Climate Change and Hopenhagen in SL

With 20,000 RL people meeting in Copenhagen, Second Life is buzzing with chat about climate change at numerous events and ecology exhibits. I found some incredible rays of hope here in Second Life beyond the gloom and doom of global warming.

Lately it's fashionable to be a climate change skeptic; I re-examined the science, starting with SL resources at NASA, NOAA, and EPA sims, and what I found is quite shocking. For brevity, I wrote a companion blog with all my notes and citations at: http://tiny.cc/T0p9f

I'll summarize what I discovered. The Earth is heating up steadily for the past century. A dramatic change happened to Earth around 1979; we broke the planet; 57% of human-caused carbon emissions persist in the atmosphere; Earth can't absorb it. Earth heating and greenhouse gases are accelerating, and mean temperatures are expected to rise 2 to 3 more Celsius degrees this century. Since seas rise as land ice melts at the exponential rate of temperature cubed, this is equivalent to a sea level rise of 21 to 41 meters (i.e. about 100 feet).

That would be bad. A 100 foot sea rise and concurrent storms would put under water 13 of the world's 15 largest cities, virtually all coastal settlements, and several nations (Holland, Bangladesh, Pacific Islands) would be mostly submerged. It is painfully obvious that this is not an option for humankind.

Now the hope. I met an amazing SL gentlemen, an exhibitor at OneClimate sim, who has wonderful hopeful ideas and SL freebies to share! Meme Autopoiesis is an environmental researcher at the RL Institute for Sustainable Communication. Meme says energy efficiency is a killer app; he told me examples and case studies about how computers, data centers, and electric power can be redesigned for great efficiency. Meme is most excited about Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED). OLEDs are a new fangled light source, made from organic compounds, in particular melanin, the biochemical that colors our RL skin. Melanin can be made from renewable plant resources. Cool to the touch because they are highly efficient, OLEDs can replace most of our energy hog plasma TVs, light bulbs, computer displays, and even printouts and newspapers.

Meme invites you down to OneClimate to pick up many colors of free Hopenhagen T-Shirts. Hopenhagen is an SL/RL campaign to give people a sense of hope and empowerment about climate change. RL Hopenhagen shirts are 100% recycled PET from plastic water and soda bottles. Most importantly, Meme wants you to sign the Hopenhagen Petition online at http://www.hopenhagen.org/ Over 1,700,000 people have signed it, "voicing support" for a successful Copenhagen conference.

But what can you really do to repair the Earth? Going Green campaigns are not enough; it's high time for political action. Get involved in Second Life, get informed, and become RL climate change activist. Meet inspiring eco-activists in SL at Better World, OneClimate, Africa Live, Ecologia, Etopia, and World Wildlife Fund. If US citizen, call, email, or write your Senator at http://senate.gov (SENATORS link). One letter to Congress counts as much as 1000 emails. In a nutshell, that's what I'd do. Every voice matters alot!

By Any1 Gynoid

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“Copenhagen” Green Expo in Second Life

With environmental activists meeting in Copenhagen for the Global Warming Summit, a number of Second Life residents have been organizing to bring attention to environmental issues. In several sims, exhibits have been put up, and events have been held.

In the OneWorld Meetings sim, there is a pavilion with numerous displays up for people to read, calling for action to cut down carbon dioxide emissions by industry, and encouraging residents to take steps to “go green.” Some exhibits had links to websites.

Again and again, there were the numbers “350.” The number is what some environmental activists believe is the “safe upper limit for carbon dioxide” in parts per million. Anything more they feel puts the world at risk of rising global temperatures and disruptions in the climate. The number has been exceeded, and activists have demanded that the countries of the world take steps to reverse it.

Nearby sims continued the theme. To the west in Plush Nonprofit Commons was an European village, with an occasional display. To the north in Health Commons was a rocky shore with a few animals. It also had a “house of horrors” describing how common activities as simple as using make-up had a detrimental effect on the environment. There was no sign, at least near OneWorld Meetings, of an exhibit describing the criticism of the Theory of Global Warming.

SL Newspaper met up with two of the organizers of the event, Paolo Rousselot and Marian Sapphire. “She deserves her due,” Paolo described Marian. Paolo says the idea for the event, “came about shortly after I opened an office on Vio. The owner there kept asking me to host a green expo. Delays kept pushing it back to where eventually I suggested an Expo be held in conjunction with the Copenhagen Conference.” Unfortunately, Vio had to back off from hosting due to problems. So Paolo looked elsewhere, “I met the management team for Beta Business park, and we were off!”

Of the others behind the event, Paolo told, “The Beta folks have been indispensable, Gayle Cabaret from Beta, Coughdrop Littlething from OneClimate. Coughdrop is actually in Copenhagen now with the London staff. We've had a wonderful response from a great many people and groups in Second Life. Many of which have displays on both OneWorld Meeting and Beta.”

Paolo mentioned there had been a number of topics discussed, “Energy from Biomass, EcoVillages ... Meshed Gears ... had a wonderful class on Integral Farming.” Paolo described integral farming as managing the water and waste output of a farm. “We've presented topics that are both directly related to climate change, as well as subjects that don't appear to be. Last week, Bev Landar gave a wonderful presentation on the complexity of human interaction. On the surface it wouldn't appear to be a fit, until you consider everything that we will have to address in the coming years. In that light it is extremely pertinent. ... we'll have a presentation on Negotiations. Not exactly ‘green’ - but then what is going on right now in Copenhagen? Won't the pressures of 21st century challenges require us to know ‘negotiations’ quite thoroughly?”

Paolo brought up the Open Panel Discussion on Friday December 18th from 2:30 PM to about 4 PM, “Pooky (Amsterdam) has committed, as has Hacks from NOAA. Also Delia from Better Earth. Then I'll close things out.” Of the problems the real-life conference in Copenhagen has had, Paolo couldn’t think of any impact on the expo, “not that I know of.” He listed the expo’s real setback as technical difficulties canceling a live Q&A session.

When the “Climategate” scandal was mentioned, Paolo had this to say, “That isn’t a simple ‘either/or’ question. It’s not whether you believe in climate change or you don't. We clearly cannot continue to treat our planet and each other the way we have in the past. The challenges the 21st Century will bring simply won't allow it. Air pollution from Los Angeles and Phoenix mixes over the desert. Pine trees at the tree line in the Swiss alps are dying, and guess what from? The pollutants can be traced directly back to LA & Phoenix. But clearly it illustrates how we have to recognize out behavior in one corner of the planet affects life in another.”

The real-life meeting in Copenhagen has been hit with a number of problems, such as hundreds of protesters arrested, the timing of the “Climategate” scandal, and the conference itself being deadlocked between rising economic powers and established ones, China and India stating they will not be held to any global warming treaty. Another issue was VIPs creating their own sizable “carbon footprint” by taking private jets to the talks.

With people at the Green Expo using only the amount of energy needed to power their computers, some in Second Life might argue the real greens were here.

Bixyl Shuftan

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