> Seattle's plan to warm up the city comes from wanting to recycle waste heat from nearby data centers to provide sustainable heat and hot water to buildings. iThe Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment developing a plan to reuse waste heat from nearby data centers and other sources to power a so-called “district heating” system that would deliver sustainable hot water and heat to buildings in the city’s South Lake Union and Denny Triangle neighborhoods.
> The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska and about 400 miles south of the Bering Strait that separates the state from Russia, are living a slow-motion disaster that will end, very possibly within the next five years, with the entire village being washed away. The Ninglick River coils around Newtok on three sides before emptying into the Bering Sea. It has steadily been eating away at the land, carrying off 100ft or more some years, in a process moving at unusual speed because of climate change. Eventually all of the villagers will have to leave, becoming America's first climate change refugees. A federal government report found more than 180 other native Alaskan villages – or 86% of all native communities – were at risk because of climate change. In the case of Newtok, those effects were potentially life threatening.
> On Monday, the Energy Information Administration released a report showing that the carbon dioxide pollution we emit as we use energy dropped 3.8 percent in 2012. These emissions dropped from a high of 6,023 million metric tons in 2007 through a gradual drop to 5,280 million metric tons in 2012. 2011′s levels were at 5,498 million metric tons, meaning last year the country pumped out 218 million fewer metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Though U.S. CO2 emissions in 2012 amounted to 368,000 pounds of pollution per second, this is the lowest level since 1994
> Solar projects 'more mainstream' as costs fall. "You don't see many solar dedications now, and it's for a good reason: It's because solar is becoming more mainstream," said Thomas Leyden, CEO of Philadelphia-based Solar Grid Storage, which worked on the Laurel project. "It's run of the mill now."
> Bike sharing is just one part of a broader movement towards alternative forms of transport in increasingly crowded cities, but it could be an important one. As last year’s United States Conference of Mayors concluded: "communities that have invested in pedestrian and bicycle projects have benefited from improved quality of life, healthier population, greater local real-estate values, more local travel choices, and reduced air pollution." Time for more of the world to go Dutch.
> Remaking the San Fernando Valley: Pedestrian-friendly, community-oriented projects underway. Borrowing from the “centers concept” developed by former Planning Director Calvin Hamilton in the 1970s, the latest plans for the CSUN (California State University at Northridge) University Village focus on creating town centers in each community — areas that will be pedestrian friendly and serve as a meeting place for residents.
> When state officials flipped the switch on a 12.5-megawatt solar array at the Indianapolis International Airport on Oct. 18, it became the largest operating airport solar farm in the country.The project has been generating press for the airport and the city for more than a year and is now finally generating electricity.The 44,000 solar panels are expected to produce enough energy to power 1,800 average homes.
> Whether fish is farmed or caught free, the process of getting delicious seafood onto the plates of consumers is rife with problems. Open sea fishing has severely depleted wild fish stocks, and as a result, roughly half of the seafood sold in the United States is farm raised, rather than caught in the open waters, according to NPR. But like most commercial agriculture, the aquaculture (fish farming) industry struggles with problems of inefficiency and environmental impact.
The practice of confining thousands of fish to relatively small pens makes it necessary to use pesticides and antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease. Since aquaculture facilities are usually located in the ocean, discharges of fish waste, cage materials, and pesticide chemicals can damage surrounding ecosystems and threaten wild fish populations. Escapement is also a problem, as escaped fish from these facilities compete with native populations for food. Learn more from Dan Barber's How I fell in love with a fish TED Talk.
Farm fishing and the effects on our ecosystems.