Climate science researchers from Arizona State Univ. are launching a first-of-its-kind online “game” to better understand the sources of global warming gases. By engaging “citizen scientists,” the researchers hope to locate all the power plants around the world and quantify their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The game has officially begun and is housed on a website called “Ventus.” Ventus (the Latin word for wind) has a simple interface in which users enter basic information about the world’s power plants. By playing the game, people around the globe can help solve the climate change problem.
Anonymous asked: I saw the HarvardX free course you posted and i was wondering if you are familiar with any other free courses like this on the subject of ecology. I am studying biology currently so background knowledge wouldnt be a problem. Thanks in advance.
Thanks. Maybe check Open Culture. It lists about 1,000 free courses. There’s also Youtube/Education, where universities post free lectures.
This Article examines the challenges global climate change presents for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its primary administrative agency, the U.S. Fish an
Great read. JB Ruhl is one of the best writers on climate law in the US.
Magnificent! I’ve been looking at data scraping tools for simple climate analysis of publicly available data. Serendipity strikes again!
Just over a week ago we published a graphic – more of an interactive short blog post without a blog, really – that accompanied Tyler Kepner’s piece about strikeouts for the Times’ 2013 baseball preview. The subject of both pieces was the steep increase in strikeouts across the board in the past decade: last year, ten Major League clubs set franchise records for strikeouts.
The fact Tyler came to us with was one he’d found on his own: 18 teams struck out at least 1,200 times last season; through 2005, there had never been a season in which more than two teams topped that total. Below, the first sketch, based on that stat – the number of teams with 1,200 strikeouts or more in a season going back to 1968:
That’s a compelling chart, but it’s also little misleading because the league has expanded a few times and not all seasons are the same length.
Instead, Joe Ward and I thought about making small multiples of the teams and arranging them in a sort of histogram, sort of like my colleague Bill Marsh did with exit polls in 2008 and 2012.
Here are the first nine teams in alphabetical order, with the league average in grey:
We didn’t really care for these, and I complained about it to my colleague and cubicle-partner Alicia Desantis, who suggested I make it look like the climate change “hockey stick charts.” (FYI, The image below, one of the better ones from Wikipedia, is meant to convey the form, not wade into the “Hockey Stick controversy“ if you believe there is one.)
Here’s what the first R sketch of that idea looked like – every team’s average strikeouts per game per year. (Red is the league average.)
At this point, we had a chart we liked and the process went forward like many of our other projects do. However, there was a key difference with this one that’s worth mentioning - all the rest of the sketches, edits and and design improvements happened in a web browser. (More on this later.)
Here are a few successions of this chart, made using D3:
Checkin #2
Checkin #6
Checkin #22
As it appeared when published (Checkin #142)
A few final technical notes worth mentioning:
Getting this data from baseball-reference.com requires a bit of scraping, and this project sold me for life on R’s XML package, which makes scraping fast and shamefully easy.
In the final project, there are three interactive charts and a table on the page, and they are all generated in D3 with just one data file. All the interactivity – selection, tooltip, calculating averages – is easily abstracted out, and for the first time I felt some of the same sketching power in a browser that I’d seen only with R: the concept that if you can make one chart, you can make a hundred with the same effort. But with D3, the sketches are already in a browser and wired for interaction! From a development point of view, it felt tremendously powerful. (For many of you this might be obvious, but old habits die hard.)
Second, thanks to the open-source SVG Crowbar bookmarklet developed by Shan Carter, this project represented a recent change in development process, for me, at least. Instead of developing both print and online charts separately, we were able to generate all the charts for print in a web browser at precisely the sizes we wanted, then save them down to Illustrator. Aside from being a useful shift in thinking, it saved a ton of time. (This isn’t the first time the department has done something like this – just the first time I did.)
For example, we included the small multiples in print, but we made them in D3 first:
Here’s the two-page spread in print. Again, all these charts were produced in a browser, saved to SVG and edited lightly in Illustrator.
Finally, for the record, most of the best parts of this graphic were made by Shan while I was on vacation, and all the meaningful annotation was from Joe Ward, who, did you know, played D1 baseball and was a scout for the Cleveland Indians before coming to the Times?
Open Maps and LocalWiki teamed up to map Antarctica. The maps were crowd sourced by volunteers around the world. Palmer Station is among their first maps. Check it out, here.
Palmer Station is a scientific research station located on Anvers Island off the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, operated by the US Antarctic Program.
The majority of the science research conducted at Palmer Station revolves around marine biology. The station also houses year-round monitoring equipment for global seismic, atmospheric, and UV-monitoring networks, as well as a site for the study of heliophysics.[2] Palmer also hosts a radio receiver that studies lightning over the Western Hemisphere.
The operating area around Palmer Station includes several prominent islands, each classified under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol). Examples include the minimally regulated Torgersen Island and the highly restricted Litchfield Island.
“During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to “create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.” Last week, President Obama fulfilled that promise with the rollout of Ethics.gov, which “brings records and data from across the federal government to one central location, making it easier for citizens to hold public officials accountable.”
Ethics.gov is available to the public and allows anyone to access and search the records of seven different databases:
• White House Visitor Records;
• Office of Government Ethics Travel Reports;
• Lobbying Disclosure Act Data;
• Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act Data;
• Federal Election Commission Individual Contribution Reports;
• Federal Election Commission Candidate Reports; and
• Federal Election Commission Committee Reports.
According to a White House press release, the database includes millions of White House visitor records, records for entities registered with the Federal Election Commission such as PACs, records for each candidate who has either registered with the FEC or appeared on a ballot list prepared by a state elections office, lobbying registrations, and much more.
On his Sunlight Foundation blog, John Wonderlich, who is Policy Director for the Sunlight Foundation and an advocate for open government, wrote that while Ethics.gov fulfilled the president’s pledge, “neither money and politics research nor executive branch oversight are going to be revolutionized by this search page — at least not yet.” He added that while it will not happen immediately, the site could become a primary destination for investigative journalists or ethics officials.”
What’s the best way to use the coastline? Which areas should be protected and which should be built out? Should we use the same principles of urban planning on the oceans? Should states cooperate with each other to decide the answers? Those are some of the questions being answered by people who live along the coasts. A new website brings together all of the different ideas on how to plan and use coastlines, lakes, and oceans.
It’s called the Data Ocean Prototype, and is run by some good folks at Data.gov. I suspect they’ll have sea-level rise maps on there, or at least point to NOAA’s climate portal. Data.gov is one of Obama’s efforts to create more open-source type government platform. It has components in Law, Ocean, Energy, Health, Web Semantics, and Open Data. Really great stuff. From the Ocean’s site:
Under the National Ocean Policy’s Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, the United States is subdivided into nine regional planning areas. Each region would engage in a collaborative planning effort among Federal, State, and tribal partners who will develop regional goals, objectives, and ultimately regional CMS plans. An integral component of collaborative planning is good data and information on which to inform decisions. Regions compile information on their marine ecosystems, including structure, function, condition, cumulative impacts and services, current and emerging human uses, and projected effects of climate change. The resulting data and maps are made available to any interested party through regional data portals linked to a national information management system. Scientific assessments and decision support tools are then used to visualize and understand the implications of alternative choices for future ocean uses across the planning area. Guided by regional objectives, the resulting regional CMS Plan identifies and maps specific ocean areas most suitable to support different types of human uses while sustaining valued ecosystem functions and services.
Well worth bookmarking this excellent resource that shows the chemicals used in everyday goods. Glad to see the gvt posting this information. I’m sure manufacturers hate it (eg, disclosure is the major flaw of free market systems). There are thousands and thousands of products, everything from glue to motor oil to deodorant.
By the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine
Have you ever wondered what chemical ingredients are in some of the common household products that you buy? The Household Products Database can tell you about the product’s ingredients, any possible health concerns and give you tips on proper handling.
The database links several thousand consumer brands to health effects from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by product manufacturers. The products in the database run the gamut from air fresheners to flea and tick control to mascara. The database lets you research products by chemical ingredients, manufacturer, or health effects, and can help you answer questions such as:
What are the chemical ingredients in specific brands?
Which products contain specific chemical ingredients?
Who manufactures a specific brand? How do I contact this manufacturer?
What are the acute and chronic effects of chemical ingredients in a specific brand?
What other information is available about chemicals in other National Library of Medicine databases?
Information in the Household Products Database comes from a variety of publicly available sources including brand labels and Material Safety Data Sheets when the MSDS are available from manufacturers and manufacturers’ web sites.
You can search the database by brand names, ingredients, and manufacturers.
Look at the below FAIL. To be sure, the notion of Smart Cities is (sort of) catching steam. But, as the below announcement demonstrates, promoters and sponsors have some serious PR issues to the point of cognitive dissonance.
Citizen Urbanism. Ecological Design. Urban Planning. Open Data and Collaboration for the Future of Cities.
Launching Q1, 2011. For more information: info {at} opensourcecities.org
This is one example of an upstart launch FAIL by something called Open Source Cities. As a citizen, you should question everything and be empowered with knowledge before committing to this crap. Here’s how I questioned this project:
The Open Source Cities website is “Launching Q1, 2011.” Click the link to see. Now, how many citizens know what “Q1” is? Not many. Nor, I assure you, do citizens give a spinning shit. Why do the proprietors of this website not know this? Because they didn’t bother to talk to any citizens.
Also, the notion of “open source” is citizen driven. It’s by the people. It’s not sponsor driven. It’s not a for-profit endeavor. So why is this project edited by liberal elitists, and sponsored by some greenwashed server-hosting bs company, and NOT by actual citizens?? Again, click the link to see the sponsors. What gives?
(Note: I’m not criticizing liberal elites per se. I’m pointing out that you cannot have “open source” anything run by backslapping journalists and designers with no clue as to actual city planning. Nor can you run an “open source” project by a for-profit corporate sponsor who is obviously trolling to expand its customer base. To put in plainly, it’s not credible.).
Before I discuss property rights, let me rant about this this Q1 business. If, as these insiders assume, citizens care and even understand municipal fiscal clocks, by whose “Q1” clock are they referring to?? New York State’s fiscal year starts April 1st and ends March 31st. New York City’s starts and ends July 1-June 30. If you’re a regional planning agency, how do you square those two clocks with Brooklyn’s 2012-2015 fiscal planning clock? How do citizens interested in city planning understand and navigate these fiscal clocks? And why is this important? Open Source is silent.
There are 10,000 municipalities in the US, add thousands of counties operating under various state mandates, and all use different fiscal clocks. So, “by whose Q1?” is pretty solid question. There is a NYTimes reporter on this project, is this going by the NYTimes fiscal Q1 clock? Why? Why are they even using Q1? This shuts down conversation. Especially if you’re supposed to be ushering Joe and Jane citizens - who are hella busy - to get involved with city planning and economic development.
You cannot subsume knowledge on behalf of half-interested citizens. Not to mention there are hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of regional, quasi-public/private, private, not-for-profit, planning, housing and economic development agencies and organizations who also use different fiscal clocks. And on and on. You cannot use ‘Q1’ and escape being called out on weaselly designery elitism.
Finally, where, of their sponsors, is Joe and Jane “citizen” in their “Citizen Urbanism” moniker? Architectural firms?! Pssssshh. I can’t even… I. I, I don’t… ARRGG!!
This isn’t open source, nor is it citizen driven. It’s privatized, for-profit city consulting. Private organizations are grabbing tax payer dollars to ‘consult’ with cities for unproven economic development.
And don’t get me started on demographics - as in how are they going to represent my grandmother, who has no access to a computer? Or immigrants? Or the poor? Or expats? Or single moms? Or the creative class? Or 18 year old college freshman? These clowns have no demonstrable experience in city planning.
Why am I ranting? Because these crack pots are fucking with people’s property rights. These people are going to try to change zoning regulations and building codes and do so at tax payer expense and ride into the sunset with your money. It’s serious business. People’s property isn’t some fucking techie toy. Cities are not sand boxes to experiment in.
If they were, then these sponsoring organizations should take full responsibility for any economic failures they usher into fruition. They should contractually sign away liability, be immune to quasi-sovereign immunity claims, openly report under SEC rules, and be open to all causes of action. By taking responsibility for outcomes, their work becomes truly open and more carefully crafted. Importantly, they don’t leave citizens holding the short end of the stick, especially if a select few vote to change their neighbors’ vested property interests and investment-backed expectations based on something that comes out of this ill-conceived project.
With such high stakes, to hide these things behind a mask of friendly assistance is pure bullshit to me.
Great video by Jennifer Cowley: “City and regional planners are always looking for new ways to engage with the public. Increasingly the public are using their smartphone apps to engage with cities. This pecha kucha highlights a variety of apps and their potential for engaging with the public in planning processes.”
Watch whenever you want. No log in required - just brew your tea and watch. Obviously, environmental law is an incredibly complex field. When I got my masters in environmental law from Vermont Law School, I found it both maddening and invigorating.I’m watching these now, and it’s a good overview of the laws that protect the environment. It’s also a good reminder of how far we have to go.
For example, take the Mining Act of 1872, which is still in force. It is the most frustrating, annoying, and stupid law I’ve come across. Anyone can purchase certain federal lands for $5 per acre as long as it’s for hard rock mining (eg, gold, uranium, etc). No, really. Unlike oil drilling on public land, no royalties are due to the taxpayers whom own the land. Royalties, by the way, are America’s second highest source of revenue, taxes being the first. Mining is incredibly destructive, and miners have very little incentive to clean up their mess - leaving it to the tax payers to pay for it.
The Open Yale course project has generously provided access to an environmental law overview. They’ve put online course syllabus, readings, and recorded classes in one place. It’s free, you don’t need to log in, easy to use, and a must for environmentalists.
Click here, enjoy. If you get fired up, then just fire an email to your representative. If you do, be clear and tight: “I want you to change this law because of x, y, and z reasons.” Also, I always write in the subject line “From your voter” and get 100% response rates (though, this is probably because I live in Massachusetts, where our reps are highly interactive with the public.). I never sign petitions, but I do use some of the language to frame a personalized letter.
Please help the Protei team raise the last $8,000 to build this amazing Open Hardware Oil Spill Cleaning Sailing Robot Drone by Cesar Harada on Kickstarter. They’ve only got five days left to raise $8K or so. The project is brilliant, and the tech will always be open source, free for anyone to use. (Unlike Costner, Harada and team aren’t looking to profit off of environmental remediation.)
If you want to learn more, you can check out my Q&A w/ Harada here. But it’s much more important that you cough up some cash and make a pledge. Would only take like 300 people giving $25.
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
Professional and sponsorship inquiries, please
email.
![Open Maps and LocalWiki teamed up to map Antarctica. The maps were crowd sourced by volunteers around the world. Palmer Station is among their first maps. Check it out, here.
Palmer Station is a scientific research station located on Anvers Island off the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, operated by the US Antarctic Program.
The majority of the science research conducted at Palmer Station revolves around marine biology. The station also houses year-round monitoring equipment for global seismic, atmospheric, and UV-monitoring networks, as well as a site for the study of heliophysics.[2] Palmer also hosts a radio receiver that studies lightning over the Western Hemisphere.
Other research is conducted from the research vessel (R/V) Laurence M. Gould. Science cruises cover physical oceanography, marine geology, and marine biology. The ship also carries field parties to sites around the Antarctic Peninsula to study glaciology, geology, and paleontology. Palmer Station also hosts an IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) Amateur Radio node #8838 for ham radio communications.”- Wiki
The operating area around Palmer Station includes several prominent islands, each classified under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol). Examples include the minimally regulated Torgersen Island and the highly restricted Litchfield Island.
View map!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbt43jzdnI1qfqfdyo1_500.jpg)
