Computers crash, memories fail, back-ups are inevitable, your iPhone may not recall your accountant’s email. Now, I am not saying that there is no need for things like eCards or bzCards, but that they cannot unilaterally replace the paper card. In fact, our little ‘paper connectors’ become a craved luxuries in our electronic worlds
Palo Alto, San Francisco and East Palo Alto (then, coming to a city near you)–Each year, the eleven year-old UN Association Film Festival chooses a theme related to the UN Charter, and this year it is “Blue Planet, Green Planet”.
Numerous other human rights issues will be addressed as well, but the environment and our collective relationship to it will be explored in all sorts of creative ways. And if you think that documentary films are like the “talking heads” we used to sit through in elementary school, be prepared to be very pleasantly surprised.
Between October 19th and 26th, the Festival will screen 41 documentary films from as many countries. Having seen at least a couple of the films every year since the Festival’s founding, I can tell you that great storytelling is great entertainment, and real life stories can be even more engaging than fiction.
Hopefully, the schedule of films in the main festival will be posted on the UNAFF site by the time you are reading this, but the general schedule is:
The mega-trends of social media and sustainability share plenty of the same DNA.
The Arnold Palmer is an exceptional beverage. It takes two individual beverages, iced tea and lemonade, each very good in their own right, and creates an even better one. That’s how we feel about social media and green living i.e. sustainability.
There is nothing inherently green about social media. The Web 2.0 revolution is driven by code and the Internet as a platform. According to Wikipedia, it describes this as a trend in “technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.” This is largely a virtual world.
The move toward sustainability, on the other hand, is taking place entirely offline in the actual world. It is about balancing our impact and more wisely managing our natural resources. The United Nations describes it as commitment to “the provision of a secure environmental, social, and economic future.”
As different as they are, these two trends share one key quality: they’re changing the world for the better. They are changing politics, business, culture, and society. In the following we explore 10 ways that the trends of social media and sustainability intersect as well as align.
Special Note: Sustainablog and Max Gladwell are supporting Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). By clicking this link and signing up for SocialVibe, once featured in our Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media, you’ll effectively donate $1 to the cause. We also encourage you to watch the live telecast on ABC, CBS, and NBC, September 5th, at 8:00pm ET/PT.
A new milestone was reached recently in the race to make fuel from algae a conventional oil alternative: high-octane gasoline that is compatible with any gas-guzzling vehicle. The feat was performed by Sapphire Energy, a company that manufactures “green crude”. Sapphire uses single-cell algae to produce a chemical mixture that contains extractable fuel for cars and other transport vehicles. While the green crude is chemically identical to crude oil, it is completely carbon neutral.
The algal energy doesn’t require the use of agricultural land and water, and it deliver 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than crop-based biofuels. The company hopes that their green crude will ultimately be injected into normal crude pipelines.
Last week, UCLA Anderson hosted the California Clean Innovation conference to facilitate the new ideas that will drive the future of clean technology. I must admit to being a bit intimidated by the topics to be discussed - I’m far from technically inclined - but the event was well done and I learned a ton.
First, what we’re all interested in…the moolah. I’ve been hearing a lot about the investment going into clean tech these days. The first keynote speaker, Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners in Palo Alto also explained why this is so.
As reported by the New York Times yesterday, the two leading manufacturers of electric cars in the US are involved in a serious quarrel over alleged theft of vehicle design and trade secrets.
Tesla Motors, who recently began production of their electric Roadster, claims that Henrik Fisker took on an $875,000 design contract with Tesla in order to access confidential design information. After producing “inferior work,” Fisker launched his own company, Fisker Automotive, and released an $80,000 competing vehicle—the Fisker Karma—less than a year later.
If your trees are shading your neighbor’s solar panels, you could be fined $1,000 a day. The 1978 California Solar Shade Act deems shading trees a nuisance. In Sunnyvale, CA, Prius driving Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor were convicted under the law after electric car driving neighbor Mark Vargas complained .
Source: New York Times
Read more interesting news from Silicon Valley:
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“Personal choices, no matter how virtuous, cannot do enough. It will also take laws and money.”
The New Yorker has published an illuminating article on carbon emissions and carbon “cap and trade” systems, which shares the example of the successful reduction in sulfur emissions to illustrate how carbon emissions could be reduced. The passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990 mandated massive acid-rain reductions, and created a market for sulfur-dioxide emissions that forced companies to “pay to pollute”. Once a cost was associated with sulfur-dioxide emissions, companies could save money by installing scrubbers. Emissions were reduced from eighteen million tons to nine million, and acid rain evaporated as an environmental problem. Cap and trade is already happening, at the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), where carbon futures are traded like pork bellies.
“…CCX members buy and sell the right to pollute. Each makes a voluntary (but legally binding) commitment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—and hydrofluorocarbons. Four hundred corporations now belong to the exchange, including a growing percentage of America’s largest manufacturers. The members agree to reduce their emissions by a certain amount every year, a system commonly known as cap and trade. A baseline target, or cap, is established, and companies whose emissions fall below that cap receive allowances, which they can sell (or save to use later). Companies whose emissions exceed the limit are essentially fined and forced to buy credits to compensate for their excess.” — Michael Specter, The New Yorker
This isn’t just a method for punishment and reward. Establishing a carbon market allows money to flow toward developing the new energy technologies that will help companies save money. And if Silicon Valley is ever going to become “Solar Valley”, as some have predicted, the money needs to flow. Obama, Clinton and McCain are all advocating a cap and trade system.
Smart people drive green cars. I love the smell of Smug in the morning.
Toyota’s Prius hybrid has become the bestselling car in Silicon Valley.
Through May, 1,627 Prius registrations have been recorded in Santa Clara County, according to R.L. Polk. That puts the Prius ahead of Toyota’s Camry and Corolla and Honda’s Accord and Civic, all cars that outsell the high-mileage, gas-electric sedan nationwide. Locally, the Prius was No. 5 behind those models last year.
“Are we ahead of the curve, or what?” asked Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, and a Prius owner.
The Prius’ newfound status reflects the continued greening of Silicon Valley. Diridon listed sustained higher gas prices, the availability of carpool-lane stickers
for solo Prius drivers - no more are being issued - and the intelligence of local residents as factors in the Prius’ popularity.“The intellectual capacity within Silicon Valley is amazing,” he said. “That higher level of education reflects a higher level of understanding of the terrible consequences of global warming.”
Photo Credit: Dai Sugano/Mercury NewsAl Gore spoke in Silicon Valley on Friday, the same day as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth assessment was released. The report issued by the official scientist consortium concluded that global warming is happening, in large part due to human activity.
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