Saturday, January 21, 2006

It's all about trade-offs We continue to ignore or debate, squandering the thing we have the least of - time. Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy But people must begin to manage its ecosystems to put the planet on a sustainable path, a new report says. By Peter N. Spotts, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor,  January 20, 2006 edition ...Thursday, officials released a five-volume coda to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an ambitious four-year attempt to explore the relationship between the environment and human development. Summary reports of the findings as they affected four international environmental treaties were released last year. These new volumes represent the detailed information that underpins the earlier reports. In the process, it outlines four plausible ways the planet could develop politically, economically, and socially by 2050, and the effect they would have on people and the environment.... Even under the most environmentally beneficial paths, however, ecological trouble spots are likely to remain - central Africa, the Middle East, and southern Asia. In the end, Carpenter says, "there is no optimum approach, no one-size-fits-all. It's all about trade-offs." To put the planet on a sustainable path, he continues, the report makes clear that people must view Earth's ecosystems as one interlinked system, rather than as fragments.... Unfortunately, humans have "badly mismanaged" the ecosystems that support them," says Walter Reid, a professor with Stanford University's Institute for the Environment and director of the assessment. "We need to manage for the full range of ecosystem benefits, not just those that pass through markets."... Why did NASA kill a climate change project? Few Americans have heard of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, but the entire world may come to mourn its passing. [Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune] Bus Data Detects Traffic Snarls  By Joanna Glasner, Wired, ...The university's Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Program began collecting bus data close to seven years ago. The data feeds MyBus, a web and text-messaging service that notifies commuters about delays. Seattle-area bus commuters use the service about 5 million times a month, Dailey said Now, the researchers have attached sensors to city buses to detect when they are moving slowly, as part of a prototype traffic-alert system. During rush hour, traffic can move as slowly as 10 mph along commuter routes. Highway traffic speeds are relatively easy to measure because traffic rarely stops. Many municipalities, including Seattle, use inductive loop detectors embedded in roadways to record when cars pass by. But that technology isn't as effective for measuring speeds on routes with traffic lights, Dailey said, partly because it's unclear whether a car is slowing because of congestion or a yellow light.... 10:05:18 AM    comment []

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