Blogs & Ecology

This is a cool little project:

It's a holiday weekend, so this is a lazy post: I was recently asked what kinds of technological developments I found interesting. Here's the list I sent back.

URBAN TECH

We're getting close to good models of the land use-transportation-energy-climate emissions interactions, and these are pretty much all saying that land use is at least as important a transportation task as clean energy/new vehicles, if not more important
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//007800.html
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//007898.html

but wire those cities tightly and ubiquitously and all sorts of mayhem gets possible
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//007897.html
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007929.html

Japanese TV warning of tsunamis, Sept. 2004.

Image credit: Wikipedia.

Early warning system aims to avoid a repeat of the devastating disaster that hit the country in 2004, killing 168,000 people

by Ian MacKinnon

Wind-sensing light beams could boost windmill output by 10%.

This is cool:

A new fiber-optic laser system can measure wind speed and direction up to 1000 meters in front of a wind turbine, giving the massive machines enough precious seconds to proactively adapt to gusts and sudden changes in wind direction. The device…could improve the efficiency of wind turbines and keep them from breaking down.

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Source: WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Gre

By Adele Peters

Industrial cleaning has long been a dirty business. Degreasers and solvents, which are used to clean manufacturing equipment, can cause long-term contamination of water and soil, and can potentially lead to severe problems of ecological and public health. Part of moving towards a sustainable society means asking whether using these harmful chemicals is even necessary—and developing substitute products to make sure that it is not. In the case of industrial cleaning, promising new research from a Swedish university suggests an alternative may soon be available: 'ultra-clean' water.

By Max Levin

By WorldChanging Canada writer Rod Edwards.

Oh man. Google Insights for Search is good fun. I’m supposed to spend this week finishing a number of writing projects. But I spent almost all today running different searches and being basically stunned at how much data’s available through the interface.

By Paul Mackay

Editor's Note: We encourage "Reader Reports" -- submissions from members of Worldchanging's global audience who volunteer to write up their notes from conferences, workshops and other worldchanging happenings they participate in. If you'd like to contribute your own report, please email .

ETech -- the excellent O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, where I spoke last year (video here, though not my finest talk, unfortunately, as I had an airplane flu) -- has released their call for proposals, and it kicks butt:

Living, Reinvented: The Technology of Abundance and Constraints

We live in two worlds: one filled with abundance and the other with constraints. Each has its own favorite—or essential to survival—inventions and directions. Each has been deeply affected by technology.

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Source: WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Gre