Young Folks, Technology & Sustainability: Shift happens…

From The Huffington Post:

Millennials would rather give up driving than their smartphone or laptop, a survey commissioned by the car rental company Zipcar finds.

…

More than any other age group, millennials said they make a conscious attempt to reduce the amount of time they drive by carpooling, taking public transportation, riding a bike or walking, according to the study. Millennials were more likely to communicate with friends online than to see them in person, and more likely to order online than to drive somewhere to buy something.

More here.

Chart via: ‘Millennials Say They’d Give Up Their Cars Before Their Computers or Cell Phones’ (Atlantic Cities)



From Der Spiegel:

Indeed, the statistics are impressive. It’s estimated that some 50,000 wind turbines have been exported from this mini-kingdom between the North and Baltic seas, nearly 50 percent of the wind-powered generators worldwide. But sales are declining now that large industrialized nations, such as India, China and the US, are emulating the Danes’ success.

In addition to the graceful, towering turbines made of fiberglass and steel, however, Denmark has also given the world a shining example of sustainability: The parliamentary monarchy is widely seen as a laboratory and model for how an entire country can make the transition away from coal, oil and gas and toward energy generated from renewable resources.

Today, already 24 percent of the electricity consumed in Denmark comes from wind power — a world record. There are plans to increase this to 50 percent by 2020, and the country intends to become entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo source: Der Spiegel)

Kent Larson: ‘Brilliant designs to fit more people in every city’

From TED Talks via YouTube:

How can we fit more people into cities without overcrowding? Kent Larson shows off folding cars, quick-change apartments and other innovations that could make the city of the future work a lot like a small village of the past.

From The Hill’s E2 Wire:

Most undecided voters want more action from President Obama and Congress to fight global warming, and a substantial percentage say the topic will influence their ballot for president, a new poll shows.

The joint Yale University/George Mason University (GMU) survey found that undecided voters’ beliefs about the existence and causes of global warming are far closer to President Obama’s likely voters than GOP rival Mitt Romney’s.

Sixty-four percent of undecided voters believe Obama should be doing more to address climate change, and 72 percent say Congress should be doing more.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Related:

• ‘Climate Change in the American Mind: The Potential Impact of Global Warming on the 2012 Presidential Election’ (Yale)
• ‘Climate Change Haunts U.S. Election’ (Montreal Gazette)

Marshall McLuhan

(Earthrise photo: Wikipedia)

SustainaWiki is a wiki site designed with one thing in mind: offering information about sustainability to anyone who needs it! Don’t see a page you’re looking for? Make a username and create the page!

I had a quick look around SustainaWiki and it appears quite new with much of the content fairly limited and using 2012 references. So far there are pages addressing energy, food, home improvement, how-to guides, landscaping, technology, transportation, and waste management. If you’ve got some time and knowledge to share… well, you know what to do. If you need some guidance, you might want to check out the users guide.

Thomas Malone, senior professor at MIT in the Globe & Mail article, ‘Putting collective intelligence to work on a global threat’. He is one of the lead researchers behind the school’s innovative ‘Climate Co-lab’ project. You can check it out and get involved here.

Ideas for the Future | ‘It’s Wrong to Wreck the World: Climate Change and the Moral Obligation to the Future’ (Video)

From SFU Continuing Studies via Youtube:

Although climate change is a scientific and technological issue, it is also fundamentally a moral issue, and it calls for a moral response. 

In the spring of 2012, Kathleen Dean Moore of Oregon State University joined us at SFU Vancouver to deliver a lecture called It’s Wrong to Wreck the World: Climate Change and the Moral Obligation to the Future. 

She addressed several questions: Why has climate-change science elicited such stunning indifference? What calls us to act? How can we respond to the crisis in ways that honor duties of compassion, justice, and respect for human rights? How can we discuss these values across differences? How do we live when we truly understand that we live in complete dependence on an Earth that is interconnected, interdependent, finite, resilient, and heartbreakingly beautiful?

Source: Cottage Country & The David Suzuki Foundation

It’s Gettin Hot in Here: ‘Chasing Ice’ (Official Trailer)

From Chasing Ice via YouTube:

In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

Much more here. Definitely looking forward to watching this one!

Related:

• TED Talk: James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss (Video)
• ‘Arctic ice melt ‘like adding 20 years of CO2 emissions’ (BBC)

(Photo source: James Balog Photography)