The latest release of Google Earth, announced last week, includes a host of new features — the most dramatic being the ability to dive beneath the ocean surface, explore 3D underwater terrain and browse ocean-related content.

Ocean in Google Earth combines sea floor terrain and expert content to provide users with an opportunity to explore some of the most difficult-to-reach parts of the world. Virtual travelers to Hawaii, for example, can examine underwater volcanoes, see videos about the exotic marine life of the region, read about nearby shipwrecks and contribute photos and videos of favorite surf spots.

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Benign by Design: Scientists Call for Green Chemistry

Seed Magazine:

There are now tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals—materials that exist nowhere in nature—that are manufactured commercially and go into products that range from electronics to cosmetics, clothing, cookware, and building materials… These chemicals were created to perform specific tasks and are intended to make our lives easier, more convenient, and often safer… But many of these manufactured materials can also behave in ways that produce adverse health impacts.

What green chemistry advocates is the creation of materials that are “benign by design”—safe at every stage of a product’s life from the blend of chemicals that comprise it to how it ultimately gets disposed. Its fundamental principle is that the best way to prevent chemical pollution is to eliminate hazard at the design stage.

The Psychological Effects of Living with Violent Conflict

Flesh & Stone:

Trauma from war and violence has led to a high incidence of psychological disorders in Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

PTSD was more frequently identified in children under age 15, while depression was the main symptom observed in adults. Among children under 15, factors significantly associated with PTSD included being witness to murder or physical abuse, receiving threats, and property destruction or loss.

The study authors concluded, “These observations suggest that short-term psychotherapy could be an effective treatment for specific psychiatric disorders occurring in vulnerable populations, including children, living in violent conflict zones, such as in Gaza strip and the West Bank.”

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Among independent films making their public debuts at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival last month was Climate Refugees, a film about the human, social and cultural impacts of populations forced to abandon lands rendered uninhabitable by global climate change.

Estimates on the number of climate refugees the world can expect between now and 2050 vary, from 150 million to nearly a billion, and while we don’t know where these displaced people will go or how they will be accepted, we do know that the majority will be poor and from lands and nations already under stress.

Climate Refugees attaches a tangible, human face to a problem that too often is discussed in emotionally-detached scientific, political and economic terms and, for most of us, seems remote in both time and place. After seeing the faces and hearing the stories in the film, doing nothing to mitigate human contribution to global climate change becomes unthinkable.

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Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010.  Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

Each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds—all at the same time,” said Audubon Education Vice President, Judy Braus. “Even if you can only identify a few species you can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities.”

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In a major strategy review to be presented to Congress today, the US military is expected to rank global climate change as a destabilizing force to national and international security, and will direct the Pentagon to include global warming in its long-term strategic planning.

While the review reportedly will not go so far as to cite climate change as a probable cause of conflict, it does view global warming as an accelerant, “placing burdens on civilian and military institutions around the world.”

Part of the Pentagon’s concern has to do with the increased burden of supporting large scale humanitarian and/or peacekeeping missions around the world. More directly, more than 30 US bases would be at risk should sea levels rise.

As encouraging as the Pentagon’s acknowledgment of climate change is its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from non-combat operations by 34 percent over the next ten years, announced last week.

While recent press reports have highlighted the difficulty of passing comprehensive climate change legislation in the face of continued economic difficulties and high unemployment in the US, it’s worth noting that today’s Pentagon review adds significant weight to growing concern over global warming in many other government sectors.

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Friday Night at the Movies is pleased to present the final episode in a series of four videos from Ethical Markets Media, an independent media company covering the emergence of a sustainable, green, more ethical and just economy worldwide. The Ethical Market Series 1. Green Building & Design 3. Clean Food 2. Renewable Energy 4. Health & Wellness

Episode 4. Health & Wellness

Industrialized medicine has reached a crisis with widespread dissatisfaction among patients, doctors, nurses, hospitals and all aspects of today’s medical-industrial complex.

The USA spends more than any other country on medical costs per person – almost 16% of its GDP – with no better outcomes than countries spending half of this amount.

All this has given rise to a rapidly growing new sector of our economy, based on the philosophies of prevention and natural (and cheaper) approaches to wellness. Nowhere is “redefining success” more emblematic than in this sector, where less is more, and love and personal caring are valued.

Meet some of the new providers with new approaches to wellness and patient care.

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All your personal efforts to live more sustainably do not make any difference to the world’s environment.

That’s the assertion environmental writer Derrick Jensen makes in his recent article “Forget Shorter Showers,” published in Orion magazine.

The industrial economy is so large, and so much the source of our planet’s environmental woes, Jensen argues, that even if all individuals reduced their carbon footprint to zero, climate change and other catastrophes would still ravage the earth due to industry’s large-scale harm. If industry is the one clear, hulking threat to our species’ – and all species’ – future survival, then why on earth do we all content ourselves with recycling, composting and taking shorter showers?

Jensen believes this is insanity: “Would any sane person think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday…?” his article begins.

Yet this “insanity” is something to which most all of us subscribe. We teach school children to turn off lights when they’re not using them, run public awareness campaigns to stress no lawn watering during droughts, and our governments offer tax incentives to individuals who buy energy efficient appliances. Quite comically, a recent public service announcement produced in Brazil urges everyone to pee while showering so they won’t waste water flushing the toilet afterward.

But despite all these efforts to make individuals change their ways to save the planet, the fact remains that a vast majority of energy, water and other resources are consumed by bigger players: corporations, agribusiness, governments, militaries, and industrial transportation. And in turn, these big players also emit the vast majority of greenhouse gasses, Jensen states.

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The near absence of fresh water for the human population is already beginning to impact many sectors of the world, notably with the current situation in India.

By the year 2020, most major Indian cities are projected to run dry, according to data from the World Bank.  Severe water shortage had already led to a growing number of conflicts across the country, with 90 per cent of India’s territory served by inter-state rivers.

India’s supply of water also is rapidly dwindling primarily due to mismanagement of water resources, although over-pumping and pollution are also significant contributors. Climate change is expected to worsen the situation by causing erratic and unpredictable weather, which could drastically diminish the supply of water coming from rainfall and glaciers.

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Friday Night at the Movies is pleased to present the third in a series of four videos from Ethical Markets Media, an independent media company covering the emergence of a sustainable, green, more ethical and just economy worldwide. The Ethical Market Series 1. Green Building & Design 3. Clean Food 2. Renewable Energy 4. Health & Wellness

Episode 3. Clean Food

Concerns about the industrialization of our food supplies have led to the explosive growth of the clean food and organic agriculture industries.

From fears of mad cow disease and toxic pesticide residues, people have re-discovered the health benefits of fresh, locally grown produce, free-range eggs, and foods without additives which we now know cause many allergies.

A tour around this burgeoning new market growing at some 20% per year shows how savvy consumers are finding the clean, fresh, locally-grown foods they favor while supporting family farms and local producers.

Ethical Markets TV series is a financial lifestyle magazine redefining success through a positive look at what is possible. Real examples of people, companies and organizations illustrate the “triple bottom line,” respecting people and the environment while earning a profit. The news, features, interviews, roundtables, and expert commentary probe the assumptions that affect every consumer and investor globally, and look at assets and wealth in a new perspective.The series uses new indicators to measure quality of life and examines how individuals can align their money and their values. The shows back up stories with solid economic performance, financial and market data, creating a showcase for new yardsticks and actual measures of success and impact. All companies that are featured on Ethical Markets are screened to the highest ethical and environmental standards.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has steadfastly confirmed the growing need for low carbon biofuels to increase global energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) relative to petroleum.

“Energy needs to be used more efficiently and the carbon content of the energy we consume must be reduced, by switching to low- or zero-carbon sources,” says the IEA in a statement from a recent report that was unequivocal with respect to the need for a rapid transition to low carbon forms of energy to play an increasing role in the global transportation sector.

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Friday Night at the Movies is pleased to present the second in a series of four videos from Ethical Markets Media, an independent media company covering the emergence of a sustainable, green, more ethical and just economy worldwide. The Ethical Market Series 1. Green Building & Design 3. Clean Food 2. Renewable Energy 4. Health & Wellness

Episode 2. Renewable Energy

The great transition from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy is well underway worldwide. Rising oil prices spur us to rethink U.S. energy futures and reduce our vulnerability to foreign supplies.  Entrepreneurs, inventors and venture capitalists are now leading the way to a cleaner, greener, more energy-efficient future.  Europe and Japan are ahead of the U.S. in solar and wind power. China and India have much to teach us about traditional ways of meeting human needs while preserving natural resources and the environment.  The U.S. Mid-West has been described as our “OPEC of Wind Energy” with the potential to meet much of our own domestic electricity needs. This energy transition can create millions of new jobs, clean our air and water while reducing problems of atmospheric pollutants.

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The United Nations has proclaimed 2010 The International Year of Biodiversity. At the launch ceremony in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned that the world will face “enormous costs” if no action is taken against climate change and securing biodiversity.

Humans are obviously an integral part of the natural balance. Our fate is inextricably linked with biodiversity. We rely on the incredible diversity of the natural world to provide the food, medicine, fuel and raw materials that sustain us. Biodiversity is the keystone of all life on earth.

Human actions have caused a biodiversity crisis. Accelerating human domination of ecosystems elevates species extinction rates. In 2007, the United Nations’ Millennium Assessment estimated that the current rate of species extinction is 1,000 times greater than it would be without human-induced habitat change, overexploitation and introduction of invasive species.

The World Conservation Union’s Red List, an annual report on the status of the world’s species, notes that 22 percent of all known mammals, 30 percent of all known amphibians, 12 percent of all known birds, 28 percent of reptiles, 37 percent of freshwater fish species, 70 percent of plants, and 35 percent of invertebrates, assessed so far, are under threat.

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