Made In China

'Is China now poised to turn the 21st century into its century? Or will it, despite its phenomenal nearly two-digit annual growth over the past 15 years, rejoin the human race with a slower economy? Or is it possible that its powerful locomotive will, as Japan’s did, shift into reverse gear?'

Read Jagdish Bhaghwati's book review in the New York Times.

Ice Caps Gone By 2040?

Newsweek reports:
"It's not clear that we can do anything about it. Our only option, it seems, is to study the ice caps before there's far less of them to study."

TOP 100 Most Influential People in IT

The slide show is here.
And this is how they were ranked.

Newclimates.com

New Climates will present new and existing artworks responding to the relationship between art, global climate change and networked culture. This curatorial weblog will create a flexible and open-ended space to address these ideas at a time when climate change has become a vital concern among artists.
Launching March – May 2007

New Focus for Light

Stunning developments in hi-res; MIT Technology Review reports . . .

'Kenneth Crozier and Federico Capasso have created light-focusing optical antennas that could lead to DVDs that hold hundreds of movies.

Capasso and Crozier's optical antennas could have far-reaching and un­predictable implications, from superdense optical storage to ­superhigh-resolution optical microscopes. Enabling engineers to simply and cheaply break the diffraction limit has made the many applications that rely on light shine that much brighter.'
Want to know more? Look for Plasmonic Laser Antenna.

Climate Change in Brief

From the BBC on the following five issues:

Climate forecast

Greenhouse effect

Carbon cycle

Feedback effects

Gulf Stream

Global Warming Swindle?

Make sure to look here and here and here and here to learn about the anti IPCC arguments. Apparently these can be easily refuted.

CALLING ALL ADVENTURE SEEKERS!
Do you lie in bed at night worrying about climate change? Or have you never really given it a second thought?

Channel 4 and Outline Productions are planning a unique eco-challenge, and we're looking for interesting characters from all walks of life to take part. It doesn't matter if you're very green, not green at all or somewhere in the middle.

This is your chance to make a difference and be seen doing it on television!

Filming will take place in June for this exciting new series which will see ten strangers striving for survival in a hostile environment and helping put the world to rights.

The challenge will be tough, but it will be a unique experience. You do not have to be ultra-fit to take part, but all successful applicants will be required to undertake a medical.

There will be a prize for the winner of the series.

From 2004 . . .for the Polar Year that Just Started

Click here to obtain the full report.

CLIMATE CHANGE Impact More Extensive than Thought

Global climate change is happening faster than previously believed and its impact is worse than expected, information from an as-yet unpublished draft of the long-awaited second part of a United Nations report obtained by Spiegel Online reveals. No region of the planet will be spared and some will be hit especially hard.

The Future of the World Wide Web

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, spoke about his experience, his views, and his vision of the future during a congressional subcommittee hearing which is the first in a series on the 'Digital Future of the United States.'

For example, Berners-Lee talked about a world in which a cell phone would use radio technology to communicate with everyday objects wrapped in surfaces equipped with digital billboard technology. The phones could determine whether surfaces are known or safe venues for projecting personal information like calendars.