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 December 26, 2010 and has No Comments
Image: eflon, flickr "Sustainability is made of little changes to our lifestyle that don't cost us anything and can save the planet," said Stefania Prestigiacomo, Italian Environmental Minister, as she confirmed that a ban on non-biodegradable, single-use plastic bags will take effect on 1 January 2011, for all of Italy. The plastics industry protests that the rules are not ...
Read more...published December 25, 2010 and has No Comments
Sign at a tree-recycling collection point in Paris. Image: City of Paris Once all the gifts have been opened, all the feasting done, all the toasts made, the time will soon come to figure out what the heck to do with the Christmas tree around which so many of the holiday festivities have been held. Plenty of cities now ...
Read more...published December 22, 2010 and has No Comments
Martin Erzinger, left, with his attorney Richard Tegtmeier. (Kristin Anderson, Vail Daily ) The rich are different from you and me when it comes to having "accidents." Martin Erzinger beat a felony rap for almost killing a cyclist because it might affect his job as a fund manager of a cool billion bucks; His lawyer actually tried to use ...
Read more...published December 22, 2010 and has No Comments
photo via flickr There are a lot predators in Congress, so maybe it's not a total surprise that the Senate has joined the House to protect sharks by banning shark finning, the brutal practice of cutting off a shark's fin and throwing its body back into the sea. Specifically, the " Shark Conservation Act " prevents vessels from coming ...
Read more...published December 19, 2010 and has No Comments
photo via flickr Large-scale solar in the US continues to take two steps forward while occasionally taking one step back. Take this week, when the the Interior Department identified two dozen potential sites for large-scale solar power installations on public lands. Two steps forward. But a federal judge blocked a new installation in California's Imperial Valley. One step back.... ...
Read more...published December 17, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo credit: Sierra Club During this lame duck congressional session or in the next Congress, we are expecting a battle over the gray wolf and its listing as an endangered species . Wolves are being unjustly blamed for killing too many elk in the western U.S. The numbers, however, don't support this. In Montana, Idaho and Wyoming elk numbers ...
Read more...published December 14, 2010 and has No Comments
Short-lived, non-biting, adult lake fly - Chironomus plumosus. Image credit: Wikipedia Common sense tells us that, following corn harvest, fragments of corn cobs, leaves, stalks, silk, and pollen may be blown by the wind or carried across the land surface by runoff. Corn plant residues will end up in the sediments of streams lakes and reservoirs. Scientists call the ...
Read more...published December 9, 2010 and has No Comments
Ed Burtynsky and Cameron Sinclair; photo by Hugo Arriojas Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity , has been writing for Worldchanging since 2004. Since then, AFH has grown like mad, building the Open Architecture Network with thousands of contributors and supporters. Worldchanging had a different, more conventional model and as we noted earlier , has closed its virtual ...
Read more...published December 7, 2010 and has No Comments
View post: Today on Planet 100: Top 5 Solar Powered Oddities (Video)
Read more...published December 6, 2010 and has No Comments
In 2000, at the United Nations' Millennium Summit a set of development goals were created with an aim to improve some of the most critical social, economic, and environmental issues in the developing world by 2015. The eight goals are: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and ...
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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 ...
