The Renewables Global Status Report, released annually by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, digs into the growth rates of various energy sources, the flows of clean energy investment, and the world’s progress on its sustainability goals. The current edition is 250 pages long. This article went through the report and extracted … Read more
In 2006 I was invited to lecture at the King’s University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was a very memorable experience, lasting a couple of weeks. I just came across the following essay that I wrote at that time reflecting some of my observations sparked by that trip. I have been in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia … Read more
Here is another nicely made video in the Groundwork series featuring straw bale building and explaining why it makes so much sense to think in terms of using natural materials for dwellings. You can watch the video at www.youtube.com or click the title to watch on the blog.
I came across this unique concept that the designers claim will “restore our climate to pre-industrial conditions.” This is a lofty goal that is certainly worthy of attention. It is based on a building they call the EnviroPlex™, that is “a multi-purpose, modular, high-tech installation combining organic food production and pollution-free energy generation with direct-air … Read more
I have been familiar with biochar as mainly an agricultural soil amendment that helps provide habitat for beneficial microbes and sequesters carbon in the ground. It hadn’t occurred to me that it could also be used as a building material, until a reader suggested that I check out this article at www.biochar-journal.org Biochar is a … Read more
Leading a repair team, Yang Long will spend around one year to restore an 800-meter-long section of the Great Wall in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. “Ningxia had long been at the junction of nomadic civilization and farming civilization in ancient times. In order to resist the invasion of nomadic peoples from the north, … Read more