Blogs & Ecology

Photo deep_schismic @ flickr.

Photo by Mable2006

Their big, their burly, and they may have deep pockets, but the popular singer Björk plans to limit their destruction to her home country, Iceland, by supporting a current project in the works, called, Náttúra....

“The warnings are there, too many to ignore…people better start waking up. Better rebuild their community parlours and their sou sous and their gayaps. In the panic of markets and the trillions of debt and the excess of luxury, countries like Trinidad and Tobago…with so much for sale, will suffer the most”: Attillah Springer takes a walk through the valley of the shadow of debt.

Sigur Rós is coming to Japan later this month, and his concerts are already sold out. Here in Tokyo, they will play one extra gig, that's how popular this band has become all over the world. Yet, as we all know, Iceland is a small country in big economic trouble. Sigur Rós and Björk tried to raise awareness earlier this summer, preparing for the crisis. Below the fold is a Youtube clip from their Náttúra Concert on June 28, 2008 in Reykjavik. ...

Jimmy Stamp at Life Without Buildings compares current shipping container architecture proposals from LOT-EK, Adam Kalkin and others to Icelandic designer "B. Börkur Eiríksson’s dark vision of a smoggy dystopic future where we’re all crammed into mile-high towers by colossal mobile crane systems."

Extraordinary image follows:...

[Photo: Pascal Fellenneau / JPG Magazine]

Hurstwic: Turf Houses in the Norse Era

Nesjavellir geothermal power plant in Iceland, photo: Wikipedia.

Our apologies to Ian Marshall of Wend magazine. Aeons ago Ian wrote to us telling us about the sustainable attributes of his mag. Unfortunately his correspondence went missing in the torrent of email we get. Better late than never.

Krafla, Iceland–that’s steam, not fog on the lens. From LoveIceland

Iceland, known for being a hotbed of volcanic activity, has added to their catalog of “places near us that the planet lashes out to try and kill you”: there’s a MASSIVE undersea volcano just offshore, and it’s only recently been detected.

Not long ago, we wrote about blueEnergy, a non-profit organization that is building hybrid wind and solar systems to power homes, schools and rural clinics in rural Nicaragua where nearly 80 percent of the population lacks electricity.

In the last two weeks, the country announced two new renewable energy projects, which the government hopes will help the nation out of the energy crisis it has endured for the last three years. First, a group of high-powered Nicaraguan businessmen committed to invest close to $92 million to generate 40 MW of wind energy this year.

[Click photo to enlarge]

Hof Country Residence, Skakafjördur Fjord, Iceland. Designed/built: 2000-2004. What a cool house. Text and links at end of post.

(more…)