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Sureerut Taechusakul (Ning) is a community leader from Thailand’s Prachuap Khiri Khan (PKK) Province. Ning has been spearheading the fight against dirty coal plants in Thailand and is in Bali with a Greenpeace team, to be a thorn in the side of a huge gathering of the coal industry, the people responsible for fuelling climate change.

[photo: Ning in middle, in green © Greenpeace]

Bali plays a critical role this year as it hosts the most important climate negotiating process for Asian countries, the next stage of the Kyoto Treaty negotiations in December. Ironically Bali is also playing host to another gathering this time of the people responsible for fuelling climate change – Coal Trans 2007.

Ning has been campaigning against coal and for cleaner safer energy options for her country for years and led a successful campaign against two large-scale coal plants in PKK. Recently, however, the government has revived its plans to build a coal plant and Ning is again leading the community struggle against it. Theirs is a story of persistence, and relentless dedication to the campaign for a cleaner safer energy future even if they face great risks.

Continue reading Climate killers’ conference…

by Adrian Muller Trends come and go, and the media’s attention lasts only so long, which means that if, down the road, a new idea pushes sustainability out of the cultural spotlight, we’ll need to have established systemic mechanisms that guarantee continued popular commitment to sustainable lifestyles. One way to keep the transformation moving independent of the tides of trend is through incentives. Creative Economist, Steven Levitt, states that an incentive is simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less of a bad thing, and that the world has not yet invented a situation that cannot be forced given the right incentive scheme. Philadelphia-based company RecycleBank has come up with an innovative recycling incentive that rewards households for the amount of recyclables they collect each week. Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded in bins, garbage trucks scan and weight the bins, automatically recording each household’s contribution. This amount is translated into RecycleBank Dollars that can be spent at participating stores, such as Starbucks, Home Depot, HP, Coca Cola, etc. Some of these companies have also established community funds for local non-profit groups, community projects, charities, and environmental organizations. Customers are provided with… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Stuff at 7:09 PM)

Long-Range Lithium Battery
Turning Cars Into Wireless Network Nodes
DIY Diesel and Biodiesel Powered Cycles
Biofuel Gangs Kill for Green Profits
African Children Do Better With Digital
(more)

(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 3:36 PM)

An additional 10 years of continued business-as-usual rapid growth of CO2 emissions and infrastructure may make avoiding dangerous climate change “impractical, if not impossible”, according to a recently published study in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. More… The US rejected the European Union’s two-degree target for climate change, whereby global temperatures would not be allowed to increase more than 2° C this century. Instead, President Bush proposed convening a series of meetings of the US and the other nations that produce the most greenhouse gases—including India and China—to develop by the end of 2008 a long-term “aspirational” global goal for greenhouse gas reduction. More… Sweden is targeting at least a 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, beating the European Union goal of a 20% reduction, according to Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren. More… California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Memoranda of Understanding with British Columbia (more…)and Ontario (more…) on tackling climate change. Both provinces will implement California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed The Next Generation Energy Act (SF538) into law on 25 May, thereby setting the goal of cutting the state’s energy consumption by 25% by 2025. The law also sets the state’s greenhouse gas… (more)

(Posted by Mike Millikin in Transportation at 12:12 PM)

Buy One Give One Solar Flashlights
Tiny Filters Fix Big Water Problems
Small-Scale Agricultural Changes May Help Eradicate Widespread Disease
Carbon Labels To Hit Shelves
Solar Power at Half the Cost
(more)

(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 10:07 PM)

by Worldchanging San Francisco local blogger, Brian Smith: After seven long years, the David Brower/Oxford Plaza complex finally broke ground in downtown Berkeley, California. This Center will be a place from which our sustainable future is planned and implemented. A good sign that the project is already on track was the number of young parents with kids who arrived at the groundbreaking ceremony May 23, 2007 on bicycle. I sure was envious of the eco-hip toddlers with cool stickers on their bike helmets. Anyone know where I can get a T-rex sticker? The groundbreaking was a celebration of a man, and a movement, and the end of a difficult planning process described by one of the main planners as “brain-damaging” in its complexity. When complete, the Brower Center will serve as a home office for the environmental movement, with retail space on the ground floor, meeting rooms, a theater, and 97 units of permanently affordable, and high-quality rental housing near public transportation and jobs. And of course it will be a state of the art, green building. A Man on a Mission The complex is named after the undisputed heavy hitter of the American environmental movement. David Brower’s career spanned… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 2:41 PM)

Editor's note: Ecotality's Steve Caratzas takes note of another idea to green the world of sports: reconfiguring the format of hockey's Stanley Cup finals. This post was originally published on May 30, 2007.

Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber has written an open letter to Al Gore, pleading with the former Vice President to help green up the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup finals format.

Farber is concerned with the NHL’s current 2-2-1-1-1 system, wherein two games of the best-of-seven final series are played on one team’s home ice, followed by two games on their opponent’s home ice, returning back to the first team’s home ice, then to the opponent’s again, and finally – if seven games are required – one final game in the rink where the whole thing started. Confused? Perfect! Consider yourself a hockey fan.

Farber is seeking a more environment-friendly configuration:

You see, a 2-3-2 final would be a blessing for the environment. The NHL would be doing its patriotic best to be green — beyond its recycling of Anaheim Ducks defenseman Sean O’Donnell.

Garden Fresh Organic StrawberriesStrawberry harvest is in full swing, and as the bounty reaches epic proportions in my garden, I am always looking for new recipes that do not ruin the naturally sweet flavor of the fruit. Mostly, we snack on strawberries straight from the plants, but occasionally I am motivated to make a delectable dessert to savor. Old fashioned, organic strawberry shortcake has become an early summer favorite in my family!

One of my earliest childhood summer memories is of strawberry shortcake; however, it was always made with spongy, store-bought shortcake. I never much cared for the soft, fluffy shortcake, but I thoroughly enjoyed the strawberries and cream. When I made the shift to organic eating and later wanted to provide my children with the same strawberry summer pleasure, I could not find an organic readymade shortcake in the local coop. In my searches for a recipe, I discovered that traditional strawberry shortcake is not made with an airy cake but sweet biscuits. The first time I tried strawberry shortcake made with biscuits, the taste reminded me of a time when people milked their own cows and had small family farms. I felt like I was sitting in a midwestern farm house eating a treat made by my great grandmother.

This recipe, modified from Simply Recipes, is far from vegan, as the rich cream and buttery biscuits complement this summer fruit. To make this recipe organic, use all organically grown, natural ingredients, especially the strawberries and dairy products. Strawberries receive the most pesticides of any crop grown in America, and 90% of commercially grown strawberries test above safe levels of pesticide contamination. In addition, pesticides are concentrated in dairy products, as well as growth hormones and antibiotics.

This one’s via Treehugger: Many Amish are installing solar panels. I expect this will surprise a few readers since the Amish are better known by their disdain for most modern conveniences (or what we think of as conveniences anyway).

Here’s a quote, from the Baltimore Sun article, that explains why most Amish find solar power a-ok:

Not all Amish people approve, but many do — particularly if solar energy is used for business and home use is kept to a minimum. Solar electricity fits into the Amish self-sufficiency model. It is convenient, safe and, unlike some Amish-sanctioned alternatives, there are no noxious fumes or noise and no fuel costs.

“There’s so much free sun and free air, and if we could harness it, we wouldn’t need any more power plants,” said Andrew Hertzler, an Amish farmer selling flowers and plants outside the local library here on a recent afternoon.