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EcoVersity
2639 Agua Fria
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Office: 505.424.9797
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Google Earth
Download Google Earth and explore our planet and biosphere like never before!

E.O. Wilson Interview
NYTimes' David Pogue interviewed E.O.Wilson at length about the Encyclopedia of Life during the production of a CBS feature on the project; here is the complete interview transcript: Pogue/Wilson
New EOL Newsletter
Encyclopedia of Life has just issued their second newsletter with info on status and upcoming plans... Download PDF
$50 Billion Would Save the Rest of Life
"Seems like a bargain"- E.O. Wilson (view a LinkTV interview with E.O.Wilson)
And here is TED prize curator Chris Anderson interviewed on Charlie Rose

Green Map: Tools for Open Source Mapping of Environmental Data

Download free endangered species ringtones from the Center for Biological Diversity

Earth Negotiations Bulletin

Nuclear Threat Initiative
Former Secretaries of State Shultz and Kissinger, former Sec Def William Perry, former Sen. Nunn and other leading security experts advancing the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons...

Ted Turner, co-founder of the Initiative, gave the keynote speech at the Yale Center for Globalization Conf. on Nuclear Abolition.
(watch the video at YaleGlobal)

Update on Nuclear Threat Initiative July 08 (NYTimes)

Isabella Rosselini's Green Porn
Sundance hosts Isabella Rosselini's surprising and amusing series on creature sex. "Green Porn" includes worms, bees, the dragonfly, and more, and can be viewed online HERE

Saved By The Sun
An excellent survey from NOVA of the current state of solar power across the world. Covers the critical science, the critical policies, the technologies on the horizon. "Saved By The Sun" is airing currently and through April on PBS NOVA, and can be viewed online HERE

TED Conference videos:
A Greener Future
Inspired by Nature
Animals That Amaze
Evolution's Genius
Predictions/Warnings

TED curator Chris Anderson interviewed on Charlie Rose

Environmental Jobs Worldwide
StopDodo is a "global portal for environmental jobs and resumes" (site)

Now for Google Earth: Global Atmospheric Image Layer
Lucien Plesea at JPL has made a KML layer for Google Earth with the Terra MODIS satellite feed providing global atmospheric cloud cover and storm activity imagery each day for the entire planet. (I think this is far and away the coolest layer on Google Earth- one can finally start to get a sense of global scale atmospheric movements on a daily basis. -editor)
more info / download / KML gallery


Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Lester Brown's new book can be read or downloaded online at Earth Policy
Wed Oct 29: Lester Brown spoke at the Lensic in Santa Fe

Lord of the Ants
NOVA program: E.O Wilson and The Ants (watch online)

The Meatrix: The Saga Continues
The award-winning classic "Meatrix" is just as good now as it was when it first appeared on the web a few years ago. Since then we have "Meatrix 2: Revolting", and "Meatrix 2 1/2", where our heroes save Moopheus from a factory slaughterhouse... keep up with the saga at The Meatrix.

The Story of Stuff
Don't miss this amusing survey of the consumerist reality and it's toxic consquences. (99% of our production is trashed within 6 months!)

Do You Know What You Eat?
Drug-laced corn flakes for breakfast? Taco shells infused with detergent enzymes for dinner? Take the short quiz provided by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Ecoversity: News, Links and Resources
In this issue we focus on some new social-networking and community service sites which can be useful to the environmental movement. If you would like to suggest a particular site, or alert us to follow-up articles, use this email

GoGreenTube
GoGreenTube.com is an environmentally oriented YouTube clone, with the social networking and upload simplicity of YouTube, along with many additional features. Click on an item in the "channels" listings, and you will find a wealth of videos on the topic. Use it to discover new content and also make your own content available to a wider audience, thus driving traffic to your organization's website... (visit GoGreenTube.com)


Youtube/Ecoversity
In case you haven't yet, do visit the Ecoversity Channel at YouTube, where you can watch our own produced videos, and explore the playlists of videos we have selected for you. (YouTube/Ecoversity)

StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon has already 6 million users; many websites have set up their own channels, and we have too! Visit Ecoversity's StumbleUpon channel to see our latest discoveries- sites, news stories and more (many of which aren't yet linked from this page)... For your own individual account, StumbleUpon collects web sites, photos and videos based on your interests... (StumbleUpon)

Ecoversity Custom Google News
Maybe you haven't taken the time to customize your Google News page yet- but we did, and you will find there all the topics of interest in the Green Revolution. Scroll down below "Top Stories" for the custom content, or choose a topic from the left-hand column... (visit Ecoversity's Google News page)


Ecoversity on Facebook
Ecoversity now has a Facebook page, Join us there!

Seesmic.com
At Seesmic you can initiate and participate in video discussions on all sorts of topics, using your built-in video camera, or the Mac's iMovie application, in threaded video forums - and you can embed the player on your website. (visit Seesmic.com)
Here, for example, is a Seesmic interview by Rachel Joy with ReefCheck's Greg Hodgsen.

Mogulus.com
Sign up for your own channel at Mogulus, and you can embed a flash player on your own site which feeds your own live video stream to your website's audience, in real time! And when you are not streaming a live event, your library of video clips are available for on-demand play. Wow! (visit Mogulus.com)

Here by the way is Howard Rheingold talking on "Vernacular Video in Culture and Education". He surveys Youtube, Seesmic, Mogulus, and other aspects of the emerging new video culture. (watch Rheingold on BlipTV)

Flock- the Social Browser
Flock is a new Firefox-based browser which you can easily customize with an extravagant amount of media and feeds, social networking links and features, favorite sites and social accounts, news streams, Flickr images and videos, and more. Are you ready for massive connectivity? (Get the new Flock here)

Galaxy-Eco
From the creators of one of our favorite news sites, The Daily Galaxy, comes this eco-oriented community-content site, a great resource for finding and offering new content to a wider audience (and drive more traffic to your own website) (visit GalaxyEco.com)

Twine.com
"Twine is a new way to gather content and connect with people who share your interests. Collect online content that interests you. Share what you know and what you find. Discover new content via recommendations." Twine is one of our favorites... (visit Twine.com)

Google Earth
If Google never did anything else with all the money they make from Adsense, Google Earth alone would earn them top honors in the environmental hall of fame. You probably already use this amazing application to explore our planet; but did you know your organization can create specific kinds of data layers in what is termed KML files, which you can then distribute to your users and the world at large? Learn how to use this tremendously useful open-source aspect of Google Earth here. Google Earth has it's own learning channel at YouTube. (watch here)

Of particular interest:
Daily atmospheric layer imagery:
Lucien Plesea at JPL has made a KML layer for Google Earth with the Terra MODIS satellite feed, providing global atmospheric cloud cover and storm activity imagery each day for the entire planet. This is perhaps the coolest layer on Google Earth- one can finally get a sense of global-scale atmospheric movements over the entire planet on a daily basis. Lucien has added a new image feed from the AQUA satellite, providing a second stream of afternoon views of the planet, so the imagery refreshes twice daily.
MODIS KML info / download MODIS KML / download AQUA KML / KML gallery


Help Develop Accurate Climate Models With Your Computer's Spare Time
"Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. To do this, we need people around the world to give us time on their computers - time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity." This is a screensaver to assist in developing climate models while your computer is inactive, in a manner similar to the wildly successful SETI-at-Home application... Visit ClimatePrediction.net and get started!

ReefCheck.org
Going Diving? Visit ReefCheck.org before you go and learn how you can help save the reefs you visit while on vacation... This is a good organization with a great website... ReefCheck.org
Watch and join in on a Seesmic interview with ReefCheck's Greg Hodgsen.

Social DNS
Among many other great features, the new Firefox takes the Social DNS plug-in, offering alternative addressing in the format, for example, of go://ecoversity rather than the classic http://www.ecoversity.org. Any word in any language can be used as an address once registered. This is an open-source movement at the very beginning... if you are an organization, you might want to book your name now. (register your organization's name at SDNS... download the latest Firefox ... download the SDNS plug-in)

Arctic Warming: Triple Whammy Underway
While September's Arctic ice cover was the second smallest on record, the total amount of ice was the lowest ever, due to increasing thinning of the ice cover.
1) Disappearing ice cover in the Arctic summer is not only a gauge of global warming, it signals an impending further increase in the rate of warming, since ice reflects sunlight with an albedo coefficient of .8 to .9, (snow-white is 1.0), while open water's albedo coefficient is .07- roughly 11 times more heat-absorbant than ice. This is one of three critical feedback loops which can rapidly aggravate the problem of climate change and which seem to be underway. You can track the arctic ice loss at the Sea Ice News and Analysis website, and watch Arctic ice melting in Google Earth at the Google Earth Blog.
2) Insofar as disappearing Arctic ice cover signals a warming polar region, a second critical feedback loop may be in play already: the release of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from melting permafrost in the region. It is estimated that Arctic permafrost holds as much carbon as the entire atmosphere itself, so this feedback could be quite calamitous. (read more on the permafrost carbon pool).
3) Even More Alarming... 23 September: The UK Independent reports that "Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane - sometimes at up to 100 times background levels over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf. In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age... scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. (Independent, Methane release story)

Terra Preta, Biochar, and Soil Restoration
A consensus is emerging that ancient Amazonian Indians used "biochar" to create fertile soil deposits near inhabited areas as long as 2000 years ago. The deposits, known as "terra preta" were first discovered by the Dutch soil scientist Wim Soembrek in the 1950's. It is there that this in-depth article begins, and goes on to a wealth of information on the benefits of biochar use for soil building and remediation; with extensive references and discussions on the bio-synergies and micro-symbioses stimulated with biochar. This piece is an entire course in itself... a must read if you are interested in soils. (view article )

Top UK Scientist: Climate Crisis needs "Brain Gain"
As all eyes are focused on the debut of the Large Hadron Collider, Former UK chief scientist Sir David King used his presidential address at the British Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers, suggesting that less time and money be spent on endeavours such as space exploration and particle physics, and much more on climate change. (story)

Erwin Laszlo: Worldshift
In this article, Laszlo summarizes his forthcoming book, "Quantum Shift in the Global Brain".. (read 'Worldshift')

British Court Acquits, Rules Greenpeace Activists "Justified"
In a surprise ruling, a British jury acquitted six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage charges stemming from what the activists said was an attempt to shut down a coal-fired power plant. The jury ruled that the activists' action was justifiable because the coal plant, which emits 20,000 tons of CO2 every day, will hold some blame for immense damage caused by global warming in the future. The court allowed scientific experts to present the case, including NASA's climate expert James Hansen, the British Conservative Partys environmental adviser, and an Inuit leader from Greenland. (read story here)

FLOW- For the Love of Water
"Flow" opened Sept 12 in NYC and LA.
Robert Redford: "Water is the sleeping giant issue of the 21st Century and we all need to wake up about it.  FLOW opens our eyes about the greatest threat  of our time - the global water crisis.  It is a compelling and passionate film. Its engaging narrative will grip the viewer." (FlowtheFilm.com)

Algae Commercialization: Business Roundtable, Research and Networking Forum

The National Algae Association this forum covering species selection, production, extraction, and refining, near Houston, Texas on October 23-24, 2008 (more info)
"When the commercialization of algae arrives in the next 2-3 years, it will be a major game-changer in the first and second generation biofuels markets." -Will Thurmond, Chairman of Research and Development, National Algae Association

Algae Conferences- Delhi
Algae Biofuel Summit September 17th to 19th, 2008 in New Delhi, India under the auspices of the Growdiesel Climate Care Council. (more info)

Portland General Electric and Umatilla Indians Begin Project Using Algae to Sequester Carbon Emissions from Coal Plant
... and produce fuel and animal feed in the process... other uses include wastewater treatment, feedstock, fertilizer, chemicals for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics and even an Asian energy drink. (more)

Algae Business "Exploding"
Watch Michael Kanellos, senior policy analyst at Greentech Media, reviewing some of the latest algae research. (story and video)

Bill Gates Investing in Algae Fuel
Bill Gates' investment firm is funding Sapphire Energy, a company that intends to make biofuel from algae. (story)

New Encyclopedia of Life Newsletter
Issued September 2008, with updates about the status and plans for the near future of the fast-developing brainchild project of Edward O. Wilson. download PDF

Green Made Simple
Presenting the first comprehensive database for local, state and national incentives, rebates, and special offers on the Internet. (website)

Solar is Future
"This user-friendly, educational Web site explains how solar energy can be harvested and utilized via animation, illustrations and descriptions in easy-to-understand language." (Solar-is-Future.com)

Solar Power at Night Too
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has announced that a team of researchers has developed a thin sheet of plastic containing billions of nano antennas that are able to collect solar energy in the form of infrared radiation after the sun has gone down.  The process is cheap and once collection and storage issues are perfected, will revolutionize the solar industry. (story)
MIT: Store Solar Power at Night with Fuel Cells
Homeowners will be able to power their homes with solar power during daylight hours and use this new fuel-cell energy-storage method for electricity at night. (story)

Print Solar Cells With an Inkjet Printer
Konarka Technologies has just debuted a printable solar panel film that uses a common inkjet printing process to manufacture paper-thin photovoltaic solar cells. (story)

Locavolt Movement in the Bay Area
Technology advances in computers, telecommunications, generators, inverters and even cars are all providing locavolts - both newbies and veterans - more tools to harness renewable energy and lead a fairly normal life. (story)

Electric Cars "Time Has Come" (story)
General Motors has just presented it's Chevy Volt production model. (Volt story) The Volt is the fruit of a crash program to save the American behemoth from petrol-bankruptcy. GM is collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute, representing U.S. utility companies, to ready the nation's electric infrastructure for the widespread sale of plug-in electric cars, such as the Chevy Volt. (more on collaboration)

Geothermal Energy 2008 Conference and Expo
October 5-8. 2008, The Peppermill Resort, Spa and Casino, Reno, Nevada (more info)



Animal Rights Voted in California
"California voters have voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 2, a historic move that brings animals legal rights in the land of factory farming..." (story)

The New Obscurantism
"A foul time for thinkers. Major scientific data distributed on the sly, legal suits designed to silence critical minds, troublesome bureaucrats fired, muzzling of scientific researchers in politically incorrect venues, publicized condemnation of intellectuals who don't toe the party line ... Since the beginning of the year, the signs of outrages to the free circulation of ideas have remarkably increased pretty much throughout the country. As elsewhere in the Western world, moreover. And of necessity, these clots forming in the arteries of knowledge give one question an ever-stronger resonance: are we in the process of collectively entering a new age of obscurantism?" (read more)

Hey, Don't Worry- We Found a New Earth!
only thing is, it's 20 light years away... hmm.. better work on those warp-drives!
"An Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life, 20.5 light years away, has the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface on what is possibly the most extraordinary world to have been discovered by astronomers: the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System..." (read all about it)

from the July-August News and Links:

DNA Found to Have "Impossible" Telepathic Properties
DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. -Journal of Physical Chemistry B (story)

GM Food Promoter Transfers to Rat (and Human!) Cells In Digestive Tract
This is rather alarming... CaMV is used in nearly all genetically engineered foods. We now discover it in the cells of the digestive tract after one meal. There are some, ah, serious implications to this... (read more)

Previous Links and Resources Pages: July-August 2008 / May-June 2008 / March-April 2008

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PBS FRONTLINE: HEAT
Frontline's powerful new program on human-caused global warming can be seen online here.
"We're standing at the precipice of hell. If everybody else was to live like an American, then the planet is doomed." -Sunita Rarain, Ctr. for Science and Environment, New Delhi

Online Resources

Santa Fe Institute
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Green Money Journal
Planet Green | Global Green
EarthWatch | EarthPledge
Oceana | NASA Blue Marble
Marine Biology News
Earth Charter | Wiser Earth
Nature Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy
Mangrove Action Project
Biomimetics: Design by Nature
Biologically Inspired Design
Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
National Geographic Environment
Nature Geoscience Journal
Pew Trusts: Global Warming
GOES Realtime Products
The Tracking Project
Breathing Earth
New York Times' Dot Earth blog
Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth"
Columbia University Earth Institute
Environmental Careers Org.
Earth Studies

Earthlife: Family Portraits

Endangered Species International
EDGE of Existence
EDGE: Amphibians
Center Biological Diversity
Post Carbon | Post Carbon Cities
Inhabitat | EcoGeek
Ashoka: Environ. Innovat. Initiative
Natural Capitalism
Fields of Fuel (the movie)
Quirks and Quarks Podcasts
Survey: Solar Thermal Power
Rocky Mountain Institute
Peter Russell's 'World Clock'
Gaia Community
Deep Ecology Foundation
The Dharma House
Energy Justice Network
Seeds of Change
Architecture 2030
SustainUS | Once a Forest
The Sustainable Video Project
Journeyman Pictures
Solar Decathlon | Face It! webcast
ENGAGE the World
Lost Valley | Yestermorrow
James Martin Institute
Stop Global Warming
Wild Sanctuary
FuelEconomy.Gov
Eco-Chick
Climate Project
Natural Architecture (pics)
Regenerative Design Institute
Fairfax, California Ecofest

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip It's much later than you think!
A very cool animated film about feedback loops, tipping points, and climate change by Leo Murray. View it here, or read the script, with extensive references and additional links: "Wake up, Freak out..."

Greening Eritrea
an excellent little film by the Seawater Foundation on the great promise of seawater farming in creating vibrant ecosystems and nourishing local economies in the world's desert coastal regions. (watch video)

Willem Malten Interview KSFR
Willem Malten talks about Ecoversity's mission and activities, peak food, and the worldwide problem of rising prices and falling supply of wheat and other basic foodstuffs. (audio interview, KSFR Radio)
see Willem's Vortex blog

Future Wonders of Green Tech
Great pictures, from the WebUrbanist (article)

Vince Buber's "Backyard Bugs"

The Wild Horses of Newbury
Greens were filming the tragic destruction of two great old oaks of Newbury, when an amazing thing happened... watch the video