The effects of climate change and sea-level rise on coastal cities present a new challenge to urban planners, one that inspires the exhibition, Rising Currents, now at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.

Five teams of architects and landscape designers were asked to envision projects for New York City’s future coastline. The plans all create what they call “soft” infrastructures — landscapes that will allow rising sea levels to flow within and around the building sites where power, water, sewer, and gas lines are encased in waterproof vaults beneath the sidewalks.

The plans imagine the open spaces surrounding these building sites becoming estuarine habitats that will provide cost-effective storm-water management and revitalize the harbor’s biodiversity. (more…)

The CO2 reduction pledges made by 76 nations following last December’s Copenhagen climate conference will likely lead to a global temperature rise of at least 3 degrees Centigrade (5.4 Fahrenheit) by 2100, according to an analysis by scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

In an article in Nature, the researchers described the current reduction commitments as “paltry” and said the goal of holding temperature increases to 2 degrees C is in “dire peril.”

Researcher Malte Meinshausen told the BBC, “There’s a big mismatch between the ambitious goal, which is 2 C, and the emissions reductions. The pledged emissions reductions are in most cases very unambitious.” (more…)

It’s been a busy Earth Day at the White House and around the administration. Yesterday Vice President Biden kicked off the Administration’s Earth Day Celebration by announcing $452 million in Recovery Act funding to support a “Retrofit Ramp-Up.” This program will create thousands of jobs and allow these communities to retrofit hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses while testing out innovative strategies that can be adopted all over the country. President Obama also issued a Presidential Proclamation on Earth Day calling on Americans to join in the spirit of the first Earth Day forty years ago to take action in their communities to make our planet cleaner and healthier.

This afternoon, Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, hosted a live chat on WhiteHouse.gov to answer your questions about how the Administration is working to improve the environment and build a clean energy economy that supports the jobs of the future. This evening, the President hosted an Earth Day reception in the Rose Garden at the White House where he discussed some of the challenges that lie ahead in achieving a clean energy economy: (more…)

This Earth Day I thought I would give you something to do so you can avoid watching another tree planting ceremony (it’s just as painful live as on TV – don’t kid yourself). Get out and actually make a difference instead of watching other people do it.

1) Computer Recycling – Help bridge the digital divide by donating your computer to a reuse group like: Computer Recycling Center or Per Scholas . They will restore the machine and then give it to a non-profit, group or individual in need of a computer.  If you don’t have a computer to recycle contact one of the many electronics recycling groups on Google for other volunteer opportunities.

2) Food Gleaning – Gleaning means to gather what’s left over. Picking fruit from trees that would normally go to waste , donating excess veggies from your garden, or sending unsold baked goods at the end of the day to a homeless shelter are all ways to glean.  It feeds the hungry, keeps food local, and ensures that landfill space is not used up unnecessarily. (more…)

More European nations are levying carbon taxes on passenger vehicles and providing tax incentives for electric vehicles, according to a new report by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

Seventeen of the 27 European Union nations now impose a tax based on carbon emissions, compared with 11 in 2007 and nine in 2006.

In 2009, motor vehicles taxes of all kinds generated about €377 billion ($505 billion), or 3.4 percent of total GDP, in the 15 nations that originally made up the EU. Fifteen of the EU’s current 27 members provide incentives for electric vehicles, including tax reductions and bonus payments. (more…)

On President Obama’s second Earth Day in office, how far have green jobs come toward fixing unemployment and environmental ills? The administration aims for 5 million green jobs to grow in the next 10 years. Should Americans still believe the “hype?” Here’s the latest in green jobs news from around the Web:

The White House early in 2009 announced $500 million for efforts to train green workers, and this January it described job-training grants worth $100 million of that package. But that’s not nearly enough cash for an effort that should be as big as the Space Race, says pundit Jesse Jenkins. And contrary to conventional wisdom, green jobs are already being exported beyond U.S. borders.
(Breakthrough Institute)

For now, “fewer than 200 factories in the United States are devoted to green production, employing no more than 15,000 workers.” Companies can apply for new, federal tax credits to boost U.S. manufacturing, but an economist finds that “fewer than 500 applications have been filed so far for the tax breaks, and if all were approved they would add just 75,000 green manufacturing jobs.”
(New York Times)

Yet, 10 percent of employers have added new, green jobs in the past year, according to a CareerBuilder poll of 2,700 hiring managers. Among the green occupations described as earning more than $60,000 on the job Web site are hydrologist, solar energy system designer, waste management engineer and urban planner. (However, CareerBuilder’s GoingGreenJobs site was kaput on Wednesday.)
(press release) (more…)

The Plastiki, a sailing boat made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled waste products, has been sailing in the Pacific Ocean for more than 30 days.

Plastiki started its journey March 20 from San Francisco, with the intention to create public awareness about the effects of plastic usage on marine pollution and consequently sea life.

The Plastiki crew aims to explore a number of environmental hotspots, such as soon-to-be-flooded island nations, damaged coral reefs and the challenge faced by acidifying oceans and marine debris, in particular plastic pollution.

Plastiki’s journey is also scheduled to go through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone of trash one suspended on the water’s surface, twice the size of Texas, and stretching from the shores of California to the Sea of Japan.

The boat crew consists of six scientists, environmentalists and artists, led by the British adventurer David de Rothschild. The 60-foot boat is sailing with an average speed of five nautical miles per hour and the voyage is set end in Sydney in about three months. (more…)

U.S. investors have invested $129.4 million in a promising solar technology that uses plastic lenses to concentrate sunlight onto small but highly efficient solar cells.

The so-called multijunction cells, developed by California-based Amonix, generate more electricity than conventional photovoltaic panels and require fewer costly semiconducting materials, such as silicon.

The company has successfully tested the technology at small solar farms in Spain and the United States. (more…)

The number of courts that resolve environmental disputes has nearly doubled in the last five years as the complexity of environmental law and public awareness have increased, according to a new study.

There are 354 environmental courts in 41 countries, with more than 170 created since 2005, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). Only a handful existed in the 1970s.

“While such specialist courts and tribunals have been created from time to time, their accelerated growth is a 21st century phenomenon,” the report says. (more…)

As climate and energy legislation continues to founder in Washington, Senator Maria Cantwell says it’s time for a new strategy. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Cantwell explains why her bill can avoid the pitfalls of cap-and-trade and win the support of the public.

Is carbon cap-and-trade legislation alive or dead in the U.S. Congress? Does the energy bill being proposed by senators John Kerry, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham — or for that matter any climate and energy legislation — stand a chance of passing the U.S. Senate before this November’s midterm elections?

No one seems to be able to answer these questions at this point. In the meantime, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal Act, or CLEAR — sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — has been getting a surprising amount of attention. Instead of a cap-and-trade system, the bill would institute what its sponsors call “cap-and-refund.” Under the bill, the president would, beginning in 2012, set an overall cap on fossil-fuel emissions. (more…)