Whether or not the practices are safe, some wonder why companies are pouring resources into an area that so many are trying to innovate out of existence
It is hard to imagine a less hospitable niche for a startup to enter than gasoline – a combustible commodity that is (one hopes) being innovated into obsolescence.
And yet, over the past 18 months, at least six startups have launched some variation on the theme of “Uber for gas” – your car’s tank gets refilled while it is parked somewhere.
Analysis of the huge news and online response to his death could offer conservationists an opportunity to turn the ‘Cecil moment’ into a ‘Cecil movement’, reports Conservation Magazine
When the story of Cecil the lion’s death at the hands of an American hunter hit the media, the global response was “the largest reaction in the history of wildlife conservation,” according to a new paper. Researchers from Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (or WildCRU, the same organization that had tracked the lion since 2009) analyzed the traditional and social media response to the hunting incident. They found that a combination of elements in the story may have made it go viral in a different way than the average internet sensation. And conservationists may subsequently have a golden opportunity to transform the “Cecil moment” into a “Cecil movement”.
To recap the sequence of events around Cecil’s death: Around 10pm on 1 July 2015, a hunter from Minnesota named Walter Palmer sent an arrow into the side of a 13-year-old male African lion nicknamed ‘Cecil’ on privately owned property outside of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. This arrow failed to kill the beast, but the second one, shot some 11 hours later, did.
Reaction to the first universal legally binding global climate deal, agreed at COP21 in Paris, and signed by 195 countries at the United Nations in New York on Earth Day. The signing has triggered headlines like “Experts Say Plans Don’t Pack a Wallop”, with the New York Times reporting that the accord is “bare bones” and that there is a lack of a “detailed, credible strategy”. Others have been more optimistic: John Kerry sees the agreement for the “power of the opportunity it creates” and the “message it sends to the marketplace”. Still, the question remains as to how governments around the world can actually begin to change the current system and the way in which energy and resources are used.
In the Netherlands, there are signs that the big ideas and lofty ambitions to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, which is regenerative and restorative by design, are being put into action. For the first half of 2016, the Netherlands will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the country has signalled its intention on playing a role in the wider transition to a circular economy, which has been further incentivised by a European Commission that passed a circular economy policy package in December 2015, clearly signalling that the EU views the circular economy as the way forward for business, society, and the continent’s wider economy.
Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme wants the Netherlands to be “internationally recognised as a place where the most relevant knowledge and experience in the field of circular business is located.” Prince Carlos has founded the Netherlands Circular Hotspot (NLCH), a campaign that aims to turn the Netherlands into a “living lab [which will provide] the rest of the world with examples to learn from.” Partners of the NLCH campaign include a diverse group of decision makers and visionaries such as: Circle Economy, Rabobank, the Association of Water and the City of Amsterdam, KPMG, Black Bear Carbon, Philips, as well as twenty other ambassadors. In order to accelerate the transition from a linear take, make and dispose economy towards a regenerative model, a range of stakeholders from governments, science, academia, business and many other sectors will need to be involved, and the NLCH campaign has achieved that multi-disciplinary buy-in.
Photo via VisualHunt.com
The first major implementation, which defined the Netherlands as the circular hotspot, was the signing of the agreement between Delta Development Group, Schiphol Group, and the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer in July 2015 to develop a circular subarea within Schiphol Trade Park – the Valley. On April 4, 2016, development of the Valley began along with the opening of the Circular EXPO, which aims to bring together, “circular organisations, process and activities…where ‘best practices’ will show the scalable ideas and techniques developed in the Netherlands for a circular economy”. The EXPO will be organised around a number of key themes including: agriculture & chemistry, logistics & infrastructure, buildings & interior; finance & services; recovery & recycling, energy & water and Dutch design.
William McDonough and Partners, master architects of the Valley at Schipol Trade Park, featured their ICEhouse (ICE=Innovation for the Circular Economy) for the Circular EXPO at the Valley. ICEhouse was conceived by William McDonough as a place to gather and discuss the future of Innovation for the Circular Economy.The building is “designed to demonstrate the positive framework described in the book Cradle to Cradle, the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, and the reuse of resources implicit in the circular economy.” By design, ICEhouse shows what is possible “when designs eliminate the concept of waste and instead add to the resourcefulness of a system,” the essence of the circular economy. The building is made of three materials: aluminum for the structural frame, polymers (SABIC’s LEXAN sheet and system for the walls and roof, Nylon 6 for the carpet from Patchcraft) and aerogel (Cabot Nanogel) for the insulation material. These materials represent technical nutrients since they can be returned to the industry and endlessly re-manufactured into new products of high value at the end of their use cycle.
Photo credit: llee_wu via VisualHunt / CC BY-ND
The ICEhouse is a microcosm of the Valley, and the Valley is a microcosm of what we can expect to take place on an international front, acting as a “blueprint” or a “model for large scale transition” and adaptation, according to McDonough + Partners. Once the Valley is fully developed it will be a positive business case of “continuous material loops and endless reuse, connecting history roots of the Dutch Polder and cultural landscape.” In addition, the Valley will offer support to new business development in the form of businesses (market), academia (knowledge), government (facilitating) and finance (enabling). Meanwhile, the Dutch government along with Circle Economy will continue to develop and implement programs like the Circle Cities Program, which identified opportunities to “foster a circular economy and aids in the creation of practice and scalable solutions to implement circular systems throughout a city” with the use of their Circle Scan technique.
Other examples of public, private partnerships in the Netherlands are the Circle Textiles Program, which aims to close the loop for textiles and create a zero waste industry whereby products, fabrics, and fibers are infinitely cycled through connected loops across industries in a transparent economical way. The Circle Finance Program identifies financial barriers to circular business practices and develops solutions to overcome them through case studies, financial core business, and circular money innovation.
While world leaders continue to make symbolic commitments to the environment, a team of architects, government bodies, non-profit foundations, real estate developers, and businesses is laying the groundwork for tangible, real-life educational models of how to create a more, circular world. If we focus our attention and efforts on creating a circular economy, the rest of the equation, even decreasing the rise in global warming, will fall naturally into place.
If we want to reduce emissions, cities are key. But they need to be empowered if they are to have an impact
The Paris climate agreement, already signed by more than 175 countries, was successful in large part because national governments recognized cities’ progress in reducing carbon emissions. On Thursday, as world leaders gather in Washington DC to discuss how to reach the goals set in Paris, they should focus on helping cities do even more, and act faster, to reduce those emissions.
Cities account for most of the world’s carbon emissions, and their share will continue to increase as cities increase in size. Today more than half of the world lives in cities, and by 2050, two-thirds will. Every day, the world’s cities grow by about 60 square kilometers – an area equal to New York City’s borough of Manhattan.
Dry farming forgoes modern irrigation and, farmers say, produces much tastier crops. In a drought-stricken state, should others follow suit?
There’s something different about Will Bucklin’s grape vines. At first it’s hard to notice, but a drive through northern California’s Sonoma Valley, past waves of green, manicured vineyards, makes it clear. The black ribbon of PVC irrigation pipe that typically threads the vines is curiously absent here – because Will doesn’t water his crops.
Bucklin’s Old Hill Ranch, purchased by his stepfather Otto Teller in 1980, claims to be the oldest-rooted vineyard in the area. Teller fell in love with the vineyard because it was one of the few that still “dry-farmed”. Dry farming is a method that bypasses artificial irrigation, relying instead on seasonal rainfall and working the soil in such a way that it holds on to water for the drier months.
Former premier supports legislation, which has cross-party backing, as well as campaign by dolphin advocacy group to end captivity at the state’s only dolphin park in Coffs Harbour
A legislative bid to abolish dolphin captivity in New South Wales, targeting the remaining park in the state in Coffs Harbour, has gained cross-party support as well as that of the former premier Bob Carr.
More than 85,000 people have already backed advocacy group Australia for Dolphins’ appeal to premier Mike Baird to end dolphin captivity in the state since it launched on 9 April.
Schools face water shortages and government says entire nation is affected as rainy season is forecast to be delayed by months
Behind a clutch of huts that hug the major route between Cambodia’s capital and its famed Angkor temples, rice farmers Phem Phean and Sok Khoert peer into a cement hollow.
Federal government confirms $171m allocated to the reef is recycled funding and focuses on water quality not climate change
All the $171m in funding announced in the budget for the Great Barrier Reef has come from other environmental programs, which already had significant amounts directed at conserving the reef, it emerged on Thursday.
It was also revealed that a large portion of the reallocated money will not be available for the reef until 2019, coinciding with when Unesco is scheduled to reconsider whether to categorise the reef as “in danger”.
Study finds only 1% of cities in world have such high levels of pollution that the activities could prove detrimental to health
The health benefits of cycling and walking outweigh the harm from inhaling air loaded with traffic fumes in all but the world’s most polluted cities, according to a study.
An international team of researchers who have modelled the effects say only 1% of cities in the world have such high levels of air pollution that cycling or walking could make a person’s health worse.
The need for fossil fuels is destroying regions and communities, causing war and famine in the process, argues the activist and author
Climate change is spawning injustice, racism, intolerance and wars, according to author and political activist Naomi Klein.
“It is not about things getting hotter and wetter but things getting meaner and uglier, unless we change the corrosive values that are pitting people against each other,” she said in a lecture held in memory of Palestinian literary critic and political activist Edward Said at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre on Wednesday.
