Author Christopher Hitchens on the tyranny of censorship (2006)

Hitchens in fine form. Recorded at Hart House Debating Club, University of Toronto in 2006.

Watch Part 1 and Part 2.

Two months breaking ice: A time-lapse journey through Ross Sea, Antarctica

Cassandra Brooks, a marine scientist currently blogging from the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, condenses her incredible two-month experience into five mesmerising minutes.

It's Global Warming, Stupid

Bloomberg Businessweek putting it out there.

(via Richard Turley)

Data visualisation: New York City’s daily greenhouse gas emissions

The research team at Carbon Visuals has created this compelling 3D animation, which explores the scale and rate of atmospheric pollution, in real-time, in the City of New York.

I think you'll agree that the illusion of an apocalyptic outcome to this data-driven story is a potent — if not somewhat phantasmagoric — reminder of our commitment to reduce carbon emissions.

View summary of data.

Did you know climate change has so far failed to get a mention in the current US presidential debates? — the first time in 24 years!

(via Guardian Datastore and Carbon Visuals)

We *Heart* the Arctic

This Greenpeace heart of flags is a call to action for all member states of the UN.

The climate is changing to the detriment of the environment.

Environmental indicators of change are well documented.

Latest records make for grim reading.

Combative rhetoric by our world leaders is ineffectual without concrete plans for global action.

Global climate governance is challenging — not impossible.

The Arctic is perhaps our clearest indicator of climate change.

Over 1.8 million individuals already agree.

(Props and applause to Greenpeace International.)

Bus stop bookshelves

A DIY Urbanist project in Puerto Alegre, Brazil is dedicated to helping local communities repurpose long-abandoned advertising spaces in bus shelters as short-lived, or permanent neighbourhood libraries.

The project collaborators have posted How to Make a Public Bookcase guide (Portuguese language only) online.

(via TransvençãoLAB)

Social Flights

Social Flights is built on a new class of business methods which combines game dynamics with collaborative consumption to disrupt inefficient and oppressive industries.

(The elevator pitch explains further. Via Fast Company)

Follow the e-waste trail

This archived Greenpeace photo essay is a fascinating investigation into the illegal export of waste electronic goods from a city recycle centre in Basingstoke UK, to a sprawling electronics market in the Nigerian city of Lagos.

(The disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is a growing issue. Findings from ABI Research reveal 53 million tonnes of e-waste was generated worldwide in 2009. This amount includes broken or obsolete computers, printers, mobile phones, televisions, audio equipment and refrigerators which can contain harmful substances such as lead, bromine, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. Perhaps alarming is how little of this e-waste is processed and recycled by government regulated initiatives.

Despite national and international efforts to prevent export (including an EU ban in the mid-1990s), WEEE collected in North America and Western Europe is routinely shipped to developing and newly industrialised countries (Nigeria, Ghana, China, India, Pakistan) on the promise of being recycled or dismantled safely and reused on arrival. Left unregulated, unscrupulous exporters are dumping shipments of e-waste within these poor regions at the cost to the environment and to the health of the local communities who scavenge through the waste hoping to salvage valuable iron, copper, silicone and nickel from electrical and electronic components.

With recent forecasts predicting global e-waste recovery/reclamation revenues will reach $14.7 billion by 2014, only proper recycling and legal frameworks worldwide will help to ensure that WEEE disposal doesn't remain a dirty business!)

(Photo essay via Greenpeace, further reading at The Independent and BBC News)

JFDI Britain

Three joyful steps toward UK economic recovery.

(via seb and aral)

Japan Earthquake Crisis: Donations

The BBC has today reported that deaths in Japan's Miyagi prefecture alone could be as many as 15,000 as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated many eastern regions of the country on 11 March.

A total of 350,000 people have been evacuated and are staying at shelters.

Many survivors are enduring Japan's freezing winter temperatures without water, electricity, fuel or enough food.

International aid has been pledged but surprisingly little has been forthcoming to many villages.

Nine days have passed since the earthquake struck.

21,000 people are reportedly dead or missing.

The call to action could not be more clear.

Make a donation here

(via Reuters, BBC Asia Pacific and Google Crisis Response)

Table Boat

Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla used a table — turned upside down and made into a boat — as a metaphor for mobilizing discussion between the US government and municipal parties residing on the highly politicized and de-militarized island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. I love the ingenuity, wit, and absurdity of the idea.

Read an interview and watch an excerpt from Under Discussion here.