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.

NYT: Challenges to Both the Right and Left on Global Warming

This article describes an emerging consensus on the reality of global warming and the changing debate on what to do about it.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Part Deux)

This is a great video for the non-believers.

P.S. Thank you for the articles Ayora, guess I was wrong (maybe...).

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle that describes the GPGP, an enormous pile of garbage located between San Francisco and Hawaii weighing 3.5 million tons and twice the size of Texas!

Radioactive Nimby: No One Wants Nuclear Waste

Here is an article from today's New York Times exploring the chief unresolved challenge to nuclear energy: where to put the waste. In the American southwest, plans to store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada have run into serious opposition, and other examples of the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) drama are being played out around the world.

GreenTechMedia.com

Here is a site dedicated to news about venture capital and green technology.

New Information Technology meets New Energy Technology

In this column Thomas Friedman considers the broad possibilities of a convergence between the I.T. and E.T. sectors. This article about a solar powered I.T. center in India is a specific example of this convergence.

Edward Abbey

Here is a short video on Edward Abbey to supplement this week's handout.

Scientist skeptical of global warming

In an article by CNN, recently published Oct 24, 2007, there is a reference to a scientist by the name of Dr. Patrick Michael's who is skeptical of the severity of global warming on Greenland's' ice sheet; indirectly this assumes that he is also skeptical of how damaging anthropogenic sources of carbon are on the global warming trend. Another researcher by the name of Willie Soon (Bio and selected works) is a climate change "skeptic" as well. He works for the Harvard Smithsonian Center in Astrophysics, and has for some years criticized the largely agreed upon anthropogenic origins of global warming. In an article by NewScienitst it is noted that Soon receives funding for his research from Exxon-Mobil, which is analogous to Professor Deese's comment on cancer research and the tobacco industry in the late twentieth century. I recommend any one who is interested in this topic of science, skeptics, and global warming see this website.

TVA

This movie is reminiscent of the nuclear fallout film we watched in class. While it is long, its message centers on how area famers in the 1930's were convinced of the benefits they could enjoy from technology. I can't find the button to make a hyperlink.

Duck, and Cover

I think Bert is a stupid name for a turtle, but he has a valid message, so we should all listen. We can all learn from this government propaganda turtle.

Death to Weeds (1947)

This film acts as propaganda by the Dow Chemical Company for the safe use of 2,4-Dow herbicides, highlighting the effectiveness of the herbicides and the ease of application. It also suggests that any golf course (obviously teeming with human activity) would greatly benefit from 2,4-D spraying. Rachel Carson wrote of the dangers of herbicide use in Silent Spring, and the Rachel Carson Council Inc. website has cited surprisingly recent complaints concerning the detrimental affects of 2,4-D specifically.

"The Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) received approximately 100 calls during the late 1980s on adverse effects in dogs associated with the phenoxy herbicide 2,4-D (Beasley, V.R. & H. Trammel)...In humans, symptoms of 2,4-D poisoning can be coughing, burning, dizziness, temporary loss of muscle coordination, fatigue, and weakness with or without nausea (Kamrin, M.A.), as well as vomiting, and severe, or migraine headache (personal communication, Haugen, C.)" (Rachel Carson Council Website).

Rain for the Earth Part I (1937)

This film produced by the U.S. Federal Works Agency in 1937 gives an account of the effects of the Dust Bowl in the American Great Plains; it gives a face to the name and history of this American environmental disaster.

"Atomic Energy: A Force for Good"

This film was produced by the Christophers in 1955 to promote atomic energy. Although the Christophers were a lay Catholic society that had been established just a decade earlier, they had a remarkable budget and resources to make this film. Produced by Jack Denove, whose credits included TV's Cavalcade of America, the film was written by bestselling author Eugene Vale, directed by Robert Stevenson, and starred Paul Young as the skeptical rancher who learns to embrace the Atomic Energy Commission's plan to construct a nuclear facility for "producing fissionable materials" in his small western town.