New Tainter Essay

"Joseph Tainter, a Professor in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University, and author of the seminal work "The Collapse of Complex Societies", recently gave a speech on complexity and resource use at the 94th Annual Meeting of Ecological Society of America in New Mexico: (Conference theme: Human Macroecology: Understanding Human-Environment Interactions Across Scales). The speech, 'Human Resource Use: Timing and Implications for Sustainability', based on a forthcoming paper, is reprinted below with the authors permission...."
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5745

Really Green Architecture

"TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong researches "metabolic materials" -- construction materials that possess some of the properties of living systems, and can be manipulated to "grow" architecture."

http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_armstrong_architecture_that_repairs_itself.html 

Pew Center poll report on public perception of climate change

Another report by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press giving us a glimpse inside Short Attention Span Theatre.
http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/556.pdf

Whole Earth Catalog/Review/CoEvolution Quarterly

We old timers fondly remember the Whole Earth Catalogs, and the Whole Earth Review, and the CoEvolution Quarterly.
If you are working in some area of "sustainability", chances are that you can find something on it in one of these books & quarterly journals.
Well,  some folks are building an electronic archive of all three publications.
Discover the conceptual relationships between people  raising Tilapia in indoor tanks used for passive solar heating, using the fish waste for indoor gardens, while also working on space settlement design studies; and many other gems...
Have fun!
http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php

Climate Central

Climate Central is a developing website with high quality videos and other resources on climate change science and related matters.
http://www.climatecentral.org/

Amory Lovins on Stewart Brand's views on nuclear power

Amazon told me today that my copy of Stewart Brand's new book is on its way to me. So, do not know myself yet. But here via Gist, is Amory Lovin's critique of the Brand's chapter on nuclear power.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-10-13-stewart-brands-nuclear-enthusiasm-falls-short-on-facts-and-logic/

Step by Natural Step

The Natural Step U.S.'s new TNS primer (free download)
http://www.naturalstepusa.org/storage/case-studies/Primer_USEdition_print_072009.pdf

WICCI 09/21/2009 Workshop

September 21, 2009 WICCI (Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change) Impact Working Group Workshop, DeForest, WI

These materials may be useful to educators working with local governments, businesses, or farmers.
- Recent Climate Change Across Wisconsin presented by Chris Kucharik: digital video recording and slide presentation
Slide in PDF: http://wicci.wisc.edu/resources/wicci_recent_clim_change_wisc_2009_09_21.pdf  
Video of presentation: http://media2.wi.gov/DNR/Viewer/?peid=56eb1c5c-4026-45c7-a0a0-f0a86ec5ed3e
- Future Projections presented by Dan Vimont:
digital video recording http://media2.wi.gov/DNR/Viewer/?peid=161ba521-37b3-4bc0-afe7-9f7a6402fe0a
slide presentation http://wicci.wisc.edu/resources/wicci_clim_impact_assessment_2009_09_21.pdf
- Strategic Vision, Adaptive Assessment Report, and Working Group Products presented by Jack Sullivan and Dick Lathrop:
digital video recording http://media2.wi.gov/DNR/Viewer/?peid=17a008ed-0ac8-4205-acd0-9e9e03e7ed6a  
- Social Science and Climate Change presented by Sharon Dunwoody:
digital video recording http://media2.wi.gov/DNR/Viewer/?peid=0388c74a-23ca-473e-9202-63a17e8dd504  

Rapid Deployment Energy Efficiency Toolkit

From the EPA: "The Rapid Deployment Energy Efficiency (RDEE) Toolkit provides detailed program design and implementation guides for 10 broadly applicable energy efficiency programs. The RDEE Toolkit helps all entities choose successful programs as they advance energy efficiency program funding opportunities through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Toolkit focuses on programs that have extensive, proven field experience, along with documentation on program design, program cost, and results. If implemented as directed, these programs should produce clear, measurable, and predictable energy savings and jobs."

http://epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/ee_toolkit.html

Raising awareness: the first step to managing climate change in the supply chain

From the folks at CDP.
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/WhatWeDo/Pages/Industry-view-points-first-step-to-managing-climate-change-in-the-supply-chain.aspx

Some more CDP links

CDP glossary
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Respond/Pages/Glossary.aspx


CDP Questionaires
https://cdproject.net/en-US/Programmes/Pages/More-questionnaires.aspx


CDP 2009 Response Guidance
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Respond/Documents/CDP2009-Guidance_March09.pdf



Searching/viewing Company responses to CDP
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Results/Pages/overview.aspx

Of interest to the public sector:
CDP Cities pilot project report:
https://www.cdproject.net/CDPResults/65_329_216_CDP-CitiesReport.pdf

CDP Public Procurement Program
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Programmes/Pages/CDP-Public-Procurement.aspx

Smaller Businesses
Carbon Disclosure Project CDP 2009 Small & Medium-sized Enterprises Information Request (2009 Questionnaire)
https://www.cdproject.net/CDP%20Questionaire%20Documents/SME_Questionnaire.pdf 

CDP Public Procurement

The Carbon Disclosure Project now has a public Procurement section for governments.
https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/Respond/Pages/CDP-Public-Procurement.aspx

A Friday post for the climate science aficionado

Click Above for a piece on the cosmic rays and climate change argument.