Science & Technology

Photo via Oracio Alvarado

Today, mobile phones are ubiquitous. The sheer volume of the devices on this planet is staggering - in the US alone, 450,000 cell phones are discarded every day. Over half of the world's population has quick, easy access to cell phones and wireless technology. For example, 97% of people surveyed in Tanzania had access to a mobile phone, while just 27% could access a land line phone. In Kenya, only 19% of the country's 36 million people are reached by traditional banking methods...but virtually all have access to mobile phones. Knowing these facts, it isn't surprising that the devices are being used as a key tool for environmental change. Here's a look at successful projects using cell phones and mobile devices for eco-activism, the apps that help us go green, and some how-to ideas for eco-activism via mobile phones.

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Here is a site that champions mankind’s ingenuity. Not in creating bright, shiny new gadgets and gizmos, but in making do with what already exists. It is remarkable just what can be accomplished with a little lateral thinking and a roll (or two) or duct tape.

Although very few of the examples shown on ‘There, I Fixed it’ would win awards for their aesthetics, they do indicate just how creative people can be in when confronted with an otherwise seemingly intractable problem. Albeit with little regard to occupational health and safety standards. (More photos after the fold.)

Business & Politics

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the remarkable achievement of putting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon (while Michael Collins nervously circled above) and bringing them safely home, there will no doubt be a chorus of articles saying "we need an Apollo project to deal with climate change." or "if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we solve our energy problems?"

And it was a marvelous accomplishment. But as a model of design and engineering, it was a one hit wonder, an extravagant waste of materials, and not a model for anything we should be doing today.

Business & Politics

Photo via NY TImes

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first top level US official sent to India from the Obama administration. On the agenda? Among other things, looking for common ground between the US and India on forging a global climate treaty. She opened the trip by saying the US made a mistake by contributing to climate change during the nation's development, and that India should try to avoid such mistakes. India has been adamantly opposed to making mandatory cuts to its carbon emissions (and perhaps rightfully so). So how'd it go when Clinton toured a new green building in Dehli to broach the topic? Not so well.

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Live Local is the digital equivalent of hanging over the fence and chin wagging with your neighbour, sharing stories about what’s worked for you and what hasn’t.

Just a couple of month old, the Live Local website acts as a storehouse of these stories, or experiments, about how to improve your local economy, save energy and make air and water cleaner. A way to “celebrate the unexpected, random activities that make communities vibrant and fun.” It is certainly a whole heap more neighbourhood focused and positive action-oriented than most of the vacuous ‘look-at-me’ that passes for social networking.

Design & Architecture

Libraries aren't what they used to be; they have to compete for attention now. Rem Koolhaas built his library in Seattle as a giant ramp and built his deathstar in Dubai; Greeen! Architects has won a competition to drop a Deathstar library (they call it a bibliosphere) on top of a student center and flexible administrative building for the University Duisburg- Essen.

Food & Health

Image Source: Pablo Paster

Travel & Nature

For a group of British ecologists working in development organizations in the West Bank, researching the sorry state of the Palestinian environment became, at some point, rather unsatisfying. “We wanted to move from writing reports on environmental destruction and stagnating development to actually doing something about it,” says Alice Gray. Over two years later, the group, along with a handful of volunteers, is creating an ecological oasis in almost impossible conditions. Bustan Qaraaqa (literally “Tortoise Garden”) is a Permaculture paradise in the making.