Tag: Climate change

Running Low On Time

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The Clock is Ticking

The World’s Climate Scientists Issue Yet Another Warning

On Monday, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released it’s most recent report on global warming. The IPCC was formed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to better assess climate change. And assess they did, as thousands of scientists from all over the world spent years analyzing the data and investigating the evidence (The BBC  does a pretty good job of explaining the process).

The take-away is abundantly clear. Due to human activity and the over-use of fossil fuels, the world is in fact warming at an increasingly rapid rate. It’s actually changing faster than was initially anticipated, and we need to respond to the science while we still have time to do something about it.

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What’s Wrong with Bitcoin?

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A Heavy Environmental Toll

Both a technological innovation and an environmental burden, the emergence of crypto-currencies has come to exact a heavy price on energy consumption. Seen as an alternative form of monetary designation, crypto-currencies like Bitcoin have also come to represent an attractive source of investor speculation. As indicated by their recent dramatic valuations (Bloomberg), interested parties are looking to take part in what might be a monetary revolution (see How to Put Bitcoin in Perspective). Whether or not this turns out to be true is up to the future, but in the interim, the drive for expanding and maintaining the Bitcoin network (see Bitcoin mining) is consuming a colossal amount of energy. These extensive energy demands are in turn generating staggering amounts of CO2 emissions.

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Top 5 Climate Change Apps

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Environmental Tech

Tech Tools For Learning about the Planet

For those of you looking for a few interesting apps that could help you discover more about our planet, I’ve put together a list of my top 5. Although I started out excited to share some goodies, for some reason this turned out to be surprisingly challenging, as many of the apps I had looked into were faulty or outdated. A quick Google search will lead you to other lists that are already over 5 years old and not quite relevant. This disappointment kind of amazed me, as I’ve been noticing and sharing real progress in the movement to address climate change and the growing social consciousness. There is however a serious gap on the application side of things. On the bright side, this might be an opportunity for one of my readers to address;)

Without further delay, here are some of the apps I have personally tried out and liked.

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Canada’s Environmental Shame

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Oil Slick

Buying Into Oil Pipeline Expansion

Yesterday the Canadian government announced its decision to buy up the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline at a cost of $4.5 Billion dollars (CBC). For months now the expansion has been delayed due to its failure to meet environmental regulations and strong protests from Canadians, especially Indigenous groups. Despite the considerable resistance, the current government’s campaign promises to end fossil fuel subsidies, the lack of Indigenous consent, objections from the BC (provincial) government, and the Paris Accord commitments, the government is planning to go ahead with the purchase.

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Tokyo’s Love Affair with Bicycles

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Tokyo Bicycles

The Next Stage of Urban Cycling

Living in Japan for nearly a year now, I am still perpetually amazed and impressed by the number of people who chose to commute by bike (see The Daily Commute). It’s a clean, convenient, and cost-effective means of getting around, and it has the potential of bringing genuine joy to the rider. I’m certainly a fan. Biking to work, school, and social events had often been my preferred means of travel back in Montreal (despite the long winters), but here in Tokyo, they’ve managed to bring urban cycling to the next level!

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