Our weekly list of interesting reads we’ve gleaned from the web.

How to Destroy the Future
Noam Chomsky – The Guardian Commentaries

‘What happened in the missile crisis in October 1962 has been prettified to make it look as if acts of courage and thoughtfulness abounded.’ Photograph: Ralph Crane/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

From the Cuban missile crisis to a fossil fuels frenzy, the US is intent on winning the race to disaster… at one extreme you have indigenous, tribal societies trying to stem the race to disaster. At the other extreme, the richest, most powerful societies in world history, like the United States and Canada, are racing full-speed ahead to destroy the environment as quickly as possible.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/04/us-disaster-race-noam-chomsky?CMP=twt_gu

Eco rivals battle to show who is cleaner, greener
By Philip Blenkinsop – Reuters

Ecover Chief Executive Philip Malmberg holds bottles of detergent as he poses at the company’s factory in Malle, near Antwerp April 3, 2013. Photo: Francois Lenoir

Under an eco-friendly, flowering turf roof in an industrial park, the world’s largest maker of green cleaning products is trying to figure out how to stay on top of a market that has big growth potential but also increasingly fierce competition.

Read more at: http://planetark.org/wen/68920

Research on the framework of the Environmental Internet of Things
Haowei Wang, Tianhai Zhang, Yuan Quan & Rencai Dong - IN International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 20 (3, 2013) : 199-204.

New technologies also provide novel techniques for environmental management. This paper establishes a framework for an Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT) and describes key technologies, including Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), network techniques, Geographic Information System (GIS), WebGIS, and distributed database techniques…
Read more at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504509.2013.783517

Could working less reduce pressures on the environment? A cross-national panel analysis of OECD countries, 1970-2007.
Kyle W. Knight, Eugene A. Rosa, and Juliet B. Schor. – IN: Global Environmental Change 23 (4, 2013) : 691-700.

Many scholars and activists are now advocating a program of economic degrowth for developed countries in order to mitigate demands on the global environment. An increasingly prominent idea is that developed countries could achieve slower or zero economic growth in a socially sustainable way by reducing working hours…
Read more at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378013000472

The Real History of the Commons and Today’s Environmental Crisis
By Tim Swineheart – Utne Reader

If we don’t teach students the real history of the commons, they’ll have a hard time recognizing what—and who—is responsible for today’s environmental crisis.
Read more at: http://www.utne.com/environment/history-of-the-commons-zm0z13mjzbla.aspx#ixzz2VvL9cVUS

India’s Feeble Foreign Policy: A Would-Be Great Power Resists Its Own Rise
By Manjar Chatterjee Miller – Foreign Policy

Independence Day celebrations in the southern Indian city of Chennai August 15, 2012. (Courtesy Reuters)

For the last decade, few trends have captured the world’s attention as much as the so-called rise of the rest, the spectacular economic and political emergence of powers such as China and India. Particularly in the United States, India watchers point to the country’s large and rapidly expanding economy, its huge population, and its nuclear weapons as signs of its imminent greatness. Other observers fret about the pace of India’s rise, asking whether New Delhi is living up to its potential…
Read more at: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139098/manjari-chatterjee-miller/indias-feeble-foreign-policy?cid=soc-facebook-in-comments-indias_feeble_foreign_policy-061113

Leakage of Carbon from Land to Rivers, Lakes, Estuaries and Coastal Regions Revealed
Science Daily

A new study has revealed leakage of stored carbon from land to rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal regions. (Credit: ESA 2003)

When carbon is emitted by human activities into the atmosphere it is generally thought that about half remains in the atmosphere and the remainder is stored in the oceans and on land. New research suggests that human activity could be increasing the movement of carbon from land to rivers, estuaries and the coastal zone indicating that large quantities of anthropogenic carbon may be hidden in regions not previously considered.

Read more at:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130610095146.htm#.UbX24NFoLik.twitter

Philadelphia water management: from grey to green infrastructure
By Sadhbh Walshe – The Guardian

Philadelphia has become a leader in green water management. Measures include replacing 30% of its concrete roads with porous ones. Photo: Corbis

The city is emerging as a water management leader, investing in green infrastructure to capture water where it falls.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/philadelphia-water-management-green-infrastructure

States fight green-building leader over local wood - San Francisco Chronicle
By Russ Bynum – Associated Press

A building supplier phoned Pollard Lumber Co. about providing wood for a large government construction project in Georgia, but the deal broke down over a single question about how the family-owned sawmill has committed itself to environmentally friendly practice. The mill in rural Appling holds certification by a national forestry group to verify it uses timber harvested in a sustainable manner…The contractor wanted wood that would earn points toward recognition by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.. [which ]holds timber producers to a high standard met by few in the Southeast.
Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/States-fight-green-building-leader-over-local-wood-4589691.php#ixzz2Voy6f9xO

Living Along Mumbai’s Giant Water Pipelines
Dowser: who’s solving what and how

Hop, skip and jumping along one of the water pipes Photo: Rob van Kessel

“There’s so much poverty to be seen here and at the same time so much joy and happiness.” This is how photographer Rob van Kessel describes his two-day journey along the giant pipes that supply the growing metropolis of Mumbai with water. From lakes high in India’s Western Ghats, these water mains snake their way down into the city like steel-encased rivers, impossible not to notice.
Read more at: http://dowser.org/living-along-mumbais-giant-water-pipelines/

Canada’s ‘Northern Amazon’ on the Brink
By Andrew Nikiforuk – The Tyee

A Mackenzie ‘ice road.’ The Mackenzie River Basin, occupying three provinces and two territories, is threatened by global warming and unbridled resource extraction. Photo via Creative Commons

Report details how industry, climate change could ‘eat up’ the Mackenzie River Basin and its vital ecological services.

Read more at: http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/06/10/Canadas-Northern-Amazon/