs up an odd piece today looking at how renewable energy systems can be challenged by Mother Nature's wintertime tantrums. What's next in the series? A piece on kite-eating wind turbines in March???

sources: The New York Times

The Gray Lady's editorial board offered up a big lump of coal to President Bush's EPA chief in a Christmas Day editorial. The NYT notes that even former GOP-appointed EPA leaders are frustrated with Stephen Johnson's tenure at the nation's top environmental enforcer. Money quote: "It was Mr. Johnson who refused to grant California a normally routine waiver that would have allowed it to impose its own greenhouse gas standards on cars and trucks. It was Mr. Johnson who was trotted out to explain why the administration could not possibly fulfill the Supreme Court's mandate before leaving office. And it was Mr.

A project, testing advanced seismic and drilling techniques in Kenya, uncovered wells of steam able to generate 4-5 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity and one yielding a bumper amount of 8MW. The project is carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), in cooperation with the Kenyan power company KenGen.

I'm going to take some time off work and writing over the holidays, with perhaps a post if the mood strikes me. What really interests me at this time is how The Great Disruption may be opening up possibilities for change that did not exist even six months ago. I ...