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Microloans
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Social Entrepreneurship
Sustainable Energy
Sustainable Transportation
Also Try
- Ecology
- Globalization in Business
- Green Living
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Sustainable Architecture
- Sustainable Living
- The Future
- Water Pollution and Conservation
- Globalization Issues (Awesome Library)
- Provides sources that discuss the pros and cons of globalization and "Americanization." 8-02
- Green Building Structures (GlobalGreen.org)
- Provides resources to assist in building green. 02-07
- Sustainable Resources by Topic (Ecosustainable.com.au)
- Provides links by topic. 02-06
- African News for Sustainable Health and Peace (AllAfrica.com)
- Provides news related to water, health, agriculture, and biodiversity.
- -Editorial: Pass the Bread (CommonDreams.org - Bill Moyers)
- "Bread is life. But if you're like me you have a thousand and more times repeated the ordinary experience of eating bread without a thought for the process that brings it to your table. The reality is physical: I need this bread to live. But the reality is also social: I need others to provide the bread. I depend for bread on hundreds of people I don't know and will never meet. If they fail me, I go hungry. If I offer them nothing of value in exchange for their loaf, I betray them. The people who grow the wheat, process and store the grain, and transport it from farm to city; who bake it, package it, and market it--these people and I are bound together in an intricate reciprocal bargain. We exchange value."
"This reciprocity sustains us."
- -Sustainable Planet (Awesome Library - Adams)
- Describes the most important few things that can be done to reduce pollution, reduce global warming, and save our forests, as well as improve the availability of drinkable water for the future. 11-00
- Biomimicry (Time.com - Amory B. Lovins)
- "[Janine] Benyus draws her design inspiration from nature's wisdom, not people's cleverness. Some 3.8 billion years of evolution have exposed the design flaws of roughly 99% of nature's creations — all recalled by the Manufacturer. The 1% that have survived can teach powerful lessons about how things should be built if they're to last. For example, nature's design genius has led to the creation of bat-inspired ultrasonic canes for the blind, synthetic sheets that collect water from mist and fog as desert beetles do, and paint that self-cleans like a lotus leaf. Little plastic-film patches have been designed using adhesiveless gecko-foot technology, so that carpet tiles can be stored in a big roll, but also easily removed. Equally promising, we'll soon make solar cells like leaves, supertough ceramics that resemble the inner shells of abalone, and underwater glue that mimics the natural as forests." 10-07
- Desalination by a Solar Sustainable Method (Seawater Greenouse)
- "The Seawater Greenhouse is a unique concept which combines natural processes, simple construction techniques and mathematical computer modelling to provide a low-cost solution to one of the world's greatest needs – fresh water. The Seawater Greenhouse is a new development that offers sustainable solution to the problem of providing water for agriculture in arid, coastal regions."
"The process uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distil fresh water from seawater. This enables the year round cultivation of high value crops that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to grow in hot, arid regions." 05-07
- Design for the Other 90 Percent of Us (Business Week)
- Describes innovations that help the 90 percent of the people of the world in developing countries.
- Eden Project (Wikipedia.org)
- "The Eden Project has quickly become one of the most popular visitor attractions in the United Kingdom. The complex includes two sets of giant interconnected transparent domes made of ETFE cushions, each emulating a natural biome, that house plant species from around the world. The first emulates a tropical environment, the other a warm temperate, mediterranean environment." 06-07
- Globalization Issues (About.com - Porter)
- Discusses the pros and cons of globalization and "Americanization." "Globalization will always have cheerleaders who are blind to the destruction globalization can cause. And it will always have strident opponents blind to the way globalization gives some people their first opportunity to fulfill basic aspirations."
"As with most issues, the majority of people will be in the middle. They will see globalization not as something to worship or demonize. Instead, they will see it as something to mold, shape and manage for the betterment of everyone."
- Globalization and Cultural Diversity (Cultural Collaboratory - Breidenbach and Zukrigl)
- Argues that globalization may create new and healthy forms of cultural diversity.
- Globalization and Poverty (Globalization Website)
- Discusses whether globalization causes poverty.
- Report: Conflicts Over Water and Food Could Intensify (Christian Science Monitor)
- "For years, the debate over global warming has focused on the three big 'E's': environment, energy, and economic impact. This week it officially entered the realm of national security threats and avoiding wars as well."
"As quoted in the Associated Press, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who presided over the UN meeting in New York April 17, posed the question 'What makes wars start' The answer:"
" 'Fights over water. Changing patterns of rainfall. Fights over food production, land use. There are few greater potential threats to our economies ... but also to peace and security itself.' " 04-07
- Sustainable Development (Wikipedia.org)
- "Sustainable Development is an umbrella that attempts to bridge the divide between economic growth and environmental protection, while taking into account other issues traditionally associated with development. It seeks to develop means of supporting economic growth while supporting biodiversity, relieving poverty and without using up natural capital in the short term at the expense of long term development. While many definitions of the term have been introduced over the years, the most commonly cited definition comes from the report Our Common Future, more commonly known as the Brundtland Report, which states that sustainable development is development that 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'." 11-06
- Sustainable Development Education (USPartnership.org)
- "The U.S. Partnership consists of individuals, organizations and institutions in the United States dedicated to education for sustainable development (ESD). It acts as a convener, catalyst, and communicator working across all sectors of American society." 11-13
- Sustainable Development and Health (IAEA.org)
- Provides feature stories. 04-06
- Sustainable Planet Development (BBC News)
- Provides a summary of the current status of use of the Earth's resources in each major area of use, such as water. "According to one recent study, the human race is consuming the Earth's resources at a rate that is 20% faster than it can replenish itself, with the result that we would need 1.2 Earths to sustain this lifestyle."
"In principle, sustainable development means not using up resources faster than the Earth can replenish them - 'treating the Earth as if we intended to stay'."
"Our record for managing to think ahead is poor. Professor James Lovelock has said humans are as qualified to be stewards of the Earth as goats are to be gardeners." 10-10
- The Future of Sustainable Planet Development: Bjorn Lomborg (BBC News)
- "For just $75bn a year, the UN estimates that we could solve all major problems in the Third World, giving clean drinking water, sanitation, basic health care and education to everyone in developing world. This is less than half the projected annual cost of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change from 2010 onwards." 02-06
- The Future of Sustainable Planet Development: Five Views (BBC News)
- Provides five views of the future. 02-06
- The Future of Sustainable Planet Development: Vandana Shiva (BBC News)
- "Get rid of WTO free trade agreements on agriculture. I think food needs to be seen as an ecological, cultural, ethical and democratic issue – it cannot be defined by global corporations trading in commodities and working out their profits." 02-06
- Water Pollution and Conservation (IAEA.org)
- Provides an overview of the world situation. 04-06
- World Population - Ancient to 1950 (U.S. Census Bureau)
- Provides estimates of world population from 10,000 B.C. to 1950 A.D. Estimates place the population of 12,000 year ago at between one and ten million people. At 8,500 years ago the maximum number of people was still estimated to be ten million. For 6500 years or more the population of the earth may have been stable.
"By 1500 A.D. the estimated population of the earth was 500 million. By 1800, 300 years later, the population had doubled to about a billion people. By 1930, 130 years later, it doubled again to 2 billion people. By 1975, 45 years later, world population doubled again to 4 billion. It is estimated to take until 2025, 50 years later, to attain another doubling of world population to 8 billion."
Editor's Note: Current world water, food, and fossil fuel supplies cannot sustain the last projected doubling of population.
- Best Practices in Sustainable Development (BLPNet.org)
- "The Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP) is a global network of institutions dedicated to the identification and exchange of successful solutions for sustainable development."
- Hand-Crank or Foot Treadle Power (JLRyan.com)
- The Freecharge Weza is a versatile, robust energy source providing totally dependable power for emergency situations and everyday use in remote applications. Unlike similar power packs, in emergency situations, or when power is not available, the Weza can be energized using only your legs by stepping on the innovative foot treadle. Depending on input effort electrical energy is created at between 25 and 40 Watts." "Provides power to products via a 12 V DC cigarette lighter adapter." "The Weza can also be fully charged from either an AC or DC source when available e.g. wall, car charger or solar (solar option not supplied) accepting 110V to 240V AC and DC from 13V to 21V." Costs $215.
"Amid continuing political challenges, economic hardship and disease, lack of reliable energy remains a primary obstacle to poverty eradication, which is most prevalent in rural areas. However, the transmission and distribution costs of extending grid electricity to dispersed rural communities, where some 2.8 billion people in the world live, are high. De-centralized energy technologies are thus the only immediate and effective solution." 02-08
- Sustainable Products (BranchHome.com)
- Provides products that are easy on the environment. Awesome Library does not endorse these products but provides them as examples. 02-07