Whales not gonna take it

The most concerning and grimmest Puget Sound environmental news of the past week has got to be the maiming, followed by death, of a sei (or Bryde's) whale in the south Sound.

:: Complete Cascadia Research coverage

Not only were the injuries severe, the 34 foot long animal suffered a lingering death.

While mainstream media coverage began Dec. 1, Cascadia reports the earliest sighting may have been as far back as Nov. 13. That would mean 3 weeks leading up to the Dec. 4 death.

Masdar City's first steps

Masdar City -- the ambitious United Arab Emirates eco-city project -- inaugurated its first phase last week.

Abu Dhabi monarch Mohammed al Nahyan was there to preside over the unveiling of the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology, the first fruits of his investment.

It's important to remember that about this display of traditional Arab technology wedded to modern technologies. MIST is showing the key energy sustainability features of the Masdar vision: narrow shaded streets, curved walls, wind towers, etc. New low-energy air conditioning are being tried, as is the Personal Rapid Transit (small  pod vehicles, mass transit in aggregate, that only move when needed).

But as previously reported,

ULTra begins public service

The ULTra PRT system at London Heathrow Airport has become the first contemporary personal rapid transit system to enter public service, beginning 12 hours a day/7 days a week operation. Even so, the project's low-key nature continues in this rollout, for now the passengers are airport employees working at Terminal 5, according to BAA's Hugh Fenn:

Video: In & Around Masdar City

From Al Jazeera:

It's official: Masdar won't be car-free (Update 5)

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter
 
Fundamental revisions to the Masdar City program, hinted at and leaked since spring, have been confirmed: Masdar City will be dedicated to developing and piloting sustainable technologies, but demonstrating what they can do on a city-wide scale will be left to others.

Here's what we know based on reports in a number of international news outlets.

• The overall deadline for completing all of Masdar City is now 2020-2025 instead of 2016. The cost will be roughly $18-20 billion instead of $22 billion.

BREAKING: Masdar won't be car-free

We're sifting breaking news about the contents of the Masdar program's review of the Masdar City plan. Full rundown later today, stay tuned.

Masdar City backs away from major goal

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter

Already forced to reevaluate its construction plans due to the bad global real estate market, the Masdar Initiative has again signaled it is giving up on the goal of Masdar City being car-free.

Although committed to an autumn 2010 launch of the pilot Masdar Institute segment of the innovative Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) peoplemover, future construction of a PRT network across the entire city is now in doubt.

Changes at Masdar - Some perspective

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter

It's certainly been disappointing to read reports about a scaling back on objectives by the Masdar sustainable energy effort:

Clean transport not an easy move The National, UAE
Financial Woes Crimp Celebrated Middle East 'Green City' NY Times

But is it time to dismiss the whole undertaking as a failure? I think it's too early to tell. Here's what we know:

The Great Grocery Smackdown

In the March edition of The Atlantic:

by Corby Kummer
photo by Eli Meir Kaplan
Buy my food at Walmart? No thanks... Then, last year, the market for organic milk started to go down along with the economy, and dairy farmers in Vermont and other states, who had made big investments in organic certification, began losing contracts and selling their farms. A guaranteed large buyer of organic milk began to look more attractive. And friends started telling me I needed to look seriously at Walmart’s efforts to sell sustainably raised food.
...

Yes to East Link

On KUOW's The Conversation for Wednesday, Dec. 12, Publicola editor Erica Barnett put on her list of under-reported stories for the year November's election of an "anti-light rail" slate to the Bellevue City Council: Don Davidson (Mayor), Conrad Lee (Deputy Mayor), Kevin Wallace, and Jennifer Robertson. Together the four comprise a majority on the seven member council. This presents a good opportunity to stake out some nuance in the area of Puget Sound personal rapid transit advocacy.

Malevolent energy cloud-beings praise Puget Sound cleanup report

"Glass half-full. Of poison"

A new state report on the health of Puget Sound is eliciting praise from a local environmental advocacy group.

"Decline of Puget Sound good for Zan-Tor and other malevolent energy cloud-beings," said Zan-Tor, spokesbeing for the Seattle Environment, Water & Effluent Resources Coalition (SEWER Coalition).

Eco-city on show at energy summit

The 2010 World Future Energy Summit came home to Abu Dhabi this week, and one of the well-attended press tours was the Masdar carbon neutral city being constructed outside the capital. The Cleantech Group, Greentech Media and Gulf News had the most interesting visual reports:

"Salish Sea" beats "Twitter" as Name of the Year

From the Kitsap (WA) Sun:

The name "Salish Sea" has been chosen over "Twitter" as the American Name Society’s "Name of the Year." The Salish Sea is defined as the inland waterway in Washington and British Columbia that includes Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia.

"I think it is significant because it is a brand new name," said Cleveland Evans, who conducted the competition for the American Name Society, an academic organization. "It fits ecological interests, being invented by a biologist. And it has a Native American connection, chosen from a name for a broad ethnic group..."

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