A 'brave new world' begins from germinating ideas at Singularity University

Hydroponics

Carol Forsloff - Saving the world from ecological, man-made and environmental collapse at times seens a herculean task, but if you had ten weeks to figure out a way to fix things what would you do?. 

Singularity University is a form of think tank in California that allows students to immerse themselves in ideas and projects through lectures, projects and brain-storming.  It is a concept where students combine knowledge in different areas to problem solve.  One summer the notion was ten weeks to come up with solutions for the world's economic and ecological difficulties. 

Futurists like Ray Kurzweil and other scientists are behind the concept that allows students to create and problem solve in unique ways.  One summer's notion of finding solutions in ten weeks that could save the world is just one of the umbrella ideas from the Kurzweil group. 

There are ideas at Singularity in virtually every area of living.  One of them had to do with transportation Ideas into action by students who presented a series of fleets of zero-emissions vehicles not privately owned by able to be accessed by users.  One of the students said about this, a project called GetAround "The vision inspires, but you get believability from the first step."

How about three-dimensional printing.  This concept would allow printers to make their own replacement parts, for example, an idea that would put power into designing on local levels as opposed to productions from China.

 SU graduate Devin Fidler, who had been working on his doctorate in Budapest, put aside those formal studies temporarily to be part of a project called 'Acasa those several years ago."  This was said would allow the building of houses in the developing world for $4,000 using the equivalent of 30 light-bulbs of power. 

As for food, the emphasis is on aeroponics or hydroponics, growing plants without soil.

Students, after putting together ideas like these, then look for individuals to invest in their development of ideas generated in ten weeks in the novel ideas of which ones could save the world environmentally and ecologically. 

Singularity University brings fresh ideas from around the world, as students learn ideas that can help them shape a brave, new world.  But this world is unlike the science fiction one, in that it recognizes the need of the individual as well as the community and the planting of ideas that can grow into other ideas, so that the growth of learning and development continues.

November 2015 will offer a 4-day program where technology and medicine branches will be undertaking brain-storming ideas to develop a new awakening of what is possible.  For at Singularity virtually anything is possible that the brain, and the enthusiasm for learning, can bring about.

Citizen cooperation urgent re climate change, humanitarian crises

It was more than a decade ago, when Al Gore sounded the alarm on climate change. Global warming may have been a misnomer to some, but scientists declared then that if the nations of the world did not act in reducing carbon emissions, there would come a time when there would be no turning back, and environmental disasters would create widespread humanitarian crises. The urgency for doing something to reverse the impact of climate change, however, is undermined by politics, resulting in continuing inertia in responding to what scientists now tell us can no longer be ignored.



What Al Gore labeled “An Inconvenient Truth” is far from just inconvenient, scientists remind us. It is a truth that requires action and actually might be better termed “ugly” more than inconvenient.



The United Nations released a report on global warming a few days ago with the details that are another reminder of the grave consequences of doing nothing about the environment right now. Scientists say,“The evidence is overwhelming: Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising. Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying.” 



The dilemmas in reducing carbon emissions involve the need to maintain a growing world population which requires energy sources. It takes more energy to plant food as the numbers of people to feed increase. Transportation needed to take goods from one place to another means additional fuel. Many human needs require energy sources, these needs coming at a time when possible options either take too much time and resources or would cause environmental problems as well.



While conservatives scoffed about climate change, and it became fashionable to make fun of Al Gore rather than focusing on the urgency of agreements that might have reduced pollution levels sufficiently to make a difference. Despite the warnings of scientists, people maintained it was either God's will for the earth to be destroyed or if climate change was occurring it this was simply part of an ongoing pattern that has been going on for thousands of years.



The argument against the scientists' predictions was the accusation they had been based solely on financial gain for themselves and their research. Politicians countered claims of man-made climate change with the opinions of scientists who disagreed with their peers. These disagreements helped to convince some people and confuse others. The man in the middle was immobilized by the divisions, so the tacit decision left was to go with the most emotionally rewarding notion in the short run, that man's activities could effect little change on what was foreordained by God or the ordinary course of climate changes that had occurred since earth's creation.



The apathy and ignorance, and the lack of willingness of politicians to take responsibility means the inevitable consequences of environmental disasters scientists remind us will create humanitarian havoc in the days and years to come. They tell us that the environmental upheavals will take their course, and that we have not seen the worst. But this declaration of inevitability simply cements the apathy, for if there is nothing man can do, the best thing might be to protect oneself as much as possible financially and to enjoy the moments now. That too is no good answer.



The blame has not been shouldered responsibly in ways that create action, although there is enough blame proverbially to be passed around. While progressives point to environmental challenges that must be met by changes, few agree on what they need to be, outside of the reduction of pollution levels that contribute the climate change. Without the knowledge, and acceptance, of individual responsibility; the problems may not be solved simply at the top.



While the news media reports, and the governments wrangle, the scientists and the people in the middle hold the key not to finger pointing blame but to future practice that will involve every citizen who wants to stay alive and who wants the generations to come to have a peaceful place to live. It is a shared responsibility, shared by folks of all political persuasions and religious beliefs.



Yet while the Democrats recently spent an evening in a talkathon on what to do about climate change, Fox News continued its denials in the same pattern as has occurred in more than a decade. With Fox the more popular channel, it is likely convincing the masses will be difficult to do. And when politicians offer laws and orders, the inability to accept the problem of climate change will likely result in continued inertia and the march to environmental chaos. For it is not a political problem but made one by those whose vested interests in the status quo outweigh the needs of the people most likely to be hurt in the humanitarian crises that scientists tell us will occur as a result of doing either nothing or not enough.

Environmental disaster of toxic sludge could impact 12 countries

Carol Forsloff - While
the full impact of the BP disaster is
not yet known, in Europe 12 countries are facing a potential
disaster, as a toxic sludge edges closer to the Danube River where it
could cause problems for 12 countries.



The toxic sludge is front page news in Europe with potentially awful consequences if it enters the Danube River.

The
environmental disaster is early in its stages, but it surpasses the BP
oil spill with respect to its impact on land areas.  The toxic sludge is
not entering a Gulf where there can be any dispersant.  Instead it is a
large wave of toxic aluminum waste that has been pouring along the land
areas of Hungary, winding through the town of Ajka, where it has
already killed several people and injured hundreds of others.


Despite the fact that the toxic sludge is not defined as toxic in
Europe, it does cause severe burns when it comes into contact with the
skin.  Already there are pictures of some of these burns that can
actually burn down to the bone.  In Hungary, the government has declared
a state of emergency in certain areas while it struggles to find ways
to clean up the sludge and prevent it from further damage.

Herwit Schuster of Green Peace has referred to the toxic sludge as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the past 20 or 30 years"

One of the fears scientists have is that fish will ingest the metals, which can risk the food chain and harm humans.

The toxic sludge comes from the byproducts that develop from the manufacturing of aluminum.

Officials
believe cleanup will be a long and difficult process that will take at
least a year.  The ground will have to be bulldozed so that the top
layer is removed in impacted areas, with a topsoil put in place in order
to make the area safe.

The late Dr. Henry Schroeder, MD, who was a world authority on trace elements, wrote:

“Most
organic substances are degradable by natural processes.  (However), no
metal is degradable…they are here to stay for a long
time”.

In the medical definition, aluminum is one of those listed as a toxic metal.

Shining a light on the oil spill: how the cycles never end and theproblems remain

Carol Forsloff - In reviewing media coverage, one observes the oil spill no longer figures in the headlines; but experts say there is a lot to learn from what happened that can impact future events, although that learning doesn't get done nor translate into changing behavior. 



“We cover current environmental events, and unfortunately, I can promise the students a number of major environmental disasters every year,” says Scott McRobert.  He is a professor of biology at Saint Joseph s University in Philadelphia where he teaches a course in ecology. 

McRobert observes there is an ongoing relationship between organisms and their environment and so regularly he holds a session called "Biohazard of the Week."  The oil spill presented an array of topics and information related to his course.

“Major oil spills happen on a regular basis and they almost always follow the same pattern,” he says. “The spill occurs; everyone is shocked; clean-up efforts are confused, slow to start, and only marginally effective; everyone vows to be better prepared in the future.”

But after that pattern what happens next?  McRoberts tells us nothing much until the next oil spill. “For example, all of the questions that were being asked in the Gulf – ‘Should we use dispersant? Will the dispersant be effective? Will it affect wildlife? Should we deploy booms and skimmers? How can we help wildlife like oiled birds?’ etc. – were all asked during the Exxon Valdez disaster, which occurred over 20 years ago.”

These are the types of patterns McRobert says are repeated with ecological disasters and don't end up with a method to clean up the oil that is spilled into the natural environment.t “This is tragic, because history will repeat itself, and inevitably, we will face the same ordeal again.”

The oil spill may have passed from the front pages of major media, but it remains a concern along the Gulf Coast, as litigation has piled up and the cleaning up of the oil spill continues, even as those who were at the heart of the BP disaster, may not come up with solutions.

In the meantime, the delays in reimbursing the losses incurred is forcing some fishermen to leave the Gulf  because they don't have the resources to continue, a human consequence that social scientists examine after ecological experts look at the natural effects and their lessons.

Oil spill, environmental disasters go beyond race

 

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Editor - Green Heritage News  wrote a story following an interview with a young African American man on his way to work as an oil spill response worker, underlining environmental worries go beyond race, something underlined by the NAACP. 

On its website the NAACP, one of the nation's oldest organizations representing African Americans, has made it clear that the environmental issues are concerns for all Americans.  There are no divisions on racial lines, as expressed by this organization. 

Here is their statement in its entirety, because the organization wants the country to know that it takes a stand on environmental concerns and wants folks to understand that these issues are not a part of any racial divide. 

 "When some of us think about climate change, they think ice caps and polar bears. And while we may care about the impact of man-made climate change, we don't always see the direct impact on our own lives and families. The reality, however, is not quite so simple.

Climate Change is about Katrina, Rita, and Ike devastating communities in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, Climate Change is about our sisters and brothers in the Bahamas who will be losing their homes to rising sea levels in the coming few years. Climate Change is about people in Detroit, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere who have died and are dying of exposure to toxins from coal fired power plants.

Climate Change is about sisters and brothers in West Virginia who are breathing toxic ash from blasting for mountain top removal. Climate Change is about our folks in Thibodeaux, Louisiana who are being forced to move within the next 10 years because rising sea levels will result in the submersion of the coastal land that is their home currently.

It's about the fact that race--over class--is the number one indicator for the placement of toxic facilities in this country. Climate change is about the fact that in our communities it is far easier to find a bag of Cheetos than a carton of strawberries.

Climate Change is about us."