Environmental Software

RMI's Interactive Oil Import Map

Philip Proefrock

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) are some of our favorite EcoGeeks. They have long advocated getting away from the import of foreign oil for America's energy needs.

To help illustrate the point, they now have an interactive global map that shows oil imports to the United States on a month-by month basis since 1973. With this map, you can see where oil is coming from, as well as relative volumes.

RMI has proposed a four prong plan for ending oil imports and increasing energy self-sufficiency in the U.S. They advocate "saving half the oil America uses, and substituting cheaper alternatives for the other half" through doubling the efficiency of the oil that is currently used, adopting superlight vehicles to improve transportation efficiency, developing domestic biofuels to offset another quarter of current consumption and increasing efficiency of natural gas use. According to RMI, by 2050 it would be possible for the United States to be "completely off oil."

Since we've just spent the last week paying a lot of attention to all the new vehicles being proposed at this year's North American International Auto Show, now is a good time to be thinking about the energy sources those vehicles will need to work from in the coming years.

As we have often pointed out, transforming energy consumption patterns is not going to be an overnight project. Long term strategies need to be developed to migrate the country into patterns that will be supportable in the future.

Thanks, John B

link: Rocky Mountain Institute

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Obama Starts Social Questions Site

Hank Green

Considering how long they've had to do this, it's pretty freaking amazing...the Obama administration, at Change.gov, has just put up an online question asking and rating system that is, really, quite robust and useful.

Of course, I will direct you immediately to the Energy and Environment section, where the top rated questions have to do with intercity rail projects (excellent), distributed power (excellent) and renewables vs. nuclear (excellent).

All excellent questions! It makes you realize that Americans aren't...well...quite as stupid as the rest of the world assumes we are. Going down the list, in fact, I see a whole lot of really intelligent questions concerning our energy and environmental future. The Obama "team" plans to answer some of the top-rated questions in the new year.

The questions range from extremely broad to extremely specific, and from energy issues to preserving habitat for predators in Alaska. And some of the questions are extremely poignant and important, like this one:

"What types of serious and effective incentives will the new administration propose to force China, India and other major polluters into compliance with environmental agreements such as Kyoto 2 (or even less stringent regulations)?"

Whoo...that's a doozy...

But it's worth clicking through and seeing how many EcoGeeks there are out there asking intelligent questions and, more than anything, actually interested in being a part of the political process. Nothing like an intelligent discussion of energy policy straight from the mouths of Americans (and filtered with a Web 2.0 application) to make me believe in America again.

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This Computer Knows Where You Should Live

Hank Green

Holy crap if this isn't amazing! I just discovered a website that knows exactly where you should live.

Simply stick in the addresses of all of the places that you and members of your family regularly go (grocery stores, work place, daycare, dog walking, strip club, whatever) and this awesome little machine will weight them appropriately and then tell you where exactly, within your town, you can live using the least amount of gas.

Now, it might not find you a place in the nicest neighborhood, or with the most appropriate median home values, but it will decrease your commute time. And, frankly, driving can be the worst part of many people's lives. I know, because I once had a gigantically evil commute, and was a worse person because of it.

This, combined with my favorite home-locating site, Walkscore, could definitely provide home-buyers with some much needed tools to determine whether that cheap 4-bedroom in the new suburb is really a better deal than the pricier 3-bedroom in town.

The application calculated that I should live on the railroad in the middle of an abandoned lumber mill. Which, actually, is surprisingly apt. The abandoned lumber mill is one of the most central locations in town, and developers are currently working to convert it into a densely built, green community.

Well done computer! I think I may move there...once there are houses.

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EBay Responsible for 2/3 of Online Trade in Endangered Animals

Hank Green

I generally think of eBay as a force for environmental good...creating markets for items that would otherwise be trash but, instead, get to continue being useful. But this is very upsetting. It turns out that eBay is responsible for 2/3 of the worldwide online market in products made from endangered species.

In response to the report, eBay has banned the sale of ALL items containing ivory, a huge hunk of endangered animal products. This policy change was caused by a report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which studied more than 7000 listings of illegal items on over 180 websites. eBay listed the vast majority of restricted items (not too much of a surprise, since they list the vast majority of all online auctions.) And ivory composed more than 70% of the restricted items.

We applaud eBay for pulling ivory from their pages completely. Frankly, eBay could have continued to allow ivory, since it can come from non-endangered animals like walrus, and legal pre-ban sources. But eBay decided to take action, and instead of scrutinizing every ivory post, they simply will no longer allow the auctions.

However, ivory certainly isn't the end of the endangered species trade on eBay. Hides from elephants, turtle shells, and leopard, cheetah, ocelot, lizard and crocodiles skins were all available on the site in one country or another. The fact that these items were not disallowed a decade ago is extremely disturbing and upsetting.

We all (including EBay) owe the IFAW a great deal of thanks for bringing this to light.

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Databases for the Environment

Megan Treacy

The United Nations Environment Program has teamed up with global conservation groups to create two new internet databases of protected and ecologically important sites. Their aim is to help businesses make environmentally sound decisions when entering new areas.

The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) integrates the UN list of protected areas with Google mapping software. This information was previously only available to scientists, but now businesses, like oil and mining companies, can access the exact boundaries of areas like nature reserves and national parks and analyze their potential environmental impact before moving in. In the event that companies already have a presence in these areas, they can make necessary changes to minimize their impact.

The Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) adds information on Key Biodiversity Sites to the WDPA data. This information includes both protected and unprotected areas where animals or plants are endangered, or where populations are globally significant. Also included are articles outlining how businesses can make decisions based on the data.

Major companies like BP, Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, Microsoft and Bank of America are helping to fund the projects.

To me, it seems like these tools should have been in place a long time ago. I’ll be interested to see how they are used and if businesses take the data to heart.

via Green Inc.

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RMI's Interactive Oil Import Map

Obama Starts Social Questions Site

This Computer Knows Where You Should Live

EBay Responsible for 2/3 of Online Trade in Endangered Animals

Databases for the Environment

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