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Justice at Sea: Can Dolphins & Whales Sue?

“Can dolphins sue a Japanese Firm? A legal debate is brewing in the Philippines where two lawyers are acting in behalf of resident sea mammals. The ‘petitioners’ include ‘toothed whales, dolphins, porpoises and other cetacean species’ whose habitat has been disturbed by underwater blasting and drilling from a Japanese oil exploration firm.

The question is whether or not cetaceans have rights under the Filipino Constitution. Raising many legal and environmental questions, the novel case was filed this week at the Filipino Supreme Court. The petition for certiorari with mandamus and injunction seeks to stop further offshore explorations by the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company Ltd., (Japex) which started tests recently off the western side of the Philippine province of Cebu, which is flanked on both sides by the bio-diverse straits of Bohol and Ta?on.”

(via The Daily Galaxy)

The Year’s 10 Craziest Ways to Hack the Earth

December 22, 2007 / Klint Finley

space mirrors

Wired News rounds up this year’s most radical geo-engineering ideas:

Vertical Farming
Better Cows
Carbon Scrubbers
Hurricane Control
Cloud Making Ships
Better Trees
Ocean Fertilization
Man-made Mt. Pinatubo
Space mirrors
The Status Quo

Full Story: Wired News.

At $1 per Watt, the iTunes of Solar Energy Has Arrived

December 20, 2007 / TiamatsVision

“A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That’s the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. Curious that this story is not on every front page.

Still, to commemorate the achievement, Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen (pictured) is reserving the first three commercially-viable panels. One is staying on display at company HQ; one has been donated to San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation. And the other is on sale at ebay.

Starting price? 99 cents.”

(via SolveClimate)

(Nanosolar)

Counterculture Green The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism

December 8, 2007 / Klint Finley

According to “Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism,” by Andrew G. Kirk, the mind-blowing photo of our planet was a catalyst for the ecology movement. The Whole Earth Catalog itself became the voice of a new kind of environmental advocacy that, rather than shunning science as nature’s enemy, embraced it as the key that could unlock the door to personal freedom and create a post-scarcity social utopia. Advances like pictures from space, personal computers, geodesic domes and even nuclear power were all part of what became known as the “appropriate technology movement,” for which the Whole Earth Catalog was both a resource and a summary. No tree-hugging Luddite or apocalyptic doomsayer, Brand, Kirk writes, had an optimistic outlook shaped by “a love of good tools, thoughtful technology, scientific inquiry and a Western libertarian skepticism of the government’s ability to take the lead in these areas.” Brand wrote of his own publication, “This is a book of tools for saving the world at the only scale it can be done, one hand at a time.”

Full Story: International Herald Tribune.

(via Trevor’s del.icio.us)

Seismic Symphony

December 7, 2007 / chaoflux

Due to his failing sight, Western Washington geology professor David Engebretson is teaching a class he developed pioneering the study of earth science in a unique manner – using sound. He has also created audio that is analogous to the history of Earth’s magnetic field reversals. Take a listen to the short clip NPR. He talks through it, but makes insightful points about what musical patterns he can hear, and what that may mean in terms of our geological history.

Link

Black Earth Institute

November 1, 2007 / TiamatsVision

For all you writers, poets, and artists out there.

“Black Earth Institute is a progressive think-tank dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society.

Until recent times, art expressed grander values than commerce and celebrity. Delphic oracle, Celtic bard, African griot, aboriginal orator: all used word and movement, color and craft, to bring wisdom from the spiritual realm to their communities.

In the great tradition of Blake, Yeats, Neruda, Rimbaud, HD, Hurston, Zitkala Sha, Rumi and Ramprasad, Black Earth Institute supports the artist as prophet and visionary, creating a society attuned to earth’s rhythms and the rights of all people.”

Black Earth Institute

What We Can Learn From The Lunatic Fringe?

September 15, 2007 / Klint Finley

perpetual motion machine

We’ve all heard claims of green inventions that are too good to be true: the zero-point energy generator, the water-powered car, the device for talking with dolphins to achieve world peace. Sometimes they amuse us; sometimes they confuse us, as we try to determine whether they’re legitimate or not; and sometimes they just annoy us. But can they ever help us? Yes: by keeping our imaginations open, and by honing our evaluation skills — skills which are useful both when deciding between existing technologies, and when thinking about technologies on the

Full Story: WorldChanging.

Can’t Blame the Sun for Global Warming, Says Study

July 12, 2007 / Klint Finley

The best, IMHO, alternate explanation for global warming is looking a bit less likely:

“The upshot is that somewhere between 1985 and 1987 all the solar factors that could have affected climate have been going in the wrong direction. If they were really a big factor we would have cooling by now.”

Reason Magazine science editor Ronald Baily adds:

Of course in areas that are prey to big uncertainties, no study is definitive. However, as the evidence for man-made global warming continues to accumulate, policymakers and citizens should turn our attention to what should be done about it. See some of my thoughts on the carbon taxes vs. carbon markets here.

Disclosure: Just in case any H&R readers missed it, I am a former skeptic of man-made global warming. See my mea culpa here.

Full Story: Hit and Run.

Business 2.0: Burning Man grows up

June 28, 2007 / Klint Finley

Each Burning Man has a different theme, chosen by Harvey. This year’s theme is “The Green Man.” Burning Man, an extravaganza characterized by the consumption of huge quantities of fossil fuel, has discovered environmentalism. It is attempting to offset the 28,000 tons of carbon it estimates the event generates (counting all those flights and long drives for its far-flung attendees), and the organization is belatedly switching to biodiesel generators to provide most of the event’s electricity.

Most controversially, the organization wants to bring as many green-energy companies as possible into what Harvey calls a world’s fair of clean tech. Google (Charts, Fortune 500) is going to help produce an online 3-D search service called Burning Man Earth.

Full Story: Business 2.0.

For those seeking a small, free alternative, Autonomous Mutant Fest starts this weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to make it down there this year, but I believe Nick Pell and some other esoZone/Portland Occulture folks will be on hand.