Story of Stuff

This website has a video on the story of stuff. In short it describes the consumer cycle from extraction to waste and all the fixings in between. The perspective is of the shock-type environmentalism.

The Tesla

Here is the website for Tesla Motors, manufacturers of a new high-end electric sports car, named for Nikola Tesla. Here is an ABC News profile of the car itself. And here's a Netscape video piece on the car and the company.

L.A. Times Interview: J. Craig Venter

In this Q&A Venter describes the possibility of using genetically modified organisms to create new fuel sources.

an excerpt:

"We're trying to design cells that produce unique renewable fuels. We have one of those in extensive testing now that could be one of the first green jet fuels. Hopefully there'll be hundreds of these. With this breadth of biology, we have the capability of probably making any chemical out there. It's not hard even to imagine gasoline or octane that we put into our tanks. Bacteria can make that."

yet another piece on Nordhous & Shellenberger...

In this profile, which hails the Break Through authors as "the bad boys of environmentalism," Nordhaus even works in a reference to our old friend Thomas Kuhn. And, of course, here's the link to their blog.

Three Gorges Dam

This article on the environmental impact of the Three Gorges Dam provides an interesting post-script to J.R. McNeill's discussion of ambitious dam-building projects in Something New Under the Sun. And this article highlights the growing use of small scale hydroelectric power in the U.S.

Innovators in Green Technology: Profiles of Fuller, Brand, & Lovins

To supplement our discussion yesterday, here are some profiles of Buckminster Fuller, Stewart Brand, and Amory Lovins.

Go Nanosoloar

In this article, an environmental news website details the power of Nanosoloar technology. When I read this article it immediately reminded me of the potential for humanity to overcome the limitations of natural resources with new technologies (for example, the nitrification process or genetically modified crops) and as of now this new technology promises to be environmentally and economically friendly-a combination that could produce positive results.