From the monthly archives: May 2010

Are GreenButts Environmental Cigarettes Going Too Far?

By On May 30, 2010

Cigarette butts make up nearly 25% of collected garbage which degrade and allow chemicals like cellulose acetate to enter the earth and groundwater.

It’s rare that we come across an environmentally-friendly alternative to a common item that just isn’t beneficial. More often than not, anything that can reduce the carbon footprint that’s placed [...]

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Oil Spill in the Gulf Live Cam Posted by the US Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

By On May 29, 2010

Just in case you are wondering what is happening right this moment in the Gulf of Mexico, here is a live video feed of the BP Oil Spill from the ocean floor, 5000 feet below the surface.

This live video was made possible following a demand from Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) [...]

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Parking Lots to Parks: Designing Livable Cities

By On May 28, 2010

In the guest post below, Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute discusses transforming our cities into more sustainable and more livable places. (Subheadings and pictures added.)

by Lester R. Brown

As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help [...]

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Oil Spill Renews American Fervour for Environment

By On May 28, 2010

The most recent poll from USA Today and Gallup has shown a dramatic increase in America’s desire to protect the environment.

This comes only a few months after the last such poll which saw a desire for energy production to take priority over environmental conservation by 7 percentage points. Now that margin has [...]

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‘Millennium Goal’ to End World Hunger Will Not Be Met

By On May 27, 2010

The UN’s Millennium Development Goal of ending global under-nourishment by 2015 will not be met, but a new set of “mega” initiatives are being implemented to achieve more efficient delivery of “research outputs” to speed agricultural development.

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Mount Everest is Suffering from Climate Change

By On May 26, 2010

Three days after reaching the summit of Mount Everest for the 20th time Apa Sherpa has described Mount Everest as more dangerous to climb thanks to climate change.

Apa Sherpa, nicknamed the “super Sherpa” for the apparent ease with which he makes the climb, helping him to break his own record by making [...]

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Trees give Insight into Northwest Africa’s Dry Past

By On May 26, 2010

New research of trees in northwest Africa has revealed droughts in the latter part of the 20th century are some of the fiercest experienced in that area.

The research looked at tree rings in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and found that there have been frequent and severe droughts during the 13th and 16th [...]

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Mega-Earthquake is Coming and Oregon is Preparing

By On May 24, 2010

Scientists have estimated that there is a one-in-three chance that a mega-earthquake will hit the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years.

However residents of the small town of Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast are well aware they’re in the firing line of an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, and they’re preparing. [...]

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Tony Blair Joins Silicon Valley

By On May 24, 2010

Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair has joined a Silicon Valley business as a senior environmental adviser.

Blair will be joining Khosla Ventures, a firm started by Sun Microsystems Inc., co-founder Vinod Khosla. The company has been investing in companies that are themselves pursuing alternative fuel strategies and other environmentally focused technologies.

“[Blair] [...]

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Geoegineering Ethics – Getting Serious & Humble About Climate Intervention [Video]

By On May 23, 2010

Earlier this Spring, 200 climate science experts and policy makers gathered in Pacific Grove, California for ‘Asilomar 2′ (named after the first conference on bio-engineering held there in 1975), a pivotal conference for the emerging science of geoegineering. It was a meeting that many attendees regretted was even necessary.

2009 was a big year for [...]

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Taxpayer Bailout for BP?

By On May 21, 2010

Take action below and tell your Senators that you don’t want to pay for BP’s oil spill.

This is hard to believe, to be honest, even considering who it is coming from.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska wants taxpayers to foot the bill for BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. She has proposed [...]

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New York luxury apartments for homeless people

Put Homeless in Vacant NYC Luxury Apts, Advocates Say

By On May 21, 2010

Homeless advocates are trying to get New York City to take over long-vacant luxury apartments to help house the homeless. Leaders in the real estate market are saying ‘no way’, but this is generating some movement forward.

A coalition of community organizations in NYC, Right to the City Coalition, has found that [...]

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Kenya’s Mau Forest in Dire Straights

By On May 21, 2010

The fight is on to save one of East Africa’s most treasured national resources.

“If the Mau Forest is destroyed, Kenya will die,” said scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai of the University of Nairobi.

Together with scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the grass-roots Green Belt Movement, the [...]

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Unlike Jupiter, Earth’s Mountains and Oceans Affect Weather

By On May 20, 2010

Unlike the storms swirling around the gas giant of Jupiter, Earth’s storms are affected by the oceans and mountains.

Science will often, in an effort to simplify and provide a reference point, compare findings here on Earth with disparate examples elsewhere, either on the planet or off. A group of scientists looking to [...]

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America’s Climate Choices #1 – Advancing the Science of Climate Change

By On May 20, 2010

The National Research Council has released three reports focusing on why the US should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and form a coherent plan to deal with the changing climate.

“These reports show that the state of climate change science is strong,” said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy [...]

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America’s Climate Choices #2 – Limiting the Magnitude of Climate Change

By On May 20, 2010

The National Research Council has released three reports focusing on why the US should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and form a coherent plan to deal with the changing climate.

“These reports show that the state of climate change science is strong,” said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy [...]

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