Home/Archive for January, 2010
Archive for January, 2010
Climate & Change, climate change, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 31st, 2010,
![]( "<!--:en-->India")
' src='http://gf2.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/6491.jpg' alt='indias-coal-furnaces-present-economic-and-environmental-dilemma' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> In India, many factory workers heavily depend on coal power – which can be very environmentally harmful – to make ends meet. – Al Jazeera English Glass factories in Northern India provide the South Asian country’s poor with important jobs, yet the furnaces used in glass production are coal powered. Al Jazeera English reports on India’s carbon conundrum as what was to be the deadline for countries to submit their greenhouse gas emissions targets – according to the tenuous Copenhagen accord –’ends’ today. Emissions from rudimentary industrial furnaces and cooking fires contribute not only to CO2 but also black carbon…
Tags: Al Jazeera, black, carbon, coal, economic, emissions, English, environmental, furnaces, glass, India
Business, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, ,
![]( "<!--:en-->Chevy Volt: America")
' src='http://gf1.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/6471.jpg' alt='chevy-volt-americas-first-mass-produced-electric-vehicle' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> In 2009 the American auto giant GM filed for bankruptcy, downsized and got bailed out by the U.S. government. President Obama announced that GM would be restructured; a new GM would emerge and ‘produce the high-quality, safe, and fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow’. Cue the Chevy Volt. The Volt isn’t exactly a hybrid – it’s completely battery powered for the first 40 miles (64 km) of use, after which it can shift over to running like any other petrol/gasoline-powered vehicle. So it’s neither a hybrid nor a fully electric car. I imagine that the gasoline option is what makes the Chevy…
Tags: car, Chevy, electric, electric car, electric vehicle, GM, M.P.G., vehicle, Volt
Wildlife & Flora, Jan 30th, 2010,
Are you an avid bird watcher? Do you know anyone who is a proud member of the National Audubon Society? If you, or anyone you know, are interested in birds, then you will definitely want to check this out. The 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count is about to kickoff and they need your help! Between February 12 and 15, people across North America are encouraged to record any and all birds they see. This can be anywhere: in your backyard, in a local park, in the city, along a country road, or anywhere else you may see a bird….
Tags: bird count, bird populations, Bird Studies Canada, bird watching, birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Great Backyard Bird Count, National Audubon Society
Climate & Change, climate change, Science & Technology, ,
Water vapor, a potent heat-trapping gas, absorbs sunlight and re-emits heat into Earth’s atmosphere. Its concentrations in the stratosphere, the second of three layers in the atmosphere, appear to have decreased in the last 10 years, according to the study. –New York Times I read two articles discussing the relationship between water vapor and global warming on Friday: one in the Guardian and another in the New York Times. The Guardian piece reports that a recent study suggests that a third of global warming during the 1990s was caused by water vapor in the upper atmosphere and not by man…
Tags: global warming, Guardian, New York Times, science, warming, water vapor, water vapour
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
State Department climate change representative to the UN Todd Stern formally announced that the U.S. would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In a letter to the UN, Stern confirmed the moderate emission reduction target of 17% of 2005 levels by the year 2020. This is the same number that was announced by the Obama administration prior to the Copenhagen climate talks in December, a statement that received mixed reactions. A further commitment to cut emissions by 42% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 is also specified in the letter. Official announcement or not, the American political system requires that the…
Tags: American, climate, drilling, emission, nuclear power, Obama, Stern, U.S., UN
Nature, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, ,
![]( "<!--:en-->13 Countries Convene in an Effort to Save Asia")
' src='http://gf2.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/6405.jpg' alt='13-countries-convene-in-an-effort-to-save-asias-wild-tigers' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> If you’ve been keeping up with all the tiger news coming out lately, then you are probably aware that they face a crisis situation; especially those throughout Asia. In an effort to help save the tigers, 13 countries are currently convening at the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. Their aim is to convince other countries to pledge to help the tigers, by setting population targets to help increase their numbers and also providing more funds towards tiger conservation efforts. The 13 countries involved with this meeting are: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand…
Tags: 13 countries, conference, Global Tiger Initiative, meeting, Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, tigers, World Bank
Science & Technology, ,
If you’ve ever been far enough north or south in this world, you may have seen the awesome Northern (or Southern) Lights. This dazzling display of shifting colors has been a subject of much mystery for centuries. Some people believed it was a form of spirit contact. Others believed it was a sign or act of a god. Scientists simply believe the phenomenon has to do with fluctuations in solar activity. One thing is for certain: it’s definitely an amazing site to behold. Now, why am I talking about these Lights? Well, solar activity has been on the rise and…
Tags: Astronomy, Aurora Borealis, auroral flare, green light, green spot, Northern Lights, Norway, photograph, photos, satellite reflection, space phenomenon
Wildlife & Flora, Jan 29th, 2010,
In the past, a typical family had a mother, father, and approximately 2.3 kids. That was the norm—though I’m still trying to figure out how a third of a child (.3) is normal. Today, families come in all shapes and sizes. There are single parents, there are interracial families, there are same-gender parents, and there are a lot of foster families and adoptions happening more every day. A fascinating discovery, however, shows that humans are not the only creature to have a soft spot for orphans. Chimpanzees have also displayed such behavior, particularly one pair found in the Tai Forest…
Tags: adoptive animal parents, altruistic behavior, animal adoption, animal behavior, chimpanzees, lioness, Oryx
Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Kinki University in Japan has developed a way to farm prized bluefin tuna, but it is far from eco-friendly according to Greenpeace. The WWF predicts Mediterranean bluefin will be wiped out by 2012 because of overfishing to sate the appetite of gourmet diners. –CNN Read the CNN article on bluefin tuna ranching and check out the embedded video report. CNN Eco Solutions – Japan’s ‘greener’ tuna Additional resources: The overfishing of tuna causes environmental and economic problems around the world
Tags: bluefin, CNN, japan, overfishing, problem, tuna
Sustainable living, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, ,
Back in November we featured a piece on a ‘freeconomist’ conducting an idealistic experiment in living off the grid in a rural part of western England. 80′s pop lyric references aside, Mark Boyle, aka No Money Man has completed a year without using money. Fourteen months from starting his experiment and in the middle of a snowy cold snap, he’s still wearing shorts, brushing his teeth with cuttlefish bones and for the time being plans on continuing his low-impact lifestyle. Boyle wastes nothing and tries to live up to his ideals. He is indeed a pretty resourceful guy – scavenging,…
Tags: Boyle, experiment, freeconomist, Gandhi, Guardian, Mark, No Money Man
Science & Technology, sustainable living, ,
We live in a world of extreme convenience and wireless technology. We don’t have to go to the store for shopping. We can just have our orders delivered. We don’t have to go to the post office to send in our bill payments. We can simply do that online. We have wireless phones, computers, GPS devices, and who knows how many other similar gadgets. According to (yet another) recent study, all of these wireless devices may be extremely bad for your health. This is hardly shocking news, as we’ve been hearing for years that cell phones can cause cancer, tumors…
Tags: Bioinitiative Working Group, devices, electro-smog, electronics, EMFs, health problems, transients, wireless
Science & Technology, Sustainable living, ,
Solar panels have officially become mainstream: You’ll see them on homes, offices, schools, and so forth. It certainly would be great if everyone could have them. Unfortunately, they are quite unaffordable for most, with costs being around $20,000 or more and an increase in buildings insurance premiums to cover the installation. Everyone can’t afford that kind of investment, even through credit cards and even if it does pay for itself over time—I know I certainly can’t. The good news is, there is another way you can use solar power that is much cheaper and still as effective: Solar hot…
Tags: affordable, renewable energy, solar energy, solar hot water heaters, solar panels, solar power, tax credits
Sustainable living, sustainable living, Jan 28th, 2010,
A number of you may be familiar with the Whole Foods Market chain; perhaps you even shop or work there. If you’ve never heard of them, they are a grocery store that specializes in “natural” and organic products including: pet products, baked goods, national brands, meat, produce, and more. Recently, the Texas-based chain decided to issue a new incentive for their workers: The Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive Program. This program basically states that the healthier you are, the higher your employee discount will be. In order for an employee to qualify for the incentive, they must start out with…
Tags: grocery store, natural products, organic, Whole Foods
Climate & Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, ,
The heaviest rains in 15 years have caused flooding in Peru, including the site of the ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. The floods, as stated by Australia’s Herald Sun, stranded some 1,500 tourists, many of whom had to be airlifted. Among the stranded were significant numbers of tourists from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Brazil, which is experiencing some severe flooding of its own. 64 have died due to flooding in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, according to a report by China’s Xinhua News Agency. In addition to the tragedy surrounding the floods, rescue operations in Peru…
Tags: australia, Brazil, China, flooding, floods, Machu Picchu, Peru, Reuters, stranded, tourists
Climate & Change, Politics, Science & Technology, ,
A cool thing about science is that – just like the climate – it’s always changing. It isn’t that ‘reality’ changes in the sense that the fundamental laws of physics somehow alter, but what does change, continually and without exception, is how we understand and interpret phenomena. This is the normal progressive route that all science takes – physical, medical, social, humanistic, whatever. Science and the scientific method are not things after all, but mutable practices which are continually built upon and modified. Newton did not write ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of…
Tags: change, climate, climate change, comment, media, Newton, science
Wildlife & Flora, ,
Groundhog Day is around the corner and if you happen to be a Groundhog Day enthusiast, you may have heard of Punxsutawney Phil. Punxsutawney is a small town in southwestern Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil would be their famed resident groundhog. This groundhog has been depicted in the movie Groundhog Day, had a race held in his honor by Bam Margera, and actually lives a better life than some people. Phil is responsible for the well-known groundhog tradition: if he sees his shadow, it means 6 more weeks of winter; if he doesn’t see his shadow, we’ll have an early spring. Carrying…
Tags: February 2, groundhog, Groundhog Day, Inner Circle, PETA, Punxsutawney, Punxsutawney Phil
Nature, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Tigers in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia are facing a most dire situation. The population of these tigers, which stretches across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, has plummeted from approximately 1,200 in 1998 to about 350 today. According to the WWF, that’s a drop of more than 70% in only 12 years—and certainly cause for alarm. A report released by the WWF went further to explain that the world’s wild tiger population is at an all-time low. Their numbers have dwindled down to 3,200, which is a far cry different from the 100,000 of them that roamed…
Tags: Greater Mekong region, Southeast Asia, tiger crisis, Tiger Summit, tigers, WWF, Year of the Tiger
Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 27th, 2010,
When time (or anything else) seems to pass by at an extremely slow rate, you may hear someone comment that they just saw a stampede of snails pass them by. These little creatures may be slow and non-threatening, but they have come a long way and now, scientists are suggesting that their slowness may actually cause them to split into different species more rapidly. Apparently, when different populations of certain species stop mating with each other, they’ll begin to split into new species. This strange occurrence has led evolutionary biologists Tim Barraclough and Yael Kisel to a most interesting theory….
Tags: mating, rapidly splitting into new species, slow movement, slugs, snails, speciation, study, taxa
Climate & Change, climate change, Sustainable living, ,
The 2010 Environmental Performance Index or EPI – a biennial study by Yale and Colombia Universities – ranks 163 countries on the basis of ten policy categories including ‘environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change.’ This year’s EPI shows some interesting results: Iceland rocketed to number one from an already laudable 11th place in 2008. Maybe having a huge financial crisis is good for the environment, as has been argued in terms of global greenhouse gas emission levels, which fell as the price of oil climbed. However, in Iceland’s case, though…
Tags: China, energy, environmental, EPI, geothermal, Iceland, index, policy, rank, ranking, U.S., Yale
climate change, Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Research by scientists in the U.S. state of Wisconsin is pointing to some surprising evidence concerning greenhouse gases. But this is not exactly a study on climate change: the research is an attempt to find out how rising greenhouse gas emissions will affect local forests in about 50 years time. So far, results show that plants ‘eat’ more when exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide, giving the trees a thicker canopy with larger leaves. However, increases in another greenhouse gas – ozone (O3) – showed rises in mortality, disease and insect attacks among the trees. First the ozone pollution…
Tags: carbon dioxide, forest, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases, National Geographic, ozone, research, scientists, Wisconsin
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