The Consolations of Philosophy

This book from the English philosopher Alain de Botton provides an good entry to the understanding of philosophy. It shows how six of the greatest minds in the history of philosophy are helping on some problems of everyday life such as: * unpopularity (Socrates) * not having enough money (Epicure) * frustration (Seneca) * inadequacy (Montaigne) * a broken heart (Schopenhauer) * difficulties (Nietzsche)
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Hydrogen Futures: Toward A Sustainable Energy System

Paper # 157 of the Worldwatch Institute. The paper discusses the notion of a “hydrogen economy”. Hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element in the universe, is getting increased interest due to technical advances in fuel cells. But where will the hydrogen come from? Government and industry are pursuing the solution of on-board reforming gasoline or methanol as the source of the hydrogen. A cleaner path, deriving hydrogen from natural gas and renewable energy and using the fuel directly onboard vehicles, has received significantly less support, in part because the cost of building a hydrogen infrastructure is widely viewed as prohibitively high. Yet a number of recent studies suggest that moving to the direct use of hydrogen may be much cleaner and far less expensive. Just as government played a catalytic role in the creation of the Internet, government will have an essential part in building a hydrogen economy.
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Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet

Paper #147 of the Worldwatch Institute Cities are home to more people than ever before. In 1900, only 160 million people, one tenth of the world’s population, were city dwellers. But soon after 2000, in contrast, half the world (3.2 billion people) will live in urban areas–a 20-fold increase in numbers. In this urbanizing world, cities hold the key to achieving a sustainable balance between the Earth’s resource base and its human energy. Industrialization in developing countries has led to urban health problems on an unprecedented scale. China, for instance, has reported 3 million deaths from urban air pollution over two years. Cities around the world affect not just the health of their people but the health of the planet. Urban areas take up just 2 percent of the world’s surface but consume the bulk of vital resources. This paper shows that changes in six areas — water, waste, food, energy, transportation, and land use — are needed to make cities and the vast areas they affect better for both people and the planet. Cities can align their consumption with realistic needs, produce more of their own food and energy, and put much more of their waste to use. Citizens and local leaders from Curitiba, Brazil, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, are already showing the way as they overcome financial and political obstacles to put these ideas into action.
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National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure

InfraGuide is a national network of people and a growing collection of best practice publications for core infrastructure – offering the best in Canadian experience and knowledge of infrastructure. The Guide is a tool designed to help municipalities identify needs, evaluate solutions, extend the service life of existing infrastructure and maximize the return on their investment. It is a tool in support of municipalities’ decision making and long range infrastructure planning processes, resulting in considerable savings and improved quality of life. The newer initiatives from the National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure include the expanded number of Best Practices , reference to the Network of Excellence (communities working together to promote sustainable infrastructure) and a new focus on effective asset management for small to medium sized communities. The InfraGuide newsletter is available through the InfraGuide web site.
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Climate change and plant growth

Scientists have discovered that elevated atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) can suppress plant growth when increases of this important greenhouse gas are combined with a broad suite of already-occurring environmental changes. According to Christopher Field, project leader and director of the new Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, “We are now getting a much richer picture of ecosystem responses to global environmental changes, and the traditional view that elevated CO2 always stimulates plant growth simply isn’t correct.” The research is published in the December 6, 2002, issue of Science.
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Strategic Intentions – Knowledge Network

This PDF book is about the importance of knowledge networks in sustainable development. There is a gap in the limited understanding about how to conceptualize, develop and follow through on the strategic intentions of a network. Networks are generally understood to be a combination of persons (or organizations), usually dispersed over a number of geographically separate sites, with appropriate communications technology to link them. But networks often seem to fail to fulfill their promise. Research may be carried out and members may meet from time to time to exchange experiences, but at the end of the day, there is often no indication that the interaction added value to individual research projects, no truly joint, collaborative projects carried out by two or more members in the network, and no demonstrable sign that decision makers read or used the research and advice emerging from the networks. Studying Canadian experiences with formal knowledge networks, this book identifies a number of innovations in the National Centres of Excellence model that could be used to strengthen international research, development and policy networks. Those innovations included more formal and rigorous structures and governance, the inclusion of other sectors in the networks (in particular the private sector), and the emphasis on deliverables. The key objective: to convert knowledge into action for sustainable development.
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Canadian Independent Power Producers Survey

Abri Sustainable Design & Consulting is carrying out a study of the experience of Canadian independent power producers (IPPs) who operate small-scale, grid connected renewable energy source systems. This study is funded through the 2002 CMHC External Research Grant Program. We invite you to participate in the study through our on-line survey, if you are an Independent Power Producer connected to the main grid system with production of either: -PV and BIPV: up to 10 kW -Wind: 10-100kW, or -Microhydro: up to 100kW If you know of owners of renewable energy systems who want to be grid-connected, or who are in process of becoming grid-connected, or someone who tried to get grid-connected but gave up because of regulatory barriers, we want to hear from them too! Please log on to http://www.AbriDesign.com/survey.html If you have any questions, please email Shawna Henderson at: survey@AbriDesign.com.
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Critical Path

The legacy work of Buckminster Fuller Today we find ourselves in the midst of the greatest crisis in the history of the human race. Technology has placed in our hands almost unlimited power at the very moment when we have run up against the limits of our resources on earth, as the crises of the late twentieth century-political, economic, environmental, and ethical- determine whether or not humanity survives. In this masterful summing up of an entire lifetime’s thought and concern, R. Buckminster Fuller addresses these crucial issues in his most significant, accessible, and urgent work. With his customary brilliance, extraordinary energy, and unlimited devotion, Bucky Fuller shows how mankind can survive, and how each individual can respond to the unprecedented threat we face today. The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future. Over the course of the eighty-eight years of his lifetime, R. Buckminster Fuller became perhaps the best known American thinker of the twentieth century. Sometimes called “the planet ‘s friendly genius, ” Bucky had gained renown as an inventor and designer ( of the Dymaxion House, the Dymaxion car, the Dymaxion map), the creator of the Geodesic Dome, the man who coined the term “Spaceship Earth” and organized the World Game, the mathematician who discovered Synergetics, and as a dogged individualist whose genius has been felt throughout the world for over half a century.
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The Biosphere

The master book of the internationally renowned Russian scientist, Wladimir Vernadsky. Vernadsky invented the concept of Biosphere in the 1920’s and is considered as the founder of the ecology. The Biosphere is the external surface of our planet, continuously receiving the energy of the sun. This energy transforms the matter of the biosphere and make it active. Radiant energy becomes fibre energy capable of doing work, moving, transforming the environment. Earth’s external layer must not be considered as the domain of inert matter; it is a region of energy and transformation by external cosmic forces. According to Vernadsky, the biosphere is the creation of the sun as much as (if not more than) the manifestation of a terrestrial process. We are children of the sun.
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Eco-Efficiency

The term eco-efficiency describes business activities that create economic value while reducing ecological impact and resource use. This book by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) outlines the principles and presents case studies of their application from a number of international companies such as 3M and Dow Chemical. Readers of this book should compare the principles of eco-efficiency with those of eco-effectiveness developed by Bill Mc Donough in “Cradle-to-cradle”
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