Climate Lab Networks: Climate Lab, Where & How You Want It

May 4

Posted by Adam Tapley | Comments (1)

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An example Climate Lab article, top, and the same article on two partner websites using Climate Lab Networks.

Climate Lab is pleased to introduce Climate Lab Networks, an innovative online network that allows partners to syndicate Climate Lab content directly into their own websites. The new network is being launched in collaboration with the Climate Institute and the Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable (LAC-CORE), our first NGO network partners.

Quite simply, with Climate Lab Networks a partner can access Climate Lab information, and all its open-source technology, where they want it and how they want it.  Organizations can more easily use it to engage their members, add dynamic content, or launch collaborative projects. Or much more.

Bringing Climate Lab to You

  • The launch marks the first time a community website and wiki has syndicated its open-source climate change information across multiple websites.
  • Climate Lab Networks makes sharing information a self-interested activity: Partners now can leverage their Climate Lab contributions, along the collective brainpower, expertise and efforts of the climate change community, directly back to their individual organizations, campaigns, and websites.
  • The network enables climate professionals, students, policymakers, academics,  and stakeholders worldwide to better work together to address climate change.

By sharing information and expertise, stakeholders help define a common language and a common set of metrics to identify better solutions and evaluate the success of their efforts.  And by allowing organizations to integrate Climate Lab content into their own sites, Climate Lab creates a new incentives for organizations to work together and move solutions forward.

A special thanks to our friends at MindTouch, and their team at Zero to 5ive, for helping us with the launch and spreading the news about Climate Lab Networks.  And thanks, of course, to our partners, to the Climate Institute and LAC-CORE, and to all our friends and supporters.

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ClimateLab.org Launches First-of-Its-Kind Content Collaboration Network

- Climate Institute and LAC-CORE Become First NGOs to Publish Climate Lab Content on their Websites -

- Over 250 wiki articles & 350 user accounts generated since Climate Lab kickoff -

Washington, May 4, 2010 - A year after launching climatelab.org, a community website and wiki on climate change issues, the DC-based nonprofit Climate Lab announced today that it has founded a new collaborative network to syndicate its climate change content.  The launch of Climate Lab Networks marks the first time a public site has attempted to syndicate open-sourced climate change content across multiple websites.

Climate Lab Networks will provide partners with customized streaming access to Climate Lab’s wiki content, allowing partners to republish and rebrand the live content within their own sites.  The Climate Institute and the Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy (LAC-CORE) are the first NGOs to join Climate Lab Networks.

“Climate Lab is positioned to become a shared content management system for the global community of organizations working to address climate change,” said Adam Tapley, Climate Lab’s Managing Director.  “Sharing benefits everyone.  By sharing content, stakeholders help define a common language and a common set of metrics to identify better solutions and evaluate the success of their efforts.”

“As a practical matter, joining Climate Lab Networks is a low-cost way to develop an extremely dynamic website,” said Climate Institute founder and CEO John Topping.  “We expect that Climate Lab will help us spread our message about environmental education and effective responses to climate change.”

Since launching a year ago, Climate Lab, which is built on MindTouch’s enterprise collaboration platform, has emerged as a leading clearinghouse on climate-related data and issues, collectively edited by over 350 climate professionals, academics, students and concerned individuals across the world who volunteer their time. Articles on Climate Lab can be collaboratively authored and edited freely by any registered climatelab.org user.

To demonstrate the new service, pages that are written and edited on Climate Lab…

http://climatelab.org/Small_Island_Developing_States

… will now be published on partner’s websites.  For instance, the Climate Institute:

http://climate.org/climatelab/Small_Island_Developing_States

MindTouch, recently named by Forrester as the open-source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, provides an open-source collaboration platform that enables tens of millions of users globally to connect and customize enterprise systems, social tools and web services.  The MindTouch platform makes it possible for non-programmers to connect enterprise systems, databases and web-services in the context of an easy-to-use collaborative environment. For Climate Lab, this creates a powerful platform for rapidly publishing and syndicating its content.

Climate Lab announced the upcoming launch of Climate Lab Networks at the one-year anniversary party celebrating the launch of climatelab.org April 8 at Local 16, a popular bar and restaurant in Washington DC.  Keynote remarks at the event were made by Climate Lab board member Scott Sklar of the Stella Group, Ltd. Sklar is the former Executive Director for both the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association.

“By allowing NGOs and other groups to stream their content into each other’s websites, Climate Lab is giving these diversified sources and specialists a reason to come together under one roof - and maybe just in the nick of time,” said Sklar.

For more information, please contact:  Adam Tapley, Managing Director, Climate Lab, (202) 640-1899 (work), (617) 894-5521 (cell), atapley@climatelab.org.

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About Climate Lab

Climate Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to drive action on climate change-related issues by improving knowledge sharing and collaboration. To this end, in 2009 Climate Lab launched climatelab.org, a community website and wiki on climate change where content can be collaboratively authored and edited freely by registered users. In April 2010, Climate Lab founded Climate Lab Networks, a new collaborative network and service to syndicate its content - marking the first time a public site has syndicated open-source climate change content across multiple websites.

For more information on Climate Lab, or to view the climate change site: climatelab.org.

About MindTouch

MindTouch set out to solve the problem of collaboration by making it possible for non-programmers to connect enterprise systems, databases and web-services in the context of an easy to use collaborative environment. The purpose of MindTouch is to provide wiki-like ease of collaboration between humans and machines; thereby enabling less-technology savvy people to automate reports and systems and create dashboards. For more information, please visit www.mindtouch.com.

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Cake, Thunder, and Rock n’ Roll: Climate Lab Celebrates a Birthday

Apr 13

Posted by Adam Tapley | Comments (1)

Harkness+Hunt rock the crowd at Local 16

Harkness+Hunt rock the Climate Lab crowd at Local 16

Former-CIA Director Jim Woolsey's rendition of "A Pirate Looks at 40" by Jimmy Buffet

Former-CIA Director Jim Woolsey's rendition of "A Pirate Looks at 40" by Jimmy Buffet

Scott Sklar of the Stella Group makes a call-to-arms

Scott Sklar of the Stella Group makes a call-to-arms

Blowing out the candles on year one of the Climate Lab wiki

Blowing out the candles on year one of the Climate Lab wiki

Party attendees showing off their bracelet power

Party attendees showing off their bracelet power

—> See Climate Lab Facebook page for event photos!

We would like to thank everyone who joined us on Thursday to celebrate the Climate Lab wiki’s first birthday! Over 150 people gathered at Local 16 to make it a truly special event.

It was great to see many familiar faces as well as so many new friends. I trust that good times were had by all.  I thought I’d touch on some of the treasured memories from the event:

  • Harkness+Hunt put on a spectacular show of Pan-American folk rock, getting people on their feet, clapping and even singing along. Band members included: Marc Harkness (guitar, mandolin and vocals), Suzanne Hunt (guitar and vocals), Matt Haygood (bass), Brock McGoff (drums), and Dave Horgan (guitar and vocals). Special appearances by Daisy Pistey-Lyhne on harmonica and Lindsay Madeira on vocals.
  • Okay, I think I can speak for most of us present Thursday night that when aspiring singer and former-CIA Director Jim Woolsey got up on stage and took the mic we knew a little history was in the making.  He did not disappoint with a full-throated rendition of “A Pirate Looks at 40″ by Jimmy Buffet.  I’ve actually been waiting for Climate Lab and the CIA to collide since learning the Agency’s unofficial motto: “…Ye shall know the truth and it shall set you free.” Coincidence?
  • Scott Sklar of The Stella Group Ltd. issued a rousing call to arms, urging us all to step forward and take climate change action into our own hands.  He also reminded younger audience members that older folk can make noise like the best of them.  Amen!
  • Thunderstorm - Mother Nature was gracious enough to provide its own pyrotechnics for our event, free of charge — as well as enough water to make sure nothing and no one (stuck on the Local 16 deck, that is) was in danger of being lit up. Safety first, naturally.
  • Birthday cake was on hand — two cakes, in fact, both artfully decorated.  It wouldn’t be a birthday without cake. As we readied ourselves to blow out the candles, however, the ceremony got a little extra unplanned pizazz when a decoration noise maker got a little too close to one of its neighboring candles…  (”1-2-3, blow!”)

Thanks to photographer Steph Lunieski, we have lots of photos from the event we’d like to share with you.  We’re working on getting a slide show up on this blog post, but in the mean time, please check out the photos on our Facebook page!

A special thanks to Local 16 for hosting the event, to Safeway for their generous donation of birthday cake, and to Giant Foods and Local 16 for nourishment.  Also thanks to the event’s Host Committee for their hard work.  Host Committee members were: Tom Adkins, Katherine George, Suzanne Hunt, Steve Ma, Lindsay Madeira, Jessica Morey and Livia Navon.

Climate Lab Networks

As if celebrating a birthday wasn’t enough for an event, we were also excited to announce the upcoming launch of Climate Lab Networks! The  new service allows partners to stream the Climate Lab wiki directly into their own sites, reskinned and rebranded.

By working through Climate Lab, organizations can connect with other groups and pool their efforts — saving time and resources in doing so that can be devoted toward further advancing their unique mission.

Climate Lab Networks will soon be in action on the sites of our two partners the Climate Institute and LAC-CORE.  

This is the first time that a public wiki is being used to syndicate content across multiple websites. Look for the national launch of the network in the coming week!

Not only did the wiki turn one, she’s already walking!  Quite precocious.

Thanks again for your support and for helping us blow out the candles on a successful year.  May there be many more!

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Sklar of Stella Group to Keynote Climate Lab Anniversary Event

Apr 5

Posted by Shannon Christie | Comments

We are excited to announce that Climate Lab board member Scott Sklar will be making the keynote remarks at the Climate Lab wiki anniversary event this Thursday, April 8th, at Local 16 in Washington, DC.  Scott will be speaking at about 7:45 pm. At the event, we’ll also be launching the new program Climate Lab Networks.

Scott Sklar

Scott Sklar of the Stella Group

Scott is currently the president of The Stella Group Ltd, a strategic marketing and policy firm that works to facilitate federal and state policies that expand markets for clean energy applications.  He was previously the Executive Director for both the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association, as well as the Political Director of the Solar Lobby, a renewable energy advocacy group.  Scott has also coauthored two books, The Forbidden Fuel: A History of Power Alcohol and a Consumer Guide to Solar Energy, as well as numerous articles.  (For more on Scott, please see his user page.)

We hope you can make the Climate Lab wiki anniversary party to hear Scott, meet the Climate Lab team, and enjoy some good company.  The event will feature live music  from the DC band Harkness+Hunt, as well as free food, cake, and drink specials.  Free drink tickets will be provided for the first 75 people attending.

Please RSVP for the event by emailing Kate at katherine.climatelab@gmail.com, or by logging your RSVP on our Facebook invitation.  (While you’re at it — become a fan of Climate Lab’s Facebook Page and receive occasional updates about similar events and news!)  Invite friends and colleagues, and help spread the word about what should be a great time.

Hope to see you Thursday!

Shannon and the Event Host Committee

Host Committee: Tom Adkins, Katherine George, Suzanne Hunt, Steve Ma, Lindsay Madeira, Jessica Morey, Livia Navon
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Details -
What: Come Celebrate a Birthday with us - the Wiki Turns One!
Where: Local 16, 1602 U Street NW, Washington, DC
When: Thursday, April 8th, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
RSVP by emailing Kate at katherine.climatelab@gmail.com, or RSVP on our Facebook event page.
A $10 suggested donation for the event includes a free drink ticket for the first 75 people.  See our blog or Facebook for more event information.

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The Wiki Turns One - Come Celebrate a Birthday!

Mar 25

Posted by Adam Tapley | Comments (1)

Happy Birthday, Wiki!

Happy Birthday, Wiki!

“We’re live,” Tom said, after making a few inconspicuous keystrokes on his laptop.  He sat across from me at the conference room table strewn with papers, a few half-empty coffee mugs, and snakes of computer power cords.  I looked over at Tom, a co-founder and the tech director of Climate Lab.  It was 2 a.m. and my eyes hurt.

“What do you mean?” I asked, coming out of a sleepy trance.

A big grin started to break across Tom’s face, still looking at the computer screen.  We had been working on website bugs and last minute content additions for hours.  Tom turned to me:

“The wiki, it’s live.  We’ve launched Climate Lab!”

One year later…

It’s hard to believe it has been a year now since that late night at the office in March of last year.  Those involved in setting up Climate Lab as a nonprofit organization had felt strongly that individuals and organizations needed more effective tools for working together, finding solutions, and keeping pace with the wide range of issues concerning climate change.  Climate Lab’s wiki, a climate change website that allows users to collaboratively develop content and share information, was a big step toward fulfilling our mission.

A lot has happened in the past year: we’ve added hundreds of climatelab.org users, developed hundreds of wiki articles, worked with professors and students at three universities, and forged more than a dozen partnerships on a range of projects. One of the most recent developments we’ve had is the launch of Climate Lab Network Partners - organizations that are partnering with Climate Lab to stream the Climate Lab wiki directly in their websites!

In short, there’s a lot to celebrate!

Join us to celebrate April 8.  Let’s us eat cake!

We’d like to invite supporters, partner organizations, and friends in the Washington, DC area to join Climate Lab to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Climate Lab wiki’s launch!

Celebrate with us upstairs at Local 16 (1602 U St NW) on April 8th from 6:30 to 9:30 pm for food, drinks, a live band, and birthday cake! Playing live will be the DC band Harkness+Hunt, a thoughtful toe-tapping blend of folk, rock and Pan-Americana music!

$10 Suggested Donation =

  • A super cool wristband (to proudly show you donated)!
  • Free drink tickets for the first 75 people!
  • Happy hour prices until 9 pm!
  • $5 off Absolut flavored vodka drinks all night!
  • Free food, including birthday cake!
  • Live music by Harkness+Hunt
  • Support for a local nonprofit!*
  • Fun, Fun, Fun!

Local 16 is located at 1602 U St NW, Washington, DC.  Check here for directions.

Please RSVP by April 6 by emailing Kate at katherine.climatelab@gmail.com OR by logging your RSVP on our Facebook invitation.  (And become a fan of Climate Lab’s Facebook page to receive updates about similar events and news!)

I hope you can come celebrate with us.  The wiki is one!

Adam and the Climate Lab Host Committee

Host Committee members: Tom Adkins, Katherine George, Suzanne Hunt, Steve Ma, Lindsay Madeira, Jessica Morey, Livia Navon

* Climate Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to improve knowledge sharing, collaboration, and action on climate change-related issues. Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

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Whitman College Turns a Wikiality into a Reality!

Mar 10

Posted by Kate George | Comments

Whitman College students demonstrate their support for green jobs.

Whitman College students demonstrate their support for green jobs.

Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central’s television show the Colbert Report, coined the word “wikiality” back in 2006.  A wikiality, as defined by Colbert in a July 31, 2006 segment , describes an idea that becomes true because enough people believe in it.  In his signature style, Colbert pokes fun at the concept that reality can be defined– and redefined– by simple majority opinion on Wikipedia.  However, the students at Whitman College in Washington State, are using a wiki platform website to help efforts to make sustainability a reality on their campus.

The Whitman College Sustainability Wiki was created back in 2007 as the brain child of the then-student sustainability coordinator Karlis Rokpelnis.  Rokpelnis led the development of the wiki to provide a central hub for information on programs, resources, and activities related to sustainability and climate change on the Whitman campus.  Whitman students, faculty and staff can add or amend information on the wiki as programs and activities evolve in their community. The wiki covers everything from recycling to energy production to climate change activism going on at the college in the small town of Walla Walla near the Oregon border.

Climate Lab’s Brendan Lucker came across the Whitman College wiki in November 2009 while doing routine online research.  The Whitman wiki was the only campus sustainability wiki he came across on the web.  Lucker reached out to Lisa Curtis, a Whitman senior and the current Whitman sustainability coordinator overseeing the wiki and other campus sustainability initiatives. Curtis, an Environmental Studies/Politics major, has worked with the United Nations Environment Programme and was part of a student delegation attending the Copenhagen Climate Conference this past December.

The Sustainability Wiki was off to a great start in its first year, but Curtis thought it could be expanded and brought more up to date.  Curtis and the Climate Lab team, including managing director Adam Tapley, discussed ways Climate Lab and the Whitman wiki project could collaborate to collect more information on Whitman sustainability efforts and make it available on both the Whitman and Climate Lab websites.

Fast forward four months and a Whitman-Climate Lab collaboration is in full swing and making good progress.  Now Lucker and Tapley are working with two part-time wiki interns at Whitman College, Lisa Beneman and Zach Morrissey.  A special project page was created on Climate Lab to help the team plan and manage their work.

To date, the Whitman project has achieved a number of its goals, including developing a comprehensive overview of Whitman programs and activities related to sustainability and environmental issues.  They are now starting to drill down on different topics and develop wiki content.

The Whitman Sustainability Wiki, however, is not just an effort to help facilitate sustainable, environmentally friendly behavior at Whitman. Curtis, Beneman, Morrissey and the others involved hope to create a model for other universities and colleges around the country who are looking to share information, compare best practices and collaborate on sustainability and climate change initiatives.

Climate Lab hopes to provide a platform and the tools for this new kind of sustainability networking, and help other campuses create their own Wikialities.

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EPA Regulations Aren’t Sexy…But I Love Them Anyway!

Feb 25

Posted by Nicole Ghio | Comments (6)

I was having an intense political discussion over brunch with a friend of mine when he made a rather startling claim: if Congress won’t act the President is powerless to make change.

Lisa Jackson at her nomination announcement.

Lisa Jackson at her nomination announcement.

Indeed, with the attention of so many environmental groups focused squarely on Senate legislation, it’s easy to forget the real change comes from the executive branch. Congress may make the laws, but it’s up to the bureaucracy to interpret and implement those laws.

When the Bush administration decided that the Clean Air Act did not cover global warming emissions, it took a Supreme Court ruling (Massachusetts v. EPA) to determine that greenhouse gases are, in fact, air pollution. Even then, the Bush administration was able to avoid regulating emissions by ignoring conclusions from EPA scientists that global warming posed a threat to human health and welfare.

So why do I love the EPA regulations when they seem to exist at the whim of whoever is in office? Because the EPA bureaucracy outlives the president’s administration.

Even with Bush in office, the EPA didn’t stop working. Scientists kept releasing reports, which were buried, and staff people kept drafting regulations, which were not implemented – at the time. We like to say that for eight years Bush did nothing, but the truth is that, despite his top officials’ best efforts, all those nameless bureaucrats in the EPA were laying the groundwork for whoever would come next.

In her first year as EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson has already finalized the endangerment finding, the first step towards regulating greenhouse gas pollution, and proposed new rules to limit global warming pollution from the largest emitters – thanks to the work done, although ignored, under Bush.

So what can the public do to help the EPA? Get involved.

The EPA accepts public comments on almost every rule the agency proposes, and you’d better believe that representatives from oil and coal companies use these opportunities to complain about any potential damage to their bottom line.

EPA regulations aren’t sexy. But if we are going to fight global warming, we need an accurate greenhouse gas reporting rule so we know where pollution is coming from. If we are going to switch to renewable and biofuels, then we need to know the global warming impact of the entire lifecycle of a fuel from acquisition, to refinement, and finally to burning, as well as the impact changes in land use will have on the climate as forests are plowed under for crops.

And we need public input if we’re going to fight efforts to undermine the EPA’s ability to do its job, like Senator Murkowski’s resolution, which threatens to overturn the endangerment finding and strip the EPA of its ability to fight global warming. Murkowski may claim the EPA is moving too quickly, but, thanks to public input, we can show that over 70% of the more than 380,000 public comments submitted on the endangerment finding favored EPA action..

While my friend insists that he enjoyed my 20-minute lecture on EPA regulations, I suspect he may regret suggesting that President Obama is powerless to someone whose job it is to support EPA action.

I work on both sides, supporting administrative action and wrestling with Congress. We won some game changing victories in 2009, but for the most part those victories came from EPA bureaucrats, not legislators. And that’s why I love EPA regulations.

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Guest blogger Nicole Ghio has been working for the Sierra Club in San Francisco for three years, most recently as an online organizer generating support for government action to fight global warming. Read her full bio.

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Welcome to Climate Lab’s New Blog!

Feb 10

Posted by Kate George | Comments

Climate Lab is pleased to announce the launch of our new blog!

Climate Lab Blog meets World

Climate Lab Blog meets World

The Climate Lab Blog & News site is a new forum where you will find commentary on current issues relating to climate change, updates on new developments at Climate Lab, as well as special posts by guest bloggers. We hope to highlight new perspectives and useful resources with our posts, particularly related to creating greater dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration around climate and energy-related issues.

In a recent post, “Searching for Dialogue in Copenhagen,” Climate Lab co-founder Jessica Morey of the Clean Energy Group gives an account of her experience at the Copenhagen climate conference in December.  Matt Bass blogs about Climate Lab’s initiative with users to develop wiki articles on low-cost, low-carbon technologies. And Lindsay Vacek describes the release of Climate Lab’s first wiki content project — 25 articles on Small Island Developing States.

Start the conversation - and share

One of our goals with the blog is to help build a large, informed, and active Climate Lab community. Help us with that goal: Start the conversation on the Climate Lab blog by leaving a comment on your favorite post. Just click the “Comments” link and leave your message below.

Sharing Climate Lab blog posts — and your comments — is a snap through email or  social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Click the “Share” button at the bottom of any blog post and help us get the word out.

Stay tuned for new weekly posts from Climate Lab staff and guests. But most importantly, make your voice heard on issues that are important to you.

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Searching for Dialogue in Copenhagen

Dec 16

Posted by Jessica Morey | Comments (2)

What struck me most about all the activity in Copenhagen was the lack of dialogue — and not just among negotiators, but among the NGOs and environmental groups inside the Bella Center. Then again: Was I attending with an entirely open ear and mind?

Street protesters setting up outside the Copenhagen talks.

Street protesters setup just outside the Copenhagen talks. (Source: Author)

I arrived in Copenhagen with a stack of newly printed reports and a full agenda to push forward my organization’s great idea on how to solve climate change through international collaboration on technology innovation. (And I do think it’s a great idea.)

I thought I was on the same page with a few of my international colleagues also at the conference. Like me, they also had been writing and talking furiously about technology innovation. But as we jostled through the conference crowds, pieces of our conversations didn’t match up.

I started listening more carefully. Had they read our reports?

Then I thought to myself: How thoroughly had I read theirs?? I suddenly wasn’t even sure that we agreed on what “technology innovation” meant.

I looked around at the rest of the conference attendees. Some of us had stood in line for up to eight hours to get into the Center. Had we been waiting in the cold for hours just to talk at each other?, I wondered.

And then there were all the folks holding events outside in the conference complex. Thousands participated in the “People’s Summit on Climate,” the protests held about 100 meters from the Bella Center. Few of us with badges were out exchanging ideas with those on the outside.

No one really expects to witness meaningful discussion during the official public negotiations. Each country’s representative makes his or her requisite statement that everyone has heard before, staking out positions that everyone already knows. Informal discussions among negotiators, behind closed doors, allow for more open dialogue — although it was hard to say what tangible benefits were coming from these more candid conversations throughout much of the conference.

More troubling than the lack of open dialogue at the political level, though, was the lack of meaningful exchange between the thousands of observers and civil society participants at the conference — attendees like myself. With Copenhagen over and still no binding international climate agreement in place, there is a greater need than ever before to share ideas, find common ground, and work together. Besides meetings and conferences, there are now collaborative tools and web-based platforms to help us exchange information and connect on an ongoing basis.

But we also have to change our mindset and approach. I will be working on mine. For one, I’ll be trying not to be so busy getting my own ideas heard that I can’t listen to anyone else.

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Divergent Predictions on Copenhagen Climate Talks

Dec 11

Posted by Brendan Lucker | Comments

If you read the newspaper, surf the net, participate in the blogosphere or wake up in the morning in Washington DC, then you were probably aware of the many opinions about the potential outcome for Copenhagen climate talks. Some parties had high hopes that countries would come to an agreement on emissions targets and other measures. Others predicted, from relatively early on, that Copenhagen would fail to produce any substantive outcome.  Some even thought that failure might, in fact, be the best outcome, in the long term, for a meaningful climate agreement.

The jury is still out, but we thought it would be interesting to review a few of the divergent predictions and assessments.  What views did we miss?  What is your prediction?  Comment away and let us know your thoughts.

Success

  • “The real key to progress in Copenhagen is resolution and agreement on the crunch issues, those key elements that will put the world on a path to staying as far below a 2°C temperature as possible. That is what the science demands and what is required to ensure the survival of the world’s most vulnerable countries and people and, ultimately, all of humanity.” - Greenpeace (Dec 3, 2009)
  • “We must not fail. Success in Copenhagen is in sight. We must seize the moment to seal the deal,” said the UN chief Ban Ki-moon, urging all world leaders to attend the final days of the Copenhagen talks. - Agence France-Presse (Nov 28, 2009)

Failure

  • Top climate scientist James Hansen has said that any agreement that may emerge from the talks is likely to be so “fundamentally wrong” that it would be better if those seeking to address the problem of climate change and global warming took a year off to “figure out a better path.” - Digital Journal (Dec 3, 2009)
  • There is a recent argument that Australia’s failure to pass a bill which would  have set up one of the world’s biggest “cap and trade” markets is a bad omen for Copenhagen. “Australia has dealt a major blow to any international deal on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen summit by failing to introduce new laws to control pollution.” - Telegraphy.co.uk (Dec 2, 2009)

Or maybe forget about a success or failure. Is Copenhagen just the start of the debate?

  • Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister of state for environment, cautioned on October 16: “We may not get the perfect agreement. This is Copenhagen 1.0. You may have Copenhagen 2.0 a couple of months later.” - Reuters (Oct 16, 2009)
  • “The real negotiations will be after Copenhagen,” said Yi Xianliang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official. “Copenhagen will be a starting point, not an ending point.” - Reuters (Oct 23, 2009)
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Help the Climate by Aiding Poor and Rural Communities

Nov 17

Posted by Matthew Bass | Comments

Over 2.5 billion people in developing countries around the world still rely on wood, charcoal, dung and other biomass fuels for basic energy needs like cooking.  The traditional fuel sources available in poor and rural communities are often time-intensive to collect, degrade the local environment, have negative health impacts and can result in unwanted carbon emissions.  In the 21st century, there is a great need to connect these communities with more of the low-cost, low-carbon energy solutions.

New Initiative: clean technologies for high-need communities

Two boys hit the books by solar lamp light. (Source: Flickr)

Two boys hit the books by solar lamp light. (Source: Flickr)

As world leaders gathered in Copenhagen to negotiate policy solutions, including expanding funding for clean technologies, Climate Lab has launched a new initiative with users to develop content and aggregate information about affordable low-carbon technologies that can help meet basic community needs. Solar lanterns, solar ovens, and small-scale biogas plants are all example of these safe, sustainable and affordable technologies.

The project aims to increase the awareness about these technologies and associated programs and initiatives by creating a collaborative exchange of comprehensive up-to-date information in a wiki format.  We have also broken new ground creating a project page that provides an interactive space designed to help users manage the project and make joining the initiative as simple and straightforward as possible.

The success of this project depends on the involvement and enthusiasm of users like you!  Here are a few ways to get involved.

  • Create new articles on topics you know or are interested in researching.
  • Edit existing articles and rate their quality
  • Make an article more dynamic - add pictures, video, maps, news feeds and more

For more ways to get involved, visit the project page.  Join our effort, tell your friends, and have fun. Every contribution helps.

Does your organization work on issues related to affordable clean technologies?  Let us know - and partner with us.

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