The International Energy Agency, one of the last few credible resources for reliable global energy statistics, revealed Monday that it has been inflating oil statistics under pressure from US oil lobby groups. Global oil reserves are disappearing at a much faster pace than recorded, and the threat of over-reliance on fossil-fuel energy sources is much more dangerous than represented by IEA officials.

The IEA and its annual ‘World Energy Outlook’ is a compass for many country’s energy policies, depending on numbers from IEA to make decisions on future energy sourcing and security. Many national governments use IEA statistics in lieu of their own experts.

In a stunning failure to lead in a time when we need it most, world leaders met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and agreed to postpone the challenging issues of climate change and use Copenhagen to set non-binding agreements. With Congress unable to pass any binding climate change legislation, Obama couldn’t take a strong stance, and without US leadership, other nations followed suit. The delegation also failed to move forward on any decisions regarding international trade and economic policy.

It’s always encouraging to know that our global leaders, when faced with a challenge, can be relied upon to do absolutely nothing.

Debating building materials for a new house? A whole, unmilled tree can support 50 percent more weight than the largest piece of lumber milled from the same tree, and also sequesters carbon. Architect Roald Gundersen shapes live small-diameter trees- passed over by loggers as too small- into gorgeous building frames. A combination of arched trees and trunks of larger trees felled by wind, disease or insects provide naturally strong housing structures, claims Gunther and his business partner Amelia Baxter.

Pulling small trees from a high-density forest allows remaining trees and undergrowth to receive more light, air and nutrients. Their firm, Whole Tree Architecture and Construction, works in coordination with a USDA-supported community forest project that sustainably harvests lumber, firewood, herbs and mushrooms and manages a living inventory of the area.

Why synthetically design when nature already provides the answers? The strength and flexibility of tree crooks and arches “have been time-tested by environmental conditions for 200 million years”, Gunther states. Whole Trees can keep construction costs as low as $100 a square foot, and the resources used are renewable, with careful stewardship of surrounding forests.

The solar industry is booming, yet its leaders have completely bypassed their largest potential market: the 1.6 billion people without access to electricity worldwide. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Eckhart at Solar Power International in LA last week, at a panel on emerging markets with the Alliance for Rural Electrification, SolarWorld, and the American Council for Renewable Energy. When asked about the industry’s ignorance of emerging markets, Eckhart replied, “This is a scandal for our industry”. Less than one percent of global production of solar panels are installed in developing countries, yet the potential markets here could prove to be the world’s largest solar markets by 2020.

Early October, Obama signed an executive order mandating a sustainability officer for each federal agency. Last week, he visited the country’s largest solar power installation in Florida, and declared that 3.4 billion would be invested in updating our national electricity grid. All I can say is it’s about time.

How do you design a product for the developing world? Leave all assumptions at home. Seattle-based design group Artefact reinforces the fact that the only way to successfully design for a community is to get out in the field.

Anyone who’s stated that other species don’t experience emotion hasn’t seen this image. Monica Szczupider took this shot of a 40-year old chimpanzee at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon.

Swords-to-phoughshares is taking on a whole new meaning: Former Air Force bases across the US are now reclaimed for massive solar farms, and abandoned military posts are being transformed into anything from national parks to R&D innovation centers. What’s the latest militant-to-peaceful repurposing?  Over 750,000 abandoned military bunkers have been found across Albania, and are now being transformed into eco-hostels in an important new stage of Albanian military history. Two architecture students in Milan launched the project after inspiration from re-purposed buildings such as Switzerland’s nuclear bunker hotel , Dutch oil rig hostels, and German bunker art galleries.

This video of a retired WWII vet giving testimony at a public hearing on marriage equality in Maine pretty much sums it up.

Several new patents have been added to the Eco-Patent Commons, an open-source project of the WBCSD dedicated to sustainable technology transfer. Since its launch in 2008, over ten companies from a variety of industries have publicly shared proprietary sustainable innovation for common use: Bosch, Dow, DuPont, Fuji Xerox, IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, Ricoh, Sony, Taisei and Xerox.