Home/Archive for February, 2010
Archive for February, 2010
Business, Sustainable living, Feb 28th, 2010,
If you are devoted to the green lifestyle and also have a canine companion, then you may be aware of all the eco-friendly pet products that are out these days. You’ll find dog beds, toys, shampoos, treats, and more. I’ve even found dog collars made from recycled plastic bottles. As always, there is one pet company that takes green living to a whole new level. Sustainable Pet Designs creates a line of custom made Green Roof Animal Houses. They have barn houses for those who live on a farm, a gothic cathedral dog home for the religious types, and even…
Tags: eco-friendly pet products, green birdhouse, green dog house, Green Roof Animal Houses, Sustainable Pet Designs
Science & Technology, sustainable living, ,
A study of over 20,000 Israeli military recruits suggests that smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers. Reuters reports on the Israeli study, which takes a different approach to previous studies by attempting to exclude subjects with mental and behavioral problems. To better understand the smoking-IQ relationship, the researchers looked at 20,211 18-year-old men recruited into the Israeli military. The group did not include anyone with major mental health problems, because these individuals are disqualified from military service. –Reuters According to the findings, the average IQ for non-smoking men was 101 and 94 for those who smoke, with a steady decrease…
Tags: intelligent, IQ, Israeli, Military, reaserchers, Reuters, smokers, smoking, study
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
On Friday the annual meeting of UN climate chiefs took place in Bali, Indonesia. Officials from over 130 countries met with the principal aim of establishing trust between China and developing countries on the one hand; and rich countries – especially the United States – on the other. Despite the call for harmony, Chinese foreign ministry official Guo Zaofeng said developed countries had not lived up to their past commitments to cut greenhouse gases, nor had they provided funds and technology to poor countries grappling with climate change. –Guardian In November Cancún, Mexico will host representatives from 190 countries who…
Tags: Bali, Cancun, change, climate, Indonesia, IPCC, marine, meeting, UN
Climate & Change, Politics, Sustainable living, ,
Germany has talked about cutting back on solar energy support and withdrawing wind power supplied to Taiwan as of late. The question is: Why? According to a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, their reasoning for cutting back on supporting the solar energy industry is because they don’t want the market to overheat. Germany is the world’s leading market for solar panels. They guarantee decent prices for solar panel owners who also sell electricity; however, over a 20 year period the subsidies would diminish and eventually be eliminated completely—if they fall under certain circumstances listed under a new law….
Tags: Germany, InfraVest, renewable energy, solar panels, Taiwan, wind power
Climate & Change, ,
In less than 24 hours, a good portion of the globe has been hit with a number of natural disasters. Unfortunately for them, the worst of it hasn’t even happened yet. Yesterday, Chile was hit by an 8.8 earthquake—one of the worst ever recorded. Homes, highways and bridges were torn apart and at least 214 people have been found dead so far. To make matters worse, that isn’t even the full extent of the damage and the death toll will most likely rise. A 15-story building in Concepcion (Chile’s second largest city) collapsed. The nation’s capital, Santiago, saw damage to…
Tags: Asia, Chile, climate change, crazy weather, earthquake, flooding, global warming, Haiti, Hawaii, natural disasters, New Zealand, tsunami, weather
Climate & Change, Sustainable living, Feb 27th, 2010,
Business has always been about supply and demand, and one business in particular is becoming very demanding of their suppliers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wants its suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million metric tons—within the next 5 years. However, don’t think that this giant retailer won’t do their own part in reducing emissions. Currently, they are designing more energy-efficient stores and researching alternative fuels for their trucks. They claim that if their goal is reached, it will be the equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off the road for a year. While suppliers don’t necessarily have to…
Tags: eco-friendly, emission cuts, greenhouse gas emissions, retail giant, supply and demand, wal-mart
Uncategorized, ,
A British government adviser has warned that major changes in land management are necessary to deal with the effects of climate change and a growing population over the next 50 years. Professor John Beddington, who is chief scientific adviser to the UK government, warned of ‘competing issues’ that without proper management – including an integration of policies – could cause problems such as water shortages and a decrease in biodiversity. Principal issues named in terms of quality of life for Britons were the preservation of urban green spaces and the availability of affordable housing. Other pressures on land use include…
Tags: British, climate change, government, green spaces, Guardian, land management, population, pressure, UK, water
Climate & Change, ,
More pieces of ice are floating around the world and those pieces are getting bigger every year. The Luxembourg-sized B9B iceberg collided with the floating Mertz Glacier, resulting in another large piece of ice breaking off the glacier. How large is it? The new iceberg is approximately 48 miles (78 km) long and 24 miles (39 km) wide. Oh, and it holds 1/5th of the world’s total yearly water usage. The 2 icebergs are now drifting somewhere between 60 and 95 miles off the eastern side of Antarctica. While they are pretty large in size, they are not record-breaking in…
Tags: Antarctica, climate change, global warming, iceberg B9B, icebergs, Luxembourg-sized iceberg, Mertz Glacier, sinking water
Nature, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Yesterday, it was announced on the official Sea Shepherd blog that they are bringing this year’s whaling campaign to an end. With one ship sunk and the Steve Irwin heading back to port, that only left the Bob Barker left to contend with the whalers. Fortunately, there were hardly any of the Japanese ships left to contend with. The Shonan Maru #2 is currently making its way to Japan, with Ady Gil Captain Pete Bethune held prisoner aboard the ship. The Yushin Maru #3 finally decided to come out of hiding on Wednesday and the Bob Barker was there to…
Tags: Bob Barker, Captain Paul Watson, Japanese Whaling, Operation: Waltzing Matilda Campaign, Sea Shepherd, SSCS, Steve Irwin, Whale Wars
Sustainable living, Videos & Documentaries, ,
With the help of the U.S. military, a company called Ocean Power Technologies is looking to exploit Hawaii’s massive wave energy potential as a renewable energy source. Ocean Power Technologies’ wave powered energy producing design is a giant buoy that generates electricity by bobbing up and down in the ocean’s waves, working an internal plunger connected to a hydraulic pump. Since so much of the world’s inhabitants live on its coastlines, wave energy presents a potentially convenient and dependable source of power that is in close proximity to many population centers. U.S. military bases plan to be among the first…
Tags: base, buoy, CNN, energy, Hawaii, Military, ocean, power, renewable, source, technologies, U.S., wave
Climate & Change, ,
A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale has hit Chile early this morning (at 3.34 AM local time). It is the worst earthquake to hit the area since 1960. The earthquake caused a tsunami; placing many countries of the area in a state of tsunami warning. According to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, at least 42 people were killed during the earthquake. Death toll however is still expected to rise. The epicenter of the earthquake was just 100 kilometers outside of Concepcion, the second largest city in the country with half million inhabitants, and right off…
Tags: alarm, Chile, earthquake, Hawaii, tsunami, tsunami advisory california, tsunami warning, Valdivia
Climate & Change, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 26th, 2010,
Alun Anderson is the author of the book After The Ice: Life, Death and Politics in the New Arctic. He was previously editor at New Scientist magazine and has also worked as an editor for the journals Nature and Science. From a review of After the Ice in The Economist: Mr Anderson looks in on the extraordinary, tiny world of the tributary system within the Arctic ice, formed by trickles of briny water which gets squeezed as it freezes. But from the bear above to the microscopic wonders within, all are doomed once the summer ice goes, which is expected…
Tags: After the Ice, Alun, Anderson, arctic, climate change, ecologist, ice
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
Economic recession, ‘Climategate’ and other ensuing scandals may have shaken both the public’s faith in – and concern about – the realities of man made climate change. Yet a fickle media or confused citizenry have not been enough for most political establishments to break from some kind of platform that takes climate change and other environmental issues into account. Contemporary politics are still strongly influenced by what has become the zeitgeist of the day – and the parties of the future will no doubt be judged in part on how they are now reacting to environmental concerns. For the moment,…
Tags: climate, climate change, copenhagen, Economist, environment, environmental, european union, Green, greener, Left, party, political, Politics, Right, Rising Tide
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
Well, it seems one of our worst environment fears has been confirmed. A climate change treaty will most likely not happen this year. According to UN climate chief, Yvo de Boer, there is not enough time to recover from December’s disappointing summit. He believes more time is needed to establish a framework, as well as financial and climate change aid that is capable of convincing developing countries to even support a deal. He also noted that the focus should shift towards reaching an agreement by next year’s South Africa summit; or at the very least, before the Kyoto Protocol expires…
Tags: Cancun, climate change, climate summit, COP-15, global warming, Mexico, no treaty this year, UN
Sustainable living, sustainable living, Weird & Wonderful, ,
Imagine living in a home made of recycled waste plastic. Sure, it’s been done before, but Affresol takes it to a whole new level. Backed by Welsh Assembly Government money, this “modular house construction company” launched a series of eco-friendly homes and four-ton modular, portable buildings. The awesome thing about these structures is not only do they have a house-life expectancy of at least 60 years, but most of the building elements can also be recycled once the house is ready to be torn down. They started by creating a new material, called Thermo Poly Pock (TPR); which is a…
Tags: Affresol, homes made of recycled material, recyclable home, sustainable living, Swansea construction company
climate change, Feb 25th, 2010,
An awareness poster from the Catalonia Department of Environment (Departament De Medi Ambient) reads: All around the world, 8 million tonnes of waste reach the sea EVERY DAY. All this refuse is generated by human activity. This non-recyclable rubbish is thrown into the toiler, onto the streets, into gullies, onto the sand and into the sea, turning it into a tangible destroyer of marine life. But you can stop this from happening. Uncontrolled waste is a thread to the seas I find it quiet striking… how about you? By Murielle Ungricht
Tags: endangered, garbage patch, Mediterranean, oceans, plastic, Pollution, refuse, seas, waste
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
Greenhouse gas emission cuts need to be bigger and they need to be bigger now; not next year, not 20 or 50 years down the line. Now. UNEP claims insufficient commitments have been made since the COP-15 failure. Although a last-minute “Accord” was drawn up at the conference, which set the necessary 2 C (3.6 F) goal, it did not explain how this goal would be achieved and anyone who even bothered to pledge emissions only did it voluntarily. Adrian Steiner, director of UNEP, stated: “No one should assume that the pledges will be enough.” … “Countries will have to…
Tags: Bali, climate change, Copenhagen Accord, emission cuts, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, Kyoto Protocol, UNEP, world governments
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
‘I have turned down Johnny Depp this week and that is not something I ever expected to do’, jokes writer and sixth form teacher Saci Lloyd in an article from the January 17th edition of The Observer. A former musician, cartoonist, script-editor and advertiser, Saci Lloyd is the author of two books taking the teenage world by storm: The Carbon Diaries 2015 and its recently published sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017. Set against the backdrop of life-threatening climate change and increasing political, the novels follow a gutsy young protagonist as she negotiates herself through life as a London youth. The…
Tags: 2015, 2017, book, Carbon Diaries, carbondiaries.com, climate, future, Laura, Lloyd, london, novel, Observer, Saci, social media, television
climate change, sustainable living, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Not to be outdone by its fellow large expanse of sea and longtime nemesis, the larger Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean can now claim a colossal plastic garbage patch of its own. According to reports from the BBC and AP, the Atlantic ‘Rubbish Patch’ – located within the latitudes of 22 and 38 degrees N in the North Atlantic Ocean – is comparable to the better-known Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic – off the coast of the US. More than half of these expeditions revealed floating…
Tags: AP, Atlantic, BBC, garbage, great, north, ocean, Pacific, Patch, plastic, poison, pollutants, rubbish, sea, trash
Wildlife & Flora, ,
Living in captivity is not all it’s cracked up to be. Imagine: bright flashing lights, being confined to the same small tank day in and day out, and having to perform ridiculous tricks for the entertainment of others. All you get out of it is some stinking fish. Yeah, I’d feel like I got a pretty raw deal, too. Tilikum the killer whale seems to feel the same way. Yesterday, Tilikum attacked and killed a trainer at the Orlando-based SeaWorld. The attack happened right in front of the audience and the trainer was no beginner. Dawn Brancheau, a leading trainer…
Tags: captivity, dolphin family, Florida, killer whale, killer whale attacks trainer, orca, Orlando, Sea World, SeaWorld, Tilikum the whale
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