environment

Greenpeace Thrown Out of Mac Expo

Greenpeace rented a space at the London Mac Expo as part of their ongoing â??Green My Appleâ??. The campaign is an awareness campaign to attempt to get technology manufacturers (Apple in particular) to begin seriously considering their environmental impact.

Apparently Greenpeace was thrown out of the Expo for handing out leaflets outside the space they had rented. Naturally they were only thrown out after other exhibitors complained.

Considering Apples image it must really hurt when they have to fight against an organisation like Greenpeace.

(via DailyTech & The Register)

Update:

More claims are appearing that state that Greenpeace intentionally provoked the action:

There then followed a number of complaints about the behaviour of Greenpeace activists from four visitors and five exhibitors, one of which was Apple. Allegedly, Greenpeace attendees were invading other stands for mock photo shoots and replacing other exhibitorsâ?? promotional material with their own.The problem came to a head when one woman complained that they had placed an apple in her childâ??s pram and were taking photographs of him without her permission.

Bob Denton told Macworld: â??I explained to them that I had the right to eject them but that wouldnâ??t happen if they showed reason.â?? However, later in the day, â??two more visitors and two more exhibitors complainedâ?? and he ejected the activists under clause 13 of the terms and conditions that Greenpeace signed.

â??They were determined to create conflict,â?? said Bob Denton (via Macworld)

Posted on by mklang

Cool Job

Looking for a really cool job? How about working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Brussels…

EFF Seeks European Affairs Co-ordinator

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is looking for a European
staffer to head up our new Brussels office and round out our
international team. This is a new position focused on European
Community level intellectual property and civil liberties policy
initiatives that impact the digital environment. The position will be
part policy analyst, part activist and part educator.

We are looking for a motivated and dynamic European with:

– excellent written and spoken English language skills, and fluency
in another relevant language (preferably French or German or another
major European language);
– well-developed public speaking and social skills, who can talk with
a wide range of audiences including European MEPs and Commission
staff, consumer rights and public interest groups, computer
programmers and media;
-familiarity with current European Community IP and civil liberties
legislative and policy developments;
– a solid understanding of the European Community’s structure, main
fora, decision-making processes and key personnel and committees that
work in the IP and civil liberties arenas;
– strong policy analysis skills;
– a good strategic sense;
– maturity of judgment;
– demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work with others
remotely; and
– the ability to travel throughout Europe, and to the United States.

EFF is passionate about our mission, and our ideal candidate will be
too. We work on cutting-edge issues in a fun, fast-paced team
environment. Salary and details of benefits package available on
request.

Applicants: please send a cover letter and resume in TXT, RTF, ODT,
DOC, PDF or html format to eurocoordinator@eff.org

Deadline for applications: Rolling, but not later than December 1, 2006.

No, I am not planning to apply. But it would be a really cool challenge…

Posted on by mklang

Software Eco-Systems

Say ecosystem* and most of us will think of something delicate and finely balanced. We have been taught to understand that the environment is made up of systems which hang together and that disturbances in one part will created unintended and in our experience sad consequences.

Say Microsoft, Adobe or General Motors and we tend to think of corporate bohemoths hardly the delicate flowers in need of protection, but more often a cause of some destruction within their particular ecosystem.

A letter (pdf here) to the European Commission has recently come to light (it was leaked). The letter shows the extent which the anti-Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) lobby is prepared to go in order to maintain control of their dominant business model for the production of software.

The letter was sent in response to a recent EU report on the role of open-source software in the European economy. The letter warns of against encouraging the FOSS movement. The letter states that the actions taken by the European Commission could “disrupt the entire software eco-system” and the report itself was biased and looked “more like a marketing document than a serious survey”.

The letter comes from The Initiative for Software Choice (ISC). A name which inspires one to think of openness and freedom. Yet the group is a lobby group funded by proprietary software manufacturers – this, in itself, may be seen as a contradiction in terms.
According to Techworld the ISC was created to oppose government efforts to give preference to open-source or open standards-based systems. According to critics such as Bruce Perens, the ISC largely pursues a pro-Microsoft agenda, though the group itself emphasises that it has more than 300 members.

The letter is full of artful uses of language and leaves the unsuspecting reader with an impression that the writer is concerned about the welfare of the European Union and its development. At the same time the message is hammered home – with the subtly of a rhino with a headache – do not change anything. The system works as it is.

Naturally the concerns of the manufacturers of proprietary software should and must be taken into consideration but this letter is a masterful peice of dubbletalk and rhetoric (in the worst way).

Read the letter and LEARN from it.

—

* An ecosystem refers to the collection of components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of, some defined subset of the biosphere. The term is generally understood to refer to all biotic and abiotic components, and their interactions with each other, in some defined area, with no conceptual restrictions on how large or small that area can be. To many, ecosystems, like any other system, are governed by the rules of systems science and cybernetics, as applied specifically to collections of organisms and relevant abiotic components. To others, ecosystems are primarily governed by stochastic events, the reactions they provoke on non-living materials and the corresponding responses by organisms. (Wikipedia)

Posted on by mklang

Steve! We Wants Greener Apples

Greenpeace has a very nicely designed site to pressure Apple into becoming more environmentally aware. The site is called â??I love my Mac. I just wish it came in green.â??

The focus of the campaign is a letter-writing action where we all email Steve Jobs and tell him we want to be more green. We want the design without the major guilt of raping the environment.

Read the information at iTox & iWaste then join the campaign to persuade Steve to go greenâ?¦

Technorati tag.

Posted on by mklang

Not a fashion blog

This is not a fashion blog. I have no intention of attempting to bore you with pictures of what I am currently wearing (or not wearing) but I want to share with you my latest purchase.

After looking at these online I was very happy to find them being sold in a store locally. The shop is called Minni Ekoaffair on Sveagatan 3 in Göteborg.
We’re using 100% organic hemp, which is processed with natural methods such as water retting, eliminating the need to use chemicals. The Blackspot Sneaker has a rubber sole and a toe cap that is 70% biodegradable, whereas The Unswoosher has a sole made from recovered car tires. We’re not currently using water-based glues, as they lack permanence so shoe longevity suffers. The white anti-logo and the red splotches are hand-painted, and the soles are stitched, glued and embedded for extra durability.
This makes it one of the world’s most environmentally friendly shoes. In addition to this they are union friendly and anti-corporation.
The Blackspot Anticorporation and the Blackspot Shoes venture are projects of Adbusters Media Foundation.

Posted on by mklang

Hope or Hoax

Based upon the principle â?? if something seems to be too good to be true it often is. What can one say about a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars.

From their website:

Steornâ??s technology produces free, clean and constant energy. This provides a significant range of benefits, from the convenience of never having to refuel your car or recharge your mobile phone, to a genuine solution to the need for zero emission energy production. It also provides a secure supply of energy, since the components of the technology are readily available.

The technology is in a constant state of development. The company has focused for the past three years on increasing power output and the development of test systems that allow detailed analysis to be performed.

Steornâ??s technology appears to violate the â??Principle of the Conservation of Energyâ??, considered by many to be the most fundamental principle in our current understanding of the universe. This principle is stated simply as â??energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change formâ??.

Steorn is making three claims for its technology:

  1. The technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.
  2. The operation of the technology (i.e. the creation of energy) is not derived from the degradation of its component parts.
  3. There is no identifiable environmental source of the energy (as might be witnessed by a cooling of ambient air temperature).

The sum of these claims is that our technology creates free energy.

The question of whether this is a hoax or a new hope.

This comment on the news comes from Collision Detect: But as Kieran Healy at Crooked Timber notes, Steorn hews perfectly to the “seven warning signs of bogus science” laid out in the Chronicle of Higher Education a few years ago. To wit:

1. The discoverer pitches the claim directly to the media.
2. The discoverer says that a powerful establishment is trying to suppress his or her work.
3. The scientific effect involved is always at the very limit of detection.
4. Evidence for a discovery is anecdotal.
5. The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries.
6. The discoverer has worked in isolation.
7. The discoverer must propose new laws of nature to explain an observation.

Posted on by mklang

Tech-Junk

In April I wrote a short entry about the growing problems of high-tech trash. One way of understanding the problems is to look at Chris Jordan‘s photographs of our discarded tech-junk. Take a look at the piles of cell phone chargers or the sea of cell phones. These photographs show how quickly yesterday’s technology of desire becomes tomorrows garbage – and next weeks environmental crisis.
There seem to be few solutions to what we should be doing with our discarded high-tech junk but some companies are working on small scale remedies to the problem. Recellular is a company that buys and sells used mobile telephones in bulk. While this does not really prevent high-tech junk it at least ensures that we get the most milage out of our technology before it ends up in the pile.

Obviously a good first step, but what do we do next?

Posted on by mklang

Powering the Flat Screen

The flat screen TV trend shows no sign of diminishing in either Sweden or the UK. According to this article in the Guardian Online a flat screen TV is sold every 15 seconds in the UK. The problem is that the flat screen plasma can use up to four times as much electricity as the old-style cathode-ray tube models.

If we connect this with our other home entertainment trends (set-top boxes, digital video recorders, DVD players etc) home consumption of electricity is on the rise.

Dr Joseph Reger, chief technology officer at Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Munich, Germany, said: ‘If all the [plasma] TVs were on at the same time, you would need something that produces 2.5 gigawatts. That can be done today with around two nuclear power stations.’

The discussion in Sweden is changing slowly but the main thrust of the energy policy has been to close nuclear reactors for safety reasons and fossil fuel based producers for environmental reasons. As a reaction Sweden is buying more energy from other countries. In particular from low-cost Eastern European countries. Which means that either we move the polution out of sight or we attempt to place the nuclear risks in countries which may not be able to afford to be too particular.

As usual someone else is paying the initial price of our consumption. Eventually the bad news will reach our shores.

Posted on by mklang

Hello Peru!

The Creative Commons licenses were launched in Peru yesterday. This means that users in Peru now can choose CC licenses in their own language and adapted to their legal environment.

From the press release:

â??The Peruvian version of the Creative Commons licenses will be launched after the iLaw Program 2006 being held at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University, CEO & Chairman of Creative Commons, will deliver the keynote speech on the importance of Creative Commons Peruâ??, says Oscar Montezuma.

â??CC has been very well received in Peru. It has quickly gained the interest of many individuals and institutions ranging from the private to public sector. Success has been such, that I think Peru can eventually become a promising global free culture spot in South Americaâ??.

â??We are proud of the achievements of the Creative Commons community in Peru. This is a success for all Peruvian authors and creators,â?? adds Pedro Mendizabal.

Congratulations to the CC Peruvian Team.

Posted on by mklang

The guilt of a travelling techie

I replaced my iPod yesterday after the total collapse of my last one. Today I read about the iSweatshops. The iPods are assembled in China by mainly female workers. The workforceâ?¦

â?¦resides in “iPod cities” with as many as 200,000 employees. Outsiders are forbidden, and 15-hour workdays are the norm. As you might expect, the wages are low, even for China. (Foreign Policy).

Tomorrow I will fly to Barcelona to participate in the GPLv3 conference besides being an event that I am looking forward to, the privilege of visiting foreign cities is one I value. Recently the discussion on environmental damage caused by flights has taken speed â?? especially with the rapid rise of cheap tickets which increases our â??unnecessaryâ?? flights.

Monbiot writes: â??Flying kills. We all know it, and we all do it.“

Monbiot is referring to the environmental effects of flying. He claims (convincingly) that while most of our reliance on fuels causing carbon emissions can be reduced without a too serious limitation to our freedom â?? this does not apply to flying. Reducing carbon emissions caused by flying means reducing the number of flights we take.

Both these arguments (iSweatshops & flying) have something important in common. They both bring into question things I appreciate. The question that must be posed from this information is â?? what shall I do about it?

When bringing this information to people he meets Monbiot writes of the listeners response: â??They just want to enjoy themselves. Who am I to spoil their fun? The moral dissonance is deafening.â??

The first impulse may be the ostrich approach â?? by sticking oneâ??s neck into the sand the bad news can be ignored. This approach should not be ignored â?? it works surprisingly well and is applied successfully by many. I tried this for a while â?? unfortunately it eventually wears thin. Another approach is self-denial. A no-excuses approach to technology and flights. This entails limiting everything to the bare necessities â?? without allowing for rationalisations. This involves denying oneself of many of the things that I appreciate â?? not an easy approach.

Can there be a middle-of-the-road approach? Is awareness better than ignorance? This argument would mean that our knowledge of the harm our choices entail legitimises our actions even if this has no real effect on physical events (better working conditions or environment). As much as I would like this, I cannot believe this is a solid approach to improvement.

The answer? Donâ??t look at me. I believe it is better to be aware than ignorant of the harm I do â?? even if this cannot mitigate the harm.

Posted on by mklang