Crew Commentary Author
Key species act as warning signs of ecosystem collapse
tsedevino • 09.11.2016
The Earth’s biodiversity is under attack. We would need to travel back over 65 million years to find rates of species loss as high as we are witnessing today. Conservation often focuses on the big, enigmatic animals – tigers, polar bears, whales. There are many reasons to want to save these species from extinction. But what about the vast majority of life that we barely notice? The bugs and grubs that can appear or vanish from ecosystems without any apparent impact? Biodiversity increases resilience: more species means each individual species is better able to withstand impacts. Think of decreasing biodiversity as popping out rivets from an aircraft. A few missing rivets here or there will not cause too much harm. But continuing to remove them threatens a collapse in ecosystem functioning. Forests give way to desert. Coral reefs bleach and then die.
Farming Solar Power in the Cosmos
tsedevino • 09.09.2016
What was then an implausible idea—collecting solar energy in space and sending it to Earth—is now the goal of scientists around the world, marking a new space race that could end reliance on dwindling fossil fuels, fundamentally shift power in the geopolitical conflicts they have sparked, and meet the rising demand for energy from the developing world. Paul Jaffe, a spacecraft engineer and principal investigator at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., has brought the U.S. closer to that goal with his work on space solar technology, which has drawn international attention—and for good reason: The innovation would have a profound impact on humanity.
WATCH: Chasing Ice
tsedevino • 09.07.2016
In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.
Every Month This Year Has Been the Hottest in Recorded History
tsedevino • 09.05.2016
Despite the cruise ship that’s now plowing through a melting Arctic, or the wildfires that have consumed parts of North America, and devastating drought that’s stricken in East Africa, it can still be easy to ignore sometimes that our climate is rapidly changing. But 2016 has been a remarkable year for record-breaking temperatures, and even in the midst of it, July stands out as the hottest month of all. On Wednesday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that July was the hottest month ever recorded on our planet, since modern record-keeping began in 1880. NASA has reached the same conclusion. July smashed all previous records.
Getting Ugly Produce onto Hungry People’s Plates
tsedevino • 09.03.2016
Every fall, farmers in Washington throw away a sizable portion of the apples they grow. In 2015, thanks to the West Coast port slowdown and a lack of refrigeration, farmers in the state dumped an estimated $100 million worth of the fruit (or 143,000 bushels) in fields where they were left to rot, causing the nearby town to smell like rancid fruit for days. David Bobanick, Executive Director of the Washington-based hunger organizationRotary First Harvest, finds the apple dumps alarming. And although this year was an extreme example, it’s not unusual for fresh produce to go to waste due to a lack of infrastructure. In fact, approximately 23 percent of all fruits and vegetables are wasted before they even reach grocery stores. Meanwhile, 46.5 million Americans struggle to get enough healthy food.
Scientists warn world will miss key climate target
tsedevino • 09.01.2016
Leading climate scientists have warned that the Earth is perilously close to breaking through a 1.5C upper limit for global warming, only eight months after the target was set. The decision to try to limit warming to 1.5C, measured in relation to pre-industrial temperatures, was the headline outcome of the Paris climate negotiations last December. The talks were hailed as a major success by scientists and campaigners, who claimed that, by setting the target, desertification, heatwaves, widespread flooding and other global warming impacts could be avoided.
What If All U.S. Coal Workers Were Retrained to Work in Solar?
tsedevino • 08.30.2016
The global economy is in a massive transition from a fossil-fuel-based energy system to one using sophisticated renewable energy technologies. For tens of thousands of fossil fuel workers, though, the energy industry outlook is not promising. For coal industry workers, the future looks particularly bleak. However, research I conducted with Edward Louie of Oregon State University offers hope for a better future based on retraining workers. Our study (published in the journal Energy Economics) quantified the costs and benefits of retraining coal workers for employment in the rapidly expanding solar photovoltaic industry—and it explores different ways to pay for this retraining.
Self-sufficient, floating off-grid island
tsedevino • 08.28.2016
From no-waste, no-impact, buy-nothing, no-money to living tiny, there are a multitude of saner and more courageous alternatives to the unthinking, zombie wastefulness of mainstream living. For Canadian couple Wayne Adams and Catherine King, living self-sufficiently meant building their own floating island near Tofino, British Columbia, consisting of twelve interconnected platforms that support their home, greenhouse, lighthouse and a dance studio.
WATCH: Racing Extinction
tsedevino • 08.25.2016
Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, Oscar®-winner Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) assembles a team of artists and activists intent on showing the world never-before-seen images that expose issues of endangered species and mass extinction.
The Link Between Armed Conflict and Climate Change
tsedevino • 08.21.2016
When one of the strongest El Niños ever recorded hit the South American country of Peru in 1982, the abnormal warming it brought to the Pacific Ocean was a catastrophic blow to the already economically fragile nation. The fishing industry quickly suffered massive losses as the anchovy harvest collapsed and the sardines suddenly migrated south into Chilean waters.
The Authors
David Houle
David Houle is a futurist, strategist and speaker. Houle spent more than 20 years in media and entertainment. He worked at NBC, CBS, and was part of the senior executive team that created and launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and CNN Headline News.
Houle has won a number of awards. He won two Emmys, the prestigious George Foster Peabody award, and the Heartland award for “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream”. He was also nominated for an Academy Award. He is the Futurist in Residence at the Ringling College of Art+ Design.
He has delivered some 700 speeches on six continents and thirteen countries. He is often called “the CEOs’ Futurist” having spoken to or advised 3,500+ CEOs and business owners in the past eight years.
Houle coined the phrase the Shift Age and has written extensively about the future and the future of energy. This is his seventh book.
His primary web site is www.davidhoule.com
Tim Rumage
Tim Rumage is a planetary ethicist and naturalist. Taking an interdisciplinary and systems thinking approach to education, he has been teaching at the intersection of Science, Ecology, Art, Design and Architecture for more than 30 years.
Tim is the Coordinator/Developer of Environmental Studies at Ringling College of Art and Design where he teaches courses on environmental science, sustainability, creating ecological cities, applied environmental design, food, water, biodiversity and environmental ethics. He is also a Coordinator for Sustainability in Design Education for CUMULUS and a frequent lecturer at other colleges and for community organizations.
As a trained field biologist, Tim has done research on Marine Mammals, Pelagic Birds, Bats, Habitat Restoration and Land Planning. He has been involved in a variety of interdisciplinary projects in the US and Africa involving habitat restoration and protection, green infrastructure, local food production and sustainability. Tim’s current work focuses on the economic value of nature and nature’s services.
His primary web site is http://planetaryethicist.com/
