Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published June 14, 2010 and has No Comments
Boreal Forest Losing the Most Ground A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) concludes that over a million square kilometers of forest were lost around the world between 2000 and 2005, and that both the U.S. and Canada had higher percentages of forest losses than even Brazil (a country long notorious for deforestation). ...
Read more...published June 14, 2010 and has No Comments
This year's Ontario Heritage Conference was all about rural communities, and there were the expected presentations about saving barns and old churches. But the remarkable thing about the conference was the strong environmental theme, with the tone set by John Ikerd, a retired professor of agricultural economics. He laid out a vision of revitalized, relocalized rural communities that would ...
Read more...published June 14, 2010 and has No Comments
A portion of the infographic built by The Big Wild Just how much wilderness is left on the North American continent? It doesn't seem like much as you drive across the US and see almost all urban or suburban developments, or farmland, mining or other ways people have snapped up all the free space. Where has it all gone ...
Read more...published June 8, 2010 and has No Comments
Image courtesy of Lush Cosmetics. Rainforest Action Network ( RAN ) is one busy non-profit: This morning we wrote about their success with luxury brand Gucci's switch to FSC-certified paper bags and now they're kicking off a campaign with Lush Cosmetics to protest Canadian tar sands oil. The cosmetic brand has (somehow) persuaded their employees to don only "barrels" ...
Read more...published June 7, 2010 and has No Comments
Credit: YouTube screen capture. Don't polar bears have it hard enough, with the impacts of climate change on their Arctic homes? If the thought of a polar bear stranded on a patch of melting sea ice doesn't depress you enough, try this video on for size. It shows American hunters shooting and killing a beautiful white polar bear, then ...
Read more...published June 4, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: Flickr , CC Mitsubishi to Test its Electric Cars in Harsh Winter Conditions Before electric cars can be sold in regions with very cold winters, they have to be properly tested to make sure that their performances don't degrade too much under winter conditions. Mitsubishi has decided to test its i MiEV electric car in Canada next winter.... ...
Read more...published June 2, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: Martin Pettitt via flickr Developing offshore wind farms on the Great Lakes has been touted as an overlooked resource in a number of studies and indeed a few projects are in the planning stages. Which, seemingly on cue, has aroused opposition to them on the usual grounds, as the Original post: Great Lakes Offshore Wind Farms Already Face NIMBY ...
Read more...published May 27, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: Klearchos Kapoutsis on Flickr If the trace pharmaceuticals and the spectre of a near-indestructible gyre of swirling plastic the size of Texas weren't enough to scare you off bottled water, then try this: Canadian researchers have discovered that some bottled brands contain more bacteria than water that comes out of the tap. ... Read the full story on ...
Read more...published May 21, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: Public domain . Trying to Avoid a Repeat of the BP Oil Spill The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is already having repercussions up North, not because the oil got caught into the loop current and floated around Florida and all the way up the Atlantic, but because Canadian regulators have decided to keep a ...
Read more...published May 20, 2010 and has No Comments
Considering the absolutely abysmal environmental impact the Canadian tar sands --don't believe industry supporters or Canadian politicians who say otherwise--this is a really scary thought. And frankly makes all the talk about getting oil from unfriendly foreign nations seem slightly ludicrous when the single largest source of our oil, and in its most destructive form, from an ally. But ...
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Contrary to previously held notions of how whale songs are shared between neighboring populations, a surprising study finds that whales living the same ocean basin are singing different songs. Read the original post: Study: Humpback Whales Living in Same Ocean ...
"The technology that we have here gives us a first-ever look at the Amazon in its full three-dimensional detail, over very large regions," says the study's lead researcher. Here is the original post: Lasers Used to Generate Remarkably Detailed 3D ...
