This low-carbon world has been created by a rapid and ceaseless process of technological innovation. Lifestyles and business practices have been minimally affected, but against the background of diminishing resources there is growing concern about the long-term sustainability of this “innovation treadmill” approach.
The most ambitious project of its kind in the UK, Wadebridge in Cornwall aims to generate at least a third of its electricity from solar and wind power by 2015. They want to stop relying on utilities and make significant cash contributions to local community projects through generating their own electricity. The first of four short films, watch Wadebridge make it happen on www.solarcentury.co.uk.
Hydrogen bonds are an extremely efficient way to store energy. Unlike other fuel sources, hydrogen can’t be harvested easily so we have to make it. From the importance of developing an effective catalyst to speed up electrolysis, to the construction and operation of the fuel cell, this episode demonstrates that sometimes it only takes a little to do a lot.
Change the way you think about food, we are literally eating the planet. Today we use 1/3 of the planet’s surface to produce food, by 2050 we will need twice as much food. Today it takes one litre of water to create one calorie of food. What will it be in the future? Can we use less water and less fertilisers?
Where are the hottest, coldest, wettest and driest places on earth?
In this special edition of Extreme Weather we take a trip around the globe to visit the world’s toughest conditions.
What does Fair Trade really mean? How come when Ben and Jerry’s buys Fair Trade Vanilla from farmers in rural Uganda it changes lives? What is a stoop? Find out here in the last episode of Bridge the Gap to Uganda!
Idealist is the greatest place to find information on nonprofit oriented events, volunteer and job opportunities. Just search “Fair Trade” or anything else you’re interested in!
Until next time with our new season….stay tuned!
Discover IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the world’s largest global environmental network. We are working in more than 160 countries, gathering the latest knowledge on biodiversity, running hundreds of conservation projects around the world and being nature’s voice on the international stage. Watch this video and find out who we are and how we work for a just world that values and conserves nature.
In Ghana the sun sets at 6pm and rises at 6am which means many communities lacking electricity live half their lives in darkness.
Electricity provides a step on the ladder of economics: lights to study and cook by, machinery and refrigeration, and a standard of living that would attract teachers, nurses, and other civil service workers from the city, not to mention foreign tourists. Potential economic growth is stifled and poverty’s cyclical nature is perpetuated however some forms of progress are happening.
It took 50,000 litres to make your laptop. Three square feet of rainforest was destroyed in the process. Ecosystems disappeared. Think about recycled materials. Think about the planet.
IUCN’s Oceania region oversees various Renewable Energy Projects throughout the Pacific Islands like this Solar Power project in Vanuatu.
