Green IT top strategic technology

Gartner research group released a list of 10 strategic technologies for 2008 that could pose a significant impact on enterprises during the next three years. The impact could include the risk of late adoption, the need for a major capital investment or a high potential for disruption to IT or business.   Green IT topped the …
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Anti-whaling video

The Australian government has launched an anti-whaling video aimed at Japanese children.   The video, which carries Japanese subtitles, urges all countries to stop catching and killing whales.  (Japan opposes the international prohibition of commercial whaling.  Every year it hunts hundreds of whales in Antarctica under what it describes as a scientific research programme.  This year, …
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EU to help SMEs green operations

European commission has unveiled a plan to reduce the environmental impact of small and medium size businesses  and boost their compliance with EU environmental legislation. The plan coincides with a review of EU efforts to increase the competitiveness of these firms and contains measures for increasing SMEs’ awareness of environmental issues through training and better …
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Humanity’s demands on nature, in pictures

These super pictures illustrate the density of primary production across planet earth and the demands by humans, relative to that local production capacity. The massive productivity of the Amazon basin and similar sub-tropical environments stand out. And it is interesting to see the greatest relative demands being made in the Middle East, India and China. …
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Ice shelf disintegration signals faster melting

The giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada’s northern shores has broken in two – far earlier than expected. The original Manhattan-sized berg (16km by 5 km) broke off the Ayles Ice Shelf in 2005. A team which landed on the Ayles ice block in May found it to have an average thickness of 42-45m …
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A quick solution to climate change from the US: stop fighting

This linked article by Daniel Kammen at GreenBiz offers simple options to change the US energy consumption profile. His six point plan is: A national commitment to saving money and energy through energy efficiency measures at every step of the economic value chain (some states, including California are fully 40 percent more efficient than the …
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Radical ocean solution for climate change

Writing in the journal Nature, Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock have suggested boosting ocean take-up of CO2 using huge flotillas of vertical pipes in tropical seas, a technology already being investigated by a US firm, Atmocean. The pipes use convection currents to bring cold water nearer the surface. The colder …
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The world is waking up to the reality of climate change

A BBC World Service poll, published a day after 150 countries met at the United Nations to discuss climate change, suggests most people believe human activity is causing global warming and major action is needed to deal with the problem. More than 22,000 people were surveyed in 21 countries. An average of 79% of respondents …
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While the world burns, America fiddles …

It is reminiscent of the story of Nero playing the violin while Rome burned, because of his lunacy.  In the past week gatherings of the world’s powers to discuss climate change all advocate accelerated, multilateral, cooperative action to reduce carbon emissions and change human consumption habits, except America. The richest country in the world uses …
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