Category: Environment

Save the Environment, Live in a City

The IEEE Spectrum recently interview William Meyer who is the author of the book The Environmental Advantages of Cities: Countering Commonsense Antiurbanism. The book’s central thesis is that we need to change the discourse around cities from a negative one to a more positive conversation about the efficiencies of cities compared to lower density areas.

Steven Cherry: Good. Let’s go back to the list then. Cities are ravenous consumers of natural resources, true or false?

William Meyer: Okay, well, they are in an absolute sense, yes, and that’s the distinction between absolute and proportional impact. Cities do consume a lot of resources because there are lots of people there consuming, but the question is: If you had the same population, would it consume more resources if it lived in a less-urban settlement pattern? And the answer is no, because per capita, people in cities consume less. Cities are much more efficient in the consumption of resources, notably energy, but also materials, also water, and also, of course, land, because of their higher densities. So it’s true that they are large consumers, but the people who live in them are not, and, again, if we had a less-urban settlement pattern, we’d have more resource consumption.

Read more at IEEE Spectrum.

Greenpeace Launches Wikileaks Inspired Site

Wikileaks has been a great source of information that governments and corporations wanted to deny or keep secret. Now Greenpeace has modelled a site, Arctic Truth, for whistleblowers who work in the world of arctic drilling for oil. As climate change turns the frozen north into accessible waters oil companies want to move in and further the reach of their harmful industry. Even people in the industry are realizing how dangerous it is to drill closer to the north pole than ever before and have started to speak up.

The website is intended to shield the identities of whistleblowers as part of an effort to attract those willing to report on problems. Vaguely modeled on Wikileaks, the site is intended to protect whistleblowers but whether that will be tested in the courts remains to be seen.

“We know there have been a lot of problems with Shell and other companies and we wanted to create a way for employees to feel safe and secure,” if they reported problems, Ms. Ferguson said.

Shell canceled its 2013 Arctic drilling program after both its drill ships experienced serious problems last year. Its big circular drillship Kulluk broke away as it was being towed south after the drill season and ran aground on Kodiak Island New Year’s Eve. It has been taken to Asia for repairs.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.
Check out Arctic Truth.

Unilever’s Sustainability Strategy Saves Costs, Environment

Unilever is a massive corporation that owns a ton of brands from Q-Tips to Ben Jerry’s Ice Cream. They have recently pushed for more efficiency and sustainability across all their brands and have found that their environment-saving approach has saved money.

The company’s sustainability director for manufacturing, John Maguire, echoed the sentiment that sustainability can be a force for cost-saving, as opposed to an added new cost. He said in a statement: “Eco-efficiency isn’t just about reducing the environmental footprint it also makes good business sense … Since 2008 our eco-efficiency programmes have avoided more than €300m of costs–almost €100m in energy; €186m in materials; €17m in water; and €10m in waste disposal. The benefits are very clear in a world where energy prices are increasing.”

Read more.

Ontario Saves Experimental Lakes Area

The federal government of Canada is so anti-environment that it hurts everyone on the planet. Their unwavering support for the world-destroying tar sands, refusal to work with other countries to improve the planet, and their inability to acknowledge human influenced climate change is revolting and regressive. Now that I got that off my chest….

Their most recent insult to environmental science in Canada was to shutter the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario. Don’t worry, this is where the good news comes. Lucky, the provincial government understands the importance of monitoring our changing climate and stepped up to save the ongoing project.

The remote region of 58 pristine lakes has been used since the late 1960s for groundbreaking freshwater studies.

It became the subject of controversy when Ottawa announced last year that it was closing the area to save $2 million annually.

The Ontario government says it is working collaboratively with the federal government, the Manitoba government and others to keep the area operational this year and to ensure sustained longer-term operations.

It says the research performed in the area helps with pollution reduction strategies, understanding of climate change and how to protect our lakes and rivers in Ontario, across Canada and around the world.

Read more at the National Post.

Stop Desertification With Wildlife

Allan Savory wants to end desertification by helping grasslands flourish. Many parts of the world are experiencing desertification, including China which is planting trees to fight the growing dunes, so a solution to this growing problem is needed. Savory’s solution is counter-intuitve and absolutely brilliant:use wildlife to save the land.