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 August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Small debris-free plateau glacier with glacier lakes at Gangrinchemzoe Pass at 5,200 m, south of the main Himalayan divide, Bhutan. Photo via USGS In case you were convinced otherwise by the quasi-scandal of 'Himalayagate' earlier in the year: The US Geological Survey has released a new report on the state of glacier retreat in the Himalaya and it makes ...
Read more...published August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: National Heritage Unless the very worst predictions come true (which is perfectly possible), then it is fair to assume there will be winners and losers from climate change. We've already heard about Greenlander's celebrating increased access to natural resources , and even exploring the idea of bottled iceberg water . Now another segment of the global population... ...
Read more...published August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: D'Arcy Norman & timtak (Creative Commons) When I wrote about industrial agriculture exploring sustainability , commenter Ruben suggested that the idea of something being "more sustainable" was illogical. Citing Bill Rees, the inventor of Ecological Footprinting, he claimed that sustainability was like pregnancy—"either you are or you aren't". I'd like to politely disagree. ... Read the full ...
Read more...published August 30, 2010 and has No Comments
image: IPCC Though the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC has done good work in its past assessments of climate change science , an independent review of the way the organization operates says "fundamental reforms" are needed-- among those are shorter terms for the organization's chair and establishing an executive director to oversee operations and act as spokesperson. ... Read the ...
Read more...published August 27, 2010 and has No Comments
Arctic sea ice extent image for August 24, 2010, as compiled by The University of Illinois Cryosphere For the fourth year in a row, and for the fourth time in recorded history, the Northwest passage is completely open. For only the third time, both the Northwest and Northeast passage (north of Russia) are open. If you had a fast ...
Read more...published August 25, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: Samenwerkende Hulpoganisaties via flickr Though it's de rigueur to say that any single weather event can't be directly linked to climate change, and it's true, what if we could determine how much of say massive flooding or a 1000-year heat wave were caused by human-caused warming? Could the victims hold anyone responsible and sue for damages? That's the ...
Read more...published August 24, 2010 and has No Comments
Simulating a colossal volcanic eruption every 18 months would just delay sea level rise. Space Shuttle (Mission STS 43) photograph of the Earth over South America taken on August 8, 1991, showing double layer of Pinatubo aerosol cloud (dark streaks) above high cumulonimbus top. Photo via: Wikipedia . Another nail in the coffin of the geoengineering as silver bullet ...
Read more...published August 24, 2010 and has No Comments
The CDM can fund clean energy projects like concentrated solar farms (photo via flickr) The UN backed Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has suspended carbon credits for shady chemical manufacturers in China that were producing an excess of pollution and then destroying it, all to get credit for doing good. ... Read the full story on ...
Read more...published August 19, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: Jennifer Woodard Maderazo via flickr TreeHugger has covered the uncomfortable and largely under-publicized topic of peak coal on a number of occasions, but David Roberts over at Grist just brought it up again--and it's a topic certainly worth revisiting as the future implications are great. I'll take the question out of R... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...
Read more...published August 13, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo via Weather.com After weeks of persistent flooding, the UN now estimates that at least a full one-fifth of Pakistan -- a nation of 170 million people -- is underwater. And the New York Times reports that estimate is probably lowballing the full extent of the damage. 1,600 people are believed to have been killed, and 14 million have ...
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photo: Graham Racher via flickr Go chimps, go! An interesting new paper in the journal Primates documents how a group of chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea have been successfully deactivating snares set by human bushmeat hunters. Though not always successful, ...
Image credit: MASONS via The Telegraph From police on Vectrix electric scooters to cycling proficiency courses for cops , the British police are clearly willing to think outside the box when it comes to more efficient, and effective, transportation. ...
