Thanks to Jack Alpert for this article.  See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115×299292

What it takes to address really big problems

by Bodhisantra Paul Chefurka on Monday, June 13, 2011 at 2:08pm

This morning I read a fascinating story on a financial investment site. It’s an article about Jeremy Grantham, the British co-founder of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a VERY large Boston-based asset management firm with more than $100 billion in assets under management. In the article he makes some remarkable comments about the state of the human world:

Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham of GMO has published a treatise on the root cause of exploding commodity prices.

Grantham concludes that the world has undergone a permanent “paradigm shift” in which the number of people on planet Earth has finally and permanently outstripped the planet’s ability to support us.

From a societal standpoint, the news is far worse. Grantham believes that the planet can only sustainably support about 1.5 billion humans, versus the 7 billion on Earth right now (heading to 10-12 billion). For all of history except the last 200 years, the human population has been controlled via the limits of the food supply. Grantham thinks that, eventually, the same force will come into play again.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115×299292

From http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/09/291788/arctic-death-spiral-sea-ice-tipping-point/ with thanks to Rod Abbott.

Arctic Death Spiral: Sea Ice Passes De Facto Tipping Point. Thanks to Deniers, Media Blow The Story, Again

Joe Romm on Aug 9, 2011 at 4:02

Arctic sea ice volume by month in cubic kilometers. The bottom (black) line is September volume. The plot makes projections with simple quadratic trend lines, which likely oversimplify matters as we approach zero volume (especially for non-summer months). But reversal of the overall death spiral is highly implausible absent an even more implausible reversal of current climate policies – policies which are promoted by denier disinformation and sustained by media stenography.

The Arctic is all but certain to be virtually ice free within two decades (barring extreme volcanic activity). I’m happy to make bets with any bloggers, like Andy Revkin, who apparently believe otherwise.

To read the full article, please click here: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/09/291788/arctic-death-spiral-sea-ice-tipping-point/

Thanks to Bryan Thompson for the information that the previous post went beyond reality.  See http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/08/blog-debunks-13-year-old-scientists-solar-power-breakthrough/41520/

Blog Debunks 13-Year-Old Scientist’s Solar Power Breakthrough

Ujala Sehgal, Aug 20, 2011

A 13-year-old who, observing trees, takes it upon himself to read up on the Fibonacci series and propose a way to better utilize solar energy is the feel-good story at its finest. So naturally, media outlets including us have been sharing the tale of seventh grader Aidan Dwyer’s solar power “breakthrough” science project. But according to the blog The Capacity Factor, the media has been getting way ahead of itself.

In short, here is the story of young Dwyer’s science finding: He was observing trees, and noticed how the branches held a spiral pattern, and wondered what would be the use of that. Looking at the Fibonacci series, which describes spirals, he also noticed that tree leaves adhered to the spiral sequence. This led him to propose arranging solar panels like oak trees leaves, a manner which would be 20 to 50 percent more efficient, energy-wise. The American Museum of Natural History rewarded him with a Young Naturalist award.

So far, so great. But The Capacity Factor, clearly unhappy with its role of the Grinch who must squash an adolescent’s science discovery, has written a post called “In which hopelessly inept journalists reduce me to having to debunk a school science project.” The post indicates about Dwyer’s discovery: “This is, I’m sad to say, clear nonsense. I’ll take this in two parts: one, why his experiment is, unfortunately, completely broken (sorry again). Two, why the imagined result is impossible nonsense.”

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/08/blog-debunks-13-year-old-scientists-solar-power-breakthrough/41520/

Thanks to Cathy Borer for this article.  See http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/13-year-old-designs-breakthrough-solar-array-based-fibonacci-sequence

NOTE: Please also see a follow up article, titled Blog Debunks 13-Year-Old Scientist’s Solar Power Breakthrough: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/08/blog-debunks-13-year-old-scientists-solar-power-breakthrough/41520/

13-Year-Old Designs Super-Efficient Solar Array Based on the Fibonacci Sequence

By Rebecca Boyle, Posted 08.19.2011 at 11:48 am

Plenty of us head into the woods to find inspiration. Aidan Dwyer, 13, went to the woods and had a eureka moment that could be a major breakthrough in solar panel design.

On a bleak winter hiking trip to the Catskill Mountains, the 7th-grader from New York noticed a pattern among tree branches, and determined (as naturalist Charles Bonnet did in 1754) that the pattern represented the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. Aidan wondered why, and figured it had something to do with photosynthesis.

In a pretty innovative experiment, this intrepid young scientist set about duplicating an oak tree, comparing its sunlight-capturing abilities to a traditional rooftop solar panel array. Guess what he found?

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/13-year-old-designs-breakthrough-solar-array-based-fibonacci-sequence

From Live Science. See: http://www.livescience.com/15640-species-shifting-climate-change.html

Warming Planet Pushing Species Out of Habitats Quicker Than Expected

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer

Date: 18 August 2011 Time: 02:00 PM ET

If you can’t take the heat, get out of the habitat. That’s exactly what many species are doing, and they’re moving at an unprecedented rate, new research suggests. The cause: our changing climate.

The researchers analyzed previous studies to determine how far more than 2,000 species of plants and animals had strayed from their native habitats. The study included regions across the globe.

All types of species studied were moving toward the poles, at an average rate of about 8 inches (20 cm) per hour, or 11 miles (17.6 km) per decade. Species are also moving upward at an average rate of about 40 feet (12.2 meters) per decade. These estimates are about three times farther than previous measures.

The researchers also correlated this with how quickly the temperature was changing in these areas. They saw that in the areas of greatest temperature increases, species were moving farther and faster.

“There wasn’t any clear overall pattern that different types of species were responding more than others,” said study researcher Chris Thomas, of the University of York in the United Kingdom. “The amount of change we are seeing is greater in the regions that have warmed the most, the link to climate change is clear.”

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.livescience.com/15640-species-shifting-climate-change.html

From Live Science. See: http://www.livescience.com/15654-greenland-glacier-record-melt.html

Greenland Glacier Shows Record Losses in 2010 and 2011

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer

Date: 19 August 2011 Time: 10:46 AM ET

Greenland’s glaciers keep shrinking as higher surface temperatures have created record mass losses in 2010 and 2011, researchers announced this week.

“Our fieldwork results are a key indication of therapid changes now being seen in and around Greenland, which are evident not just on this glacier but also on many surrounding small glaciers,” study researcher Edward Hanna said in a statement. “It’s clear that this is now a very dynamic environment in terms of its response and mass wastage to ongoing climate change.”

A glacier’s mass balance is the difference between the snow and ice it accumulates and how much of it melts and sublimates (when a solid turns directly into a gas). It is the most sensitive way of measuring climate’s effects on a glacier, the researchers said.

Mass loss is measured using a stake stuck into the glacier. The length of stake exposed is measured at the end of the melt (ablation) season, which is around August. It is measured in meters of water equivalent, the depth of the resulting melt water.

Greenland’s longest-observed glacier, Mittivakkat, showed two consecutive record losses in mass during recent melt seasons. In 2010 around 7 feet of water were lost (2.16 meters, 2 percent of the total glacier volume) and in 2011 about 8 feet (2.45 m) melted away.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.livescience.com/15654-greenland-glacier-record-melt.html

Thanks to Jane Morrison for this article.  See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltobias/2011/08/18/planet-under-siege-family-planning-critics-soon-to-see-global-population-reach-7000000000/

Planet Under Siege: Family Planning Critics Soon To See Global Population Reach 7,000,000,000

By Michael Tobias

August 18, 2011

On August 18^th, 1920, the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified as Tennessee clinched a necessary vote to become the 36^th state to duly sign on to the groundbreaking legislation – thus ensuring a woman’s right to vote throughout America. The 19^th Amendment forbids discrimination against any voter on the basis of sex. The suffragettes had struggled for years to see this long-overdue basic human right materialize.

Now, 91 years later some Tennessee lawmakers, as well as legislators in several other states, including Indiana, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, have been legally inching their way toward abolishing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and/or Title X family planning funds, specifically abortion [read: a woman's right to choose] by singularly targeting Planned Parenthood. These glaring challenges threaten not only the integrity, human rights, privacy and sovereignty of women, but are an assault on the prospects of an ecological future for the very children those who have attacked women pretend to care about.

A recent Guttmacher Institute study reveals that the rate of “unintended pregnancies in the United States ranks among the highest among the world’s most developed countries” and costs American taxpayers at least $11 billion per year. In addition, “for every dollar spent on contraception for low-income women, the government saves four dollars in medical costs within the next year by averting unwanted pregnancies,” according to Susan Cohen director of government affairs for the aforementioned Guttmacher Institute.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltobias/2011/08/18/planet-under-siege-family-planning-critics-soon-to-see-global-population-reach-7000000000/

Thanks to Cecelia Angelone for this article. See http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/gorney-text. As you may know, Population Media Center’s office in Brazil works closely with TV Globo, and the head of TV Globo’s Social Merchandising Division serves on Population Media Center’s Program Advisory Board. This article is from the September issue of National Geographic.

Machisma: How a mix of female empowerment and steamy soap operas helped bring down Brazil’s fertility rate and stoke its vibrant economy.

By Cynthia Gorney

Photograph by John Stanmeyer

José Alberto, Murilo, Geraldo, Angela, Paulo, Edwiges, Vicente, Rita, Lucia, Marcelino, Teresinha. That makes 11, right? Not including the stillbirth, the three miscarriages, and the baby who lived not quite one full day. Dona Maria Ribeiro de Carvalho, a gravelly-voiced Brazilian lady in her 88th year, completed the accounting of her 16 pregnancies and regarded José Alberto, her oldest son, who had come for a Sunday visit and was smoking a cigarette on her couch. “With the number of children I had,” Dona Maria said mildly, her voice conveying only the faintest reproach, “I should have more than a hundred grandchildren right now.”

José Alberto, who had been fishing all morning at the pond on his ranch, was still in his sweatpants. His mother’s front room in the mid-Brazil town of São Vicente de Minas was just big enough to contain three crowded-in armchairs, a television, numerous family photos, framed drawings of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, and the black vinyl couch upon which he, Professor Carvalho, retiring head of his university’s School of Economics and one of the most eminent Brazilian demographers of the past half century, now reclined. He put his feet up and smiled. He knew the total number of grandchildren, of course: 26. For much of his working life, he had been charting and probing and writing about the remarkable Brazilian demographic phenomenon that was replicated in miniature amid his own family, who within two generations had crashed their fertility rate to 2.36 children per family, heading right down toward the national average of 1.9.

To read the full article, please click here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/gorney-text

At http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv07n08page1.html you can download articles from Mother Pelican: A Journal of Sustainable Human Development. The August 2011 issue has been posted.

Theme – Confluence of Gender Equality and Clean Energy

SUMMARY

This issue continues the series on gender equality and clean energy. There is an incalculable number of vexing issues that relate, directly or indirectly, to sustainable human development. It is not unlike a ball of hair that defies combing. Hair threads (human issues) must be disentangled before they can be combed (issues resolved).

The working hypothesis that emerges from this series is that the “ball of hair” can be disentangled if, and only if, two issues are resolved: divisive gender inequalities and greasy fossil fuels. Gender inequalities are the most universal source of disunity and hostility in human affairs. In today’s world, fossil fuels provide the grease that makes the “ball of hair” sticky and practically impossible to comb.

When the original unity of man and woman was broken, thereby breaking their “unity in diversity,” social entropy (disunity, disorder, violence) ensued in human affairs. Energy is required to sustain all human activity, and social entropy requires additional energy to sustain social cohesion. In today’s world, the use of fossil fuels as a source of “cheap” energy also exacerbates physical entropy (resource depletion, GHG emissions, climate change) throughout the human habitat.

It is proposed that the confluence of cross-gender solidarity and clean energy would bring social and physical entropy to a sustainable level.

OUTLINE

The outline for this issue is as follows:

Page 1. Editorial ~ On the Confluence of Gender Equality and Clean Energy

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv07n08page1.html

From GMA News in Manila.  See http://www.gmanews.tv/story/228819/nation/sws-family-planning-a-sacred-choice-for-82-of-pinoys

SWS: Family planning a ‘sacred’ choice for 82% of Pinoys

08/09/2011 | 08:27 AM

Four out of the five Filipinos, or 82 percent, recently surveyed by pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) consider family planning as a “sacred” personal choice that should not be interfered with.

The SWS survey, conducted from June 3 to 6 among 1,200 adults, also showed Filipinos want the government to provide information and subsidize family planning methods.

The SWS, which published the on BusinessWorld, its media partner, said the 82 percent rating was 21 points higher than the 61 percent rating on the same issue in November 1990.

Personal choice

In the survey, 82 percent of the 1,200 respondents agreed with the statement “the choice of a family planning method is a personal choice of couples and no one should interfere with it.” Only 8 percent disagreed while 9 percent were undecided.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/228819/nation/sws-family-planning-a-sacred-choice-for-82-of-pinoys