Dramatic Fertility Decline in Muslim World
Updated: 2012-07-31 06:01:02
The Muslim world is catching up to the West in terms of fertility rates. Read more...
UPDATE: Without Carbon Controls, We Face Many More Dust Bowls; 2002-2004 Western Drought Was Worst In 800 Years
Updated: 2012-07-30 22:03:38
Last week, the NY Times online asked me to contribute to their “Room for Debate.” The questions were “Is the current drought raising the possibility of another Dust Bowl? If so, what can we do to prevent it?” My response is below, followed by a terrific new video by Peter Sinclair on “2012 Drought Update.” [...]5 Great Pedestrian Malls Demonstrating Car-Free Urban Possibilities
Updated: 2012-07-30 17:33:21
Pedestrian malls are all great places to spend time exploring great car-free retail, dining, and entertainment. Homes With Swimming Pools Use 49% More Elctricty Than Homes Without. But Is The Pool Really To Blame?
Updated: 2012-07-30 17:25:45
There are 5.4 million in-ground residential swimming pools in the Unites States, and, according to Opower, the homes with those pools use 49% more electricity each year than homes without. The increase in energy use amounts to about $500 per home per year. Pools themselves are extremely energy intensive to maintain, they collectively use between [...]Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling
Updated: 2012-07-30 14:54:06Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling See: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/rise-in-weather-extremes-threatens-infrastructure.html?_r=2 WASHINGTON – From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms. On a single day this month here, a US Airways [...]Storms Threaten Ozone Layer Over U.S., Study Says
Updated: 2012-07-30 14:53:24Storms Threaten Ozone Layer Over U.S., Study Says See: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/science/earth/strong-storms-threaten-ozone-layer-over-us-study-says.html?_r=1&hp By HENRY FOUNTAIN Published: July 26, 2012 Strong summer thunderstorms that pump water high into the upper atmosphere pose a threat to the protective ozone layer over the United States, researchers said on Thursday, drawing one of the first links between climate change and ozone [...]Singapore Wrestles: Growth vs. Finiteness
Updated: 2012-07-30 14:53:09If you refer to the CIA Factbook on Singapore, you will find that “Singapore has a highly developed and successful free-market economy. It enjoys a remarkably open and corruption-free environment, stable prices, and a per capita GDP higher than that of most developed countries.” Singapore was also the site of a focused family planning program [...]New Population Theatre Production Sells Out at London’s Royal Court
Updated: 2012-07-30 14:46:01Stephen Emmott is a professor of computing at Oxford University and head of Microsoft’s Computational Science Laboratory in Cambridge. He also appears to have sold out the The Royal Court Theatre (Britain’s leading national company) for three weeks, with his theatrical production Ten Billion, a co-operation between himself and distinguished director Katie Mitchell, whose past [...]Malady of numbers
Updated: 2012-07-30 00:30:29
Another interesting and provocative post from my (now ex-) PhD student, Dr. Salvador Herrando-Pérez. After reading this post, you might be surprised to know that Salva was one of my more quantitative students, and although he struggled to keep up with the maths at times, he eventually become quite an efficient ecological modeller (see for [...]Chevron’s Second Quarter Profits Top $7 Billion
Updated: 2012-07-27 18:20:59
by Noreen Nielsen and Jackie Weidman Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States and eighth largest in the world, announced earning $7.2 billion in profits in the second-quarter of 2012, bring their total profits for the first six months of this year to $13.7 billion. The slight drop in profits is being [...]Lunar Solar Power: Pipe Dream or Salvation in a Beam?
Updated: 2012-07-27 15:33:50
Physicist David Criswell, director of the Institute for Space Systems Operations at the University of Houston, has spent the last four decades evangelizing for a novel energy solution: solar power from the moon. What’s Sex Got to Do with It? Inconvenient Truths About Educating Girls
Updated: 2012-07-27 14:34:19Kavita N. Ramdas is Executive Director of Ripples to Waves: A Program on Social Entrepreneurship and Development at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. She also provides leadership and direction for the largest grant-making foundation in the world focused exclusively on supporting international women’s human rights, The Global Fund for Women, where she [...]July 27 News: Apple May Power New Reno Data Center Entirely With Clean Energy
Updated: 2012-07-27 14:17:11
Apple is producing enough clean power, through solar panels and fuel cells, at its data center in North Carolina that it says it can cover 60 percent of the total energy needs of the data center. Will the tech giant be doing the same thing at its new planned $1 billion data center just outside [...]Victoria, Australia’s Generous Feed-in Tariffs Under the Microscope
Updated: 2012-07-26 15:43:24
The amount of money Victorian solar panel owners get paid for selling their excess electricity back to their energy retailer could be slashed if a draft report by the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC) is any indication.Video: “No Joke. Choice Matters. Everywhere.”
Updated: 2012-07-26 14:16:05
The following video, 3-minutes long, was recently produced by Pathfinder International. Pathfinder notes that while the video may be funny, the reality is not: women around the world face barriers to reproductive health care every single day. In some countries, women need their husband’s consent to get birth control, can’t count on their health care [...]Africa: Leaders Renew Their Commitment to Family Planning
Updated: 2012-07-26 14:10:33In the article below, Sharon Camp, PhD. President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, and Babatunde Osotimehin, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, team up to write an overview of the state of family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. See: http://allafrica.com/stories/201207260193.html Africa: Leaders Renew Their Commitment to Family Planning On [...]Russia: Sick and Dying (Reboot)
Updated: 2012-07-26 05:43:47
A response to responses to our last post. Read more...Threats to biodiversity insurance from protected areas
Updated: 2012-07-25 18:00:10
Much of conservation science boils down to good decision making: when, where and how we ‘set aside’ terrestrial or marine areas for specific protection against the ravages of human endeavour. This is the basis for the entire sub-discipline of conservation planning and prioritisation, and features prominantly in most aspects of applied conservation and restoration. In [...]Seven Ways To Reduce Food Waste at Home
Updated: 2012-07-25 17:57:33
We’ve all heard the idiom "waste not, want not" before, but in today’s fast-paced world following this sound advice can be difficult. Here’s seven easy ways to reduce your food waste and help deal with extra food in the kitchen.Population Reference Bureau Releases 2012 World Data Sheet
Updated: 2012-07-25 15:13:31The Population Reference Bureau recently released its 2012 World Population Data Sheet. PRB’s 2012 effort is the 50th edition of this important annual stat sheet. PRB has calculated that the annual natural increase for 2012 will be 84.3 million, the result of 140 million births (4.45 per second) and 56 million deaths (1.78 per second). [...]World in Serious Trouble on Food Front
Updated: 2012-07-24 21:28:49
The world was hoping for a good U.S. harvest to replenish dangerously low grain stocks; this is no longer in the cards because of this Summer's extreme weather. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious. Food prices, already elevated, will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs.Sustainable Fashion Designer Tara St. James Shares Inspiration for Fall Collection, Green Closet and Much More
Updated: 2012-07-24 17:25:43
Award-winning designer, upcycling jewelry mastermind and the founder of a school and consultancy for aspiring sustainable designers are only a few of the accomplishments listed on Tara St. James’ fashion résumé. The Montreal-native shared with me her inspiration for the Fall collection, goals for partnering with Ecover’s Green Closet, and how fans and fashionistas can follow her next big move!Dick Smith vs. Rupurt Murdoch’s NewsCorp: Perpetual Growth & Free Speech
Updated: 2012-07-24 14:30:10Dick Smith, once recognized as “Australian of The Year”, and an ongoing advocate for stabilizing populations in both Australia and the rest of the world, has recently taken on Kim Williams, CEO and Managing Director of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp operation. In the letter below, Dick challenges NewsCorp to distribute “Dick Smith’s Magazine of Forbidden [...]Sometimes, Buying Green is the Best Option [Infographic]
Updated: 2012-07-23 19:04:07
Lots of expensive green products out there of questionable value. But a number of household products have had time to prove their worth, saving you money while also conserving resources.Los Angeles Times Issues Major Investigative Report on Population
Updated: 2012-07-23 15:03:14Ken Weiss, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and editor for the L.A. Times, emailed PMC yesterday to announce a major special feature report, which is the result his travels with staff photographer Rick Loomis. The two men traveled across Africa and Asia to document the causes and consequences of rapid population growth. They visited Kenya, [...]Russia: Sick and Dying
Updated: 2012-07-23 05:50:36More bad news about Russia's population. Read more...Biodiversity conservation and behaviour change
Updated: 2012-07-23 00:45:36
I have been asked by Diogo Veríssimo, a PhD student at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) based at the University of Kent, to post a call for papers for a special issue of Conservation Evidence (details below). I’ve bumped into Diogo at a few conferences, and learnt a few weeks ago that he won [...]Unemployment causes demographic shifts in Europe
Updated: 2012-07-22 02:22:30
Youth unemployment in Europe is causing significant demographic shifts as well-qualified, university educated young people look overseas for work. In particular, large numbers of Spanish and Portuguese youth are finding better opportunities abroad, with former colonies being among the more popular destinations. Read more...Green Closet: Sustainable Fashion is a Lifestyle
Updated: 2012-07-20 14:47:41Eco-chic fashionistas of Ecover’s Green Closet know buying sustainably-made clothing is only a small part of greening up your wardrobe and lowering your carbon footprint. It’s equally important to use low environment impact, all-natural cleaning products and methods to care for your favorite looks.The Solar Oven: the Best Clean Cookstove for the Developing World?
Updated: 2012-07-19 15:33:50
For regions of the world that receive ample sunlight, the solar oven provides a cookstove alternative that doesn't make people sick, or require them to spend hours gathering wood.UK Census 2011
Updated: 2012-07-19 08:45:58
The results of the UK census 2011 are out. Read more...Experiments in carbon-biodiversity trade-offs
Updated: 2012-07-19 02:02:44
Last month I covered a topic that is not only becoming the latest fashion-trend in conservation, it is also where much of the research funding is going. Whether or not this is the best use of limited research resources is largely irrelevant – as I always preach to fledgling grant writers: “Write about what the [...]New Prius helps environment, says The Onion
Updated: 2012-07-16 02:21:14Um, well this video is The Onion's take on green-friendly technology. Why do we need people anyway? Don't they just pollute too much? Spoiler: only for people who enjoy tasteless humour. Read more...Empty seas coming to a shore near you
Updated: 2012-07-12 12:15:14
Last week I had the pleasure of entertaining some old friends and colleagues for a writing workshop in Adelaide (don’t worry – they all came from southern Australia locations, so no massive carbon footprints for overseas travel). I’m happy to report it was a productive (and epicurean) week, but that’s not really the point of [...]Is There Anything I Can Do To Keep My Koi Safe From The Heat? | Decorative Ponds & Water Gardens Q & A
Updated: 2012-07-07 04:23:11
Baby, it certainly is hot outside! As the temperatures rise, you might think the coolest place to be is in the pond with your fish. Surprisingly, however, pond fish can feel the heat, too. The warm water feels “stuffy” to them because it contains less oxygen than cooler water. Check out these four tips for keeping your koi and goldfish cool as finned cucumbers.Ghost extinctions
Updated: 2012-07-05 01:11:11
Jared Diamond (1) coined the expression ‘evil quartet’ for the four main human causes of species extinctions: habitat loss/fragmentation, overkill, introduced species and extinction chains [with climate change and extinction synergies (2), the updated expression would be ‘evil sextet”]. However, one third of ‘extinct’ mammal species has been ‘found’ again. Recent studies reveal that the [...]