Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series. As an added bonus, today's Earthship hosts Edition #7 of Laughing Planet's
This week in climate change.
All hands on deck! Hoist the cyber sails. We launch with climate news, announcements, today's eco-diary roundup, and our environmental video of the day.
BTW, follow us on Twitter! and tweet us above with the #ekos tag!
Tonight's Commander is boatsie
EU stops short of recommending 30% cut in emissions by 2020
Climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard claims that economic crisis has made it cheaper to move to higher target
The European commission today reopened the debate on whether Europe should volunteer to cut its carbon emissions further, but stopped short of recommending such a move.
Connie Hedegaard, climate commissioner, said the recession would make it cheaper than expected for the continent to hit its target to reduce carbon pollution 20% by 2020. Raising the target to 30% by 2020 would also cost less than first calculated.
Hedegaard said: "Whether to increase our reduction target for 2020 from 20% to 30% is a political decision for the EU leaders to take when the timing and the conditions are right. Obviously, the immediate political priority is to handle the [financial] crisis. But as we exit the crisis, the commission has now provided input for a fact-based discussion. The decision is not for now, but I hope that our analysis will inspire debate in the member states on the way forward."
Global carbon emissions to rise 43 per cent by 2035, says US report
Global emissions of carbon dioxide will grow by 43 per cent by 2035 if current patterns of energy usage continue and no global restrictions are applied, according to the latest figures from the US Energy Information Administration.
The emissions rise will be driven by a 49 per cent increase in the world’s energy consumption over the same period. Developing Asia will account for 35 per cent of the increase.
The predictions were made in the EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2010 with Projections to 2035, a report presented by EIA deputy administrator Howard Gruenspecht to an audience of policy wonks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.
Tcktcktck Reports: Virtual Fresh Air for Bonn Conference Next Week
Follow the UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn, Germany with our Fresh Air Center
The opening round of official negotiations leading up to December's COP16 in Cancun begins next week in Bonn with government officials and environmental ministers gathering beginning June 1. TckTckTck is launching a virtual "rapid response digital media hub that helped civil society connect, collaborate, spread messages out to the world, and blow off some steam in a fun vibrant workspace.
"Starting next week we are launching an online version of our Fresh Air Center for the UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn, Germany. During the two weeks of preliminary climate negotiations we'll provide on-the-ground insights, breaking news and fresh perspectives on the delegates' progress towards a fair, ambitious and legally-binding climate treaty.
We are planning to bring back a number of popular initiatives from our coverage in Copenhagen, including:
• Live streaming coverage from the negotiations with OneClimate.net
• Regular blogger briefings with key issues and actions
• Coverage of the negotiations from our Adopt-A-Negotiator tracking team
• Collecting the best stories, interviews, videos, opinions and tweets of the day from our partners and conference attendees"
Picture of the Day
Solar cooled summer gadgets
Feel Good Story of the Day:
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
If oil has the potential to destabilize or grow a nation’s economy, very few economists are concerned with the negative economic impact of wind power. While wind is a resource that hasn’t attracted mass investment yet in Africa, it’s often a great resource for isolated communities that have no other steady source of electrical power.
One of those areas is the Mastala Village in the Kasungu district of Malawi, where William Kamkwamba grew up. It’s a rural agricultural area about three hour’s travel from the capital, Lilongwe. Like many rural parts of Africa, there’s no grid electrical power. But there is wind.
William had to drop out of secondary school in 2002 because his family lacked funds to pay his school fees. Determined to continue his education, he started reading books from the primary school library, which had been contributed by USAID in a teacher training scheme. He discovered a pair of books on energy, one of which included the design for a windmill, and he began work on a five meter tall windmill near his family’s home, built from scrap timber, an old bicycle frame, and blades made from PVC pipe heated and pounded into flat blades. The windmill powers a bicycle dynamo, designed to power a bicycle’s headlamp. William ran the bicycle dynammo through a transformer, which provided enough power to charge a 12 volt battery. That battery in turn powers four lights, two radios and a mobile phone charger in William’s home.
Link
Xtreme Heat? Solar Cool your car this summer
Do Humans Need a Golden Rule 2.0?
Andy Revkin at DotEarth reports on the 2010 PEN World Voices literary festival on "What Can We Do About Climate Change?" declares best presenter award goes to Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder, (Sophie’s World, a girl’s exploration of the history of philosophy that has sold some 30 million copies worldwide. Gaarder created the Sophie Foundation, which this year awarded its $100,000 Sophie Prize for people promoting alternative development paths winner to another presenter, NASA climatologist and climate campaigner James E. Hansen. (The entire video of the proceedings can be viewed at the blog)
A few highlights of Gaarder's talk:
On intergenerational responsibility:
An important basis for all ethics has been The Golden Rule or the Principle of Reciprocity: you shall do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But the golden rule can no longer just have a horizontal dimension – in other words a "we" and "the others." We must realize that the Principle of Reciprocity also has a vertical dimension: you shall do to the next generation what you wished the previous generation had done to you.
On the slow, steady, incomplete moral evolution of humanity:
The greatest triumph of philosophy to date may be the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights were not given us by the powers above. Nor were they pulled out of thin air either. They mark the end of a 1,000-year-long process of maturation.
Ten years into the 21st century, the question may be posed: how long can we speak of our "rights" without at the same time focusing on our responsibilities? Perhaps we need a new universal declaration? The time is ripe for a Universal Declaration of Human Obligations.
Arctic sea ice is on track to recede to a record low this year, suggesting that northern waters free of summer ice are coming faster than anyone thought.
The latest satellite information shows ice coverage is equal to what it was in 2007, the lowest year on record, and is declining faster than it did that year.
"Could we break another record this year? I think it's quite possible," said Mark Serreze
Educational Video of the Day
Tonight's Video Transition Founder Rob Hopkins TED Talk Transition to a world without oil
EcoArt
FIGMENT LOVES you! A Call out for volunteers! Help needed assembling and coordinating FIGMENT10, NYC’s annual interactive art event on Governors Island. The extraordinary interactive event, complete with installations, a mini golf course,dance and music, and kids’ activities engages New Yorkers in sharing, creating and participate in creating living art. Pssst ... Is there any truth that the Typewriter Girls will be performing again this year?
This year, Ann Ha and Behrang Behin’s Living Pavilion won the sustainable design award and their installation will be assembled on the island beginning next week. The competition sponsors were FIGMENT, The Emerging New York Architects Committee of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (ENYA), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY).
Ann Ha and Behrang Behin of Living Pavilion imagine a future in which nature is brought back into the city – not replacing its dense vitality, but adding some ‘green’ to the mix. Technologies such as green roofs and green walls will reduce heat-island effect and mitigate storm water runoff. Urban farms will provide nutritious locally grown produce to urban dwellers while making them more aware of where their food comes from. These developments will not only have a positive impact on the city’s environmental footprint, but will also enrich the lives of New Yorkers: they will add a new dimension to the urban experience, making possible new forms of spatial and architectural expression.
NEWS BULLETIN: Unexpected addition from LaughingPlanet, who was not originally going to be available today:
Submitted by LaughingPlanet, who was chased out of Yosemite Valley one night early due to a freakish ice storm descending in late May. Global Weirding to blame? He promises to submit for your viewing pleasure a brief report about having to endure the horror of one of the nation's premier destinations forthwith.
Europe lead the world on combating climate change (again)
Via Solve Climate
EU sets toughest targets to fight global warming
Europe will introduce a surprise new plan today to combat global warming, committing Britain and the rest of the EU to the most ambitious targets in the world. The plan proposes a massive increase in the target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in this decade.
The European Commission is determined to press ahead with the cuts despite the financial turmoil gripping the bloc, even though it would require Britain and other EU member states to impose far tougher financial penalties on their industries than are being considered by other large economies.
We hear stories like this all too often. Europe, undaunted by American intransigence, takes bold steps to try and save mankind from itself. However, for each of these types of efforts, we get too many opposite reports about knuckle-dragging across the pond, followed by India or China sending bad signals about their willingness to cooperate.
It is time for the United States (I'm talking to you, Barack) to assume its proper position in the world and truly lead on this most paramount of global crises.
We must act now of forever live with the fact that we, our generation, have doomed mankind to decades of suffering and potential extinction by its baffling inability to wake up and smell the warming.
Daily Kos goes green (for part of one day, at least)
On Sunday, May 23, this screenshot was captured of the DKos front page:
(Click for larger view)
Every diary (except maybe one) and the top FP story were env'al, green, or whatever. After getting dissed mocked blown off by Kos earlier this year, it seems that with the promotion of Turkana Lawrence Lewis to the front page,
Perhaps the Great Orange Satan is slowly becoming the Great Orange-Green Satan.
All hail GOGS!
Today's DK Eco Community Callouts!
Currently on the rec list! If you haven’t stopped by yet, Wednesday’s new Ecoadvocates series Where the Buffalo Don't Yet Roam. Tonight’s entry features a compilation of a few short vignettes. Edited tonight by MeteorBlades, tonight’s contributors are Oke on Hazing the Bison at Yellowstone,Rb134 on ecojustrice in the congo, and Holding BP Accountable by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse http://www.dailykos.com/...
For more climate news, visit PDNC’s regular Sunday Climate change roundup.
Also even though its off the reclist, live blogging continues off today’s Mothership BP Top Kill Mothership
All systems go. Warp speed.
Eco-series line-up:
(All times Eastern!)
Today's eKos diaries:
Author | Diary | Time | Tags |
---|
Quite Contrary | Another Oil Spill in Alaska | 05/26/10 05:06PM Pacific | alaska, oil spill, eKos |
Meteor Blades | EcoAdvocates: Where the Buffalo Don't Yet Roam | 05/26/10 05:15PM Pacific | EcoAdvocates, bison, Recommended, ekos, DK GreenRoots |
slinkerwink | BP Caught Lying About The Oil Spill Estimate! | 05/26/10 05:16PM Pacific | eKos, BP, oil spill, NOAA, 2010 |
eKos | eKos Earthship Wednesday: "it's the climate, stupid!" | 05/26/10 07:33PM Pacific | eKos, eKos Earthship, Climate change, climate news, climate roundup |
Senor Unoball | Salazar Delays Arctic Drilling! | 05/26/10 10:58PM Pacific | Recommended, Shell, Arctic Ocean, offshore drilling, oil drilling |
jamess | the circuitous path of tracking those undersea oil plumes | 05/26/10 03:41AM Pacific | BP, Gulf of Mexico, Underwater Plume, Vernon Asper, Arne Diercks |
TheRealAlasandra | About that Oil Spill ........Leak........Whatever you want to call it | 05/26/10 06:07AM Pacific | eKos, environment, oil spill, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Haley Barbour |
mwmwm | Even worse: shallow oil pipelines in dying wetlands | 05/26/10 07:54AM Pacific | dk-greenroots, ekos, national geographic, wetlands, bp |
Sue Sturgis | Power politics: Utilities vs. coal ash regulation | 05/26/10 09:50AM Pacific | coal, coal ash, dirty coal, dirty energy, epa |
Gangster Octopus | DOI: Drilling Regulators Ethics Violations. With Friends Like These... | 05/26/10 09:53AM Pacific | DOI, Oil and Gas, eKos |
JRandomPoster | What Our Leaders Can Do | 05/26/10 11:03AM Pacific | Gulf Oil Disaster, President Obama, Leadership, Renewable Resources, Cleanup |
Tomtech | Top Kill has begun! Update #2, with multi view link. | 05/26/10 11:22AM Pacific | Recommended, BP, Oil Spill, eKos |
Jill Richardson | Cuba Diaries: My Trip to Peak Oil | 05/26/10 11:32AM Pacific | Cuba, Peak Oil, Energy, Sustainable Food, Food |
CheckRaise | Bikers: Stop Ruining the Environment | 05/26/10 12:23PM Pacific | oil, bike, biking, environment, eKos |
Democrats Ramshield | To Pres. Obama & Members of Congress Given the Gulf Environmental Emergency - Please Nationalize BP! | 05/26/10 12:32PM Pacific | BP oil spill, eKos |
pragprogress | Climate Skeptics Win Debate at Oxford | 05/26/10 12:40PM Pacific | Climate change debate, Oxford Union, eKos |
Eclectablog | Nalco: Profiting from the Gulf environmental catastrophe | 05/26/10 12:47PM Pacific | Nalco, Nalco Holding Company, profits, Gulf Oil Spill, dispersants |
pat of butter in a sea of grits | A U.S. success story in bicycling: Davis, CA | 05/26/10 12:58PM Pacific | bicycling, bikes, oil, Davis, California |
BorderJumpers | "Greening" Fisheries Could Calm Troubled Waters | 05/26/10 01:08PM Pacific | Aquaculture, Fish, Fisheries, Green Economy Initiative, Nourishing the Planet |
zapus | This is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom... | 05/26/10 03:06PM Pacific | Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Lamborn MMS Gulf Oil Leak House Hearing, eKos |
Yesterday's eKos diaries:
Author | Diary | Time | Tags |
---|
banger | Gergen is Right About Oil in Gulf--Updated Thrice | 05/25/10 05:08AM Pacific | Recommended, eKos, David Gergen, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama |
Troutfishing | BP's Accidental Terrorism Brings "Silent Spring" To America | 05/25/10 05:20AM Pacific | British Petroleum, eKos, Recommended |
Crashing Vor | The Battle's Lost. The War's Begun. | 05/25/10 05:39AM Pacific | Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico, oil, Deepwater Horizon, climate change |
Laurence Lewis | "From Abstract Speculation To Miserable Reality" | 05/25/10 06:30AM Pacific | Deep Horizon, British Petroleum, BP, oil spill, oil |
Ellinorianne | UPDATE - Diving into the Oil - Finally Seeing under the Water | 05/25/10 08:47AM Pacific | Recommended, Oil, Disaster, BP, Transocean |
Sue Sturgis | Special investigation: Disaster in East Tennessee | 05/25/10 08:48AM Pacific | coal, coal ash, dirty coal, dirty energy, epa |
greendem | UPDATE: Oil Action - Let's Not Kill the Arctic Too! | 05/25/10 09:02AM Pacific | oilgeddon, Gulf, Arctic, Obama, eKos |
Eclectablog | Permit for new coal-burning plant in Michigan: DENIED!!! | 05/25/10 09:06AM Pacific | Coal, Energy, Coal-fired power plants, Wolverine Power, Michigan |
Vetwife | Big as Both Wars combined ! | 05/25/10 11:49AM Pacific | BP, ekos, wildlife, american people, louisiana |
jamess | Should the Sky be the Limit, when Big Business, harms regular People? | 05/25/10 02:37PM Pacific | BP, Corporations, Corporate Responsibility, Legitimate Claim, Liability |
mark louis | Alternative Energy Round-Up | 05/25/10 03:49PM Pacific | Alternative Energy Round-Up, eKos, solar energy, wind energy, biofuels |
RLMiller | Top 10 reasons why BP wanted spillcams shut off during topkill | 05/25/10 05:07PM Pacific | eKos, Oilpocalypse, I used to be disgusted but now I try to be amused |
Edger | America The Beautiful | 05/25/10 06:04PM Pacific | eKos, Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Horizon, BP, British Petroleum |
erratic | BP could face fines of up to $60 billion in Deepwater Disaster | 05/25/10 06:30PM Pacific | Deepwater, BP, oil, Obama, eKos |
chapter1 | Peak Oil + Lemon Socialism = Oilpocolypses | 05/25/10 06:54PM Pacific | peak oil, Gulf, lemon socialism, global warming, eKos |
Unenergy | "BP's Interests are Not the same as America's Interests" | 05/25/10 07:26PM Pacific | Obama, BP, Gulf Gusher, Tony Hayward, CNN |
yuriwho | Preparations for Top kill and Live Video Analysis | 05/25/10 07:45PM Pacific | BP, oil spill, top kill, eKos, Recommended |
slinkerwink | Good News On Government Response To Oil Spill | 05/25/10 08:50PM Pacific | eKos, 2010, oil spill, President Obama, Recommended |
Zwoof | Go to the spill cam: Operation Top Kill Has Started | 05/25/10 08:56PM Pacific | BP, spill cam, eKos, top kill |
icebergslim | The MMS Division is doing things "Big Pimpin' Style" | 05/25/10 09:37PM Pacific | eKos, MMS, Interior Department, Ken Salazar, Obama Administration |
Haole in Hawaii | Big Eels and Fish That Fly - A Hawai'ian Photo Diary | 05/25/10 09:40PM Pacific | Hawaii, photography, marine life, eKos, eels |
Sara R | BP Disaster – Insurance and Risk | 05/25/10 09:53PM Pacific | BP, Deepwater Horizon well, off-shore drilling, insurance, Jupiter Insurance |
Muskegon Critic | Algae Bloom Dead Zones in the Great Lakes | 05/25/10 10:07PM Pacific | Recommended, algae blooms, great lakes, British Petroleum, eKos |
About eKos
The Idea
This project was inspired by the Earth Day @ DKos Blogathon. In case you missed it, we had 31 participating environmental diaries, all of which were linked to in the Mothership. During the event we had several requests for an eco-mothership diary series in the mould of the Earth Day effort.
The Mission
eKos is all about promoting community eco-diaries. Daily Kos already showcases several series, but sometimes the work of dedicated green diarists pass off the recent diary list hardly noticed. Our goal is to make these diaries more accessible. In the process we hope to build community and bring in a broader audience to the exceptional environmental writing here at DK.
How eKos Works
If you want a diary included in the list, please let us know by leaving a comment. We'll do our best to search out green diaries, but are bound to miss a few. For eKos to live up to it's full potential, eco-diarists will need to post a link to the mothership at the end of their diary. This will provide readers with easy access to other recent environmental diaries.
Requirements
eKos is meant to be inclusive, but we will have standards for quality and content of listed diaries. (As long as you don't violate site rules and have a modicum of relevant, original content, you should be fine.)
'eKos' tag
If your diary gets listed, we'll ask you to add the eKos tag to your diary.
Contact
You can follow us on Twitter
If you are interested in becoming an eco-ranger for eKos, or just want some more info, e-mail ekos350atgmaildotcom
eKos Rangers
In no particular order:
Regina in a Sears Kit House
boatsie
Hopeful Skeptic
RLMiller
patrickz
Earthfire
Ellinorianne
A Siegel
dRefractor
SolarMom
Please give them some mojo if you see them, they deserve it!
History and Schedule of TWiCC diaries:
• Apr 14, 2010- New series: This week in climate change by LaughingPlanet
• Apr 21, 2010- This week in climate change: ¡Viva Bolivia! by LaughingPlanet
• Apr 28, 2010- This week in climate change- by LaughingPlanet
• May 05, 2010- This week in climate change: Nothing to see here edition by LaughingPlanet
• May 12, 2010- GOP ♥ Terrorists & Big Oil, Hate Jobs by LaughingPlanet
• May 19, 2010- This diary
• May 26, 2010- by boatsie
• June 2, 2010- by YOU?
This week in climate change is a new weekly series at Daily Kos devoted to climate change and related news. The hope is that we can engage in constructive debate about the issues raised by the topics presented, and coalesce around the action items proposed each week.
The diary regularly appears Wednesday afternoons, around 1PM Pacific.
Thanks for reading, recommending, and participating in the comments.
Get the eKos widget code!
NOTE:
Photocredits:
White Cooling Hat with Fan Power by Solar Energy W/Solar panel by HOT DEALS
AfriGadget - William's Windmill by whiteafrican