Sustainability Resources Poll and Discussion

This poll can help us find out what resources we have used related to the principle of sustainability. That should help us decide which of them could use their own forum discussions. If I missed something on the poll you would like to see, just let me know and I'll add it.

The following list includes links to the selected online resources. When available, a link to the applicable Next Steps (Discussion) is included as well.

• Appropedia: Sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives
  
• Coalition of the Willing (Discussion): An open source approach to the war on global warming; including a Catalyst Network, an Open Innovation Platform and a Green Knowledge Trust
  
• Future of Humanity Institute: A multidisciplinary research institute at the University of Oxford on big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects; including Global Catastrophic Risks, Overcoming Bias - Blog, Less Wrong - Blog, Practical Ethics - Blog, Oxford Martin School, Oxford Bioethics Network, Giving What We Can
  
• Green Philanthropy for Families: Simple no/low-cost green philanthropy gifts, projects, and actions in which people of all ages can become involved and share their ideas
  
• NOVA Spark Educator Newsletter: Online video, multi-media and other STEM resources (monthly)
  
• The Wikipedia Sustainable development Portal: An introductory page that introduces the reader to key articles, images, and categories that further describe the subject
  

SUBSCRIBE TO SPARK Will your students lead a clean energy revolution? This month, NOVA's new program, Power Surge, focuses on the latest and greatest innovations in clean energy--from artificial trees to green reboots of familiar technologies like coal and nuclear energy. Bring the program into your classroom with the rich resources, below. Want more? Join us on Facebook and Twitter, or visit the NOVA Teachers and Teachers' Domain websites to tap a wealth of great STEM-related video clips, animations, interactives, and activities. Keep investigating! Rachel Connolly, Director of Education, NOVA

Capturing Carbon

How did a 12-year-old's science experiment and an artificial tree enable a scientific breakthrough?

A new technology captures an important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO₂), from the air.

Video (5m 25s), Grades 6-12



Solar Panels for Your Home

How is solar energy converted to usable energy?

Explore the inner workings of solar panels and meet two families who use solar technologies for their energy needs.

Video (3m 55s), Grades 6-12



Inside a Solar Cell

Then, step through the process of what happens inside a solar panel.

Interactive, Grades 9-12



Algae Fuel

How do you get from the swamp to the power grid?

Understand how algae--also known as pond scum--is the next potential biodiesel superstar.

Video (10m 57s), Grades 6-12


From Pond Scum to Power

Then, discover how and why algae make oil.

Interactive, Grades 9-12



Fuel Cells
Is there a highly efficient source of power that is also non-polluting?

Watch the electrochemical reaction that takes place within a hydrogen fuel cell.

Video (5m 50s), Grades 6-12



Ethanol Biofuel

How can we make ethanol without using up our corn resources?

Take a closer look at ethanol, a cleaner-burning fuel alternative to gasoline, and the efforts being made to produce it more efficiently.

Video (5m 33s), Grades 9-12



Design Squad Nation: Build Big and Win!
Get excited about engineering! PBS's Design Squad Nation is challenging kids to enter the Build Big contest and make a giant version of any DSN activity--like these Green challenges! For more information, rules, and to enter, go to pbskids.org/designsquadnation.

Here's the Wikipedia article for Zeitgeist: Moving Forward.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private initiative



Overview
The Challenge
Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires—the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world—causes 1.9 million premature deaths annually, with women and young children the most affected. Reliance on biomass for cooking and heating forces women and children to spend many hours each week collecting wood. Women face severe personal security risks as they forage for fuel, especially from refugee camps and in conflict zones. Cookstoves also increase pressures on local environmental resources (e.g., forests, habitat) and contribute to climate change at the regional and global levels.

The Solution
The use of clean cookstoves and fuels can dramatically reduce fuel consumption and exposure to cookstove smoke. Development of a global clean cookstove industry that is constantly innovating to improve design and performance, while lowering the cost of stoves, can lead the way to widespread adoption of clean cooking solutions.

The Alliance
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a new public-private partnership to save lives, empower women, improve livelihoods, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s ‘100 by 20’ goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance will work with public, private, and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves in the developing world.


Watch Hillary Clinton announce the Alliance.

The Time is Right
While hundreds of global and country-specific programs promote the deployment and use of cleaner and more efficient cookstoves, the field has yet to reach a truly global scale.

Yet, recent developments in the stove field are providing greater confidence that we can achieve large-scale success. Because of advances in design, testing, and monitoring; compelling new research on the health benefits of reduced exposure to cookstove smoke; new national cookstove programs in India, China, Mexico, and elsewhere; the mounting need for effective near- and long-term action to address climate change; growth of promising new business models; and the potential of carbon finance to fund stove projects, it may now be possible to reach hundreds of millions of the world’s poor with cleaner and more efficient stoves.

However, to achieve this ambitious goal, the global community must act now, focusing its efforts on the creation of a thriving and sustainable clean cookstove industry.

Additional Information

• The Solution
• The Issue
• What is a Clean Cookstove?
• Why Now?