Environmental migrants: The last illusion: Alessandro Grassani at TEDx Berlin

TEDxTalks

Published on Dec 22, 2013

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Noam Chomsky on “Corporate State-Capitalism” (NEW!!)

E120, e145

BOYCOTT ISRAEL! U.S. Academic Body Bans Collaborations With Israel

E120,

BBC News – Nasa astronauts carry out spacewalk to repair pump

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25477541
21 December 2013 Last updated at 14:02 ET

The two American astronauts on the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks

Related Stories

• Nasa orders emergency ISS repairs
• Problem hits ISS cooling system
• Soyuz sends new astronauts to ISS Watch

Astronauts at the International Space Station have completed the first of a series of spacewalks to carry out urgent repairs.

The two Americans on the crew went outside the station and removed a pump containing a faulty valve.

It is the first of three possible spacewalks needed to mend the station’s critical cooling system.

Half of the system automatically shut down last week after detecting abnormal temperatures.

Nasa said the situation was potentially serious but not life-threatening.

The six-man crew had to turn off all non-essential equipment because of the malfunction.

Faulty pump

The two astronauts, Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, began their spacewalk – 418km (260 miles) above the Earth’s surface – at about 12:00 GMT and were outside the space station for nearly six hours.

….(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

BBC News – ‘Massive’ reservoir of melt water found under Greenland ice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25463647
22 December 2013 Last updated at 13:07 ET
By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

Related Stories

• Cryosat follows winter ice decline Watch
• 2013 ‘one of warmest’ on record
• Arctic sea ice reaches seasonal low

Researchers say they have discovered a large reservoir of melt water that sits under the Greenland ice sheet all year round.

The scientists say the water is stored in the air space between particles of ice, similar to the way that fruit juice stays liquid in a slush drink.

The aquifer, which covers an area the size of Ireland, could yield important clues to sea level rise.

The research is published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet has been a significant contributor to a rise in sea levels over the past 100 years.

“The water is stored in the air space between the ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone”

Prof Rick Forster University of Utah

According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the ice sheet lost 34 billion tonnes of ice per year between 1992 and 2001 – but this increased to 215 billion tonnes between 2002 and 2011

Scientists still have many unanswered questions about the direction and speed and ultimate destination of this melted water.

Ice free liquid

This new research finds that a significant amount is stored in partially compacted snow called firn.

In the spring of 2011, researchers drilled deep into this slushy layer and to their surprise, found liquid water flowing back to the surface even though air temperatures were -15 degrees C.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

BBC News – Storm rushing towards UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25488198#threeG

2 hours ago

A rapidly-developing weather system is rushing across the Atlantic towards the UK under the influence of an upper-level jet stream of more than 280mph, according to weather forecaster Peter Gibbs.

He warned of strong winds and heavy rain in the UK in the run-up to Christmas, with snow in Scotland.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

The NSA’s PR Offensive, The State of Hyperlocal Reporting, and More – On The Media

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/on-the-media-2013-12-20/

The NSA’s PR offensive, a White House task force recommends reforms to the NSA’s data collection behavior, and hyperlocal reporting suffers as AOL’s Patch scales back.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Media

Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

TED

Published on Mar 1, 2013

Don’t make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer. Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

How Do You Get People To Pay For Music? : NPR

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/05/181868750/how-do-you-get-people-to-pay-for-music

Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode .

Web Extra

Amanda Palmer on crafting her TEDTalk

About Amanda Palmer’s TEDTalk

Don’t make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer, she examines the new relationship between artist and fan. Palmer believes we shouldn’t fight the fact that digital content is freely shareable — and suggests that artists who give away their music for free can and should be directly supported by fans.

Musician Amanda Palmer says she learned about trust and giving when she was a street performer.

James Duncan Davidson/TED

About Amanda Palmer

Alt-rock icon believes we shouldn’t fight the fact that digital content is freely shareable — and suggests that artists can and should be directly supported by fans. Known for pushing boundaries in both her art and her lifestyle, Palmer made international headlines when she raised nearly $1.2 million via Kickstarter (she’d asked for $100,000) from nearly 25,000 fans who pre-ordered her album, Theatre Is Evil.

But the former street performer, then Dresden Dolls frontwoman, now solo artist hit a bump the week her world tour kicked off. She revealed plans to crowdsource additional local backup musicians in each tour stop, offering to pay them in hugs, merchandise and beer per her custom. Bitter and angry criticism ensued — she eventually promised to pay her local collaborators in cash. Summing up her business model, in which she views her recorded music as the digital equivalent of street performing, she says: “I firmly believe in music being as free as possible. Unlocked. Shared and spread. In order for artists to survive and create, their audiences need to step up and directly support them.”

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

James Howard Kunstler: It’s Too Late for Solutions

ChrisMartensondotcom

Published on Jul 14, 2012

Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has been one of the earliest, most direct, and most articulate voices to warn of the consequences — economic and otherwise — of modern society’s profligate wasting of the resources that underlie its growth.

In his new book Too Much Magic, Jim attacks the wishful thinking dominant today that with a little more growth, a little more energy, a little more technology — a little more magic — we’ll somehow sail past our current tribulations without having to change our behavior.

Such self-delusion is particularly dangerous because it is preventing us from taking intelligent, constructive action at the national level when the clock is fast ticking out of our favor. In fact, Jim claims we are past the state where solutions are possible – instead, we need a response plan to help us best brace for the impact of the coming consequences. And we need it fast.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV