Nov 21, 09
High Entropy? Moi?
When I first came to Tokyo, fashionable parts of the city would be lined with hundreds of heavy taxis sitting in queues with their engines running, for hours on end. Every powered item was always on, 24/7. Tokyo Metropolitan Government has passed a law against idling cars - but this hall of mirrors atrium is a reminder that high entropy Tokyo will not disappear without a struggle. This picture is by way of context for my lecture yesterday at the International Design Symposium which was...
USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets
As people around the world await the inauguration of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama on January 20, it seems that every week brings news and controversy that heightens expectations for 2009 to be a turning point in the American response to climate change. We recently learned of yet another encouraging development on Capitol Hill, this time in the United States' federal approach to ecosystem services. On December 18, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that there will be a new...
Design Roundup: Designing Products for Sustainable Use
By Adele Peters When someone mentions ‘sustainable product design,’ the first thing that comes to mind may be products that are made with renewable materials, or materials that can be used in a closed technical loop. Of all the stages in the lifecycle of a product — resource extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal — the beginning and end of the process often receive disproportionate attention from designers. Picture, for example, the plethora of bamboo objects...
Pop!Tech: MobileMetrix Makes the Base of the Pyramid Visible
Who are they?" Melanie Edwards asks us. Frankly, we don't know – and neither does the government. These are the people of Morro de Macacoes – Portuguese for "Hill of the Monkeys" – and they are among the 1 billion people worldwide whose existence has no official record. Imperfect or non-existent information characterizes base of the pyramid markets worldwide. When Edwards began working in Morro de Macacoes (a slum near Rio), she asked government officials how...
Using Digital Tools to Examine the Planet
This article was written by Alex Steffen in June 2007. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective. I write this from the medieval town of Visby, in the shadow of the ruined church of Saint Clement, on Sweden's Gotland island. I've stayed here for a few days on my way to the Tällberg Forum, hoping for a chance to catch my breath. It's a beautiful place, Visby, a UNESCO World Heritage site of old buildings, tiles roofs, cobblestones, ancient churches and a...
From Sampling to Monitoring to Gulping Data Down in Great Big Chunks
One of the forces facilitating the possibility of a bright green economic transformation is insight into the systems around us, particularly the kind of insight we gain through making visible the invisible and manifesting backstories. As the price of using technology to sample, monitor, sense, aggregate and communicate data continues to drop rapidly, we face a rift between the sheer dumbness of the built world and industrial systems we've inherited, and our rapidly-expanding insight into how...
Warming and Powering Homes on a Low Carbon Diet
Low Carb Lane: how can we pay less for warmer homes? Wouldn't it be great if... energy efficiency was the easy option? The home energy challenge Many of us would like to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from our energy use at home. Other people have different priorities. What we have in common is the desire to reduce our energy bills. How might energy efficiency be accessible, desirable and affordable for all - rich or poor, home owners and renters alike? How did Low Carb Lane work?...
Letter from Visby: Linnaeus, the Encyclopedia of Life and the Metaverse
I write this from the medieval town of Visby, in the shadow of the ruined church of Saint Clement, on Sweden's Gotland island. I've stayed here for a few days on my way to the Tällberg Forum, hoping for a chance to catch my breath. It's a beautiful place, Visby, a UNESCO World Heritage site of old buildings, tiles roofs, cobblestones, ancient churches and a huge stone wall circling the city, and I've spent the last few days wandering the narrow winding streets, sitting in cafes overlooking...
Eco-Sense and Sensibility
by Worldchanging Austin local blogger, Sandra Burchsted: Until recently it was next to impossible to quantify the cost of our day to day activities in terms of their environmental impact. It's hard to understand or manage something you can't see. Intuitively we know that running a hair dryer consumes more energy than leaving a lamp on with a compact fluorescent light bulb. However, this information has been hidden from us, rendering the costs “out of sight out of mind.” This is...
Kazys Varnelis: The Logistics of Distance
An interview with Network Architecture Lab Director, Kazys Varnelis, exploring "new forms of research through architecture, text, new media design, film production and environment design. Specifically, the Network Architecture Lab investigates the impact of computation and communications on architecture and urbanism. What opportunities do programming, telematics, and new media offer architecture?"
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