Posts Tagged ‘ sustainability ’

The Gravity Light (creative responses)

January 11, 2013
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From the category “creative responses to environmental challenges“: The Gravity Light. GravityLight is a revolutionary new approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which powers GravityLight, creating 30 minutes of light on its descent. For free. The makers of the Gravity Light started the project searching for options on how to bring affordable and sustainable energy and light source for places outside the power grid. They experimented with more conventional approaches utilizing solar technologies, but they ultimately came up with this quite ingenious invention:  

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The off-the-grid, do-it-yourself smart-home (creative responses)

October 11, 2012
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From the category “Creative responses to environmental challenges“: The off-the-grid, do-it-yourself smart-home. Challenging numerous conventions about housing, C++ pioneer Loren Amelang designed his off-grid house just the way he wanted. It is filled with innovative solutions to the energy problems associated with traditional houses and nicely balances comfort with sustainability and efficiency. His smart home also challenges the illusion that modern technology and sustainability are mutually exclusive.

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Can there be “good” corporations? (by Marjorie Kelly)

April 22, 2012
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When companies are owned by workers and the community—instead of Wall Street financiers—everything changes. Our economic system is profoundly broken. To anyone paying attention, that much is clear. But what’s less clear is this: Our approach to fixing the economy is broken as well. The whole notion of “fighting corporate power” arises from an underlying belief that there is no alternative to capitalism as we know it. Starting from the insight that capitalism has become virtually a universal economy, we conclude that our best hope is to regulate corporations and work for countervailing powers like unions. But then we’ve lost…

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Even the IMF is now questioning capitalism

January 9, 2012
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Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the IMF recently published two interesting articles on Project Syndicate: Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable? and Rethinking the Growth Imperative. The articles, which are worth reading in full, are not at all what one would expect from a former chief economist at the IMF. Here are a few excerpts: From Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?: It is ironic that modern capitalist societies engage in public campaigns to urge individuals to be more attentive to their health, while fostering an economic ecosystem that seduces many consumers into an extremely…

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Video: A Farm for the Future

August 9, 2011
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The BBC describes the documentary A Farm for the Future as follows: Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just…

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