Twenty-three years ago, almost no one outside The Ukraine had even heard of Chernobyl. On April 26, 1986 that changed. Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, killing two people ans causing the eventual evacuation and resettlement of 336,000 people.

Today a 30km Exclusion Zone exists around the site and within it, all residential, civil or business activities are legally prohibited. You’re probably thinking moonscape. Your wrong. The Exclusion Zone is teaming with wildlife.

Cosmos Magazine has this great article that talks about how the very reactor core itself is teaming with life: fungal life. These fungi aren’t just tolerating the severe radiation, researchers believe they are actually harnessing its energy to thrive.

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George Irwin builds green structures for a living, but his latest project aspires to rebuild lives. This summer, Irwin is donating a vertical urban farm for residents of Los Angeles’ graffiti-scarred Central City East.

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You’ve heard of The Pickens Plan. What about The Texas Plan?

Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state.

The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running.

Click Here to read more.

T Boone Pickens has a plan. It is bold. It is audacious. And since it is making people on both sides of the argument equally unhappy (for different reasons), it is probably right on the mark.

Watch the video. Visit the Site.

Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, also known as ‘Bicyclemark’, has created four podcasts about urban farming:

Vertical Farming and the New Agricultural Revolution

Urban Farming in Philadelphia

CityHarvest, Urban Farming in Bits and Pieces

Vancouver’s City Farmer in Your Backyard

Click Here to read the entire article at City Farmer News

Your Guide To Green and The Urban Farm are sponsoring the Billion Bag Bottle and Bulb Challenge to eliminate the use of one billion plastic single-use items and conventional light bulbs world-wide.

In this video, Greg Peterson talks about what this Challenge is and why it is so important:

Some of California’s aggressive pursuit of green living is beginning to pay off.

Pacific Gas and Electric CEO Peter Darbee made some interesting comments at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Energy Summit last Friday.

He said the state’s aggressive approach to slashing greenhouse-gas emissions will help shield it from significant utility price hikes that will soon grip the country.

“Rates in California will be going up much less than the rates across the entire United States,” said Darbee. “What we have learned from our discussions from other utility companies across the country is that they may be looking at between 20 and 30 per cent increases in energy bills in the future,” he said. Darbee believes California will only suffer rate hikes in the single digits.

PG&E attributes this bittersweet news for Californians partly to the company’s more diverse portfolio of plants across the state, including nuclear power, hydro power, solar and wind.

Your host, Greg Peterson, will be teaching a class about growing fruit trees in the desert.

Learn which fruit trees to plant, what grows well and what doesn’t in the desert, the single most important thing you need to know before you buy a fruit tree and more. He will cover apples, pears, stone, citrus, and specialty fruits. You will also be able to purchase fruit trees for delivery in January.

Fruit trees in the Desert with Greg Peterson
Date: Saturday, Aug 30 2008
Time: 8:30 to 10:30
Location:
Downtown Phoenix Public Market Meeting Rm
721 N. Central Ave
(SE Corner of Central Ave. & McKinley St.)
Phoenix, AZ 85004
(Map)
Requested Donation $10

Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Exec. News Dir.)

In one of the more idiotic abuses of our tax dollars to come out of Washington is the news that euthanasia is being considered as a method to “deal” with the growing wild horse population in the United States.

A combination of euthanizing the horses and ending roundups are two of the government’s more drastic policies being considered at this time by both the House and the Senate. Those in favor of the proposal state it is the only humane way to adequately cut down the wild hoofers who are beginning to outnumber their range and holding areas.

Hey, here’s first a question and then a thought: Why are the ranges for the wild horses creepingly getting smaller and smaller? How about OVERPOPULATION of the Human Species. I don’t see any legislation on tap to allow euthanasia to curb the out-of-control growth of that overeating, ever expanding herd of 2-leggers we call humanity.

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Scientists are now saying that this summer could be the first in recorded history that the Arctic Circle may have an unobstructed full waterway that can be traversed unimpeded by ice from one end to the other. This could also spark a rise in ocean levels for coastal regions across the Atlantic Basin.

Honeybees are vanishing at alarming rates across the United States and researchers are struggling to pinpoint the exact cause of the decline. So far it is estimated that at least 36 percent of the colonies have vanished which is double that of a normal winter die-off.

2000 square kilometers of Kenya’s Tana River Delta, inhabited by 350 species of birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles, is about to be converted to sugar cane production over the objections of conservationists and local communities.

Whalers and conservationists consider backing off a 22-year-old international hunting moratorium in order to curb unregulated whaling that’s in defiance of the ban.

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FarPoint Media (FPM) is proud to announce faster uploads and downloads! The expanded bandwidth should give FPM the kind of hosting power to cover each and every program, website and other services provided from the fast growing net media company including better response from iTunes and your other favorite podcatcher.

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Top NASA scientist James Hansen tried to warn the world, and in particular the U.S. Congress, over 20 years ago that the world was heading for disaster with global warming if something wasn’t done to curb the continued production of greenhouse gases. While many of the developed nations have done some things to slow down emissions, it hasn’t been enough and now with new nations like China and India bursting at the seams with growth and runaway use of unregulated fossil fuels, Hansen says time has nearly run out for the world.

Hansen told Congress just this week that the world has long passed the “dangerous level” for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels and it needs to do so now and drastically.

He said that if left unchecked at current projections, the Earth’s atmosphere will only be able to keep the world from experiencing mass extinctions, dramatic rises in sea levels causing loss of coastal land masses and complete ecosystem collapse for another two more decades.

“We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path,” Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. “This is the last chance.”

Sundance Channel invites consumers to share their inspired eco-solutions in the second annual national contest entitled “What’s The Big Idea?” presented by Lexus Hybrid Living. The contest, in which consumers submit a short film or photo essay demonstrating how they work green, play green, eat green or live green, helps to kick off season two of Sundance Channel’s original series “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” which launches on April 1 as part of The Green, Sundance Channel’s weekly destination focusing on environmental topics. The winner will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000 to help make their “Big Idea” a reality as well as a private green audit by “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” subject Current Energy. Four runners up will receive a Sundance Channel Green VIP Bag.

Current Energy provides energy-efficient solutions that are environmentally sensitive or advanced. Focusing on home and business systems as a whole, Current Energy saves customers money on products, services and utility bills. They are featured in “Big ideas for a Small Planet: Gadgets” airing on June 17th.

Contestants will submit their one-minute short film or photo essay featuring their “Big Idea” via http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen#/bigIdeasContest:overview between April 1 and May 20. Sundance Channel will select the top 25 entries to be viewed and voted on by users between May 27 and June 24. The five proposals to receive the most votes will be reviewed by a panel of environmental experts who will pick the winner. Pieces will be judged on creativity, overall theme, feasibility and presentation. The winner will be announced the week of July 7th.

The Green presents a lively mix of original series, documentary premieres and interstitial series about the earth’s ecology which provide viewers with ideas on how to work green, play green, eat green, dress green and live green. Its documentary presentations survey a broad scope of eco-related topics, from climate change and energy to design, fashion and architecture. “The GREEN” airs every Tuesday night at 9pm et/pt and is presented by Lexus Hybrid Living and Citi Smith Barney.

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Written by: Mike McCafferty (FarPoint Media Contributor)

There really is something now called “Earth Hour”, the point of which is to turn off your lights for one hour?

C’mon.

I remember that Earth Day thing. In fact, I did a musical waaay back in college about how we need to safe guard our resources and reduce consumption of…well, everything. We did 4 shows to half filled houses and did a great job of shaming everyone there for a good 90 minutes with song. Nothing like paying $15 to feel really bad about yourself!

And the result? Did we win? Anyone? Crying Indian? Captain Planet? McGruff?

Earth Hour feels like a retrenching by the environmentalists. People have grown weary of the Earth Day thing so it’s been recycled and reduced by 1/24th into something that people actually can accomplish and feel good about instead of the usual hydrogen powered guilt trip we all take on Earth Day. Earth hour is like those perky nutritionists on the ’Today’ show that tell you to order the steamed vegetables instead of the French fires to go with your fired chicken covered with mayo and hot fudge. They smile with their large heads on their tiny bodies and let you know that you’ve saved 300 calories while ignoring the fact that the main course and dessert was 65,000 calories. Turning off your lights is steamed vegetables, but Vegas is still that Chocolate Thunder Cake with double icing (note to self: eat food).

I actually tired the Earth hour thing tonight. Partly out of the distant echoes of self-righteous eco-musical numbers still lodged in my head but mostly because I thought it would be cool to walk around with candles for an hour for a ’Colonial Vibe’. Either way it was a half-assed experience.

For starters, we let Kiernan watch “The Backyardigans” on our 50″ DLP HDTV. I had fantasized about drawing him close and telling him stories around the fireplace like a modern day Daniel Boone or Mark Twain. Ran out of time on that one. Also the idea of letting him watch his show (Which is a pre-bath ritual and as any parent will tell you: don’t screw with the routine!) on a laptop under the misguided logic of at least it’s not drawing from the grid for the next hour, flew out the window. Nope, concession number one was the big bright TV telling tales to my son of anthropomorphic animals who pretended to live in medieval time (true dark ages) and sang non ecologically based songs.

Next, I turned off the computer monitor. Not the computer, mind you. Nor the modem. Or the printer, drawing power while idle. In fact all the DVD players, alarm clocks, TiVos, Phones and microwaves somehow eluded my keen, energy saving eye. Those that did not were saved by one simple thing: I didn’t want to set the time on them again.

Finally, after my son’s non-romantic candle lit bath, we hit our hardest snag. I had just finished my own Knights Tale (we have the episodic story of Tiberius, a knight of strength, virtue and occasional friends like the “Throw-up knight”) with Kiernan and he started to get upset. We leave the hall light on for him and tonight it wasn’t on (routine!). I told him we’d turn it back .. we had saved the Earth, but he was all about the here and now. Fearing a melt-down, we officially canceled the “Battle of Britain” bombing raid exercise and turned on the hall light. All clear, Earth doomed, better luck next year with the Earth Minute.

Later tonight as I settled in with my wife to do our part for HBO Hour, it hit me. Like my son, humanity is really all about the here and now. Because the threat is massive but ambiguous (“in the future, we’ll probably run out of fossil fuels and will eventually cause the Earth to heat by an indeterminate amount should all the current projections stay true”) we can’t grasp it and eventually just forget it. Our threat analysis is flawed and can only address a very provincial scope. We’re also a greedy, lazy self-absorbed animal that in the end will weigh the cost/benefit of helping others that are not in our circle of friends/family as a low priority.

So am I saying we should all just throw up our hands and give up? Doesn’t that mean the terrorists win, Mike (trademarked phrase)? What they hell kind of blog is this?

Here’s pretty much what I’m saying: buy the Prius if it makes you feel better, but that’s about the biggest impact it will have. Should we all try to conserve? Sure, why not. But in the long run, conservation won’t save us, science will have to. That’s where I’ve been going with this rapidly-declining-in-popularity blog.

I’m probably not an environmentalists, but I am a futurist. There is a constant race with science to ultimately fix the problems that science creates. It seems like a dog chasing it’s tail, but if you picture that dog chasing it’s tail up a spiral staircase (that I dub PROGRESS!), the analogy holds together a little better. We’re not smart enough to escape our basic programming of consuming resources until they are gone, but we’re smart enough to find smart people to find other resources.

This is not my Pollyanna future, but rather the darkest before the light scenario. We’ll continue to consume whatever we can, as much as we can until we run out and it starts to kill us. Conservation will slow it down, but ultimately really smart, well fed, well rested scientists are going to have to step in and make stuff that will allow us to keep living by preventing us from killing ourselves. Case in point: Cars kill people, scientists make airbags. Scientists are gonna have to make a big airbag for the Earth, cause we’re going too damn fast.

Will we make it in time? Maybe. Like I said, it’s always a race. In the 60’s People predicted widespread food shortages by the 1980’s. Luckily, some really smart scientists figured out how to crossbreed rice that would grow in various climates and resist insects and blight. Bullet == dodged, and millions of Thai children were able to eat, grow up and make us cheap foam globes with the words “Earth Hour” inscribed on them with lead paint.

There’s also a good chance that our children’s children may have to suffer for a while before we right the ship. I hope not. Maybe Earth Hour does have one true benefit: it can fulfill the old saying of “lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness”. Maybe there’s hope that if we put our resources into the scientist and then actually LISTEN to them occasionally, their illumination will show us a less bumpy path.

And no matter what our future holds, we can be glad for one thing: that none of you will ever have to see that crappy musical I did. That, friends, was the true darkness.

FarPoint Media is happy to announce the launching of its YouTube FarPoint Media Video Channel. The channel will highlight video entries and features from several of its groundbreaking podcast shows and websites.

The irreverent Wingin’ It 3D blasted off with its first video last week pondering the many facets of preparing and eating chocolate covered cuttlefish.

Also seeing its premiere was the new weekly show “Slice of SciFi Video Headline News” with your news anchors Michael R. Mennenga and Brian Brown showcasing just some of the hundreds of top news stories featured on the Slice of SciFi website each week.

About FarPoint Media
FarPoint Media (FPM) is a family of independent programmers who retain their creative freedom and content rights. FPM shows cover diverse interests and hot topics that bring together the old staples of radio and television into the new technologies of downloadable media.

A leader in producing and distribution of quality radio, podcast and video entertainment, FarPoint Media has scifi media and genre literature shows featuring news and interviews with the actors, producers and writers creating your favorite TV programs and books, and has discussion shows that true fan geeks can immerse themselves in.

FPM also showcases quality audio dramas to fire the imagination of its listeners, specialized sports news and information shows that take the enthusiasts beyond the box scores, comedy and variety shows that will have fans laughing out loud, and shows with experienced advice that can help improve listeners and viewers tech skills, or sharpen their writing skills.

FarPoint Media is online entertainment. See what The Indie Podcast/Vidcast Network has to offer you.

Enjoy a day of powerful presentations designed to educate and promote green living practices and environmental insights for the way we work, play and live on May 3, 2008 at the Phoenix, AZ Zoo Stonehouse Pavilion (9AM to 5PM local time). Top experts in various dimensions of “Green Living” headline this unique conference.

• 6 Extraordinary Speakes
• Book Signings with Authors
• Delicious Lunch Included
• Raffle for Great Green Prizes
• Eco-Friendly Vendors
• Green Living Resources

The conference will feature dynamic presentations from renowned speakers: Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden (over 35,000 copies sold), Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (and will have his newly released Volume 2 available), Greg Peterson from Your Guide to Green and the Urban Farm, as well as many more top-level experts within the fields of GREEN Living!

Join us for this incredible opportunity to come together and learn, connect, network, support local green businesses, share knowledge, and to be inspired to co-create a more sustainable environment for our future.

You must pre-register. Cost is $44 per person (before April 1st) $55 after that, which includes all conference sessions, and a fabulous lunch!

Visit http://www.GreenLivingConference.com to register and for more information!

The second season of Sundance Channel’s groundbreaking “The Green” series will be starting April 1st and will kick off with a pre-season advance New York screening of some of the brand new episodes. Please visit http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen to see what it’s all about and simple tips for how everyone can painlessly “go green.”

“The Green” is television’s first regularly-scheduled programming destination dedicated entirely to the environment. Presented by Robert Redford, the destination is hosted by award-winning journalist Simran Sethi and community advocate and MacArthur Fellow Majora Carter, two dynamic leaders who have distinguished themselves with revolutionary ideas in such areas as civic planning and global business practices.

In two stories published on Monday the BBC shows that concern about the downsides of biofuels is growing.

The first brings new that the EU is rethinking it’s policy aim to get 10% of road fuels from plants. After reports warning of rising food prices, and rain forest destruction, because of crops grown for biofuels, the EU now promises new guidelines to ensure no damage is done while reaching its targets.

And – as if to confirm the EU’s decision – a new report from the British Royal Society warns that biofuels may create environmental damage unless produced with care. The report says efficient, environmentally friendly production should be encouraged, and warns of the dangers unbridled production could pose to ecosystems and biological diversity.

Sources:
BBC: EU rethinks biofuels guidelines
BBC: Biofuels ‘are not a magic bullet’

WWF Press Release

London, January 13: WWF and the government of Abu Dhabi today launched a Sustainability Strategy to deliver the world’s greenest city – Masdar City.

Masdar City will be the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city. Through the “One Planet Living™” programme, a global initiative launched by WWF and environmental consultancy BioRegional, WWF will work with Masdar to ensure the city meets standards of sustainability which include specific targets for the city’s ecological footprint.

Masdar City plans to exceed the criteria of the programme, making it a global benchmark for sustainable urban development, based around One Planet Living’s 10 unique principles of sustainability.

The electricity for the six square kilometre city will be generated by photovoltaic panels, while cooling will be provided via concentrated solar power. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant. Landscaping within the city and crops grown outside the city will be irrigated with grey water and treated waste water produced by the city’s water treatment plant. Ground breaks for the construction of the city in early 2008.

The city is part of the Masdar Initiative, Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted investment in the exploration, development and commercialisation of future energy sources and clean technology solutions. A model of the Masdar City will be unveiled on January 21, at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, Director of WWF International’s One Planet Living initiative, said, ”Today Abu Dhabi is embarking on a journey to become the global capital of the renewable energy revolution. Abu Dhabi is the first hydrocarbon-producing nation to have taken such a significant step towards sustainable living.

“Masdar is an example of the paradigm shift that is needed and the strategic vision of the Abu Dhabi government is a case study in global leadership. We hope that Masdar City will prove that sustainable living can be affordable and attractive in all aspects of human living – from businesses and manufacturing facilities to universities and private homes.”

Dr. Sultan al Jaber, CEO of the Masdar Initiative, said, “Masdar City will question conventional patterns of urban development, and set new benchmarks for sustainability and environmentally friendly design – the students, faculty and businesses located in Masdar City will not only be able to witness innovation first-hand, but they will also participate in its development.”

“We are pleased to be able to work with One Planet Living to make our vision a reality,” he said.

Pooran Desai OBE, co-founder of BioRegional and Technical Director of the One
Planet Living Communities programme, said Masdar would be the largest and one of the most advanced sustainable communities in the world.

“The vision of One Planet Living is a world where people everywhere can lead happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the Earth’s resources. Masdar gives us a breathtaking insight into this positive, alternative future.

“In realising the goal of a sustainable future, Masdar is committed to achieving the One Planet Living Program’s Ten Guiding Principles, covering issues that range from how waste is dealt with to the energy performance of the buildings.”

The One Planet Living programme is based on 10 unique principles of sustainability. Masdar City will meet and exceed each of these, as detailed below.

These targets are to be achieved by the time the Masdar City is completed and fully functioning in 2012.

As the concerns about the polycarbonate bottles mount we have been looking at what we as a company will do. Articles like the one below have fired concerns about what is really happening to our health as we consume liquids from all plastic bottles. I personally believe in what one of my professors in grad school taught – Prudent Avoidance. If there is some question about the safety of something like a plastic bottle…don’t use it. There are plenty of solutions in the stainless steel realm and you can also reuse a glass bottle.

“Worries about hormone-mimicking BPA used in sports bottles led a major Canadian retailer to remove Nalgene and other polycarbonate plastic containers from store shelves in early December. BPA—or bisphenol A—mimics the effects of estrogen in cells and some researchers and environmentalists revealed it can be toxic and cause several types of cancer (breast and prostate) as well as developmental, neural, behavioral, and reproductive harm (miscarriages and other reproductive failures), and obesity and hyperactivity in animals. Fred vom Saal, professor of biology at the University of Missouri and one of the study’s chief authors said the panel reviewed 700 published articles on BPA, practically all published in the last 10 years, yet US health and environmental regulators “are pretending they’re still in the dark.””

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