From the monthly archives: August 2010
The lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries that will be powering the electric cars of tomorrow are much greener than originally expected, according to new research conducted.
Much has been made of whether electric cars will actually be the saviour of our future, or whether they are just redistributing the environmental damage to other aspects, [...]
New research into how lightning forms has started yielding what might be the first opening into a new source of alternative energy.
According to a report presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society( ACS), scientists are already in the early stages of developing devices that could capture electricity from [...]
This isn’t breaking news, but Change.org has a great piece (via the Atlantic) on the story of a young, idealistic journalist who was offered the opportunity to be paid a mint ($20k) to take a dream trip through indigenous parts of Ecuador, and [...]
Scientists have detected a new type of El Niño that is forming in the warmer waters of the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, causing the El Niños to become more common and stronger. Researchers found that the intensity of El Niños has nearly doubled in the central Pacific.
The research, conducted by Tong Lee of [...]
A recent study has shown that a large release of CO2 could in fact speed up the melting following an ice age.
Authored by Tom Guilderson from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, the study used radiocarbon dating to trace the pathway of carbon dioxide released from the deep [...]
Giving “belly up to the bar” a whole new meaning…
Bad puns aside, Scottish scientists recently announced a method for converting whiskey-making byproducts into biofuel (no bottled whiskey is harmed in the making of this fuel). Using samples from the Glenkinchie Distillery, researchers at the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh [...]
From Grist: More research linking pesticide exposure to ADHD in kids
Follow all of Mean Joe Green’s environmental cartoons on JoeMohrToons.com and on Twitter at @GreenCartoons.
Continuous research and development could soon see wind and solar dominate energy production, according to Nobel laureate Walter Kohn, Ph.D.
Speaking at a symposium at the American Chemical Society’s 240’th National Meeting, Kohn said that he believed that with continuous research and development of alternative energies we could see an era in human [...]
Americans used more renewable energy in 2009 while still using less energy.
According to data released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the United States used much less coal and petroleum in 2009 than it did in 2008 while still using significantly more wind power.
“Energy use tends to follow the level of economic activity, [...]
Forecasts indicate that this year’s sea ice minimum, set to peak in September, will not be as low in 2007 which itself was the year that saw the Arctic sea ice at its smallest on record. But scientists are still concerned, and as a result are measuring the ice thickness north and east of Greenland.
[...]
This edition of 7 Green Bloggers (which, as you will see, actually turned into 9 Green Bloggers) was a fun one. I asked these leading bloggers (who, themselves, could be heroes to many people) to tell us who their green heroes were. Some familiar names came up, but also some names I’m not [...]
A giant turtle species that scientists thought had gone extinct 50,000 years ago actually survived until recently on a small Pacific island. Apparently, though, it didn’t take long for humans to finish the species off.
The turtle species belonged to a family of turtles that evolved 50 million years ago, the [...]
12% of Mexican lizards have gone extinct from global warming in the past 25 years, 4% have gone extinct worldwide, and 39% are expected to go extinct worldwide from global warming by 2080.
I’ve written on lizards going extinct from climate change in the past, and I’m sure others have as [...]
Help stop the poisoning of America from coal power plants today.
Coal power plants are horrible for the world because they cause global warming and destroy mountains and mountian habitats. But there are numerous other reasons to oppose coal power, including some serious health reasons (beyond the health reasons [...]
In his alarm-ringing NY Times op-ed on Climate Change, professor Homer-Dixon* draws a comparison with the 2008 financial “meltdown” which finally led to new financial regulations, even though warnings of a housing bubble (and an emerging recession) were being made prior to the crisis. He advocates societies designing a contingency plan (‘Plan Z’ ) to deal with the immediate after-effects of one or more climate change disasters.
Great video of this year’s World Naked Bike Ride in Portland below.
I wrote on the 2010 World Naked Bike ride awhile back here on Planetsave. Great, fun bicycling event. A friend of mine just shared this cool video of this year’s World Nake Bike Ride event in Portland. Too cool not [...]
