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http://twitter.com/TheArenuiTeam/status/775888302843060224 
CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is an international... https://t.co/8SjhUgltFz 
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More than half of UK species in decline some may soon vanish  
A new report paints a gloomy picture and blames intensive farming and climate change for an ongoing devastation of wildlife on the shore of Great Britain  
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http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-streamlined-form-in-lethe-vallis-mars  
A Streamlined Form in Lethe Vallis, Mars  
This image shows a portion of Lethe Vallis, an outflow channel that also transported lava. This is one of only a few places on Mars where these pristine-appearing landforms have been identified. The channel formed by catastrophic floods, during which it produced the prominent crater-cored, teardrop-shaped island in the middle.  
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bigblueboo: “ unruly  
bigblueboo: “ unruly concavity ”  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fgeorgianne-nienaber%2Fnorth-dakota-landowner-wi_b_11997930.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
North Dakota Landowner Wins Easement Battle Against Oil Company  
The disruptive phone calls came at dinnertime, and were not the usual telemarketing solicitations. The caller identified as a representative from a multinational oil company wanting to run a 24-inch pipeline through farmland owned by James and Krista Botsford. The caller was not selling anything, but wanted the Botsfords to sell a right of way through their North Dakota land. This pipeline would push 300,000 barrels of oil a day to ports in Superior Wisconsin. The crude oil, pumped straight from the Bakken Oil Fields, could not be sold on the world market until it was processed at refineries on Lake Superior.

Every time that James Botsford answered the persistent ringing of the phone, he told the caller in no uncertain terms that he and his wife were not interested. They did not want to participate in a private enterprise that would increase global warming and threaten the lives of his heirs. This was a moral imperative and no amount of persuasion, including money, would make him change his mind.



James Botsford in August 2015 speaking to filmmaker Keri Pickett for the documentary "First Daughter and the Black Snake"

But that was almost two years ago.

The Botsfords stood their ground and today the oil company lost in an appeal to the Supreme Court of North Dakota.

In an email statement, the Botsfords thanked their legal team at Baumstark Braaten in Bismarck and issued an impassioned plea for the environment and those fighting similar battles.

My wife and I are so pleased with this outcome. It is a complete victory for our case. Once Enbridge abandoned their interest in taking our land and agreed to pay our attorney fees there was really nothing left to fight about in our case. However, there are many more property owners out there in the path of giants like Enbridge. People who want to stop this horrible rush to extract the worst of the fossil fuels and the spewing of unheard of amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. And people who just simply believe a corporation should not be able to take your private property for their for-profit purposes. In our case we had firm commitments on both issues. We hope this victory will encourage others who want to take a stand on one or both of these important issues. David can beat Goliath.

North Dakota Pipeline Inc., a joint venture of Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. and Williston Basin Pipe Line LLC., was ordered to abandon an easement on the Botsford's farmland. In addition the company must reimburse the Botsfords $82,581.25 in attorney and other fees.

The Sandpiper Pipeline, a project that would carry Bakken crude oil from western North Dakota to refineries in Superior, Wisconsin was recently scuttled in Minnesota. Native American tribes, Minnesota landowners, and citizens banded together to fight the project before the Minnesota Utilities Commission and other regulatory agencies. Botsfords' lone holdout in North Dakota was the western lynchpin for the Sandpiper pipeline, which is now a moot question.

In an early September filing with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, Enbridge said "it will no longer pursue the regulatory approvals necessary to construct Sandpiper in Minnesota."

Enbridge is now pushing its investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and along with its parent company, Energy Transfer Inc., facing stiff opposition from Native American tribes at the Standing Rock protest near Cannonball North Dakota.

The stakes could not be bigger for both sides, but with oil behemoths banding together, the fight will be even more difficult for the Sioux Nation. They might want to take a page from the Botsford playbook and realize that it is possible to win. As the Botsfords said, David can indeed beat Goliath.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fsteve-horn%2Fsecurity-firm-guarding-da_b_11997900.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Security Firm Guarding Dakota Access Pipeline Also Used PSYOPs Tactics for BP  

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

G4S, a company hiring security staff to guard the hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), also works to guard oil and gas industry assets in war-torn Iraq, and has come under fire by the United Nations for human rights abuses allegedly committed while overseeing a BP pipeline in Colombia and elsewhere while on other assignments.

Recently, the UK-based G4S placed job advertisements on its website, announcing it would be hiring security teams to work out of offices in Mandan and Bismarck, North Dakota. These two locales are only a 45-minute drive away from the ongoing Standing Rock Sioux Tribe-led encampment unfolding along DAPL's route in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. First among the list of required experience for both locations is service related to military police, elite military forces, or "any support role in a combat zone." 

Photo Credit: Democracy Now!

Monica Lewman-Garcia, Director of Communications for G4S Secure Solutions in North America, told DeSmog, "G4S Secure Solutions is providing fewer than 10 security officers, assigned to remote sites and providing limited short-term unarmed patrol services."

Lewman-Garcia also stated that G4S was not on the scenes at the now-infamous Labor Day weekend incident in which private security forces used pepper spray against and allowed their dogs to bite Dakota Access pipeline protesters, adding that the company had not deployed its K9 units and that those involved worked for a different company. G4S also said it could not comment on whether it was hired to be in North Dakota by Dakota Access LLC, by another company altogether, or by one of the local police departments. 

"Chaos Company"

Dubbed the "Chaos Company" in an April 2014 Vanity Fair article, G4S is often brought into the stickiest situations, such as overseeing security for the Basrah Gas Company, an Iraqi natural gas company which Shell, Mitsubishi, and South Oil Company jointly own.

G4S touts its expertise in doing high-risk security work for the oil and gas industry in a company pamphlet:

"In Nigeria, for example, its services include the provision and manning of emergency vessels operating in the Niger Delta for Chevron. It also has a considerable presence in Iraq where it is well placed to assist in the protection of the war-torn nation's oil production which could make that country the third largest oil exporter within a few years."

An article published by The Telegraph (UK) detailed that G4S had been hired to bring 500 personnel and 220 armored vehicles to protect Basrah Gas Company properties in Iraq. Those properties include two gas plants, a liquefied petroleum gas storage facility, a shipping terminal, and — paralleling the Dakota Access situation — the pipelines between them. 

G4S also has security contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense at both Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and the controversial U.S. military base in Diego Garcia. The British human rights group Reprieve called for an investigation of G4S as it pertains to human rights abuses which took place at Guantanamo.

Oil and Gas Roots

In 2008, G4S acquired the company ArmorGroup International PLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary. This company has been on the public radar in recent years for being mired in a human trafficking scandal in Afghanistan while guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on a U.S. State Department contract. The U.S. Department of Justice had sued ArmorGroup for allegedly violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, settling the lawsuit in 2011 for $7.5 million.

Less well-known is that ArmorGroup has roots connecting it to other human rights abuses and controversial tactics on behalf of multinational oil and gas companies through its precursor, Defense Systems Limited (DSL), a firm founded in 1981, according to a company fact sheet no longer online acquired by DeSmog. ArmorGroup purchased DSL as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1997.

"The company defended gold and diamond mines in Africa from thieves, and oil pipelines in Latin America from guerrillas," wrote The Financial Times in a 2005 article. "It guarded U.S. and British embassies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Often, DSL would use former British special forces troops to train foreign forces in counterterrorist tactics."

BP Pipeline Human Rights Abuses

In the late-1990's, DSL found itself in a human rights-related quagmire, revealed first in the 1997 documentary, BP's Secret Soldiers, and then in a 1998 investigation published by The Guardian (UK) and El Espectador of Colombia.

The joint inquiry by the newspapers demonstrated that oil giant BP "bought and supplied military equipment to a Colombian army brigade" to police its Ocensa Pipeline, a 500-mile-long tube which at that time exported oil to the United States. That brigade had "been implicated in two massacres by rightwing death squads under its control during the civil war" in Colombia and was said to deploy psychological warfare (PSYOPs) and counterinsurgency techniques in the attempt to win over general public support for constructing the project and to marginalize "subversives." 

DSL's tactics received criticism from the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International. Furthermore, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the question of the use of mercenaries also expressed concern about DSL in a letter published in October 1998 for the company's alleged use of intimidation and torture in Colombia. 

"Spies for Hire" Under Investigation

G4S is not the only private contractor identified on the ground in or around the Sacred Stone Camp related to the Dakota Access pipeline protests.

The show "Democracy Now!" revealed that a man who is employed by the firm Torchlight USA, LLC, but is appearing as a freelancer, also showed up in North Dakota. And court documents from the ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pitting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reveal that another firm, 10-Code LLC — founded and run by a former Bismarck Police Department detective named Paul Olson — also has entered the fold.

It's a phenomenon author and journalist Tim Shorrock calls "Spies for Hire" in his 2009 book by the same name, a tome dedicated to chronicling the outsourcing of U.S. intelligence.

"G4S and other companies like it have one motive only: profit. Its work for governments and energy corporations — particularly at the pipeline this week — shows it has no respect for ordinary people or human rights," Shorrock told DeSmog. "Whoever hires them should be investigated for malfeasance, because their shoddy record in security is a mile long." 

In that vein, the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board announced that it has opened up an investigation into the private security firms deployed to patrol the pipeline protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux and whether those firms were even licensed to work in the state. In addition, a local county sheriff's office has begun a similar investigation with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations, exploring the Labor Day weekend clash between security firms and protesters at a DAPL site. 

The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board said it could not comment on which companies have fallen under the purview of its ongoing investigation.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fjennifer-l-morgan%2Fforty-five-years-of-peopl_b_11990906.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Forty-five years of people power  


After forty-five years, countless campaigns and stories - one thing remains central to the Greenpeace identity, and that is people. People are at the heart of who we are and what is needed to create the green and peaceful world we need.

Greenpeace began with a handful of men and women in the port city of Vancouver on Canada's Pacific coast who volunteered their time, energy and creative skills and courageously took on something greater than themselves. This small group worked together to protest a planned nuclear test on Amchitka Island off the Alaskan coast.

After raising funds and securing a boat, known as the Phyllis Cormack, which was re-christened the Greenpeace, the small group of activists set sail on their voyage. Unfortunately, the US authorities intercepted the boat and the crew returned home.

Though a simplified version of the story, that was the beginning of a much bigger journey. The tenacious efforts of that small group of activists who set sail in the face of great adversity helped to raise public awareness, and opposition against nuclear testing grew.

What their story demonstrated is that small groups of people can bring communities together, in ways they never thought possible, toward a common goal. This type of collaboration can reveal people's similarities, which, in this case, were their collective concern for our environment.

Since that day in 1971, the Greenpeace network has had many victories and losses. Today, on our forty-fifth anniversary, we celebrate those victories even as we continue to learn from our losses.

We want to acknowledge and thank all the people who were involved from the very beginning; those who have spent nearly a lifetime working tirelessly to protect our planet.

Without the activists and cyber-activists, ships crews and campaigners, volunteers, scientists, lawyers, political lobbyists and researchers, Greenpeace is just a word. Greenpeace is made up of people driven by the same idea. It is our supporters, donors and allies.

Greenpeace is the more than 36,000 active volunteers strong, across the globe who share their skills, energy and time to organise in their local communities - all these people are Greenpeace.

We celebrate these people who are a positive force of nature because we face significant environmental issues that threaten to radically alter the planet and all the life that call it home. The hope that we can collectively change the course we are on is unflinching and necessary.

Climate change is arguably the biggest global issue of our time. The Paris Agreement is a major step to bring into force and drive far more ambitious international action to hold us at 1.5C and move us toward 100% renewables and safe, secure energy for all. Greenpeace is working to shift the world away from a fossil fuel-based economy, to one built on clean and renewable energy, in ways that bring local benefits to people. To do that we need to shift the power away from the fossil fuel industries.

Connected to climate change, ocean acidification is a direct effect of oceans absorbing excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which is already affecting marine life. Greenpeace wants more marine protected areas, less illegal fishing and is collaborating with a group of organisations and already making strides in stopping our oceans from becoming a giant rubbish dump for plastic.

Progress, made together with communities and groups, to keep our old growth forests and tropical rainforests standing is critical. This work both supports the unique biodiversity found only in these great forests and helps protect our climate because of the role forests play in balancing our global environmental systems.

Greenpeace is campaigning for growing our food in ways that are good for the planet and people, including farming that helps cope with climate change. And we are working toward a toxic-free future where dangerous chemicals are no longer produced, used and released into our environment.

Today, we continue to fight vigorously against nuclear power, and although full-scale nuclear testing has slowed thanks to the people who stood up against it, nuclear-armed states continue to possess, develop and modernise nuclear weapons. We need a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

The health of the planet depends on the health of all of its parts. These interconnected issues are complex and the solutions may sometimes feel far out of reach. Today, as it did those forty-five years ago in Vancouver, it will take people to give voice to our environmental issues and take action toward solutions.

Martin Luther King, Jr said: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

Today, there is a greater urgency to protect our communities and our planet. People power is needed now more than ever. People taking non-violent direct action, bearing witness, exposing environmental crimes, investigating and highlighting environmental issues and driving the solutions.

More and more people believe and are willing to dream big so that our green and peaceful world can be realised.

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." - Arundhati Roy

Happy Anniversary Greenpeace

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/sep/13/steve-bell-on-boundary-changes-cartoon  
Steve Bell on boundary changes cartoon  
Continue reading...  
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http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/150360233822  
Japanese poster for THE LAST DETAIL (Hal Ashby, USA,...  

Japanese poster for THE LAST DETAIL (Hal Ashby, USA, 1973)

Designer: unknown

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-september-2016/supple-creates-visual-identity-app-aimed-ex-prisoners/  
Supple creates visual identity for app aimed at ex-prisoners  

Supple Studio has worked on the the branding for Straightline, a new video and podcast app from the Prison Radio Association (PRA).

The charity which previously developed the National Prison Radio station has targeted the beta app and website at people who have recently been released from prison, as well as those at risk of getting into trouble with the law.

Phil Maguire, CEO of PRA, says: “On leaving prison people often receive little or no support. In an age where technology and new media channels are developing with pace, the audio and video content of the app represent a straightforward, sharable and accessible way of communicating information to hard-to-reach audiences. This is the logical next step for us.”

Identity centred around a “simple straight line”

Supple was briefed to create a “simple and cool” brand identity which would appeal to a largely young target audience. “Our solution was to create a rebus-based identity around a simple straight line,” says director, Jamie Ellul.

“Clean, unfussy and easily recognisable, the logo also works as a sting on video content, revealing the Straightline name in a glitchy way.”

Digital agency Mud also designed and built the app and website, which include videos and spoken word programs featuring stories from people who have been in prison.

“No nonsense” app and website design

The user experience was designed to be really straightforward, according to founder and creative director, Matt Powell. “We knew we'd be communicating with people with varying levels of computer literacy so it was key that everything on the website and the app was no nonsense and easily accessible,” he says.

“But equally we were keen to build the brand where possible such as devices like the Sounds feature on the website, which interprets a Soundcloud histogram file and outputs a completely ownable, unique and on-brand audio player.”

The app and website have now launched in beta form.

The post Supple creates visual identity for app aimed at ex-prisoners appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-september-2016/redesigned-5-polymer-note-enters-circulation/  
Redesigned “water-resistant” £5 note enters circulation  

The redesigned £5 note featuring Winston Churchill enters circulation today, with 440 million of them being initially distributed.

It is made from polymer, a thin flexible plastic, making it resistant to dirt and moisture and able to last 2.5 times longer than paper, according to the Bank of England

It adds that the note contains new security features, which make it harder to counterfeit.

A polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austin arrives in summer 2017 followed by the J.M.W Turner £20 by 2020.

The sizing of the new notes will be tiered, and they will feature bold numerals and similar colour palettes to the current notes, which aim to help visually impaired people distinguish between them.

The new £10 and £20 notes will have a series of raised dots making them distinguishable from each other and from the £5 note, which doesn't have any.

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney says: “The use of polymer means it can better withstand being repeatedly folded into wallets or scrunched up inside pockets and can also survive a spin in the washing machine.”

The old paper £5 notes will remain in circulation until 5 May 2017, when they will no longer be legal tender.

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http://wallpapermag.tumblr.com/post/150351113803  
Yayoi Kusama embellishes Philip Johnson's Glass House  

Yayoi Kusama embellishes Philip Johnson's Glass House

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-september-2016/london-design-festival-5-must-see-installations/  
London Design Festival 2016 5 must see installations  

LDF has come to be known as much for its large-scale public installations as it has for its trade shows, talks and launches.

We've picked out five installations to look out for.

The Smile, by Alison Brooks

A regular favourite is the installation created with the American Hardwood Council. In recent years we've seen dRMM Architects' Escher-inspired Endless Stair and Amanda Levete's Endless Wave.

This year, The Smile has been created by architect Alison Brooks. It's a 34 metre curved wooden structure that you can walk in and around.

Its two ends sitting three metres off the ground will offer viewing platforms and a new perspective to see surrounding buildings.

Created from cross laminated tulipwood timber, it has been designed so that even if 60 people were to run to one end of the structure, it wouldn't see-saw.

The Smile has been anchored with a cradle of 20 tonnes of steel counterweights.

The Smile can be found outside the Tate Britain from 17-25^th September.

Mini Living, by Asif Khan

Asif Khan has created a three-part exploratory piece for Mini that looks at architectural solutions for urban living challenges.

Three locations have been identified as underused public spaces or “third places” a term originally defined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg as places which “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work”.

Each of the new “forest” environments contain plants which visitors can take home during the festival. Located on the busy streets of Shoreditch, the spaces offer new areas for people to convene and socialise.

At the Square next to Shoreditch Fire Station a long communal table has been installed, in Charles Square new stepped seating becomes a place for people to work and where Old Street meets Pitfield Street an elevated room offers a secluded green space.

Asif Khan says: “There is a Japanese phrase ‘shinrin yoku', which literally means ‘forest bathing'. It means every sense switches to absorb the forest atmosphere, what you hear, what you smell, even the feeling underfoot.

“At another scale we use plants as a tool to assert our personal space at its boundary with public space, whether on our desk at the office or at the perimeter of our home. The project brings these two ideas together for visitors to experience new sensations within the city.”

Mini Living runs from 17-25 September and these are the exact locations: Vince Court N1 6EA; Charles Square Gardens N1 6HS; and the corner of Pitfield Street and Charles Square EC1V 9EY. 

Beloved, by Tabanlıoğlu Architects

Beloved is a 13-metre long mirrored black box designed for the Victoria & Albert Museum's (V&A) Medieval and Renaissance Galleries.

It is a response to Turkish author Sabahattin Ali's 1943 novel Madonna in a Fur Coat. 

Murat Tabanlıoğlu of Tabanlıoğlu Architects says: “We wanted to introduce the book to a new audience in London, as the book has recently been published in an English translation for the first time in its 73-year history.”

Visitors can look inside the structure where they will witness scenes from the novel playing out as film, physical objects, text, light and sound.

“The installation is a physical, multi-sensory realisation of the way the human mind imagines scenes from a book as they read,” says Tabanlıoğlu, who adds: “It's a very intimate experience that celebrates literature, passion and the human condition.”

Beloved will run from 17-25 September at the V&A, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL.

Split Shift installation, by Bert & May and Darkroom

Design store Darkroom has collaborated with tile brand Bert & May to create the Split Shift tile collection, which will be part of an installation on Bert's Barge a barge, with an interior installation created by Darkroom director Rhonda Drakeford.

Tiles, fabrics and painted surfaces help frame an onboard pop-up shop where the new A/W collection of Darkroom products has been set up.

An installation has been created using three tiles highlighting three shapes and “limitless permutations”, which can be set out to appear structured or randomised.

Darkroom-designed interior accessories and jewellery are also for sale on the barge, which will be afloat from the 17-30 September and you can find it canal-side of this address: 67 Vyner Street, E2 9DQ

London Design Biennale

Not technically part of London Design Festival, but curated by the team that puts LDF together, is the London Design Biennale a series of installations from design representatives of countries around the world.

It's the inaugural event and sees the theme of Utopia addressed by design teams who have interpreted it broadly with some looking at how global problems might be solved through design, and others conjuring more abstract utopian and dystopian visions.

You can read more about what we thought about it here.

The London Design Biennale takes place at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA from 7-27 September. Tickets are £15 with an additional £2.35 booking fee if booking online, or £11.85 concessions. Buy tickets here.

The post London Design Festival 2016 5 must see installations appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/5-11-september-2016/addison-lee-unveils-new-service-focused-branding/  
Addison Lee unveils new service-focused branding  

Ad agency Whistlejacket London has worked on a new brand identity and ad campaign for Addison Lee, with the aim of positioning it as the “leading service orientated brand in the private hire car sector”.

Whistlejacket London was commissioned to work on the campaign and rebrand in January, and was briefed to move the identity on from the original design completed in the 1970s, according to creative director, Kathy Kielty. The rebrand features an updated logo, made up of a bright yellow AL symbol.

“The yellow is a visual shorthand for taxis,” says Kielty, “and because the brand is often seen on the streets on cars that are passing by quickly, we also wanted something that stands out and grabs your attention.”

References original logo

The division between the A and the L also represents the two sides of a road, in a nod to Addison Lee's original logo, says Kielty.

Whistlejacket London has also redesigned Addison Lee's website, which now includes less black and more soft greys and white, in order to “breath a bit of light and fresh air into the brand,” according to Kielty.

“Addison Lee had been perceived for a long time as really masculine and it was our intention to make it a more unisex brand, and much more appealing to both men and women,” she says.

£5 million marketing campaign

The rebrand and website redesign are part of the brand's £5 million marketing campaign over the next 12 months, which also includes a new advertising campaign emphasising the services it provides such as free wifi, courier services and pet-friendly vehicles. All communications now also feature the strapline: “Addison Lee for me”.

The rebrand and advertising campaign rolled out today.

The post Addison Lee unveils new service-focused branding appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-september-2016/venturethree-creates-look-new-video-production-company-mx1/  
Venturethree designs visual identity for new video production company MX1  

Consultancy Venturethree has created the branding for a new video production company set to work with clients such as Sky, Disney, Facebook and the Premier League.

MX1 is a new project created by international satellite company SES, and will offer digital video and media services to companies through its own 360°video platform, over satellite, fibre and online.

Avi Cohen, CEO of MX1, says the new business hopes to “bring linear and non-linear” video together.

The branding for MX1 includes a paintbrush-style cross with a dot above it, a symbol which aims to replicate the “human form”, says the consultancy, to emphasise the company as a “people-centred brand”.

Creative director at Venturethree Stuart Jane, says: “In creating the brand our aim was to reflect MX1's focus on the end user experience. It's about giving people really rich, entertaining or compelling experiences.”

The name MX1 was constructed around the idea that the company “puts experience (X) at the centre of its purpose”, while it aims to portray itself as a “one-of-a kind (1) media (M) brand”, says Venturethree.

The name also hopes to align the brand more closely with “Silicon Valley” and tech start-ups, rather than “traditional media and broadcasting”, it adds.

The new brand rolls out this month.

The post Venturethree designs visual identity for new video production company MX1 appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-september-2016/designstudio-creates-new-branding-e-commerce-site-snapdeal/  
DesignStudio creates new branding for e-commerce site Snapdeal  

DesignStudio has rebranded Indian shopping website Snapdeal, basing it on the idea that purchasing products unpacks “opportunities”.

The new visual identity is based around an icon of a red box, alongside a bespoke typeface created by studio Atipo, which is a custom version of Bariol.

The typeface is based on Snapdeal's original rounded typography, but has been specifically built for digital, with the company's website and app in mind, according to the studio.

The strapline “Unbox zindagi”, which translates to “Unbox life”, has been used in the new brand campaign, which aims to present the idea of buying as an “opportunity”, says DesignStudio, from “an everyday set of candles to decorate the dinner table, to a guitar that starts a child's journey in music”.

The red box emblem has been carried forward into the brand's physical packaging, as customers are delivered their items in red boxes emblazoned with a white version of the new logo.

DesignStudio says the brand needed to exaggerate the idea of “unboxing”, with the box people receive acting as a “physical representation of the brand”.

Paul Stafford, CEO at DesignStudio, says: “The new brand harnesses the possibilities that unboxing every new product brings. Our hope is that as India grows, Snapdeal's red boxes will appear across the country as a…manifestation of its progress.”

The new branding rolls out this month.

A video from Snapdeal on the new branding:

The post DesignStudio creates new branding for e-commerce site Snapdeal appeared first on Design Week.

 
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Oslo architecture triennale: Airbnb cosplay for the gig economy nomad  

Fascinating installations for 2016 from interior ‘pornification' to Nasa's psychedelic carbon tracker are undermined by pseudointellectual theory

Mark, a 34-year-old former tax inspector from Copenhagen, lives in hotels. He leads a nomadic existence, moving from room to anonymous room around the city every night, renting out his own properties on Airbnb and communicating with his guests remotely through a series of invented aliases. “I sell dreams,” he says, in a short film by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine that is showing as part of the 2016 Oslo architecture triennale, After Belonging. “Short, customised dreams.”

He and his former wife first experimented as Airbnb hosts a few years ago when they went away for the weekend. They returned to find their clothes left in unusual places around the apartment and, after a bit of Instagram snooping, discovered their guests had been rifling through their wardrobe and acting out their lives in a kind of domestic cosplay. Rather than stop hosting, Mark decided to invest in some spy cameras, which he dotted around the house to keep an eye on future guests. That's when things got weird.

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Extra upload today!!

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A South African Village's First Generation of Skaters  

In Durban, South Africa, Indigo Skate Camp is providing young people the space and resources to learn how to skateboard. The short film Valley Of A Thousand Hills follows the lives of these earnest new skaters, and explores what they value about the sport. It was directed by Jess Colquhoun for Huck Magazine.

_{Via Leah Varjacques}

 
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'Green News Report' - September 13, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...





IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama Administration steps in to support Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and temporarily halt Dakota Access pipeline; Why the oil industry is pushing for more pipelines; Judge rules against plan to open a million acres of public lands to fracking in California; Alabama's unfinished nuclear plant for sale, cheap; PLUS: Here we go again -- August 2016 breaks record, ties for hottest month ever recorded in human history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Super Typhoon Meranti is about to hit Taiwan; One Year of Coal CEO Pay Could Retrain Every US Miner to Work in the Solar Industry; Wilderness lost: Earth's wild lands in catastrophic decline; With U.S. Election in Sight, Ban Seeks Quick Action on Climate Accord; Constitutional Scholars Object to Lamar Smith's Exxon Subpoenas; ittsburgh Water: Expensive, Rust-Colored, Corrosive... PLUS: This one quote shows what angry white guys mean when they talk about government overreach... and much, MUCH more! ...

'Green News Report' is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today's 'Green News Extra', please click right here to listen!

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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - September 13, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama Administration steps in to support Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and te...

Read more: Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fossil Fuels, Fracking, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green, Green News, Green News Report, Protest, Public Lands, Renewable Energy, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Video, California, Justice Department, Interior Department, Army Corps of Engineers, Infrastructure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tva, Nuclear Power, Electric Grid, Nasa, Green News

 
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Photos of the Day: Sept. 13, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Trump Vs. Clinton: When Polar Opposites Debate  

When it comes to the upcoming presidential debates, both candidates have distinct styles. Donald Trump's strategy thus far has been humiliation and domination. However, Hillary Clinton is arguably at her best when she's being attacked by men. So, who will win the debates? In this video, Atlantic national correspondent James Fallows unpacks both candidates' debate styles and tells us what to expect. For more of Fallows's analysis, read his October 2016 cover story, “When Donald Meets Hillary.”

 
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Native Rights Rising: Standing Tall At Standing Rock  
The scene was eerily reminiscent of Selma and Birmingham.

Snarling, trained attack dogs ripping into the flesh of peaceful protesters, drawing blood. Only this time, instead of police batons being used to club people over the head, private security forces sprayed mace into people's eyes. This time, instead of African Americans being beaten in the Deep South, Native Americans were being assaulted in the Upper Midwest.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. Click on this Democracy Now! VIDEO LINK to see for yourself the sickening scene that played out near Cannon Ball, North Dakota over the Labor Day weekend, where eyewitnesses reported a pregnant woman attacked, a small child bitten and 30 people pepper sprayed. Others were punched and tackled. The unprovoked attack came on the 153rd anniversary of the Whitestone massacre, when the U.S. Army killed more than 300 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Just as the conscience of America was jolted awake by the shocking images of peaceful civil rights defenders being violently set upon in the '60s, so is it being aroused today by the horrifying sight of peaceful native rights defenders being brutalized.

Thousands of water protectors, representing hundreds of Indigenous tribes from across the U.S. and Canada, have gathered at the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in what tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II calls a "prayerful and peaceful" standoff against the Dakota Access pipeline. The fracked oil pipeline -- which would run from North Dakota to Illinois and snake through treaty lands and under the Missouri River -- threatens to worsen the climate emergency and contaminate the drinking water supply of millions of people.

Appallingly, construction of the pipeline was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the objections of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. In a March 11 letter to the Army Corps, the EPA warned: "Crossings of the Missouri River have the potential to affect the primary source of drinking water for much of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tribal nations."

The Labor Day weekend altercation was sparked by the pipeline company's unconscionable demolition of sacred Indigenous burial and cultural sites. In a statement to the media, Chairman Archambault described the bulldozing as "devastating," saying:

These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground.

Imagine this being done to the graves of white people. I can't.

Try to feel the heart-rending words of Standing Rock Sioux tribal historian and genealogist LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, whose great-great-grandmother miraculously survived the 1863 Whitestone massacre, and who co-founded the Sacred Stone Camp to resist the Dakota Access pipeline:

I don't understand why we are expendable in America. I keep telling people, we do our best. We have always been here. This is our land. Why should we fight to live on our own land? Why should we have to do that over and over again? We start our lives. We do our best to live. Why? I would never hurt anybody. I have always done my best to do good things in my community. Why can't they just let us live? We love this land. And half of the time I feel bad, because they make us feel bad for loving this land.

Why, indeed? In August, Archambault appealed to President Obama (who personally visited the Standing Rock tribal community in 2014), saying "if there's any way he can intervene and move this pipeline off our treaty lands, I'm asking him."

Well, there is a way. The president can revoke the permits for the project. In fact, he has been urged to do just that by more than 30 national organizations. So far, he has refused to take this step, but last Friday, bowing to tribal pressure, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior jointly declared a pause in construction on some federally controlled lands, which includes the Missouri River crossing.

This is huge, but don't be deceived into thinking Obama has stopped the Dakota Access pipeline. He only paused it temporarily, providing convenient political cover for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who has been conspicuously silent on the issue. On her campaign's website, Clinton promises to "stand for Tribal sovereignty and in support of Tribal resources and sacred sites." So why is she not speaking out against the pipeline? If her words are to mean anything at all, she must stand now with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, or find herself again standing on the wrong side of history.

In stark contrast to Obama and Clinton, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made an unprecedented effort to engage tribal communities during his historic presidential campaign, and is demonstrating real political leadership by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our Native brothers and sisters in their time of need. He has been unequivocal in his support for native rights:

Regardless of the court's decision, the Dakota Access pipeline must be stopped. As a nation, our job is to break our addiction to fossil fuels, not increase our dependence on oil. I join with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many tribal nations fighting this dangerous pipeline.

President Obama and Secretary Clinton need to heed the words of Yakama Nation Tribal Chairman JoDe Goudy, who declared:

Together, we express to the U.S. government that now, more than ever, is the time to fulfill the trust obligations laid out within the treaties and historical interactions with the Native peoples of this land. Until such things come to pass, the spirit and voice of all peoples shall unite with Standing Rock. One voice, one heart, and one spirit to speak for those things that cannot speak for themselves.

Such nobility of spirit -- in the face of violent corporate provocations and our government's dark history of atrocities against Native Peoples -- is awe-inspiring. Yet here we are centuries later, and not only has there been no serious attempt to right the wrongs of the past, but the suffering of Native Americans continues.

Stopping the Dakota Access pipeline will not heal Mother Earth, or the deep wounds and intergenerational trauma inflicted on such a proud and noble people, but it could mark a turning point towards making peace with the planet, and begin a long overdue national conversation on truth, reconciliation and treaty rights.

Just as the civil rights movement once forged a more just nation, so does the native rights movement now promise to do the same. This, of course, will require a national reckoning on honoring the treaties, something I believe most Americans would welcome. I also believe most Americans know injustice when they see it and stand -- in their hearts -- with Standing Rock.

To learn how you can help, please go to these links: Sacred Stone Spirit Camp and The Red Warrior Camp. No more broken promises.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Blame It On The Boys: How To Stop Vampire Bats From Spreading Rabies  

Poisoning these thirsty critters doesn't work. But researchers think they're finally getting close to figuring out a plan.

 
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Rosetta Orbiter Will Soon Crash Into Its Comet And Die  
The European Space Agency spacecraft will join its ill-fated lander Philae, which was recently located after dying and evading detection for nearly two years after its historic landing on the comet's surface.  
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Images From Offworld (25 photos)  

Robotic probes launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and others are gathering information all across the solar system. We currently have spacecraft in orbit around the Sun, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, a comet, Jupiter, and Saturn; two operational rovers on Mars; and a recent close flyby of Pluto. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are still performing experiments in low Earth orbit and sending back amazing photos. With all these eyes in the sky, I'd once again like to put together a recent photo album of our solar system—a set of family portraits—as seen by our astronauts and mechanical emissaries. This time, we have a photo of a long-lost lander found on the surface of a comet, new images of Jupiter's polar regions, color photos from the surface of Mars, a double eclipse of the Sun, and, of course, lovely images of our home, planet Earth.

 
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Growing Social Inequality Requires Global Business Community to Rethink Sustainability Plans  
Companies are having to do a difficult balancing act with their sustainability plans. On one hand, they must focus on environmental goals such as improving the efficiency of their water use and reduce their waste and emissions. On the other, they must engage with a growing set of social pressures that undermine their license to operate: unequal access to water and land, food insecurity, and youth unemployment surrounding them in the developing countries in which they operate.

The challenge with this is that business leaders tend to be more comfortable with the environmental goals, which require technical, engineering and managerial acumen, than the social pressures, which call for more complex political engagement. However technology alone cannot solve the problem of social inequality, which is increasingly testing the credibility of even the most sophisticated corporate sustainability plans.

Pivotal to these issues are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new universal framework that captures the scope of these issues, providing a vision for positive change. Much has been made of the role that business should play in advancing the SDGs, as most of the issues advocated by the SDGs - from decent work to taxation or pollution - are directly material to business operations and growth. However, only a small handful of companies have so far managed to develop credible and meaningful approaches that don't feel superficial or tokenistic.

Business diplomacy for sustainable development

In the absence of clear signals from national governments on which SDGs the private sector should focus on in their country, companies have to hone their 'business diplomacy' skills for sustainable development. This idea recognizes that business will have to work with local actors on real solutions that improve the social and environmental conditions where they operate. For companies, it means seeing the SDGs as a 'materiality framework'; identifying the local development challenges that pose material risks to their business and becoming proactive agents of change.

For example, food and agriculture companies sourcing commodities from countries like Indonesia or Paraguay, are unequivocally exposed to illegal deforestation and land tenure conflicts in their supply chains. This is a product of weak local governance; and it undermines credibility when companies commit publicly to 'zero-deforestation' or 'zero land-grabbing' targets for their value chains. The only way companies can overcome these risks is by partnering with governments to strengthen land tenure and forest governance in countries that are vital to their operations.
Only a very small number of multinationals have taken the bold step of managing land tenure risks by helping communities secure their land titles. However this is the right strategic choice for companies making long-term investments in regions where social inequality and poor governance undermine sustainable land-use.

Similarly, in much of the African continent, high unemployment rates are pushing governments to impose high 'local content' requirements on companies in export-oriented sectors like extractives. This means companies must hire a majority of local people - a demand businesses see as a risk to projects and a short sighted way to promote jobs in the country. Helping governments to create employment on a greater scale, for example by supporting SME development and using their procurement channels to support local enterprises, must be a priority for these companies. They must aim to rally, individually and collectively, around the SDGs on decent work and implement partnerships with governments that visibly strengthen local economies.

Assimilating local priorities

Social inequality and poor governance are real obstacles to the growth of organisations in emerging markets. Adopting a 'business diplomacy' position means involving corporate functions beyond sustainability, for example including strategists and government affairs departments to maximize the role of corporate lobbying as a force for positive change.

Strengthening decision-making through 'business diplomacy' goes way beyond a linear problem/solution approach. It requires companies to develop a holistic view of interdependent development factors that are shaping their local reality. It requires public-private partnerships to consider how to build the capacity of governments to address inequality.

With tremendous stress factors at play, the private sector has no choice but to engage with sustainable development agenda. The SDGs provide a useful framework to identify material business risks; and companies must use that framework to align their direction of travel for their growth to be sustainable too.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Agriculture: Great Social Value for Money  

Without doubt, agriculture either directly or indirectly impacts every single person on this planet. Agriculture not only feeds us all, but feeds our economy. In developed nations this industry is often taken for granted, because food is so available, we forget where it comes from and when we are facing a world full of challenges it is often easy to be distracted by other seemingly more 'prevalent' problems. But a recent study by the Copenhagen Consensus Center has revealed that helping agriculture do better is one of the highest impact ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. The target to increase agricultural yields by 40% has been identified as one of the 19 out of 169 targets that represent best value for money.

This report suggests that investing an extra $2.5 billion per year in agricultural research and development to boost yields will reduce food prices for poor people, resulting in 80 million fewer hungry people and provide benefits worth $84 billion per year.

Throughout the last year and half, the Copenhagen Consensus Center has published 100+ peer-reviewed analyses from 82 of the world's top economists and 44 sector experts along with many UN agencies and NGOs. These have established how effective 169 targets would be in terms of social value-for-money. An Expert Panel including two Nobel Laureates has reviewed this research and identified 19 targets that represent the best value-for-money in development over the period 2016 to 2030, offering more than $15 back on every dollar invested.

One of the first things to scale up should be support to agriculture, along with investments in education and health. In particular, the report cites "free trade, educating pre-schoolers in Africa, nutrition and ensuring greater gender equality for women."

Of the 19, several reflect agriculture, food security and nutrition, and rural lives:

• 
  
• Lower chronic child malnutrition by 40%: Providing nutritional supplements, deworming, and improving the balance of diet for 0-2 year olds will cost $11bn and prevent 68m children from being malnourished every year
• 
  
• Reduce trade restrictions (full Doha) Achieving more free trade (e.g. the Doha round) would make each person in the developing world $1,000 richer per year by 2030, lifting 160m people out of extreme poverty at a cost of $20bn per year Improve gender equality in ownership, business and politics
• 
  
• Ensuring women can own and inherit property, perform basic business needs like signing a contract and be represented in parliament will empower women
• 
  
• Boost agricultural yield growth by 40% Investing an extra $2.5bn per year in agricultural R&D to boost yields will reduce food prices for poor people, mean 80m fewer people go hungry and provide benefits worth $84bn per year
• 
  

Related to my prior article, it also cites the importance of tackling malaria, tuberculosis, and cut early death from chronic disease. They also bravely and rightly identify the importance of combatting HIV through circumcision. Just circumcising HIV-negative men in the 5 worst affected countries will cost $35m annually and avert 1.1m infections by 2030.

All 169 targets have global support. Having had the good fortune to engage in the process as a non-state actor, it was moving to see the globe come together and agree an Agenda to see us through 2030. Now as we move to a period of action and implementation, there is a risk that the "indivisibility" of these goals leaves everyone unable to know how to start. It is unrealistic to assume that every government has the resources to achieve all of the 169 targets right away.

Somethings are going to need to come first and to benefit from an ongoing review and consultation process that provides for continuous improvement. When prioritizing 19 targets first it is equivalent to doubling or quadrupling foreign aid, according to the Centre. We need to invest more in our agriculture systems if we want to achieve the SDG's and get the best social value for our money while doing so.

The overarching theme of the Sustainable Development Goals is to "leave no one behind", but if we don't get started quickly, we risk leaving many behind, especially those in rural areas.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Grassroots Movements May Hold Key to Achieving the SDGs  

Discussing gender equality with women waste pickers from the National Waste Pickers Movement (MNCR) in Brazil.

The Sustainable Development Goals have set out an ambitious and worthy agenda to "transform our world" by 2030--one that can only be achieved if grassroots movements are included in the process. For waste management--an increasing issue in developing cities around the world--this is especially true.

Waste management is present in several of the new SDGs, especially goals 1 ("No Poverty"), 6 ("Clean Water and Sanitation") and 12 ("Responsible Consumption and Production"). Waste pickers, formally recognized or not, play an important role in cities' solid waste systems. At WIEGO, we recently conducted a five-city study that shows how waste pickers provide a range of key services, including waste removal (in some of the cities this is the only service available in particular areas), transportation, recovery of recyclables, value-aggregation, semi-processing and even composting and biogas production. In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, waste picker cooperatives open doors for workers and create opportunities for people, sometimes even the homeless, as workers in their cooperatives. Unless cities in the developing world build on existing systems - and understand the valuable contributions of informal waste pickers in these systems - they may fail to improve solid waste management standards and achieve poverty-reduction goals established in the SDGs.

Informal waste pickers' contributions to the environment, employment, and the economy are usually maximized when they work as collectives. Their ability to contribute more effectively to realizing the SDGs is strengthened by organized work. Organizations of the working poor enhance human capital by providing its members with the tools, skills, and capabilities that make them able to act in new ways. This, in turn, enhances social capital because it creates the ambience to change relations among persons in ways that facilitate action.


Women waste pickers from the Redesol Network in Brazil.

Realizing the SDGs will require the ability of individuals and organizations to join forces in the design and implementation of sensible urban policies and sound local governance. Organizations of informal workers across sectors are ready to mobilize and actively contribute to the implementation of the news goals with local authorities. For this to happen, informal waste workers need to be included in multi-stakeholder policy dialogues and permanent forums addressing concrete problems.

One good example is how informal recyclers in Brazil, together with actors from governments, NGOs, and the private sector, joined forces to form the waste and citizenship forums in the late 1990´s, which were crucial in raising standards in solid waste management (SWM) in that country and in integrating these workers into municipal recycling systems in many cities. As a result, more funds were made available to the sector (for upgrading of disposal sites; infrastructure for recycling; and opening of credit lines to membership-based organizations). Many social programmes were created for Brazil´s informal recyclers, which contributed to an important dimension of social justice - redistribution. Data from official data banks and non-profit organizations indicate improvements in waste disposal and an increase in recycling projects, and, therefore, in governance, as well.

Another good example is the "Mesas" in Peru. These were policy-dialogue platforms for waste pickers of that country in which government ministries, workers´ representatives and NGOs engaged together in a on-going process to address key problems faced by this sector group.

These two examples show how engaging with the informal workers in participatory platforms can contribute to effective problem solving. The ability of the SDGs to fulfill their transformative agenda depends on many factors, and one of them is empowered participatory governance. Empowered participatory governance means leaving no one behind in the process of discussing, shaping, and implementing the sustainable development goals. It means reaching out for the informal settlements, the working poor, youth, women, and other disadvantaged groups.

For the working poor, organizing in collectives to have their voices heard in rule-setting platforms holds the key to achieving development. Those working on implementing the SDGs should pay attention to grassroots movements of the working poor, as this may be one of the most important links to truly achieving sustainable development.


This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or, officially, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"). The SDGs represent an historic agreement -- a wide-ranging roadmap to sustainability covering 17 goals and 169 targets -- but stakeholders must also be held accountable for their commitments. To see all the posts in the series, visit here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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We Need to Use a Different Part of Our Brain to Crack the Sustainability Challenge  
Former UN climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres has credited the teachings of Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh for giving her the strength to play a leading role in last year's gruelling international climate talks.

Figueres was praised for her ability to bring warring factions together with warmth and calm, and for the pivotal role she played in securing agreement to limit global warming to below 2oC.

Buddhist meditation -- and its recent secular incarnation in mindfulness -- is clinically proven to help build resilience to cope with life's stresses. It's inspirational to know that it played a part in ensuring December's historic deal in Paris.

But Buddhists may also be on to something else very important for those of us interested sustainable living: we may have been using the wrong part of brain to crack the sustainability challenge.

I spent a month earlier in the summer as a guest at the San Francisco Zen Center - a monastery in the heart of the city.

I have had a long interest in Buddhist meditation, having sat a number of intense Vipassana meditation courses. I also have an academic background in neuroscience, so have followed the increasingly strong evidence for how meditation changes the structure of our brains and so how we perceive the world and behave in it.



I was staying at the Zen Center as part of a trade. It is buying land to build 200 or so 'Zen-inspired Senior Living' units at the brilliant SOMO Village under development in Sonoma State, California.

SOMO Village's developers have created a visionary sustainability plan for the community, using Bioregional's One Planet Living framework. This is a set of ten intuitive and interrelated sustainability principles, from 'zero carbon energy' to 'health and happiness'.

For the Zen Center to be eligible to buy land in SOMO village, it must also create a response to the challenge of One Planet Living.

So, I traded food and accommodation to carry out a sustainability assessment of the Center's current operations in San Francisco and beyond. In this way, they could see how far they might need to stretch, and in what direction, to meet the requirements of becoming a true 'One Planet Community'.

What I learned was not what I expected.

The Zen Center's sustainability performance was exemplary

First, the Zen Center performed better against the One Planet Principles than any other organization I have ever come across. Its commitment to happiness, health and community was exemplary. This was allied to a commitment to local, organic, vegetarian food, renewable energy, water conservation and care for nature.

Of course not everything is perfect, but the Buddhist tradition of compassion for all beings - not just humans - seems to help their exceptional aspiration and performance.

Second, I got to understand quite clearly the Buddhist belief, particularly expressed in the Zen tradition, that the intellect is only one way of perceiving the world. I had read the mind-bending 'Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' as a school boy and it had haunted me ever since. But I managed to put that ghost to rest.

Thinking is a small and murky window through which to view the world

During my time at the Zen Center I grew to realise that thinking engages only one part of our brain - and that thinking is very small and murky window through which to view and experience the world - exactly what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was communicating.

Thinking is the brain function we value most in our culture, yet we know that most of our decisions and behaviors are not rational. Using intellectual arguments can only very indirectly change our behavior.

Is there another way of experiencing and working with the world? Buddhists would say there is.

This involves developing the parts of the brain which experience the world without intellectualising it, judging it or dividing it. It is that experience of the world which sees us as part of space and time rather than as separate from it. It is an experience from which ego starts diminishing and compassion starts growing.

This is not airy fairy. It is actually closer to reality than we can ever get by thinking about it.

Through meditating we can start to perceive that we are not separate from the world

This is critically important for all of us. If, through meditating we start to perceive that we are part of the world, not separate to it, it makes it much harder for us to behave destructively towards other parts of it. The idea of harming other people, trees or the air would be, as some Buddhist teachers have described it, 'like my right hand chopping off my left hand'.

Our intellectualizing about environmental issues and hoping to change society and human behavior by providing information has been essential. But continuing to lead with information is doomed to fail. Decisions we make should not of course be opposed to what we think intellectually -- but meditating helps us change what and how we think.

So let us learn from the intellectual part of our brain but lead with another. Perceiving the world as being at one with it -- which is the reality -- might be the key we've been searching for. So don't give me any more facts, meditate!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Alejandro Litovsky: Growing Social Inequality Requires Global Business Community to Rethink Sustainability Plans  
Companies are having to do a difficult balancing act with their sustainability plans. On one hand, they must focus on environmental goals such as impr...

Read more: Sdgs, Environment, Sustainability, Business, Water, Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainable Development, Agriculture, Governance, Business Risk, Green News

 
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An unmistakeable flavour.  

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Which Presidential Candidates Do You Think Just Answered "20 Questions on Science"?  
The nonprofit advocacy group ScienceDebate.org has received written answers to its "20 Most Important Science Questions."

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Jill Stein all answered promptly and in some detail, Gary Johnson, the Libertarian, did not.

Here are the Questions and Answers.

Along with its partners in this effort -- a coalition of 56 leading U.S. science, medicine and engineering organizations representing more than 10 million people -- ScienceDebate.org not only calls on U.S. presidential candidates to address the 20 questions, but also encourages journalists, debate moderators and voters to press the candidates on them.

"These 2- issues have at least as profound an impact on voters' lives as those more frequently covered by journalists, including candidates' views on economic policy, foreign policy, and faith and values," said ScienceDebate.org chair Shawn Otto. This view is supported by a 2015 national poll commissioned by ScienceDebate.org and Research!America which revealed that a large majority of Americans (87 percent) want candidates for President and Congress to have a basic understanding of the science informing public policy.

The consortium crowd-sourced and refined hundreds of suggestions, then submitted the questions to the four campaigns along with an invitation to the candidates to discuss them on television, preferably in a live science debate (or forum) organized by the group.

"Ideally, the people seeking to govern a first-world country would have a basic understanding of everything from sustainable energy to environmental threats to evidence-based medicine," observed the Des Moines Register in a recent editorial. "They would talk about these things... Imagine if the public -- and debate moderators -- pressured presidential candidates to talk about the country's electrical grid or emerging disease threats instead of abortion and transgender bathrooms. Political discourse would be smarter. And the individuals who seek the highest office in the land might learn a few things, too."

The list of organizations supporting the 20 Questions project (see below) is a Who's Who of the American science enterprise.

To support ScienceDebate's effort to raise awareness of the vital role science plays in modern life, visit ScienceDebate.org. Other supporters and signatories include over 20 Nobel prizewinners, major actors, university presidents, tech leaders, hospitals and hospital leaders, journalists, science activists, and dozens of other science, health, medicine, and engineering advocates from across the nation.


**ScienceDebate.org
*American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Geographers
*American Chemical Society
American Fisheries Society
American Geophysical Union
*American Geosciences Institute
*American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Institute of Professional Geologists
American Rock Mechanics Association
American Society for Engineering Education
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
American Society of Mammalogists
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Association for Women Geoscientists
Association of Ecosystem Research Centers
Automation Federation
*Biophysical Society
Botanical Society of America
Carnegie Institution for Science
Conservation Lands Foundation
Crop Science Society of America
Duke University
Ecological Society of America
Geological Society of America
*IEEE-USA
International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Materials Research Society
NACE International, The Worldwide Corrosion Authority
*National Academy of Engineering
*National Academy of Medicine
*National Academy of Sciences
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
*National Center for Science Education
National Ground Water Association
Natural Science Collections Alliance
Northeastern University
Organization of Biological Field Stations
Paleontological Society
*Research!America
Scientific American magazine
Seismological Society of America
*Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Society for Science & the Public
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
Society of Fire Protection Engineers
Society of Wetland Scientists
Society of Women Engineers
Soil Science Society of America
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Tufts University
*Union of Concerned Scientists
University City Science Center
*U.S. Council on Competitiveness
The Wildlife Society
World Endometriosis Research Foundation America

*Supplied experts to the questions development process
**Lead organizer

The consortium's list of 20 questions are available online at ScienceDebate.org/20answers.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Year of the Monkey: Primate Research under the microscope in UK and US  
It seems that 2016 has been the Year of the Monkey in more ways than one. In both the United States and the United Kingdom the use of primates in research has been under increased scrutiny this year.

From the US Congressional mandate that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) review its use of nonhuman primates for research, to last week's publication of an open letter in the UK Independent signed by 21 experts including Sir David Attenborough and Dr. Jane Goodall raising concerns about the use of monkeys in brain experiments.

As one might expect all this attention seems to have put the primate research industry on the defensive.

Last week, the NIH essentially facilitated a circling of the wagons at what I hoped would be an open and critical discussion on the use of non-human primates in research as requested by Congress.

To take a step back for context, the 2016 spending bill passed by Congress last December included language authored by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) that requested the NIH to 'conduct a review of its ethical policies and processes with respect to nonhuman primate research subjects, in consultation with outside experts, to ensure it has appropriate justification for animals research protocols and to provide and update on these efforts in the fiscal year 2017 budget request.'

In a follow up letter sent to the NIH in January by five members of Congress [Roybal-Allard, Sam Farr (D-CA) Dina Titus (D-NV), Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Brendan Boyle (D-PA)] it was reiterated that the review should be, "as independent as possible, so that the most difficult ethical questions with regards to the use of all non-human primates in a wide range of experiments can be honestly asked and answered." Unfortunately the workshop held by the NIH last week, largely failed to meet this stipulation.

As I monitored this workshop online, I was struck that the meeting seemed to be more of a cheerleading session for primate experiments and, at times, a macabre audition for researchers to make a case for their experiments to receive continued funding.

The few "outside experts" who were invited and not financially tied to primate research, were Dr. Tom Beauchamp, an ethicist at Georgetown University and Dr. Jeffrey Kahn a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University but they were not invited to give presentations and had to vie for time in the discussion sessions where they were frequently shut down. This was especially shocking since Dr. Kahn had such relevant expertise, having chaired the 2011 review committee on the use of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which led to the decision by the NIH to end support for invasive chimpanzee research.

The lack of balance was, I believe, no accident. When the workshop was first announced I contacted the workshop organizers to encourage a robust review and specifically suggested our own Dr. Jarrod Bailey who has published multiple peer-reviewed papers on the use of non-human primates in biomedical research and who participated in the aforementioned review of chimpanzees. Despite his impressive resume he, and many other possible candidates, were not invited to participate in the workshop.

A few weeks ahead of this workshop the NY Times published an opinion piece titled "Second Thoughts of an Animal Researcher" by Dr. John P. Gluck, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, who seemed to suggest that the NIH workshop was poised to miss the mark from its inception; he wrote, "...the N.I.H will hold a workshop on, "continued responsible research" with these animals. This sounds like a positive development. But as someone who spent decades working almost daily with macaque monkeys in primate research laboratories, I know firsthand that "responsible" research is not enough. What we really need to examine is the very moral ground of animal research itself."

Across the pond, Dr. Gluck joined Dr. Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough and 18 other scientists, primatologists and animal welfare experts in signing an open letter, organized by Cruelty Free International, to bodies in the UK and EU responsible for funding and licensing controversial brain experiments on monkeys. Of particular concern is neuroscience research involving monkeys being subjected to invasive brain surgery, water deprivation and prolonged restraint.



A recent review of the claims of the human relevance of data made by researchers, who use monkeys in these kinds of experiments, were found to be overstated and the availability and use of ethical studies involving humans were of more value to medical progress.

Sir David Attenborough, said:

"The recognition that apes, certainly, and to an extent other primates, are so akin to ourselves, and can suffer so much, as we can, has transformed our attitude, or should have transformed our attitude, to using them for our own benefit. They are sentient beings that have mental lives comparable to ours, and sensitivities, and pain and deprivation mean things to them, just as they mean things to us."

Dr Jane Goodall, said:

"I and my team have studied chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, for over 50 years. I can state categorically that they have a similar capacity for suffering, both mental and physical, and show similar emotions to many of ours. We also study baboons and other monkeys and there is no doubt they too can suffer and experience fear, depression, anxiety, frustration and so on. To confine these primate relatives of ours to laboratory cages and subject them to experiments that are often distressing and painful is, in my opinion, morally wrong. To restrain their movement and deprive them of water is inhumane and extremely cruel and we have no right to exploit them in this way for any reason."

In response to the letter, a group of UK primate researchers have gone on the defensive, attacking the credibility of those scientists who disagree with them.

Last week's lopsided NIH workshop and the hostile response to the open letter seem to suggest that those directly involved with primate research aren't quite ready for an open, honest, discussion about the ethics of non-human primate research and the inevitable soul searching that will come with it. But whether they are ready or not, the conversation with the public and policy makers has begun.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Resting Stag  

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A red deer stag resting at dawn, his velvet antlers are just catching the morning sun.

 
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Playing Hinds  

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Two hind playing at dawn, the sun just creeping over the distant treetops.

 
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A Pair of Hinds  

www.matthewcattellphotography.com posted a photo:

Two red deer hinds on a golden meadow at dawn. The thick mist obscured most of hte background but I chose to include a single tree to help frame the shot. I partcularly like that only the ears of the second hind are visible. Processing was kept simple, with no blacks and whites present.

 
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Hinds in Mist  

www.matthewcattellphotography.com posted a photo:

Two red deer hinds on a golden meadow at dawn. The mist was thicker here and did a great job of obscuring the backdrop, helping to isolate the outline forms of the two animals. I partcularly like that only the ears of the second hind are visible. Processing was kept simple, with no blacks and whites present.

 
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http://twitter.com/shirleymcgreal/status/775744566934835200 
The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will be... https://t.co/oAeQ7USFie 
https://t.co/oAeQ7USFie 

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UK.gov must do more to keep EU scientists coming, say boffins  

Top profs and R&D bod make plea to Parliament

Attracting and retaining EU talent remains a top concern for UK science following Brexit, according to today's House of Lords Select Committee meeting about EU membership and UK science.…

 
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Floating Dreams  

Julian Cook Photography posted a photo:

A major installation by Ik-Joong Kang, one of South Korea's most renowned and celebrated multimedia artists, Floating Dreams is a compelling, large-scale installation situated in the centre of the River Thames by Millennium Bridge. Constructed from 500 drawings and illuminated from within, the three-storey-high lantern structure acts as a memorial to the millions displaced and divided during the Korean War (1950-53), and a poignant symbol of hope for the reunification of North and South Korea.

Born in South Korea, Ik-Joong Kang relocated to New York in 1984 to complete a Masters in Fine Arts at the Pratt Art Institute. For Floating Dreams, the artist returned home to collect drawings by the generation that fled from North Korea to South Korea during the conflict over 66 years ago. Now in their 80's and 90's and unable to return, Kang asked them to revisit their memories and draw their hometowns. 500 images, recalling joyful and sorrowful memories of lost homes and broken families, have been transferred onto pieces of​ Hanji, a traditional Korean rice paper, and transformed by the artist into a single work of art that illuminates the pain and hope of many Koreans displaced by the Korean War. Floating Dreams recognises and raises awareness of the participants' longing for home and their faith in a future reunification for their country.

www.totallythames.org/events/info/floating-dreams-by-ik-j...

 
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Adidas NMD #4 by s1000  

Adidas NMD #4 by s1000

http://www.s1000.co/photography/adidas-nmd/

s1000: Photos

 
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Humid Hong Kong by Nikk La  

Humid Hong Kong by Nikk La

Hot humid day overlooking Hong Kong.

Nikk La: Photos

 
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拯救非洲大象：“你能想象它们在这个地球上彻底灭绝吗？”  

在非洲大陆盗猎活动愈发猖獗，各类保护行动已经在进行，但拯救这一陆地上最大动物的战役离胜利还很遥远。(翻译：子明/chinadialogue)

在肯尼亚北部的桑布鲁国家保护区，当炙热的阳光已经软化成轻柔的夜光时，我跟着大卫·达巴伦钻进一辆吉普车，去寻找大象。

Related: Why the Guardian is publishing its elephant reporting in Chinese

你能想象它们在这个地球上彻底灭绝吗？

Related: 《卫报》为何要用中文报道大象的生存危机？

Related: 人口70亿的世界，如何保护野生动植物?

Continue reading...  
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Camino sin fin by Victor Carretero Barbero  

Camino sin fin by Victor Carretero Barbero

Niño observando el camino que va recorrer.

Victor Carretero Barbero: Photos

 
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Bunny McDiarmid: Forty-five years of people power  
After forty-five years, countless campaigns and stories - one thing remains central to the Greenpeace identity, and that is people. People are at the ...

Read more: Greenpeace, Environment, Climate Change, Forests, Oceans, People Power, Planet, World News

 
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山在那里 by 麦田守望者  

山在那里 by 麦田守望者

在下撤途中 看到这一瞬间 用相机记录下来！ 因为梦想，所以坚持！

麦田守望者: Photos

 
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Flash Physics: No WIMPs for HESS, graphene production ramps up in China, double-helix semiconductor  
Today's selection of need-to-know updates from the world of physics  
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South Bank sundown  

copperhead_broad posted a photo:

Late summer sun falling lower in the sky from London's South Bank.

 
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Regent Street  

chilipalermo posted a photo:

Sunset in Regent Street.

 
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12092016-fotografía sin título-_DSC1461-12092016  

www.GoAndRide.co posted a photo:

London

 
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As the UN Gathers for the General Assembly, It's in Real Trouble. But It Can Be Fixed.  
NEW YORK -- Last month, the United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, suspended a meeting of humanitarian agencies at U.N. headquarters in Geneva barely eight minutes after it began. De Mistura did so in protest at the absolute impotence of the international community in bringing about a Syrian ceasefire. In his view, the absence of an enforceable ceasefire made any effective humanitarian action redundant.

The only problem was that practically nobody noticed, so jaded had we become with the ongoing slaughter of the innocents in Syria. We greet news of the latest atrocities there with a collective shrug of international shoulders. History, justifiably, will judge us harshly for this five-year-long obscenity. Rwanda, Srebrenica, now Syria -- all in a matter of a little more than 20 years. And each followed with its own solemn proclamations of "never again."

De Mistura had the moral courage to take responsibility for the international diplomatic failure that is Syria. "The task force failed the people of Darayya," he said, "we all failed the people of Darayya, I failed them." But in truth, it is not de Mistura's failure. He has worked tirelessly for years on an almost impossible mission. The Syrian war has been a failure of the U.N. system itself, most particularly the Security Council. More broadly, it is symptomatic of the U.N.'s diminishing authority and effectiveness in acting on the core challenges to international peace and security for which the institution was created over 70 years ago. And we all wait in hope to see whether the latest peace agreement forged by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will become a lasting reality on the ground.

The Syrian war is a failure of the U.N. system itself.

We are seeing the gradual fracturing of the global order through growing tensions in great power relations, the rise of terrorism and the positive and negative impacts of globalization. The international community needs a strong U.N. more than ever before. But rarely has the U.N. been weaker.

As a foundation of the post-war order, the U.N. actually matters because if it were to crumble or be removed, it would bring into question much of the rest of the order for which the normative and institutional framework of the U.N. remains fundamental. The problem we face is that the international community now takes the U.N. for granted, allowing the institution to slowly drift into irrelevance. And while it is not broken, it is in trouble, particularly as we see countries around the world increasingly going around it, seeking solutions to major global problems elsewhere and often seeing the U.N. as a polite diplomatic afterthought or at best, a final recourse to international legitimacy.

Despite this, the U.N. is capable of reinventing itself. But reform is now urgent and no longer optional. The core principle for U.N. reform must be to redesign its functions, structure and finances to ensure it remains fit for the demands of effective global governance of the 21st century. And it must do so by re-entrenching the principle of multilateralism as the foundation of the international system; by implementing a comprehensive doctrine of preventive rather than simply reactive diplomacy; and by developing a new doctrine for delivering real, measurable results for peace and security, sustainable development and humanitarian engagement, rather than simply contenting itself with the setting of global norms.

What are the core principles of U.N. reform?

U.N. reform must be driven by a number of core principles, including 12 I'll describe here:

1. Through a second San Francisco Conference on the U.N.'s 75th anniversary in 2020, the political reaffirmation by member states at the summit level of the fundamental principles of multilateralism. This reaffirmation would be designed to prevent the further erosion of multilateralism and underscore the critical advantages effective multilateralism delivers to individual states, rather than entrenching an emerging view that the multilateral system is simply a burden to be borne.
   
   
2. The role of the U.N. in building bridges between the great powers themselves, particularly at a time of rising great power tension, just when great power cooperation is needed to enable the U.N. to deliver results for the wider international community.
   
   
3. The role of a U.N. secretary-general prepared to take initiatives under Article 99 of the Charter, even when such initiatives may not be guaranteed of success, but where challenges to the provisions of the Charter make global leadership necessary.
   
   
4. The adoption, inculcation and implementation of a comprehensive doctrine of prevention across the U.N. system -- as opposed to the prevailing culture of reaction -- one that is directly reflected in the organization's leadership, organization, resource allocation and culture. Relatedly, the development of a robust U.N. policy planning capability, looking several years out into the future, not just at the crises of the day, and critical to the effective deployment of preventive diplomacy.
   
   
5. The effective implementation and measurement of existing major U.N. global initiatives. Most particularly, this requires the urgent establishment of effective implementation machinery for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its goals and targets. If this does not happen, the Sustainable Development Goals run the risk of becoming an indictment of the hollowness of the U.N.'s normative agenda. Effective implementation will require a new Global Compact between the U.N., global and regional development banks and private finance to deploy the necessary funding. The same logic applies to the implementation of the Paris agreement on climate change and the investment needed for the energy transformations necessary to keep global temperature rise between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.
   
   
6. The effective anticipation of and response to new, emerging, critical global policy agendas of the future, not just those of the past, including effectively countering terrorism and violent extremism, enhancing cyber security, constraining lethal autonomous weapons systems, elevating the absolute priority of enforcing international humanitarian law for the wars of the future and developing a comprehensive approach to global boundaries beyond climate change -- particularly for our oceans.
   
   
7. The structural integration of the U.N.'s peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and humanitarian agendas as a strategic continuum, rather than leaving them as the rigid, self-contained, institutional silos of the past.
   
   
8. The development of a "Team U.N." in the field that finally resolves the problem of rigid institutional silos by moving increasingly to integrated, multidisciplinary teams to deal with specific challenges on the ground, guided by fully integrated, common mandates across all U.N. agencies and under the leadership of fully empowered directors of U.N. operations in each country.
   
   
9. The full integration of women at the center and across the totality of the U.N. agenda, not just in discrete parts of it, because to fail to do so will further undermine peace, security, development and human rights. The full employment of women, to the level of men's participation rate, would significantly boost flagging global economic growth.
   
   
10. A new approach to global youth so that their voices are heard at the center of the U.N.'s councils and not simply as a paternalistic afterthought, so that global youth can help shape their own future. As the global youth bulge, new policies are needed, given that current approaches to youth unemployment are failing.
    
    
11. The development of a U.N. whose culture is driven by the prioritization of operations in the field rather than at headquarters; the implementation of U.N. reports, rather than the proliferation of the writing of such reports; the rigorous measurement of results on the ground, not just the number of conferences held; and the introduction of a reward structure for staff that reflects all this.
    
    
12. The capacity of the U.N. to efficiently, effectively and flexibly act within the reality imposed by ongoing budgetary constraints, rather than hoping that the fiscal heavens will one day magically reopen. They won't.

Beyond these generic principles for U.N. reform, the incoming secretary-general should turn her or his mind to a number of specific recommendations for institutional change as well. In peace and security, these include the appointment of a new deputy secretary-general who is responsible for preventive diplomacy, including countering terrorism and violent extremism; placing U.N. peacekeeping operations in the field under a civilian director of operations; and increasing the resources available for the Department of Political Affairs for preventive political missions.

The U.N. also needs to establish an appointment mechanism for a panel of prospective special envoys who represent a balance of area and functional skills, which will replace current ad-hoc arrangements.

Next, the U.N. must enhance its arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation capabilities to deal with the North Korea nuclear weapons challenge, terrorist access to weapons of mass destruction and new generations of weapons systems (like armed artificial intelligence systems). The U.N. should also be playing a central role in the negotiation of a new global regime on cyber security.

On the U.N.'s sustainable development agenda, the new secretary-general might also consider the appointment of a deputy secretary-general for sustainable development to be ultimately responsible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs; the establishment of a U.N.-World Bank joint operational commission between the secretary-general and the president of the World Bank for collaboration on the SDGs; and making the U.N. Economic and Social Council the deliberative body responsible for the political oversight and periodic measurement of SDG implementation on the ground.







Furthermore, the U.N. can partner with the World Bank, other development banks and private financial institutions to develop a new Global Compact. This is needed to develop new financial products to fund the global infrastructure required to make the 2030 Agenda a reality. The U.N. can also facilitate the negotiation of individual national plans for the implementation of the SDGs on the ground and the parallel development of fully integrated U.N. mandates, including all relevant U.N. agencies, and with fully empowered directors of operations responsible for the local delivery of the 2030 Agenda.

Beyond the SDGs, the U.N. should also establish an international planetary boundaries commission to develop a scientific framework around limits to the biosphere beyond climate change. The time has also come, given the major impact oceans have on global climate and global protein supply, for the creation of a U.N. oceans commission to enhance global governance over the roughly 70 percent of the Earth's surface that the oceans cover.

As for its humanitarian engagements, the U.N. should also consider appointing a deputy secretary-general for humanitarian support to boost the powers of effective coordination of humanitarian responses from within and beyond the U.N. It should also develop protocols with international nongovernmental organizations on joint needs assessments in the face of humanitarian disasters, as well as clarify the operational interrelationship between humanitarian and development agencies on the ground.

As the case of Syria demonstrates, there is real urgency in negotiating a new global agreement on asylum seekers and refugees, given that the current system is both broke and broken. This agreement must comprehensively deal with the separate but related challenges of source, neighboring, transit and resettlement countries, including a proper system of global burden sharing. The whole system also needs to be refinanced. The International Organization of Migration should be formally affiliated with the U.N. system, giving the IOM a new role in the separate but related area of global migration policy cooperation while recognizing that nations will ultimately set their own rules that meet their respective national requirements.

Reform is now urgent and no longer optional.

On human rights, there is a need for enhanced coordination and implementation of the U.N.'s "Human Rights up Front" initiative, as well as reaching agreement on a definition of non-cooperating states within the processes of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

On gender equality, women in all four U.N. capitals should hold 50 percent of all U.N. executive positions by 2030. In the U.N.'s field operations, women should hold either the director or deputy director positions. Further, a U.N. trust fund should be established to assist women in education, employment and enterprise.

As for youth, the secretary-general should consider the establishment of U.N. Youth, a modestly staffed organization within the Secretariat with all staff under 39, to provide direct advice to the secretary-general on effective policy responses to the global youth employment crisis.

Finally, on budget, personnel, management and communications, we need to see the re-establishment of a permanent international civil service with less scope for arbitrary political appointments; the establishment of a new high-level management structure where decision-making powers are exercised by an executive leadership team, rather than the private office of the secretary-general; and a new director of strategic communications to get the good news out on the U.N.'s positive achievements, not just responses to its failings.







In the end, the success or failure of any effort at fundamental U.N. reform hangs on two fundamental questions: Can the U.N.'s deliberative bodies make the big decisions the global governance deficit of the 21st century demands? And can the U.N.'s institutional machinery effectively implement these decisions? The answers to these questions will determine whether the U.N. is fit for the challenges of the century ahead.

With sufficient political will, with strong institutional leadership and with a clear program of reform driven by a results-orientated culture, the U.N. can indeed prevail as a continuing pillar of a stable, just and sustainable global order. The alternative is benign neglect, institutional decay and, as a result, declining relevance to the great challenges of our time, leading to an increasingly unstable world for us all.

There is nothing in the history of international relations that guarantees order. In fact, history tells us that order is the exception rather than the rule and that the institutions of global order have a very recent history indeed.

The fact that de Mistura's eight-minute meeting last month was held in Geneva's Palais de Nations should give us further pause. This was once the grand monumental home to the last attempt at global governance after a great conflagration -- the ill-fated League of Nations; it, too, simply became an eerie and hollow shell, where meetings continued to be held but real decisions were made elsewhere, ultimately with disastrous consequences for all humankind. The League offers a cautionary tale for us all.

Earlier on WorldPost:

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Oil pipeline construction halted after Native American protests  
The conduit for oil has sparked protests and a lawsuit led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and now the US has halted construction on a section of the pipeline  
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Calculating The Odds Of Human Extinct ion  
The odds of human extinct ion, “mother of all tail risks” 2.  
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How forensic science can stop slaughter of endangered wildlife  
Technology to investigate wildlife trafficking is rapidly improving, but countries also need to agree new ways of working and better training and resources  
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Between a rock and a hard place: Biologists unearth sandstone-excavating bees  
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Alexander Ross Scientist of the Day Alexander Ross,...  

http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/emblematic/id/348


http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw135576/


http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/emblematic/id/388

Alexander Ross Scientist of the Day

Alexander Ross, a Scottish writer, was born on some unknown day, perhaps in 1590, perhaps not (see his portrait, second image).

read more…

 
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Scientific organizations must be braver in confronting climate denial  
Citadels of science like MIT and the American Geophysical Union are eschewing opportunities to stand up against climate change denial by turning a blind eye to evidence. It is a discredit to science and a disservice to society.

Walking on stage to receive my PhD at MIT this June, I felt both proud and disappointed: bittersweet emotions toward a place that taught me so much science yet nothing about how to stand up for it.

As a young scientist researching renewable energy since high school, and as a young person scared for my generation's future, it has been painful for me to watch an intellectual powerhouse like MIT fail to lead against climate change. Worst of all has been MIT's refusal to confront outright attacks on basic climate science.

The Institute's own climate advisory committee, on which I sat, unanimously told MIT to address the disinformation spewed by the fossil fuel industry. 3,500 MIT members petitioned the president to make it happen. Faculty, students, scientists, and environmentalists wrote letters, alumni withheld donations, Cambridge City Council even passed a resolution.

Yet when the administration finally unveiled its climate plan, it didn't just reject the recommendation of its own committee, it completely ignored us. The word "disinformation" appeared once in 18 pages, right before the administration refused to divest from the fossil fuel companies responsible, and committed instead to "bringing them closer." For 126 days we students sat-in outside our president's office in protest, but MIT refused to budge.

Things are just as bad at the American Geophysical Union, the world's largest association of Earth scientists. In April, AGU's board rejected calls from 200 of its members to drop ExxonMobil as one of its sponsors. (I helped organize the campaign, and joined the AGU early this summer after beginning a postdoc modeling energy systems for climate mitigation.)

Exxon is a company that has spent decades perfecting the art of climate science disinformation. Decades orchestrating, funding, and perpetuating campaigns designed to confuse the public, sabotage science, and slander scientists, many of whom are AGU members. In other words, Exxon is climate science's Most Wanted. And America's union of geoscientists just voted to keep taking its petty change.

AGU's decision is an implicit sanction, however unintentional, for Exxon to attack science and scientists. It is a failure to protect the integrity of science - and scientists themselves - against those who undermine our very raison d'être: truth and knowledge.

And significantly, it is a flat-out violation of AGU's own sponsorship policy, which says: "AGU will not accept funding from organizational partners that promote and/or disseminate misinformation of science, or that fund organizations that publicly promote misinformation of science."

To this day, Exxon funds the American Enterprise Institute, whose head of energy studies ten months ago proclaimed, amidst a torrent of misinformation, that the human contribution to global warming is "unresolved". [$3.8 million from Exxon since 1998; $325,000 in 2015.]

To this day, Exxon funds the American Legislative Exchange Council, whose official position is that "Global Climate Change is Inevitable...the debate will continue on the significance of natural and anthropogenic contributions." [$1.7 million+ since 1998; $75,000 in 2015. An Exxon Manager sits on ALEC's corporate board.]

To this day, Exxon funds climate-denying Congress members like Sen Jim Inhofe, who says global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" and who Exxon supported in 2015 even as he refuted record-high temperatures by producing a snowball on the Senate floor. [$3.5 million+ to 208 members since 1999; $724,500 to 100 members in 2013-14; 2015-16 data not yet public.]

And so the evidence goes on, as we documented in a report to AGU's board.

Incredibly, AGU's explanation-free answer to all of this was that "It is not possible for us to determine unequivocally whether ExxonMobil is participating in misinformation about science currently."

"You have been fooled," responded two Congressmen to AGU. Atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel went further, calling AGU's decision "a mockery of its own bylaw." But it's even worse than that: it is a mockery of the evidence-based reasoning that defines us as scientists. Like MIT, it is a sad example of a scientific organization confronted by climate denial, yet overrun by status quo bias and setup to fail. And it is a huge missed opportunity.

Because as trusted voices in our society, institutions like MIT and the AGU wield megaphones to public and political opinion and, through leadership, immense capacities to effect change. In 2006, when Great Britain's Royal Society reprimanded Exxon for its climate disinformation campaigns, it forced the oil giant to publicly address, however feebly, its wrongdoings. And that was one letter from one institution.

AGU can show similar courage. Tomorrow, as its board meets to revisit the question of Exxon sponsorship, we will deliver the signatures of 50,000 members of the public, each encouraging the union to do what scientists do best: face the facts. AGU sponsors must abide by AGU sponsorship policy, and Exxon has not. So AGU must drop Exxon. Otherwise, why bother having a sponsorship policy in the first place?

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This morning I'm flying to Los Angeles for a couple of days...  

This morning I'm flying to Los Angeles for a couple of days through the city's international airport, commonly referred to as LAX. Last year, the facility handled nearly 75 million passengers, making it the seventh busiest in the world.

33°56′33″N 118°24′29″W

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2cohfYS

 
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Merkel's Challenge: Navigating the Post-Fact Era  
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Marine nematodes  

Full Text:

These free-living marine nematodes from the Gulf of Mexico were preserved and stained for taxonomic analysis. A team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, collected samples here to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on microbial eukaryote species.

Image credit: Dr. Holly Bik, University of California, Davis

 
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Lightweight, wearable tech efficiently converts body heat to electricity  

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Image credit: North Carolina State University

 
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Sunrise at Clapham Junction  

keyphotos posted a photo:

13th Sept 2016

 
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Sunrise at Clapham Junction  

keyphotos posted a photo:

13th Sept 2016

 
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We're counting down to the CITES CoP! The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna... https://t.co/bCbtZpqF9h 
https://t.co/bCbtZpqF9h 

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New Light  

James Neeley posted a photo:

Morning sunlight streams through the trees in Hyde Park, London.

View the entire Natural Still Life Set
View the entire London Set
View my - Most Interesting according to Flickr

 
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Amazon CEO's rocket company reveals its orbit-and-beyond-capable boosters

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