I’m back at work and getting update with what have happened during the last month I’ve been offline. I’ve found some pretty interesting new projects.

First, two environmental applications of google maps (google maps API must be the single most important generator of web applications with environmental purpose). One comes from a collaboration between google and UNFCC, showing climate change emissions data in a neat way.

Sad to see Sweden and Spain in that awful purple meaning they have increased their emissions instead of reducing.

You can play with the map and the different data sets here.

Via Treehugger  

The second, TapIt, comes from New York, and it is a list of places where it’s possible to refill your bottle with tap water instead of jumping into the closest 7eleven and buying one yet more plastic bottle. (Of course they have an iphone app too!)

Via Treehugger

Then I watch a quite unexpected video from UK’s prime minister Gordon Brown in TED, advocating for the use of ICT as a tool for change. Worth watching (as usually in TED)

Finally, via treehugger too, I found a report from Vodafone about the use of mobile technology with sustainability purposes that I should have to have a deeper look into. And an article about the sustainability potential of cloud computing, that is one of the things we have started to think about too.

Lot’s of things going on, lot’s of energy to start the semester, lot’s of ideas for new research.