OurWorld 2.0

Food for thought in thinking about food: 2009 World Summit on Food Security

Luc Christiaensen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:30:01 +0000

On November 13, 2009, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General, Jacques Diouf, embarked on a 24-hour public hunger strike, in the lead up to this week’s World Summit on Food Security in Rome. Diouf’s call for action to end the scourge of hunger comes on the heels of July’s G8 summit in Aquila, Italy, where member nations [...]

Food for thought in thinking about food: 2009 World Summit on Food Security is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

COP15’s Indigenous voices on climate change film festival

Citt Williams — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:39:56 +0000

As a part of our contribution to a robust discussion at the COP15 climate negotitions in Copenhagen, the United Nations University has been working hard with partners to organize the Indigenous Voices on Climate Change film festival at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen (4pm-6pm, 9th-13th December,2009). This festival includes a collection of compelling stories [...]

COP15’s Indigenous voices on climate change film festival is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

How things work: Canada’s oil sands

Carol Smith — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:30:59 +0000

With the topic of peak global oil production moving more into the mainstream, you have perhaps heard of the Canadian oil sands. There, huge tracts of remote forested land are strip-mined to obtain a type of thick crude oil called bitumen. The country’s main deposits are found mostly in the western province of Alberta and [...]

How things work: Canada’s oil sands is a post from: OurWorld 2.0

Energy descent from peak oil: Not a collapse, more like evolution

Brendan Barrett — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:30:09 +0000

There is an unhealthy tendency to categorise environmentalists and members of the peak oil community as ‘doom and gloomers’ predicting the end of the world. Most recently, Alex Steffen at World Changing jumped into the debate, claiming that the leaders of the Transition movement talk “cheerfully about passing peak oil, widespread food shortages and the idea [...]

Energy descent from peak oil: Not a collapse, more like evolution is a post from: 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