OurWorld 2.0

Oil reserve estimates inflated?

Terry Macalister — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:30:46 +0000

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay [...]

Oil reserve estimates inflated? is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Grow a green roof (and eat it too)

Megumi Nishikura — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:31:51 +0000

Cities are called concrete jungles for obvious reasons: cluttered skyscrapers overlook congested streets and highways amidst a constant bombardment of neon lights and billboards. Tokyo, where the United Nations University is headquartered, is certainly no exception and perhaps, in many people’s minds, one of the worst offenders when it comes to a lack of [...]

Grow a green roof (and eat it too) is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Fashion from trash

Carol Smith — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:30:31 +0000

It may not be obvious, but the 3Rs of the ‘Waste Hierarchy‘ are in a particular order for a reason. ‘Reduce’ comes first, since it has zero impact. Following closely, ‘Re-use’ cuts waste and engenders no or little energy use. ‘Recycle’ comes next because it requires more energy (yet still less than to manufacture using [...]

Fashion from trash is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Debate 2.0: Who’s afraid of climate change?

Carol Smith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:31:44 +0000

Scaremongering seems to be quite rampant in climate change communication these days. Some may argue that this is because the truth is in fact quite scary. While others condemn it as a dirty tactic employed underhandedly by extreme greenies, particularly as it applies to children. Perhaps Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth started the trend, with [...]

Debate 2.0: Who’s afraid of climate change? is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Climate change is a feminist issue

Mary Fitzgerald — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:03:58 +0000

When it emerged earlier this year that Obama’s science star John Holdren had once, back in 1977, co-authored a textbook discussing possible methods of population control, among them sterilisation, America’s rightwing fury machine triumphantly seized upon it, dubbing him Obama’s “science fiction tsar“. Yet with the climate change conference in Copenhagen approaching, how fictitious is the [...]

Climate change is a feminist issue is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Cutting carbon by degrees

Chun Knee Tan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:30:19 +0000

When the first Cool Biz campaign was implemented in the summer of 2005, I just couldn’t understand why air conditioners in Japanese offices were being set at 28°C. I used to think, “Isn’t it better just to switch them off?” That was because back in my tropical home country of Malaysia we would set our air [...]

Cutting carbon by degrees is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

The future is electric

Mark Notaras — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:59:20 +0000

The future has arrived and it is electric. (Click the gallery button at the top right of this story for our photo slideshow.) If the 41st Tokyo Motor Show is any guide, major car manufacturers are taking the race to build eco-friendly machines — electric, hybrid plug-ins and fuel cell vehicles — seriously. Our World 2.0 attended today’s [...]

The future is electric is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

High and dry

Mark Notaras — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:30:03 +0000

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is referred to as the Third Pole because it is the third largest mass of ice on the Earth, after the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers provide a water source for 1.3 billion people in Asia. According to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau’s glaciers will recede [...]

High and dry is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Into the seed bunker

Adam Vaughan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:00:57 +0000

An endangered pink banana enjoyed by Asian elephants becomes a landmark species today, marking the first milestone in an international project to create a Noah’s ark of the world’s seeds. The banana, Musa itinerans, is the last of 24,200 species to have its seeds collected, dried and stored in Kew’s millennium seed bank, which has, after [...]

Into the seed bunker is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Shared futures

Anna Collins — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:14 +0000

This summer I stared climate change in the face and finally came to understand how much it unites us like nothing else in history. I am from Warrington, a town in the North of England. Warrington is just 32 km from Manchester; the scene of Dickens’ dark satanic mills and the birthplace of the industrial revolution. On [...]

Shared futures is a post from: OurWorld 2.0