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Tuesday, November 15, 2005 |
[Worldchanging.com]: The government of the People's Republic of China now plans to spend $156.6 billion on new environmental protections over the next four years, according to Xie Zhenhua, the PRC's top environmental official. The money will pay for, among other things, improvements in 'urban sewage treatment, water treatment in major river basins, ecosystem conservation, nuclear radiation safety, and environmental management.
Many have questioned both the seriousness of the Chinese push to green it's economy, and it's ability to get the job done. This kind of investment -- representing as it does more than 1.5% of China's GDP -- is a positive signal in both directions.
Since 'as China goes, so goes the planet,' this could be good news indeed. (1.5% of GDP sounds like a lot; does anyone know how that figure compares with other countries?)
10:45:54 PM 
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The 72 hour Habitat JAM, an 'unprecedented online global dialogue on urban sustainability,' is coming 1-3 December, 2005.
Sponsored by the Government of Canada, in partnership with UN-HABITAT and IBM, the Habitat JAM promises to engage, empower and stimulate tens of thousands of global citizens, rich and less fortunate alike, with the ultimate goal of turning ideas into action on critical issues related to urban sustainability.
Here's the slightly breathless hype:
Tens of Thousands of World Citizens Unite Online to Debate Urban Sustainability Issues
Open to everyone interested in creating a better world.
Come for an hour or stay online for three days
Register www.habitatjam.com
Sounds cool nonetheless
10:18:14 PM
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Joel Makower got to the heart of yesterday's story on Sun MicroSystems' new environmental initiatives before I could get back to it. I'm absorbed in work on the Sustainable Business Rating System (and other projects), so I'm going to leave this one to him:
The major server manufacturers -- Sun, HP, IBM, Dell, and others -- have been vying to improve server energy efficiency for years; the 2000-2001 energy crisis in California, where roughly one in five servers lives, was a giant impetus. But Sun seems to have ratcheted up the competition a notch or two....
McNealy has long been championing Sun's 'thin-client' strategy, in which individuals log on to a server that contains, in effect, their desktop, including all of their programs and documents, just the way they left them. That strategy -- McNealy calls it DOIP, for 'Desktop Over Internet Protocol,' eliminates much of individual computers' innards -- hard drives, memory chips, fans, and more. (Thereby eliminating, as McNealy puts it, 'a personal space heater on everybody's lap or workspace.') And it means not having to upgrade your hardware every time Microsoft (or whomever) introduces a radical new operating system or software suite; the latest version lives in the server. It also facilitates "commute-free remote access work environments for employees," enabling employees to work from anywhere, thereby eliminating office space (about half of Sun's employees don't work from company offices). That saves even more energy and improves worker productivity.
Then all I'll need is a thin-client laptop and ubiquitous WiFi. (Or maybe an inkpen and notepad and a nice shady tree.)
10:13:21 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Gil Friend.
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