Expanding the discussion of inequality, wealth, success: inequality and the culture of celebrity 

While I don’t agree with all of it as many of the people featured are working to fight the system the author presents, it is important to recognize how replacing public institutions with private philanthropists and foundations may often feel more immediate and appear to have more tangible impact (and certainly is where I’m looking to work), we need to consider the long-term impacts of placing this much power of public interest goods and services in the hands of a few people who self-select which issues they address and answer to boards of directors and not the public. On the other hand, do we have more trust in the policy-makers who self-select into politics? For instance, in a not entirely unrelated note, PBS/NPR receive only 12% of their funding from the government and are left to source the remainder from anywhere and everywhere else. A significant portion came from the Koch brothers, the bringers of the tea party, anti-climate science campaigns and actual oilsands bitumen coke, and when content provides critical commentary on these same individuals funding the organization, it can become awkward at best, and canceled at worst.

Given new evidence on carbon pollution, President Obama should get moving on global warming.

The link above goes to a note from the nytimes editorial board to Obama, urging him to follow through on his promise to address climate change. This second goes to this week’s This American Life podcast that travels across the country, quietly identifying the actors on either side of this (slowly) eroding debate and subtly pointing to how we can finally see greater actions take place.

What to do? As Elizabeth Kolbert proposes, the Keystone pipeline could be a symbolic first step. 

In rejecting Keystone, President Obama would not solve the underlying problem, which, as pipeline proponents correctly point out, is consumption. Nor would he halt exploitation of the tar sands. But he would put a brake on the process. After all, if getting tar-sands oil to China were easy, the Canadians wouldn’t be applying so much pressure on the White House. Once Keystone is built, there will be no putting the tar back in the sands. The pipeline isn’t inevitable, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s just another step on the march to disaster.

(Source: climateadaptation, via sustainableprosperity)

Today Thomas Friedman details the origins of the ongoing conflict in Syria, highlighting how interconnected are natural resource management, (un)employment, and education, as well as foreign investment and how religion (and political revolt) may emerge to fill the void.

…Syria as a whole is slowly bleeding to death of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. You can’t help but ask whether it will ever be a unified country again and what kind of human disaster will play out here if a whole generation grows up without school.

“Syria is becoming Somalia. Students have now lost two years of school, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and if this goes on for two more years it will be like Somalia, a failed country. But Somalia is off somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Syria is the heart of the Middle East. I don’t want this to happen to my country. But the more it goes on, the worse it will be.”

This Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers — Iran and Hezbollah on one side, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the other, each of which have an extreme interest in its Syrian allies’ defeating the other’s allies — all at a time when America, in its post-Iraq/Afghanistan phase, is extremely wary of getting involved.

“The drought did not cause Syria’s civil war,” but the failure of the government to respond to the drought played a huge role in fueling the uprising. What happened, Aita explained, was that after Assad took over in 2000 he opened up the regulated agricultural sector in Syria for big farmers, many of them government cronies, to buy up land and drill as much water as they wanted, eventually severely diminishing the water table. This began driving small farmers off the land into towns, where they had to scrounge for work.

Because of the population explosion that started here in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to better health care, those leaving the countryside came with huge families and settled in towns around cities like Aleppo. Some of those small towns swelled from 2,000 people to 400,000 in a decade or so. The government failed to provide proper schools, jobs or services for this youth bulge, which hit its teens and 20s right when the revolution erupted.

Then, between 2006 and 2011, some 60 percent of Syria’s land mass was ravaged by the drought and, with the water table already too low and river irrigation shrunken, it wiped out the livelihoods of 800,000 Syrian farmers and herders, the United Nations reported. “Half the population in Syria between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers left the land” for urban areas during the last decade, said Aita. And with Assad doing nothing to help the drought refugees, a lot of very simple farmers and their kids got politicized.

Young people and farmers starved for jobs — and land starved for water — were a prescription for revolution.  The drought was particularly hard on young men who wanted to study or marry but could no longer afford either… Families married off daughters at earlier ages because they couldn’t support them. 

The best jobs in Hasakah Province, Syria’s oil-producing region, were with the oil companies. But drought refugees, virtually all of whom were Sunni Muslims, could only dream of getting hired there. [the jobs went to “outsiders”]

… every option [is worrying] — more war, a cease-fire, the present and the future. This is the agony of Syria today — and why the closer you get to it, the less certain you are how to fix it.

theatlantic:

This House Consumes Less Net Energy Than Your Little Urban Studio

[Image: Beamie Young/NIST]

Japan will shift away from nuclear energy. But politicians have the power to hasten or hinder the process.

More evidence that focal events truly lead to policy changes; following the tsunami and destruction of nuclear facilities, the Japanese government quickly established incentives for solar energy development that have since taken off

E-waste is a growing toxic nightmare. And it’s not just a problem in developing countries

A good time as any to promote REDD, the UNEP program that was one of the few substantial projects to emerge from UNFCCC negotiations. Let’s make a move to stop deforestation, not just for the climate and humanity’s wellbeing, but also for this very sad koala.

guardian:

Koala rescued from deforestation in Australia. Workers from a pine plantation helped the animal group Wires to relocate several koalas into new habitat after logging activities displaced them. A worker noticed a koala had been sitting stationary in broad daylight on top of wood piles for over an hour. Investigations by a local vet found this koala had an ulcerated eye and was possibly also disorientated. 

Photograph: Wires

Let’s just celebrate that all of the kids like this food, proving once and for all, children won’t rebel if you feed them a bit of broccoli and whole wheat pasta. And this announcement comes perfectly timed with Food Revolution Day coming later this month.

wnyc:

micropolisnyc:

PS 244, in Flushing, Queens, became the first public school in a major American city to offer an all-vegetarian menu. 

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott turned up to eat with the kids, though he could’ve probably looked a little happier, right?

On yesterday’s menu, above, were black bean and cheddar quesadillas with salsa and roasted potatoes.

Third graders who spoke with NY1 gave it rave reviews.

“When you’re healthy you can do better on tests, and you can fight more diseases,” said one student in the cafeteria.

“It’s green so it can make your eyes better, and it can also help your muscles to become stronger, and it also has a lot of protein, not a lot of sugar,” said another student. [link]

Other items on the menu include roasted chickpeas, braised black beans with plantains, tofu vegetable wrap with cucumber salad, vegetarian chili served with brown rice, falafel, and roasted tofu with Asian sesame sauce.

Photos by Kendall Rodriguez for the New York Daily News

He looks like he’s loving it…

Let’s put these everywhere. Although I recommend using white pavement.

8bitfuture:

Energy harvesting pavement powers its own streetlights.

London-based startup Pavegen has developed tiling that can harvest kinetic energy from people’s footsteps, turning it into up to 8 watts of electricity per footstep.

The tiles are made of 95 percent recycled tyres, and use a proprietary wireless communications technology to transmit data about the number of footfalls and the energy generated via the Internet. A wireless network of the tiles could provide valuable information to city planners and nearby business owners about the number of pedestrians in the area at different times of the day.

At the last Summer Olympics in London, the tiles were installed outside a tube station where they generated enough energy to power lights in the area for five hours a night.

5 HOURS A NIGHT OF CLEAN, RENEWABLE ENERGY

Add in solar, wind, tide, geothermal, etc. and we could have 100% clean energy, free for everyone

(Source: designnews.com, via sustainableprosperity)

unchartedplay:

treehugger:

New York City is getting electric taxis. Only a handful, but you have to start somewhere.

http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/cars/new-york-city-launch-electric-leaf-taxis-pilot-program/

NYC is getting more and more eco-friendly each day! We’re on the right track, New Yorkers!

Check out our SOCCKET, a soccer ball that can help address the issue of energy poverty.

And in honour of Earth Day, and the dissolution of the once reliable New York Times Green Blog, a quick roundup of environmental news from around the world.

First, the world now has it’s very first algae powered building!  Housed in Germany it relies entirely on bioenergy for electricity and heating needs, using the algae to, among other things, capture solar thermal heat.

In a google earth world, where very piece of the landscape appears to be catalogued, it’s always invigorating to be reminded how much is still hiding.  National Geographic reports this month that 101 new beetles have recently been discovered, proving yet again that nature still has so much to teach us (so let’s try to not destroy the species we have even yet to discover, shall we?)

Moving from the jungle to the city, Mayor Bloomberg has a new pilot program in New York initiating recycling in public spaces, using not just any recycling collectors, but solar powered trash and recycling stations. The program is currently tiny (only 30), but here’s hoping we will see the project explode in order to achieve its objective of doubling the city’s recycling rates by 2017 in half the time (while also curbing the smell).

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be Earth Day in the 21st century without some bad news. Here we return to Arkansas where Exxon has recently caught a break when it comes to addressing its pipeline spill. The unrefined product now covering miles of wetlands is officially defined as “crude,” not oil, thereby reducing Exxon’s clean-up requirements.  The company would otherwise be responsible for donating to a national oil-spill cleanup fund, but this legal distinction, reduces Exxon’s responsibility … and hopefully also their social license to operate.

In a week filled with tragedy, much of the coverage has focused on the collective, positive spirit of citizens in Boston and across America. An outpouring of financial and other support, spurred by anger, frustration and renewed patriotism, that I only hope can continue beyond this focal event. Finding ways to work together beyond times of immediate danger and chaos are critical and are the best way to realize a more prosperous future, one that hopefully features less tragedy, not only in North America but also abroad in locations where bombings are unfortunately, a much more common occurrence. 

(Source: sustainableprosperity, via bostonreview)

wnyc:

latimes:

The crisis facing California sea lions

State officials have declared an “unusual mortality event” for California sea lions, after an unusually high number of pups barely clinging to life have recently washed ashore.

For a sense of the sheer number of pups who have reportedly been found washed up:

In Los Angeles County, nearly 400 pups have been stranded since the beginning of the year. Last year, 36 were reported during that stretch.

As of March 24, officials said, 214 sea lions were reported stranded in San Diego County, 189 in Orange County, 108 in Santa Barbara County and 42 in Ventura County.

Read more from reporter Rick Rojas here.

Photos: Allen J. Schaben, Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Meanwhile, on the left coast….. —A.P.

(Source: theinspiredwoman, via dark-rye)