-

The NEA Eco Music Challenge is back!

Eco Music Challenge 2011 is an online song-writing competition organised by the National Environment Agency (NEA) for talented and passionate individuals to express their appreciation and support for our beautiful environment through music.

This year, we have (the awesome) Inch Chua on board to inspire everyone to write a song for a cleaner and greener world. On top of that, the top 3 winners will get to perform their song at Timbre @ The Substation! Sounds like fun?

Check out this year’s prizes:

Closing date for entries is 20th June 2011.

Visit the NEA Eco Music Challenge Website for more details. Also, like their Facebook page.

-

Oh yes, and if you missed out on last year’s competition, you can watch the 2 min video below to get up to speed.

-
So what are you waiting for? Start writing and submitting your songs NOW!

(and send this info to all your musically talented friends)

-

From Economic Times:

The United Nations telecommunications agency on 12 April launched a contest that will reward the winner with $10,000 for devising the most innovative “app,” or mobile telephone application, that tackles the subject of climate change. 

The winner of the Green ICT Applications Challenge, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), will also have their application showcased at the international climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, in December. 

ITU officials said they hoped the contest would allow developers to “think outside the box” and devise an application that could contribute to the mitigation of climate change, particularly in poorer countries. 

“We have seen how ubiquitous apps have become and how useful they can be,” said Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary-General of the ITU. “We are excited to see what developers will create to influence this truly global problem.” 

Many applications already target carbon footprints, ITU said in a press release issued at its headquarters in Geneva. This contest hopes to elicit applications focusing on such issues as eco-design, the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions and disaster relief. 

The agency, which is accepting entries for any kind of software tool or game, whether for the web, a personal computer or mobile telephone, said the cut-off date will be 17 June. The cash prize is being provided by sponsors RIM and Telefonica.

*

Click on the pic for big.

Straits Times: ADOPTING an environmentally sustainable approach to doing business has become increasingly important to companies worldwide.

A soon-to-be-released report by KPMG has found that 62 per cent of companies surveyed have a corporate sustainability strategy, an almost 12 per cent increase from a similar 2008 survey.

Conducted in October last year, the survey polled 378 senior executives from various sectors worldwide. An executive summary of the KPMG report has been obtained by The Straits Times.

Meeting regulatory requirements was the key driver for many companies to make the switch towards becoming sustainable, said the report. Other factors include risk management, brand enhancement and meeting cost reductions.

Public policies, like taxes that favour sustainable products and services, can motivate more companies to go green.

But many businesses are hindered by a lack of awareness about how to use these existing policies to their competitive advantage, said KPMG’s special global adviser on climate change and sustainability, Mr Yvo de Boer.

Mr de Boer, a former top United Nations climate-change official, said this behaviour is more common in countries such as Singapore which have economies that are vulnerable to international competition. ‘I think Singapore is showing leadership in a number of areas. Water is a very clear one,’ he said.

The report also pointed out that taking a greener approach to running businesses could spur companies to improve or create new products.

Mr de Boer said many energy-intensive companies are keen to reduce emissions and change the way they operate, but felt they would be able to do so only if there was an international framework that would impose the same constraints and penalties on all companies globally.

He said: ‘(Companies) need clarity from the government to get a clear sense of direction on where they want to go in policy terms. If the result of climate-change policy is that economic activity just moves somewhere else, then what’s the point.’

You read that right, it might actually happen sometime soon.

OK, maybe not so soon…

From Eco-Friend: A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a new technique to spin yarns out of powders such as boron and magnesium. The research could eventually be used to create wearable power supplies that can recharge portable electronic devices. Powders are important functional materials because they have a high surface area, but they are difficult to use without any form.

The research team at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a technique whereby spraying a web of nanotubes with the powder allows it to be twisted into a yarn. These nano-yarns could be used to produce self-cleaning materials or energy generating clothes.

-

Bet you didn’t think of this when you heard the term “Sustainable Fashion”!

We all know overweight doctors, dentists with cavities, and bankers who aren’t saving enough for retirement. Yet, talking to many folks who are deeply committed to environmental salvation, you wouldn’t know that to be true. Many of our clients and friends in the environmental community consistently say things like, “If only Americans really understood how their daily actions are damaging the planet, they’d change their ways. We must help them see this! We must educate them!”

Not so much.

We poll Americans four times a year to track their shifting opinions about all things energy and environment-related, to fuel the development of our creative campaigns (we’re an ad agency), and we consistently see that knowing stuff doesn’t make folks want to change. In fact, some Americans are pretty dug in.

Only 48 percent of the American population currently believes that global warming is happening and caused by humans. Of those who aren’t sure or flat-out don’t believe, we’ve asked: “Which of the following scenarios would convince you that climate change is a real and immediate threat and cause you to make dramatic changes in your lifestyle? You wake up one morning and find out that…” followed by a list of possible “nightmare” environmental scenarios, which have all been cited as real possibilities by climate scientists:

• The polar ice cap has melted.
• Kids can no longer go outside and play due to consistently dangerous ozone/pollution levels.
• Shifting weather patterns/lack of rain is turning Nebraska into a desert.
• There are only 20 polar bears estimated to be left living in the wild.
• Residents of American Samoa are having to be relocated due to rising tides.

One-quarter (27 percent) of those who don’t believe global warming is happening said NONE of these scenarios would convince them that it’s happening, and another 24 percent said one or more would convince them but they’d be unlikely to make changes.

So…educating Americans about all the horrible outcomes of their unfriendly-to-the-planet lifestyles doesn’t actually result in shifting attitudes and behaviors. What actually works is talking to those consumers about what they care about the most: themselves. Couching the benefits of environmentally friendly products in terms of being smart, feeling in control, winning respect, finding ways to be more comfortable, etc., wins the day.

All the science of behavior theory/behavior change (of which much has been written about in 2010) definitely applies here as well. For instance, you can’t move someone who’s more extrinsically motivated to do a thing with the promise of an intrinsic reward (”you’ll feel so good about yourself!”), and you don’t move people forward with broad, ill-defined requests and benefits (”Make your home more energy efficient!” “Save money!”). As in all advertising, it’s really about understanding the target, knowing their deepest desires, and going for the jugular in promising to fulfill those desires.

That’s how we can nudge overweight doctors to go on diets, dentists to floss regularly, bankers to save more, and consumers to stop guzzling energy.

Catch Sixx, and many more at 10:10 The Green Carpet Edition.

All details here and on Facebook.

It’s great that we celebrate every little victory, but let’s not lose sight about the reality of the situation that we’re in. And let’s accept that we have a lot more work to do.

From Global Footprint Network (Thanks Worldchanging: Bright Green).

**

What is Earth Overshoot Day?

Earth Overshoot Day — a concept devised by U.K.-based new economics foundation — marks an unfortunate milestone: the day in which we exhaust our ecological budget for the year. Once we pass Earth Overshoot Day, humanity will have demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can provide this year. From that point until the end of the year, we meet our ecological demand by liquidating resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Global Footprint Network calculates nature’s supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet generates each year, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions. Earth Overshoot Day marks the day when demand on ecological services begins to exceed the renewable supply.

Global Footprint Network will announce the date of Earth Overshoot Day 2010 approximately a week before the day occurs.

**

What is Overshoot?

For most of human history, humanity has been able to live off of nature’s interest — consuming resources and producing carbon dioxide at a rate lower than what the planet was able to regenerate and reabsorb each year.

But approximately three decades ago, we crossed a critical threshold, and the rate of human demand for ecological services began to outpace the rate at which nature could provide them. This gap between demand and supply — known as ecological overshoot — has grown steadily each year. Global Footprint Network’s most recent data show that it takes one year and five months to generate the ecological services (production of resources and absorption of CO2) that humanity requires in one year.

**

The Cost of Ecological Overspending

Of course, we only have one Earth. The fact that we are using (or “spending” natural capital) faster than it can replenish is similar to having expenditures that continually exceed income. In planetary terms, the results of our ecological overspending are becoming more clear by the day. Climate change – a result of carbon being emitted faster than it can be reabsorbed by the forests and seas – is the most obvious and arguably pressing result. But there are others as well: shrinking forests, species loss, fisheries collapse and freshwater stress to name a few.

**

How is Earth Overshoot Day Calculated?

Put simply, Earth Overshoot Day shows the day on which our total Ecological Footprint (measured in global hectares) is equal to the biocapacity (also measured in global hectares) that nature can regenerate in that year. For the rest of the year, we are accumulating debt by depleting our natural capital and letting waste accumulate.

The day of the year on which humanity enters into overshoot and begins adding to our ecological debt is calculated by calculating the ratio of global available biocapacity to global Ecological Footprint and multiplying by 365. From this, we find the number of days of demand that the biosphere could supply, and the number of days we operate in overshoot.

If you have further questions about the Ecological Footprint and overshoot calculations, there are a number of resources available through our website to learn more: Use our Ecological Footprint calculator to find out how many planets it takes to support your lifestyle, and how simple actions can reduce your contribution to overshoot. See the Earth Overshoot Day Media Page for definitions, data and further information about overshoot. You can also read our methodology paper for a more technical overview of our calculation methods, and visit our glossary page for definitions of terms.

**

In true Japanese copywriting style, this is what they have to say about it:

A shift from economical use of limited resources to the unlimited use of clean energy is the ultimate dream of all mankind.

The LUNA RING, our lunar solar power generation concept, translates this dream into reality through ingenious ideas coupled with advanced space technologies.

Virtually inexhaustible, nonpolluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy that brings prosperity to nature as well as our lives.

Shimizu Corporation proposes The LUNA RING for the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth.

-

So how does it work? The solar panels are built on the sun facing side of the moon, and converted to energy which is piped to the dark side of the moon, where it will be “beamed” to earth via laser and microwave power. The laser and microwave power is converted to electricity, which will then be fed to our grids.

Check out their infographics:

But wait, there’s more! They even thought about the material requirements, construction and logistics of this planet saving operation, which goes a little something like this…

Exploiting Lunar Resources: Lunar resources will be used to the fullest extent possible in constructing the Solar Belt. Water can be produced by reducing lunar soil with hydrogen that is imported from the Earth. Cementing material can also be extracted from lunar resources. These materials will be mixed with lunar soil and gravel to make concrete. Bricks, glass fibers and other structural materials can also be produced by solar-heat treatments.

Construction and resource extraction: Robots will perform various tasks on the lunar surface, including ground leveling and excavation of hard bottom strata.

Assembling units in space: Machines and equipment from the Earth will be assembled in space and landed on the lunar surface for installation.

Work on the lunar surface: A team of astronauts will support robotic surface operation on site.

-

So maybe we ought to stop arguing over whether we should be building nuclear power plants and just go with this, for the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth!

(got this one off www.ecofriend.org)