Smoke Break #734: China To Build Bus That Dominates Cars

Via HuffPo:

China may have found an environmentally friendly way to save money while easing congestion on city roads, Engadget reports. Instead of spending millions to widen roads, the Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment company is developing a “3D Express Coach” (also called a “three-dimensional fast bus”) that will allow cars less than 2 meters high to travel underneath the upper level carrying passengers.

The first 115 miles of track will start being laid in Beijing’s Mentougou district at the end of this year.

Eyjafjallajökull Eruption Not Such A Bad Thing After All

Perhaps those people stuck in airport lounges should relax while Iceland’s Mt. Eyjafjallajökull continues to erupt and they see their 6th scheduled flight canceled, happy in the knowledge that a volcano thwarted their comparatively small plans instead of, you know, something a little less awesome, like being broke. So sorry I’m late. Twas a volcano, don’t you know…

The earth seems to want us all on the ground for the moment. That’s fine by me, if for no other reason than there is data that suggests it’s doing us all a favour.

New Species Of Crab Discovered Just Before Going Extinct

The saddest story in the world as of 2pm today comes to us via the Huffington Post:

“A marine biologist says he has discovered a new crab species off the coast of southern Taiwan that looks like a strawberry with small white bumps on its red shell.

National Taiwan Ocean University professor Ho Ping-ho says the crab resembles the species living in the areas around Hawaii, Polynesia and Mauritius. But it has a distinctive clam-shaped shell about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) wide, making it distinct.

Taiwanese crab specialist Wang Chia-hsiang confirmed Ho’s finding.

Ho said Tuesday his team found two female crabs of the new species last June off the coast of Kenting National Park, known for its rich marine life. The crabs died shortly thereafter, possibly because the water in the area was polluted by a cargo ship that ran aground.”

And just like that, the strawberry crab enters and exits. No word yet on what the researchers ate instead.

Endangered Island Nation Holds Underwater Cabinet Meeting…

When the world’s top scientists tell you that your entire nation is in imminent danger of being flooded over because sea levels are on the rise as a consequence of global warming, and then you learn that the rest of the tardonaut world could give a shit because there’s this kid in a balloon, see, and plus that dude from Twilight has such pretty bone structure, it’s time to get creative (via Treehugger):

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, and his ministers yesterday held an official cabinet meeting underwater as part of an international movement organized by 350.org to bring increased global attention to climate change.

As far as stunts go, I say gold, just maybe not as hot as balloon boy. Maybe if Fox gave the country its own reality show? I dunno. Since 80% of their 1,200 islands are just 1 meter above sea level, there can’t be much future in it, maybe 3 seasons, tops. Read more on the meeting and the Maldives’ battle after the leap… Read more

Whitening Clouds With Sea Salt Might Postpone Climate Change

A few months ago I posted a few thoughts on several inventive last ditch efforts scientific solutions to the many coalescing problems currently screwing the planet. Some bordered on the humorously bizarre, while others had more than just a slight whiff of feasibility. Tonight I’m particularly digging this one, which sees mankind building 2000 robotic yachts to inject a super fine spray of sea salt from the oceans into maritime stratocumulus clouds. Read more

5ft Shark Taken on Miami Train Dies, Abandoned In The Street…

AP PHOTO | a dead nurse shark lies in the middle of a Miami street...

From CNN: “After a short ride on Miami’s elevated Metromover train, a dead shark turned up in the middle of the street, in the middle of the city, in the middle of the night, police said.” The mystery began Sunday when a Metromover passenger took a photo of the shark, bleeding and gasping, as it lay on the floor of the train. Read the full story after the jump. Read more

The Super Freaky Dangerous Politics Of Saving Mother Earth

From Eli Kintisch in Slate this morning:

Add this to your list of climate nightmare scenarios: In 2040, facing rising seas, the Qatari government starts polluting the stratosphere in order to cool the planet, precipitating an international crisis and possibly upsetting monsoon patterns.

Freelance atmospheric modification may sound far-fetched, but the potboiler concept was on the agenda last week at an invitation-only, international workshop in Lisbon, Portugal. The private event was the first global powwow designed to explore the political aspects of geoengineering, or the deliberate manipulation of the climate. About 30 scientists and bureaucrats, representing 14 nations, mulled over the implications of global climate control in a wood-paneled conference room. Read more

Icarus Shrugged: Could Risky Science Defeat Global Warming?

Is your house under water?

Let’s say for the sake of bumming you and me out that we’ve passed the point of no return with global warming. Many scientists believe we already have, that even if every nation on earth immediately curbed their greenhouse gas emissions by 100% it wouldn’t make a difference. The back door to salvation thus shut, what would we do? Aside from moving inland away from the coasts and toasting goodbye to Shanghai, LA, Cape Town, New York, Montevideo, and…gulp…quite a bit of the Lower Mainland, we’d probably fight amongst ourselves, blame everyone but ourselves, and generally embarrass ourselves like we haven’t done as a species since Read more

The Genius Of Ethical And Environmental Ads

Some poignant and very clever ethical, animal rights, and environmental ads and posters from Greenpeace, WWF, and many others have been making the rounds in print and on the web of late. Whenever I see a good one I stick it in a drawer thinking that I’ll put it up in a post, but I never get round to it. This morning I looked in that drawer and found it overflowing. After a quick cull (no pun intended), I’ve pulled together what I consider to be the top 20 of the bunch, scaled below in descending order of awesomeness.

Number Twenty

"Give a hand to wildlife" - WWF

Number Nineteen

"Disgusting, isn't it?" - IFAW

Number Eighteen

"Not only a tree is cut down" - Greenpeace

Number Seventeen

"Save the world with a few coins" - WWF

Number Sixteen

"Homeless elephant"

Number Fifteen

"Food for a week: 4 euros" - People In Need

Number Fourteen

"50 liters of fresh water: 1.50 euros" - People In Need

Number Thirteen

"The Hunt For The Very Last Whale" - Greenpeace

Number Twelve

"Winter, you'll miss it when it's gone" - Greenpeace

Number Eleven

"Stop Global Warming" - WWF

Number Ten

"Don't buy exotic animal souvenirs" - WWF

Number Nine

"Save paper. Save the planet" - WWF

Number Eight

"Dead or Alive" - Greenpeace

Number Seven

"Great Bear" - Greenpeace

Number Six

"You don't have to join us to join us" - Greenpeace

Number Five

"Forests for life" - WWF

Number Four

"They weren't born to be worn" - Safe

Number Three

"Cropped" - WWF

Number Two

"Stop climate change before it changes you" - WWF

Number One

"Desperate Housewives" - Greenpeace

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Andrew Morrison is a west coast boy who studied history and classics at the Universities of Cape Town and Toronto after an adolescence spent riding skateboards and working in restaurants. He is the editor of Scout Magazine, the weekly food and restaurant columnist for the Westender newspaper, a contributor to Vancouver and Western Living magazines, and a proud board member of the Chef’s Table Society of BC. He lives and works by the beach in Vancouver.

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It Ain’t Easy Being Green

"This is no Daniel Plainview from ‘There Will Be Blood,’ and I’m in."

How can you sustain – pardon the pun – the green movement when economies are melting; investments, housing prices, and gas prices are all dropping rapidly; carbon taxes have been shown to be political suicide; and tough, expedient choices are being forced on governments and individuals both here and abroad? Despite making serious inroads in the global conversation, is being green at a crossroads today?

Here are five things that’ve been making me wonder…

The Green Press: Will magazine and newspapers devote ink to Green? Obviously the news cycle can’t turn on a dime over night, as witnessed by the latest issue of Vancouver Magazine, which has a rather untimely cover story and massive feature entitled “The New Green”. Probably won’t see that kind of feature coverage for a while as the top stories all refocus on the economy. We are all hobos now.

Adventures in Green Shifts: During the last election, ‘green’ was already under the gun. Stephane Dion got beat up, badly, on carbon taxes and ‘Green Shifts’, when he wasn’t busy ceding the election to Stephen Harper. And seeing Green Party Deputy Leader Adrian Carr’s campaign call for help from “light-greens, dark-greens, and all greens in-between” should have been a warning sign to a movement that is incapable of a single electoral victory or a coherent political ‘strategery’. Pretty sure people will figure out that voting green isn’t getting them anywhere (though I’m sure people have said that about the Bloc, Reform, and the NDP).

Green Fail: Al Gore and others spent millions creating multimillion-dollar ad campaigns all year, and when was the last time you heard Obama or McCain even talk about the environment? Back in August? The Dow drops below 8,000…$700 billion bailouts…and the most you’ll get is either lip service to a few green jobs or pandering to ‘drill baby, drill.’ If the green movement couldn’t articulate and win at $160 a barrel, how does it stand a chance when its back down at $60, unemployment is up, and housing prices are down? This is exactly what happened in ’73, in ’79 and already we see stocks of alternative energy companies falling hard. Funny how a person’s greenness is directly related to the green in their wallets.

I drink your milkshake: Given this, how good does someone like T. Boone Pickens sound to people who are worried about their pocket books when he spends millions of his own money to plain talk you through his dead simple plan? He’s an oil drilling billionaire cowboy saying he can solve pretty much every problem, including the economy, through wind and natural gas. This is no Daniel Plainview from ‘There Will Be Blood,’ and I’m in. It has nothing to do with green policy and everything to do with that green money. When in doubt, follow the Rich Texan from ‘The Simpsons’.

Green Politics: So what will voters do today in Vancouver’s two by-elections, where some say the largest amount of environmentalists per capita live? Too bad “the three key issues,” according to The Province’s John Bermingham, “are the homeless evictions and rent hikes, and the fate of St. Paul’s Hospital.” Will the environment even end up as top issue by the time we vote, for real again, in 6-months? Maybe. Think Gordon Campbell will run to or from his carbon tax? He’s still running green ads now, but come springtime it will be all government is awesome and spending all the time.

Bottom line: The green movement better find a way to stay relevant pretty quick, or they’ll be in epic fail territory quick.

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