CITIES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)has decided to NOT bring many marine species under its protection. The Japanese Embassy hosted a dinner before the day of the vote and served Blue Fin Tuna, one of the species being voted on.
The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network has put out a new book, Threatend Plants of New Zealand, and it claims that 184 plants in New Zealand are on the brink of extinction.
A new way to farm fish is developed to use less water, the CS Monitor reports.
Scientific American is all about water awareness this month. Check out their site and see how water intensive your lifestyle is.
A new process is developed to take more oil out of the Alberta Tar Sands for less of an environmental impact. This is very significant. This is either making what was already going to happen not so bad, or it will legitimize something that should be stopped.
At a convention in California a group of scientists called for climate intervention research. They are discussing the ethics of geoengineering the climate to reverse global warming.
The White House will host a Conservation Summit to bring together conflicting interests to discuss land management. A focus will be placed on participatory management, where localities have more responsibility in land management and the feds release their grip on all decision making. This has been building in the academic land management field for some time.
29 US Governors are pushing the White House to support renewable energy more. Governors are trying to meet ambitious pollution reduction targets, create jobs in their states, and upgrade and connect the energy grid. Governors want more cash subsidies and less tax breaks for renewable energy. Cash is more immediate and clear for the market to understand than tax breaks.
The UN announced that it will enlist the international consortium of national academies of science, the InterAcademy Council, to review the IPCC due to recent controversies. The basic conclusions of the IPCC are not in question, the UN just wants to address any legitimate skepticism of the IPCC, its practices and its findings.
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Confusion over how we are degrading our natural environment, but no confusion over how to degrade it
I believe they are calling it the Watergate scandal. Some scientists ignored data that was contrary to their findings in a paper published about two decades ago. Climate Change skeptics are jumping all over it. The article under scrutiny was published in 1990 and is concerned with urban heat bubble heating compared to heating in the atmosphere outside of urban heat bubbles. The scandal does not disprove global warming. Furthermore, global warming is not the only environmental problem. Global warming is only one aspect of global environmental degradation.
The urban heat bubble is due to all of the pavement and black roofs. Painting your roof white is one option, "green roofs" are another option. Scientific American explains.
Obama is trying to create a Green Economy. Part of his plan is increased funding for Nuclear power through research and loans. Depending on your beliefs, this is a victory or a loss.
National Geographic lists resources for learning about freshwater environmental issues.
California attempts to create laws to decrease transportation emissions. The industries being regulated claim that the legislation would violate interstate commerce laws.
Obama wants to uphold his Copenhagen commitments of reducing pollution to 4% below 1990 emissions by 2020. This is pending American National legislation though.
Some centrist democrats are seeking to scrap cap and trade and go for a policy that would do little and give many concessions to polluting industries. Mother Jones reports.
Scientific American attempts to explain some of the many atmospheric characteristics that contribute to the global atmospheric temperature. There are forces both cooling and heating our atmosphere, the temperature we experience is a product of many forces.
And...say hello to genetically modified forests that do not reproduce.
The urban heat bubble is due to all of the pavement and black roofs. Painting your roof white is one option, "green roofs" are another option. Scientific American explains.
Obama is trying to create a Green Economy. Part of his plan is increased funding for Nuclear power through research and loans. Depending on your beliefs, this is a victory or a loss.
National Geographic lists resources for learning about freshwater environmental issues.
California attempts to create laws to decrease transportation emissions. The industries being regulated claim that the legislation would violate interstate commerce laws.
Obama wants to uphold his Copenhagen commitments of reducing pollution to 4% below 1990 emissions by 2020. This is pending American National legislation though.
Some centrist democrats are seeking to scrap cap and trade and go for a policy that would do little and give many concessions to polluting industries. Mother Jones reports.
Scientific American attempts to explain some of the many atmospheric characteristics that contribute to the global atmospheric temperature. There are forces both cooling and heating our atmosphere, the temperature we experience is a product of many forces.
And...say hello to genetically modified forests that do not reproduce.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Renewable Energy and a New Economy- Here We Come
I have just returned from a 2 month vacation and this blog will now be updated at least once a week. Thank you for reading.
PG and E is trying to start a project near San Francisco that would store energy from renewable sources in an underground facility so it can use energy during times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, this would make sources like coal less vital and neccessary.
National Geographic comments on sustainable agriculture, and on the page is links to a lot of other great stories and information sources.
Rocky Mountain Institute provides a great interactive map showing where we have received all of our oil in the US for the past 4 decades. Currently, in the NW of the US 17% of all oil at the gas station comes from the TarSands in Alberta Canada, a source that is greatly inefficient compared to our historical returns from investments on petroleum production, we are certainly using up all of the cheap sources of quality, known oil.
Amory Lovins, one of the frontmen at Rocky Mountain Institute recently received another reward, this time for energy efficiency. He is well aware of all the obstacles to his plans and ideas, most of them being politics and lack of knowledge on the part of engineers and other planners of our economy and infrastructure. An issue with increasing energy efficiency has been that the cheaper and more accessible it is the more a single person will use thus wasting the gains of increasing efficiency.
Mass Media Environmentalism focuses on Global Warming but much else is going on, is this monofocus good? I would say that the monofocus is often productive, but of course more needs to be explained to the public about the many environmental threats that exist today.
Wind energy is on the rise, but remember we can only receive a small fraction of our energy demand from wind, and each turbine takes a colossal amount of steel which carries a heavy environmental price.
The solar cell is becoming more efficient everyday, this is vital to using the sun's energy as a power source. A new solar cell efficiency record was set, it is expensive now but hopefully not in the near future.
Japan continues on with its economy, strengthening itself through technologies of the future, solar cells and big in Japan and on the rise.
PG and E is trying to start a project near San Francisco that would store energy from renewable sources in an underground facility so it can use energy during times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, this would make sources like coal less vital and neccessary.
National Geographic comments on sustainable agriculture, and on the page is links to a lot of other great stories and information sources.
Rocky Mountain Institute provides a great interactive map showing where we have received all of our oil in the US for the past 4 decades. Currently, in the NW of the US 17% of all oil at the gas station comes from the TarSands in Alberta Canada, a source that is greatly inefficient compared to our historical returns from investments on petroleum production, we are certainly using up all of the cheap sources of quality, known oil.
Amory Lovins, one of the frontmen at Rocky Mountain Institute recently received another reward, this time for energy efficiency. He is well aware of all the obstacles to his plans and ideas, most of them being politics and lack of knowledge on the part of engineers and other planners of our economy and infrastructure. An issue with increasing energy efficiency has been that the cheaper and more accessible it is the more a single person will use thus wasting the gains of increasing efficiency.
Mass Media Environmentalism focuses on Global Warming but much else is going on, is this monofocus good? I would say that the monofocus is often productive, but of course more needs to be explained to the public about the many environmental threats that exist today.
Wind energy is on the rise, but remember we can only receive a small fraction of our energy demand from wind, and each turbine takes a colossal amount of steel which carries a heavy environmental price.
The solar cell is becoming more efficient everyday, this is vital to using the sun's energy as a power source. A new solar cell efficiency record was set, it is expensive now but hopefully not in the near future.
Japan continues on with its economy, strengthening itself through technologies of the future, solar cells and big in Japan and on the rise.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
1/25/09: Obama the Environmentalist and some more realistic rhetoric on energy and the economic crisis
Obama, he might not fix all of our problems, but he is trying. He is finally doing something that i forgot could happen politically; Obama is raising the the fuel-efficiency standard of vehicles for the nation and not only allowing but encouraging states to follow the more strict standards that California is allowed to set but has been prevented from doing so by the former president Bush II.
So, yes, we all know that according to Global Warming things are heating up including Antarctica, but this article from the BBC discusses the heating of that giant ice cube. If Antactica really does break into pieces it will greatly speed up the rising of the oceans and will augment oceanic patterns. The changes will reverberate. When reading the article notice the language used by the BBC regarding global warming, they seem to still be in the stage of appeasing and addressing global climate change deniers.
Energy Independence is a mine in the battle field of environmentalism dressed up as an end to be sought after. As with the "buy local" movement, it is a good idea so long as you do not do it completely. MotherJones gives a good commentary on the myths of energy independence, be critical of MotherJones' criticalism, but this article is part of the corrections that need to be made to environmental theory and policy.
The CATO Institute is a great place to learn about what is really going on with the economy and what are the purely economic fixes. There has been a lot of political rhetoric and explanation for our current situation. Read this from CATO and make some adjustments to your beliefs and facts.
For political news, Obama is altering the executive order that allows former presidents to control the public releasing of sensitive documents. Obama is making it so that Bush II has to sue Obama just to attempt to keep documents unreleased.
So, yes, we all know that according to Global Warming things are heating up including Antarctica, but this article from the BBC discusses the heating of that giant ice cube. If Antactica really does break into pieces it will greatly speed up the rising of the oceans and will augment oceanic patterns. The changes will reverberate. When reading the article notice the language used by the BBC regarding global warming, they seem to still be in the stage of appeasing and addressing global climate change deniers.
Energy Independence is a mine in the battle field of environmentalism dressed up as an end to be sought after. As with the "buy local" movement, it is a good idea so long as you do not do it completely. MotherJones gives a good commentary on the myths of energy independence, be critical of MotherJones' criticalism, but this article is part of the corrections that need to be made to environmental theory and policy.
The CATO Institute is a great place to learn about what is really going on with the economy and what are the purely economic fixes. There has been a lot of political rhetoric and explanation for our current situation. Read this from CATO and make some adjustments to your beliefs and facts.
For political news, Obama is altering the executive order that allows former presidents to control the public releasing of sensitive documents. Obama is making it so that Bush II has to sue Obama just to attempt to keep documents unreleased.
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