Environment

Footprint Science

- Adam Clare

There’s already a lot of websites out there that help you asses your carbon footprint and that’s good, but now there are sites taking the footprint science to the next level. The Global Footprint Network is looking into the details behind making and living with a small footprint.

How can we all live well and live within the means of one planet?

This is the research question of the 21st century. If we are serious about sustainable development, there is no way around this question. If we do not design ways to live within the means of one planet, sustainability will remain elusive.

Institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint at the national level requires that statistical offices, policy advisors, academia, and businesses trust the methodology and data underlying the Footprint, which is comprised of 150 National Footprint Accounts.

National Footprint Accounts measure the ecological resource use and resource capacity of nations over time. Based on approximately 5,400 data points per country per year, the Accounts calculate the Footprints of 150 nations from 1961 to the present. These accounts provide the core data that is needed for all Ecological Footprint analysis worldwide.

Vertical Forests for Cleaner Air

- Adam Clare

A group of architects are proposing building a skyscraper that would house a small forest to act as an air cleaner near places of pollution production – a vertical forest.

‘It will also cool the air during the hot summer months via the temperature-lowering properties of hundreds of trees.

‘We thought of the CO2 Scraper as a way to place trees in areas where they would ordinarily be difficult or impossible to plant such as near a factory, major road or perhaps even in a densely populated urban area.

‘The idea here was to imagine a structure with relatively small footprint in terms of the amount of ground it covers.’

Scientist and sustainability specialist Joep Meijer, founder of theRightenvironment, has praised the ‘outstanding’ design.

He said: ‘The CO2 Scraper is an outstanding example of the kind of ideas we need to look at now.

This is Reality

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

This is Reality is project that is designed to counter the coal industry’s claim that clean coal is, well clean. Awareness projects like this are badly needed when there are multimillion dollar campaigns trying to convince people that burning a finite resource is good for the environment.

Today, coal power plants emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the pollutant causing the climate crisis. A third of the America’s carbon pollution now comes from about 600 coal-fired power plants. And of the more than 70 proposed new coal power plants, barely a handful have plans to capture and store their CO2 emissions. If these dirty plants are allowed to be built, this will mean an additional 200 million tons of global warming pollution will be emitted in America each year. Until coal power plants no longer release CO2 to the atmosphere, coal will remain a major contributor to the climate crisis.

Scientists indicate that we can avoid the worst climate impacts if we turn CO2 emissions around in the next few years. The Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, in 2007, said, “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” For coal to maintain a role in America’s energy mix, the industry must act quickly to stop emitting CO2.

Dystopian Farm

- Adam Clare

Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project is all about urban vertical farming. He envisions urban farming in New York City to be done vertically in some really strange looking skyscrapers.

Designed for the Hudson Yard area of Manhattan, Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm aims to provide New York with a sustainable food source while creating a dynamic social space that integrates producers with consumers. Based upon the “material logic of plant mechanics”, the biomorphic skyscraper is modeled after the plant cells of ferns and provides space for farms, residential areas, and markets. These organic structures will harness systems such as airoponic watering, nutrient technology and controlled lighting and CO2 levels to meet the food demands of future populations.

Seed Bank Saves Seeds

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

The ‘doomsday vault’ is getting more attention and love to save seeds. They’ve created a new, expanded, goal to save 100,000 seeds. This is good news because having a well-kept seed bank to preserve biodiversity can prove invaluable if some of the plants die out or are struck by a horrible disease. THink of it has a global insurance policy on plants.

Countries participating in the programme including Ireland, have assembled extensive duplicate seed collections to match those held at home. These are then to be delivered to the vault which will hold them in perpetuity at -18 degrees, something that should keep them safe for thousands of years, Dr Fowler said.

By the end of February there will be about 400,000 varieties in the vault.

Ireland’s seeds are expected to arrive either later this month or by April, Dr Fowler said.

The ongoing project is separate to this new initiative to rescue threatened seed collections in 46 countries, he continued.

Many countries struggle to maintain their seed banks to an international standard, leaving them at risk of partial or even total loss.

“There are a number of small seed banks around the world where the facilities are pretty poor. The seeds are basically dying in their packages,” he said.

“If we sit and wait we will have another wave of extinctions in agricultural biodiversity.”

Trust staff will visit 49 institutes where seeds are held, using funding provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

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