- I had a fascinating dream last weekend that revealed happiness persevering through major shifts that required our society to down-size and share far more. The underlying assumption, of course, is that there was enough food. Utilizing space twice to include food and power could/should become the norm. If/when food becomes very expensive, would you rather be living in a standard apartment or in this one? - Editor

South Bronx New York housing complex will feature a 10,000 square foot fully integrated rooftop farm

The Blue Sea Development Corporation has a reputation for integrating emerging environmental technologies into high quality, affordable housing developments across New York City. Their new state of the art affordable housing complex planned for the South Bronx, NY, will feature a 10,000 square feet (930 sq meters) fully integrated rooftop farm, designed by BrightFarm Systems. The greenhouse will use left-over heat from the residential portion of the building and water harvested from the greenhouse roof. The farm will be used to provide fresh, perishable vegetables to a local non-profit food cooperative. The rooftop farm will be able to supply enough produce to meet the annual fresh vegetable needs of up to 450 people. Like many inner city, low income communities, the South Bronx suffers from food deserts, where residents lack access to fresh vegetables at affordable prices. The rooftop farm will make a significant contribution to food access and public health in the neighborhood.
For Complete Article - Click Here
For website- http://brightfarmsystems.com/projects/blue-sea-developments-new-york

- Years ago when I took corporate executives to Biosphere 2 for transformational rethinking of our planet’s limits, now this astonishing facility has evolved and continues to offer real opportunities. Visitors welcome! - Editor

Biosphere 2’s Second Chapter: Climate Change
Biosphere 2 was sold to an investment company, which, in turn, allowed New York’s Columbia University to manage the property. Under Columbia’s supervision, the focus of the project shifted to the study of how the high concentrations of carbon dioxide inside the structures affected plant life. Biosphere 2, it turned out, was a great laboratory for tracking the effects of climate change on a number of different ecosystems.

“They were able to show that as more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere, coral reefs are endangered and die off,” said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, who now oversees Biosphere 2. Researchers at the University of Arizona have made important findings about the effects of drought on varying species of trees planted inside the biosphere more than two decades ago.

According to Ruiz, Biosphere 2’s initial attempts at creating a fully enclosed system have produced a unique tool to study a similarly enclosed environment: Earth’s. “Because of its scale, there is no other facility like it. It has become one of the best places to study the effects of climate change.”
http://www.sphere.com/2010/01/11/biosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change/19312078/?icid=main|search3|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2F2010%2F01%2F11%2Fbiosphere-2s-second-chapter-climate-change%2F19312078%2F
For more information about the lectures, or for tour prices and hours of operation, call 520-838-6200 or visit the Biosphere 2 website - http://www.b2science.org/.
For an article on how trees respond to drought with increased temperatures inside Biosphere 2- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uoa-b2e040809.php

Several environmental groups are threatening to sue coal producer Massey Energy Co. for what they claim are more than 12,000 violations of pollution laws. The Sierra Club and several West Virginia groups said Monday they’ve given Massey a notice that gives the company 60 days to reach a settlement or face a lawsuit. The groups claim Massey has continued with the same pattern of violations covered by a $20 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency two years ago.
They’re claiming violations are detailed in quarterly reports Massey gives the EPA under terms of the earlier settlement. Among other things, they claim Massey violated effluent limits at various operations nearly 1,000 times from April 2008 through March 2009. “Remarkably, Massey’s violations have grown more frequent after the settlement with the EPA.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_massey_lawsuit_west_virginia;_ylt=App0zVRCPFwbICm4r9bewmppl88F;_ylu=X3oDMTM2ZXNtdDdwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTExL3VzX21hc3NleV9sYXdzdWl0
X3dlc3RfdmlyZ2luaWEEcG9zAzE0BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xr
A2Vudmlyb25tZW50YQ–

That’s the conclusion of one of the first analyses to explore the relationships among energy use, mid-century targets and long-term policy options, published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study establishes the notion of “feasibility frontiers,” the point at which end-of-century goals become unobtainable or increasingly unlikely unless specific mid-century benchmarks are met.
The study also for the first time establishes odds of hitting specific long-term targets. If energy demand remains high, for instance, it finds that even if the world’s governments manage to cut global emissions in half by 2050 and then do everything possible to limit emissions from 2050 on, society has only even odds of limiting global temperature increases to 2º, a goal noted in the recent Copenhagen Accord. “The long-term target discussion, as important as it is, is less important than the interim,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist and policy expert at Princeton University. Emissions today are on a path toward 550 ppm or beyond. If a 50 percent emissions cut is deemed too expensive for today’s economies, and emissions instead remain flat for the next few decades – no easy feat in itself – the chances of holding atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 480 parts per million or less evaporate.
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/01/disappearing-options

In a vivid example of how a small geographic feature can have far-reaching impacts on climate, new research shows that water levels in the Bering Strait helped drive global climate patterns during ice age episodes dating back more than 100,000 years. The international study found that the repeated opening and closing of the narrow strait due to fluctuating sea levels affected currents that transported heat and salinity in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As a result, summer temperatures in parts of North America and Greenland oscillated between warmer and colder phases, causing ice sheets to alternate between expansion and retreat and affecting sea levels worldwide. Hu and his colleagues set out to solve a key mystery of the last glacial period: Why, starting about 116,000 years ago, did northern ice sheets repeatedly advance and retreat for about the next 70,000 years? The enormous ice sheets held so much water that sea levels rose and dropped by as much as about 100 feet (30 meters) during these intervals.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100110151325.htm

- The major changes we so desperately need may not initially go smoothly. The French President thankfully continues his pursuit of a carbon tax, despite this setback. The implications of carbon tax are tremendous, especially if it gets adopted by the EU. The Constitutional Council said the proposed tax was rejected because it did not treat all companies equally. In the initial law, heavy industries were not made taxable because they are already covered by the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme. - Editor

The French government has vowed to press ahead with reformed plans for a national carbon tax, after the French Constitutional Council last week blocked the original proposal. Chantal Joanno, France’s junior minister for ecology, announced late last week that a new version of the controversial tax legislation will be put before parliament next month and could still come into force as early as April. Last Tuesday, the Council ruled against the tax, which aimed to introduce a levy of €17 ($24) a tonne on oil, coal and gas consumption.
The Constitutional Council ruled against the legislation on the grounds that it offered too many exemptions, arguing that 93 per cent of industrial emissions were exempt from the levy. (Sarkozy said) that the tax would serve to establish France as “the world leader of non-carbon energies, by developing renewable energy and drawing on its industrial know-how”.
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255525/sarkozy-fight-save-french