StumbleUpon | Transitions's blog posts

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/30436855/

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:13:14 -0800

http://ergobalance.blogspot.com/2009/02/low-carbon-retrofit-for-quarter-of.html

Related Reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/eco-homes-refit-emissions
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/milo_yiannopoulos/blog/2009/02/17/leading_climate_change_cheerleader_james_hansen_has_lost_the_plot

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/29359638/

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:24:04 -0800

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/there+life+after/1188444/story.html

Quote (there are many):
".."All clean energy is in the long run cheaper because you don't have to pay for the fuel," he said. "Renewables are the only thing that can lead to clean and cheap energy forever." So is there really an energy crisis, or is it simply a crisis of ignorance? Human potential is the most overlooked and most important factor in overcoming the problems of peak oil and climate change, Scheer said. "We cannot discuss this question only on cost comparisons. Who has the courage in 20 or 25 years to tell their own children, 'We could have solved the problem but it was too expensive for us. The additional cost of three or four cents per kilowatt/hour was too costly for us.' That's really shabby."

Another link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print.html?id=1188444&sponsor=

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/29359291/

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:06:53 -0800

Examples of installable (removable, portable panels or similar) insulation that allow for flexibility:

http://www.sumcan.com/faq.html (firm based in Alberta, Canada)
http://www.coverflex.net/ (Texas, USA)
http://www.p2000insulation.ca/faq.php (throughout Canada)

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/28592764/

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:24:52 -0800

A Brief History of Oil - a slightly comical depiction of oil on video

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=971_1190748821 Part 1

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=793_1190748891 Part 2 and so on

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/22939931/

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:48:30 -0700

http://shorthandlogic.com/2008/food-shortage-flowchart/

Food Shortage Flowchart

Updates: released v.02 on May 8, 2008 View v.01
This map now operates under the assumption that global warming has contributed to poor growing conditions for the better half of the past decade.

This flowchart is a concerted effort to explain our current global food shortage. What hasn't been included is the huge population boom since the industrial revolution. If you can describe to me how to include that in this chart you'll win a prize. Actually, I'll give you my thanks and give you credit at the bottom of the post. Thanks. : )

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/22787028/

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:43:11 -0700

http://www.oceanarks.org/rec20_Online_Resources.php

Ecological Design: Rethinking How Humans Are Sustained

Almost thirty years ago the brilliant ecologist H. T. Odum employed analytical systems models to study the infrastructures that sustain humanity. He concluded that industrial society was on a collision course with the natural systems upon which it is dependent. He predicted that a fossil fuel dominated society would overshoot the Earth's carrying capacity and as a consequence there would be widespread suffering in the twenty first century.

Odum proposed an alternative future based upon design strategies embedded in the 3.5 billion year long experience and evolution of life on Earth. He postulated that forests, rivers, prairies, coral reefs and other ecosystems contained within themselves the information and the biological knowledge essential to creating asustainable future. If the information housed within ecosystems was decoded, a body of knowledge would become available that could be applied to redesigning farms, factories, waste systems, communities, energy production and even transportation networks. For this new field Dr. Odum proposed the terms ecological design and ecological engineering. He went further and conducted experiments in ecological design and engineering as well as formulated some of their guiding principles. His landmark book Environment, Power and Society, published in 1971, launched ecology as an intellectual foundation for future design...."

We work on the premise that it is possible to create a sustainable society in the early 21st century...We believe it is possible to reverse today's loss of soils, forests and water quality as well as to slow or even arrest the wide spread loss of species.

To accomplish such a turnaround will require a fundamental rethinking of the ways in which societies sustain themselves. In the words of R. Buckminster Fuller, "It will require a design revolution." There is evidence from our work and the analyses of others that it is technologically and socially possible to reduce the negative human footprint on the Earth by as much as ninety percent. To accomplish this will require a new way of thinking and designing, coupled with a commitment to recycling, conservation and the use of renewable sources of energy. Our projects are based upon the principles of ecology. Ecological design principles can work within a contemporary economic paradigm. Further, we intend to provide strategies and design perspectives that can be applied broadly internationally and across a variety of social and economic sectors within societies.

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/19043126/

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:35:50 -0700

Fully Renewable: biogas+wind+solar at peak and base loads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR8gEMpzos4

http://www.kombikraftwerk.de/index.php?id=27 (In English.)

Scientists of the University of Kassel in Germany prove that the entire country can be powered by renewables only. They connected biogas, wind and solar power in a distributed way and show it can deliver both baseloads and peakloads.

http://biopact.com/2007/12/germany-is-doing-it-reliable.html

for more info.

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/18783062/

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:37:00 -0700

http://rael.berkeley.edu/about
The Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) focuses on designing, testing, and disseminating renewable and appropriate energy systems.

At one level, the goal for RAEL is to update, integrate and nurture a collaborative synthesis of E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful appropriate technology and development philosophy with the energy industry as it exists today.

Ongoing projects include (each has own link):
- City of Berkeley's Sustainable (Solar) Energy Financing Project
- UV-Tube: Ultraviolet Water Disinfection
- Disseminating Efficient Cookstoves in Tanzania
- Small Wind Turbine Testing Lab
- Island Microgrid Design

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/18674123/

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:55:09 -0700

Abandoned Mines = Geothermal Heat (5 min.Video)

http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/23745/thenational/archive/geothermal-031008.wmv

Abandoned Mines Provide Geothermal Heat
March 10, 2008 (Runs 4:57)
Innovator Ralph Ross, of Springhill, Nova Scotia has been working in geothermal energy since the 80's and is finally seeing his idea take off. How many abandoned mine shafts worldwide could be recycled this way?

http://Transitions.stumbleupon.com/review/18539101/

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:47:29 -0800

How I Learned To Survive Peak Oil

http://www.altenergystocks.com/ (alternative energy (AE) capitalism)

is a North American focussed site dedicated to proposing viable, comprehensive solutions using off-the-shelf technologies.

Other sites include:
http://ergobalance.blogspot.com/ (European perspective by a consultant based in the U.K.)
http://saltwatermatt.stumbleupon.com/ (Australia-based omnibus site, a bit left wing)
http://tresenglish.stumbleupon.com/ (both national and local (Teaching & Helping project) based in Arizona, USA)
http://bs1999bs.stumbleupon.com/ (excellent AE links, also has environmental focus: warning - disturbing images!)
http://peaknik.blogspot.com (omnibus site with innumerable links, USA)
http://www.cleantechblog.com ("the premier cleantech site for commentary on technologies, news, and issues relating to next generation energy and the environment.")
http://www.energybulletin.net (much more than "a clearinghouse for information regarding the peak in global energy supply")

Please add your favourite sites.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/