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Blogging the future

“Music is many ways is very political and talks about change.” In an interview with BeatPort.com, musician Richie Hawtin talks about his innovative way of communicating with young people in order to inform them about important and current topics, such as the environment.

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Richie Hawtin has always been an innovator in the field of music. His career as a DJ started in the local electronic music clubs in Detroit, when he was still young and was known as Plastikman. Since then, his success has grown exponentially, and he has become a famous artist on an international level. He is a point of reference in the entire electronic music scene. His success comes mostly from his ability to create original and creative sounds, and his knowledge of music technology. Since the 90’s, he has been the director of two record labels: Plus-8, created in 1990; and Minus, with which he produces his own musical creations. With the collaboration of other international DJ, BeatPort.com was born, a website where both independent artists and fans of electronic music can meet, in order to share music and ideas.

“I have always been interested in the future, in the future of music and technology”, explains Hawtin in the interview. Today, however, Richie Hawtin looks at the future with greater understanding. Through the eyes of a man who has experienced much more of the world than most people, he sees the problems and uncertainties that are arising. He asks the questions that most people don’t want to bring up: what kind of world are we leaving to future generations? How can we fix, or at least contain, the complex environmental problems that we now face? There are already many groups and organizations that work to promote awareness, but Richie is convinced that the most important and challenging aspect of awareness is reaching the younger generations. These children are the true protagonists of the future, and it is up to them to promote a concrete and enduring change.

Richie Hawtin’s dream is to utilize electronic music as an instrument for spreading ideas in order to educate and promote awareness about the environment. He believes that electronic music is the best way to reach people on a global level. Since there are no vocals and can be enjoyed and performed by any person, regardless of culture, electronic music is the most global music scene in the world. The objective of the project, therefore, is to give international artists the ability to speak out about environmental problems. In this easy and interactive way, the message will be broadcasted worldwide: the solutions to these problems can be accomplished by everyone, through small gestures throughout the day. A “green” future is possible, and could arrive much sooner than we think, thanks to electronic music.

More Info:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8qjV21aZs

While changing light bulbs and installing solar panels on our roofs can help solve our climate problem, we must also mobilize political will. At this talk hosted by TED, Vice President Al Gore discusses the problem of climate change, and how we must first become active in our democracy in order to solve the climate problem.

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Al Gore has been making sure that things are being done to help solve the current climate crisis. But he also believes that more needs to be done before we can feel optimistic. At a talk hosted by TED, in Monterey, California, Al Gore explains that we “need to change the laws, not light bulbs”, and he has been trying to do just that. Before he created the Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, he was the Vice President of the United States. Al Gore, after leaving Washington, DC in order to educate the world about the dangers of climate change, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007.

Gore explains that while he is an advocate for solar panels and hybrid cars, we need to do more than that to see an actual change in our environment. At least for now, we should be focusing on changing laws in order to make a real difference. He uses one of Mahatma Gandhi’s most famous quotes to illustrate his point: “you must become the change you wish to see in the world”. In order for people to be optimistic about seeing a positive change in the environment, they must first be proactive about making a change.

While many people are proactive about local environmental problems, there are regional, and even a global, conflicts that also must be addressed. More often than not, people leave out citizenship in their fight for climate protection; however, it is Gore’s belief that the first thing we should be doing is addressing the government and being politically active.

More Info:

• http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_s_new_thinking_on_the_climate_crisis.html
• http://www.algore.com

Dickson Despommier, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Microbiology at Columbia University, developed the idea of vertical farming with some of his graduate students. The goal is to grow crops and raise animals in skyscrapers in city centers. It is projected that by 2050 about 80% of the world’s population will live in cities; for such economical reasons, Desponmmier believes that the food growth should come from the inside.

Every Universal Exposition has left an innovative architectural landmark in the host city, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Atomium in Brussels. The symbol of the upcoming EXPO of 2015 could very well be Skyland: the first vertical farm in the world. In this green skyscraper it would be possible to cultivate agricultural products within a city for its own inhabitants. But what exactly is vertical farming? It is an architectural approach based on two concepts: the vertical development of buildings, and the possibility of cultivating biological products from the inside. The inventor of vertical farming is Dickson Despommier, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Microbiology at Columbia University in New York City.

According to his estimates, the large 30-story building would be able to feed between 10,000 and 50,000 people every year. Despommier claims that vertical farming could be the solution to many of the problems that we face today, such as overpopulation and food shortages. Furthermore, vertical farming would reduce CO2 emissions that are associated with food production.

The vertical farm, thanks to hydroponics, would be able to produce a richer harvest protected from atmospheric conditions and parasites. The farming would also be less harmful to the land and the overall environment.

In this interview taken from CNN, Dickson Despommier explains his design philosophy.

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More Info:

• http://www.verticalfarm.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLTOMsF3uU

Engineers from the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan have developed the first wireless flying-insect cyborg. Using electrodes that are connected to the insect’s optic lobes and flight muscles, these bugs could be the newest form of undercover agent.

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Imagine walking down the street, and seeing a tiny black beetle buzzing along. Would you ever fathom that perhaps this miniscule creature is the end result of thousands of hours of research and development?

The first unmanned remote controlled airplane was flown in 1916. Decades later, hundreds of tiny remote controlled planes made their way into mass production. Tiny helicopters were created as well, sending enthusiasts into a frenzy. Now, technology has created the possibility of flying a living, breathing creature.

Hirotaka Sato and Michel M. Maharbiz, at the University of California at Berkeley, and researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute, at the University of Michigan, are using cutting edge technology to manipulate the movements of a wide range of insects, from beetles to dragon flies. By connecting electrodes to the insect’s optic lobes, the flight muscles can be controlled by a remote. The result is almost like driving a toy airplane, thus transforming these creatures into undercover bugs of the future. Insects are a seemingly perfect undercover agent, as they are inexpensive, unassuming, and versatile. A beetle, for example, can carry objects (such as a miniature camera) that are much heavier than their own body weight.

What does this mean for the future of our privacy? These controllable insects could very well change our defense mechanisms, as well as create new forms of investigation.

More Info:

• http://www.darpa.mil/MTO/Programs/himems/index.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMjJFQTZKtw

Jane Poynter tells her story of living two years and 20 minutes in Biosphere 2: a completely natural and alternative micro world. Her experience has provoked her to explore how we might sustain life in the harshest of environments. This is a demonstration of the necessity to be conscious of our impact on the world we live in for a better future.

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In Oracle, Arizona there is a 3.15-acre complex unlike any other. Known as Biosphere 2, this structure is a man-made, materially-closed ecological system, built to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems. Jane Poynter, president of the Paragon Space Development Corporation, tells the story of her insightful, and sometimes difficult, two-year experience in Biosphere 2.

Biosphere 2 contains almost everything that planet earth does, but on a much smaller scale: a rainforest, an ocean, marshlands, savannah grassland, and a fog desert. Although it might seem like a fun experiment, Jane Poynter, an environmentalist who spent two years and 20 minutes inside of Biosphere 2, explains how challenging the experience could sometimes be.

The name Biosphere 2 comes from Earth’s biosphere, Biosphere 1, which is the only biosphere currently known. Biosphere 2 was built with to help give environmentalists a better understanding planet Earth, as well as to re-energize movements concerned with space travel and life on other planets. Poynter was one of the eight crew members to give up a substantial portion of their lives to live in Biosphere 2.

Poynter’s experience was eye-opening in many ways. In her testimonial, she points out: “In Biosphere 2, I totally understood that I had a huge impact on my biosphere, everyday, and it had an impact on me, very literally”. Scientifically, the experiment was enlightening; the scientists were able to gain invaluable hands-on experience with malleable life systems in a closed environment. Poynter had direct impact on the biosphere not only through the physical labor, but also just by breathing and circulating the oxygen and carbon-dioxide.

However, life in Biosphere 2 was often hard work, and things did not always run smoothly. In fact, at one point the structure started losing oxygen at a dangerous rate, and the crew had to resolve the situation before they ran out of oxygen altogether. Nonetheless, her experience had a lasting impact on her life – after Poynter finally emerged from the structure, she had a completely different outlook on the human existence.

Hopefully Biosphere 2 is only the beginning of these types of experiments. In the future, if we plan on exploring Mars and beyond, it is imperative that we are able to sustain life wherever we end up. Furthermore, these types of experiments help expand our knowledge of basic life systems and how we all fit into Earth’s composition.

More info:

• http://www.janepoynter.com/
• http://www.b2science.org
• http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_poynter_life_in_biosphere_2.html

Severn Suzuki is a thirteen year old girl who spoke at the United Nations out of fear for the future and the health of planet Earth. Filmed more than fifteen years ago, her words still resonate with the fears that we still have today.

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“In spite of my fear, I am not afraid to change the world in the way I believe it should be changed”.

These words were spoken by a thirteen year old girl, the spokesperson of an environmental group called ECO, at the United Nations. During her speech, she moved and captivated her audience with her firmness, clarity, and farsightedness. But then we forgot about them. Today, I would like to try once more.

Severn’s speech was political and not technical. It was through this approach that made the whole world stop and think, and it is because of this that her speech is still extraordinary and relevant.

The video speaks about the future. It underlines the fear of a future that could no longer exist, and what we should be fighting for to prevent this from happening. The price of our future, of the technological change, is in the resources that we consume in order to generate wealth. We must first think about the sometimes irreversible changes before we proceed any further. And if we are making our ecosystem pay too high of a price, we should ask ourselves if we need to slow down and think about alternative solutions.

Bob Dylan says in his song, “The Times They Are a-Changin’”, “Come mothers and fathers throughout the land. And don’t criticize what you can’t understand”. I am a father. Like many of you will do, watching this video I imagined my children asking the same questions that Severn posed, and I thought that her response was the best one that we could give: “In spite of my fear, I am not afraid to change the world in the way I believe it should be changed”.

More Info:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbmttNtn6f4

Scientists at Delft University in the Netherlands have developed a self-healing polymeric material that is both reusable and durable, and can be our solution to make regular plastic bags obsolete. CB26KJW2DS54 Y23HY9RTZ79W

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Most people are aware of the ongoing crisis with plastic bag build up all over the world. Plastic is one of the hardest materials to recycle, and is not easily biodegradable. The average plastic bag has a lifespan of 20 minutes, before it is thrown away. This massive build up has had a negative effect on the environment, but in the future this will change.

Ever since the mass usage of plastic bags became an environmental problem, many stores have come up with some helpful solutions. Green-wise is a shopping bag that does not rip, and can be used over and over again, unlike those flimsy, thin plastic shopping bags that often break after the first use. Along with Greenwise bags, some superstores are giving consumers the choice to use paper bags as well.

A team of scientists at the Delft Centre for Materials, at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, led by co-chairman Sybrand van der Zwaag, have developed a thermally self-healing polymeric material which is made by using a simple and efficient processing method. This material can be reused countless times, and can save millions of tons of waste each year. This new type of plastic is hard, and allows ground up post consumer pellets of their invention to be turned into “virgin” materials at a higher temperature.

This material is an innovative way of solving the world’s waste problems, as it will allow for products to be easily recycled and reused.

More Info:

• http://www.selfhealingmaterials.nl/

The artificial tree—product of GRT (Global Research Technologies of Tucson, in Arizona)—holds carbon dioxide, thanks to an absorbent coating formed by water and calcium; but in contrast to natural trees, it is not capable of releasing oxygen back into the air.

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According to the EPA, the median amount of CO2 emissions produced by a family of two amounts to 13 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere every year, without taking into account transportation. We thought that we could solve the problem of pollution by simply increasing the “green spaces” and nature and let photosynthesis take care of the rest. Unfortunately, this isn’t an efficient proposal.

Perhaps some of you may remember the Sleipner project, active from off the shores of Norway since 1995: one of the many project developed for entrapment of carbon dioxide. Due to these activities it has been possible to acquire a lot of significant experience for the future development of CO2 recycling systems.

Professor Klaus Lackner, a geophysics professor at Columbia University in New York—interviewed in the video by BBC for the series “Five Ways to Save the World”—has in fact worked since 2003 on a car that would be capable of capturing carbon dioxide and transform it into dust, and in this way allow us to store it underground or in the ocean, lowering the consumption of petroleum or gas.

Lackner has also studied ways to store CO2 based on the process of rock weathering: when the gas that bonds to magnesium forms carbonic rocks that hold the carbon in a permanent and safe manner.

Lackner’s project is truly interesting, but the cost and amount of energy in order to capture the carbon dioxide is greater than what we could achieve by recycling the CO2.

Respecting the protocol of Kyoto, there is no doubt that there is a need to go down the path of reduction of consumption of fossil fuels. Above all, if we are conscious of the demand for energy coming from developing countries, and of the serious environmental damages and problems we will face should we not succeed in balancing our energy consumption within a few years.

More Info.:

• http://www.grestech.com/
• http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/recycleco2.aspx