When working with my students on the issues of sustainability, one of the fundamental facts that I am trying to impress upon them is that ultimately there is no “away”. That ultimately, the wastes that we are creating through the economic models we have developed will at some point grow so large that they cannot [...]

With the conversations around systems and sustainability still largely a moving a target that bounces between emotional polar bears and destructive weather systems, I honestly cannot think of a better time for a focus on understanding the systems that exist in our economy, the impact of our economy on our environmental systems, and taking steps [...]

When thinking of the issues we face environmentally, and the recent links to climate change, we often speak about issues on a global level without considering the local issues/ impact of those discussions.  A condition I think about often as the discussions around climate change and environmental protection continue to be hobbled by issues of [...]

Green is dead.  Sustainability is the future. 2011 will be the year that we move from the polar bear to understanding the economic value of our natural resources. That the debate over climate change was never really about weather patterns, but about the fact that we have pinned our economies down to unsustainable economic models [...]

While reading the recent news that Shanghai based Social Venture Group (SVG) will be launching their most recent project, a website called China Charity Gift to facilitate donations to seven China based charities. It was a project that I know they have been working on for a while now and while taking a sneak peak [...]

6 months ago when it became clear that China was going to act in a manner that defended its reserves or rare metals, it provided an opportunity perhaps the first public discussion on the fact that our reliance on these metals stretched beyond the traditional need. That, while we were planning a transition to the [...]

In this month’s Lancelot, a group of 6 authors have published the 10 page article Environmental health in China: progress towards clean air and safe water, and I would highly recommend readers take the time to download the paper (right click here) and read it. Here is their summary: Environmental risk factors, especially air and [...]

For those readers who think that climate change is about “carbon”, or that it is something that will be faced in the future, I highly recommend spending 3 minutes to watch the above clip.. because for China, water is THE issue, climate change is here, and the impacts are in their yard (front yard, and [...]

Once you start looking at charts, you just cannot stop, and following my post last week of , I cam across this interesting chart in the post China Adapts to the Climate Change Fashion Show which plots energy intensities for the US and China. Besides the typically WOW factor of look how much China has [...]

1. Chengdu promised: to give “one hour to the world” On February 1st, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) announced that the Municipal Government of Chengdu had promised on January 29th that it participate in the activity of the “Earth Hour 2010” at 20:30 of March 27th, which indicated Chengdu had become the first [...]