Breathingearth.net

Since we started the Sustainable Futures Foundation last year, I have been tracking what people are doing about implementing sustainable ideas. That brought the New Zealand company Celsias onto my radar, and I blogged last week about their website to track and trade carbon credits. I've been reading their very informative Celsias blog. Today, Craig Mackintosh spotlighted the Breathing Earth site in their Celsias blog.

Breathing Earth maps the carbon emissions and birth and death rates of every country in the world. Just mouse-over any country and see what is happening. This is a very interesting visualization of data.



David Bleja from Stillwater Microcosm has taken data from Wikipedia, the World Factbook and the United Nations. If he were able to map the real live data into this map, it would give us a live tool for watching our impact on the earth.

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

The VisualLiteracy.org focuses on visual ways to create and communicate knowledge and insights. They use a didactic approach to teaching people how to develop their own visualization formats. They offer an e-learning course for building skills in visualization in order to build competence in communication.

They have developed an Ajax based Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. There are 6 different cell colors:
> yellow = data visualization
> light green = information visualization
> aqua = concept visualization
> light blue = strategy visualization
> pink = metaphor visualization
> light purple = compound visualization

Just mouse-over any of the cells and discover another way of charting, mapping or visualizing knowledge.

The Big Question for 2007 from Edge

To celebrate their 10th anniversary (December 1996) Edge asks the 2007 Edge Annual Question:



John Brockman, Publisher & Editor of Edge, says:
"While conventional wisdom tells us that things are bad and getting worse, scientists and the science-minded among us see good news in the coming years. That's the bottom line of an outburst of high-powered optimism gathered from the world-class scientists and thinkers who frequent the pages of Edge, in an ongoing conversation among third culture thinkers (i.e., those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.)"

Read all 160 contributions for real inspiration.

So, what are you optimistic about this year?

I see positive movement toward taking responsibility for building a globaL socio-economic environment based on a full value stream - human capital, social capital, creative capital and transactional capital. One indicator is how discussions about global warming translate immediately into activities to reduce our carbon footprint by creating carbon credits. Another is a movement away from manufactured product driven business models into idea generated business models, which include social responsibility and ethical behavior into their value frameworks.

What do you see as optimistic indicators?

Last year, I responded to John Brockman's question in Edge's edition 175 from January 5, 2006 - What's your dangerous idea? My dangerous idea got a mention by a radio station in Boston in their Blogger RoundUp.

Celsias.com Offers Carbon Credits as Currency

A New Zealand company has applied to patent Celsias.com, the world's first online community that allows regions, businesses or community groups to receive payments for reducing the carbon emissions from their everyday energy use. Celsias.com is built upon a fast growing global economy that recognizes energy savings - your carbon emission reductions or carbon credits - as a form of currency.

With Celsias you can now track, create and trade this new currency on the Internet.

Calculate the carbon footprint of your home, your business, your community group or any other entity. Create carbon credits for yourself by learning how to reduce your carbon emissions and by searching for and buying the world's most energy efficient products and services. Sell these carbon credits to other Celsias members anywhere around the world.

Follow their blog to keep up with what they're doing.

Register now on Celsias.com.