Weekly News Linkfest – Edition 002
News — by Craig Mackintosh February 25, 2010
Welcome to round two of our Weekly Linkfest! Where possible, I’ll put up a weekly roundup of interesting environmental and permaculture news – with the intention that it’ll be an easy way for readers to jump to important and/or interesting news and practical or inspiration material.
I would greatly appreciate readers getting involved in this weekly linkfest. Please email editor (at) permaculture.org.au with links (and ideally a summary sentence outlining the key point of each link) to noteworthy articles and news reports on the internet. Please put ‘Weekly Linkfest’ in the subject line, as I have a message rule that will move these messages into a specific folder for this purpose. This is a great way to share information of merit with the greater permaculture community.
Let’s get started:
Good News (coz we all need it):
- E. coli fears spark 4.9 million pound meat recall. I put this in the good news section, as it’s great to see BigAgri hurting financially from their own stupidity and inability to work ethically and within ecological constraints. These kind of recalls are on the rise – and are helping fuel an ever-increasing desire from citizens to see their food coming from more natural sources. A post from yesterday on this site shares a more humane, healthy and sustainable way to provide meat for those who refuse to be vegetarian.
- The Indian government puts controversial new BT Brinjal GMO crop on hold amidst rising concerns over the safety and efficiency of biotech ‘products’.
- Readers of the Chicago Chicken Ordinance post may enjoy this resource: It’s the Chickens In The Yard (C.I.T.Y.) Chicken Revolution, where you’ll find resources to help you legalise urban chicken raising in your area.
- David Holmgren’s book Future Scenarios gets reviewed.
- Neri Oxman gives an interesting talk on ‘Material Ecology’.
- If we can only get BigAgri to ponder this incredible act of principle-based decision making, we might see millions of landless being given land with which to develop small scale productive permaculture systems worldwide, and thus avoid revolution…: U.S. Teen Hannah Salwen Convinces Family to Sell Home and Donate Half the Proceeds to Charity.
- Cat food and ants may be biological answers to Australia’s cane toad problem?
Bad News (coz we need to understand the challenges if we’re to design our way out of them):
- A very interesting article on the U.S.’s descent into becoming a ‘third world country’.
- Ocean acidity rates are soaring as CO2 emissions rise. Do not underestimate the impacts of this.
- The much lauded ‘miracle’ biofuel crop – Jatropha – has been wreaking havoc for the people it’s supposed to help.
- Despite, through articles such as my own, an increasing awareness of the great health disaster of pouring plastic trash into our oceans, a recent classified German report tells us that Global Ocean Protection Measures Have Failed across the board. We have signally failed to address the problem despite decades of warnings and efforts and "our oceans have devolved into vast garbage dumps."
- As if oceans of plastic aren’t enough, the amount of toxic e-waste piling up in developing countries is surging. E-waste in India alone is expected to rise 500% by 2020.
- World’s top firms cause $2.2tn of environmental damage, report estimates
- a report for the UN into the activities of the world’s 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment. - Eight foot long, flying, diver-attacking squid have been invading the California coastline and feasting on the state’s limited fish stocks. Reminds me of concerns over an explosion of the deadly box and other jellyfish (see also here and here) that changing climates can bring. As our ecosystems unravel, if we can just find tasty new ways to serve up squid, jellyfish, scorpions and cockroaches we might just be okay.
- Inuit elders talk about the many signs of a changing climate as U.S. scientists study the effects of global warming from their northernmost city of Barrow, Alaska.
Just plain interesting (coz we’re curious creatures):
- I love this story about dogs who ride trains. Animals always fascinate and inspire me.
- Eco-friendly glowing wallpaper to replace light bulbs? The ‘wallpaper’ emits the full colour range and can be connected to a dimmer. It’s said to be even more energy efficient than LEDs. I’m curious if there would be health implications from the chemicals used.
- Check out 33 of the world’s strangest buildings. It shows the great imagination of the human mind. It also makes one think of what we could achieve if all our energy and ingenuity were put towards constructive endeavours.
- A school in the U.S. is accused of using webcams in student laptops to spy on their activities at home.
- The National Wildlife Federation just announced winners of their 2009 photo competition.
Don’t forget to send me your links for next week’s linkfest!! – editor (at) permaculture.org.au
Hat Tip: Thanks to Rhamis, Sudeep and Mac for their contributions to this week’s linkfest!
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