A while ago I saw a link to his work at WorldChanging but somehow I didn't give much attention to it, until it showed up again at Treehugger, this time about a movie that has been made about his work.
Realclimate has an interesting article documenting the latest studies on the Thermohaline Circulation. For those who haven't heard of it, this
On Saturday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao proposed that China and Africa should fully tap cooperation potential and strive to bring their trade volume to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.
The figure will more than double the 2005 level, about 39.7 billion U.S. dollars. In the first nine months, China-Africa trade surged to 40.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 42 percent year-on-year.
At the two-day Summit, the African leaders reiterated their countries' firm commitment to the one-China policy."They (the African countries) reiterated that they adhere to the one-China policy and support China's peaceful reunification," said the declaration.
At the opening ceremony Saturday, President Hu announced a package of aid and assistance measures to Africa including 3 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans in next three years and the exemption of more debt owed by poor African countries."Students and researchers of technological universities and representatives of other knowledge institutes and companies in the Netherlands will present during the I4D-day 2006 the I4Deas they have for meeting this challenge. Development economists, politicians and representatives of development agencies will go into debate with them. Film and music will tickle the senses in different ways."If you are into the energy issue, this might be interesting - I looks like a nice multidisciplinary day!
As a follow up to the previous biofuels talk by Vinod Khosla, Google Talks now has a presentation on plug-in diesel hybrids. Reed Benet presents an interesting system view where he argues that bio-diesel is more efficient than ethanol from the production stage (growing, gasification) to its use in a diesel engine. He also talks about interesting possibilities of integrating these cars with the electrical grid.
There is a movie (8.5 MB) on the NASA website which I find particularly illustrative. It shows global temperature changes from 1880 to 2005.
A newly released article raises some serious questions about storing CO2 underground in geological formations. The study involved the injection of CO2 into a brine and oil reservoir on the US Gulf Coast. It turns out that the CO2 made the brine water much more acidic, which means that minerals are much more easily dissolved, and the integrity of the reservoir could ultimately be compromised.
The BBC has an interesting progress report on the Huangbaiyu eco-village project in rural China. Huangbaiyu gained some press partly due to the involvement of some big environmental names. The chair of the project is William McDonough, an architect probably best known for putting the largest green roof in the world on top of a Ford factory.
The latest issue of New Scientist devotes several pages this month to the environmental transformation of mega-cities. With the UN predicting that by 2007 more people will live in cities than the countryside, creating sustainable cities is more important than ever.
It appears that Google hosts seminars called Google TechTalks about a wide range of topics. A recent one is about biofuels in the US. They shoot videos on the talks and post them on Google Video. 
Coming soon is a new movie documenting the history of the EV1 electric vehicle in California. Starting in the mid 1990's, GM leased over 800 of these vehicles to consumers. The car was received enthusiastically, but eventually the program was suddenly cancelled in 2003.
Alan Greenspan, a leading US economist best known for his power to scare stock markets with his carefully-worded subtle phrases, recently gave a 3 hour testimony before a US Senate committee recommending a much quicker development of alternative energy sources.
CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, is working on a way to help industries produce cleaner steel. Their idea is to have steel mills use charcoal produced from trees planted to combat salinity.
This is such a great marketing move... While automakers talked to the U.S. Congress about their problems, one company parked their solution outside. The press release shows quite a few famous politicians taking a ride around Capitol Hill.
A short excerpt:This is the first of a series of articles on the romance of synthetic chemistry in which science has solved the mystery for turning waste into wealth.
“Don’t throw that away!” This is the battle cry of the great synthetic chemical industry which makes everything from hair-brush handles to T.N.T. from stuff that was once just waste. If you want to buy some perfume, the odds are that the bottle will contain odors extracted from coal tar, once a nightmare to factories who paid people to get rid of it.
[via Modern Mechanix]
Veridium is a green technology company that is marketing an interesting method for processing biomass and other wastes in a high-speed vortex. Their website has some videos showing it in action. A more in depth article about the technology can be found here.
As much as we talk about what the US isn't doing environmentally, today they are celebrating the 36th annual Earth Day. I haven't heard of anything similar in Europe... Is this true? If so, then why not? ...the tulips are definitely having a party.
So maybe the chapters on LCA and cleaner production are missing, but Infrastructure provides an interesting artistic & explanatory view of the industrial landscapes around us.
innovations is an interesting new journal that strives to go beyond theory and into practical solutions for many of the same problems IE deals with.
The BBC has a very interesting audio interview here (or here) with Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface Corporation. Interface is a carpet company that has gained widespread attention for its innovative implementation of sustainability practices... which is especially interesting considering the dependence of the carpet industry on petrochemicals.
As more people seek to use renewable energy, some companies are trying to give photovoltaics a more competitive edge through the use of optics and mirrors to concentrate sunlight. Pyron Solar uses such a system and in a NREL test they were able to achieve a 37.3% conversion efficiency. Another such company is Energy Innovations, which has developed an interesting low-cost method for allowing a field of focusing mirrors to track the sun. More details can be found in an article by Wired Magazine
gDiapers has created a new spin on the concept of disposable diapers. Instead of sending diapers to the landfill where they could pose a possible health hazard, they are flushed to the wastewater treatment facility. This allows for safer treatment of wastes and recovery of the various materials.
From the Osiris newsletter: 
The recently released Human Security Report concluded that there has been an overall drop in armed conflicts. The results surprised many people as there is a perception that things have become worse since Sept. 11th. This article dives into the psychology of optimism & pessimism and seeks to understand how we use these outlooks to shape our action in the world. As IE seeks to bridge the gap between business and environment, we too find ourselves trying to make sense of positive and negative views on the state of the world.A few excerpts:
"Unless you believe that the future can be better you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope."
"We are more concerned about risks that may lead to losses than risks that lead to gains."
"Resilient people tend to have three things in common: they have a strong value system and ability to make meaning out of life; they are excellent improvisors and adaptors given life's events; and they are good are perceiving the reality accurately, for better or worse, in any given situation."
Silica aerogels are extremely low-density solids nicknamed "frozen smoke" that hold the record for being the best insulators known. Their widespread adoption could dramatically increase energy efficiency in many areas of technology. While their production costs are still prohibitive for everyday uses, their potential is being realized more and more within industrial applications.Aerogels made out of carbon can store an incredible amount of electricity for their size and are generating interest especially among those developing hybrid cars.
Aerogel Composite Announces ENERGel(TM) Ultracapacitor
