If we could all just get along like these three unusual friends, we would live in a much different world.
In human society, people often do not like others simply because they are different. Humans kill over this matter. In more normal and everyday life, people may not kill each other but may not be as friendly or open to those from a different background, with a different color, with different views, or even with a different style.
In the animal kingdom, dangerous predators are not generally friends — they keep their distance. But in some cases (i.e. when being raised together), animals and humans alike can learn to be caring friends with those they might not have ever said hello to.
In the short story below, you can see how a lion, a tiger and a bear (Shere Khan, Baloo and Leo) became true friends, in the real world not a Disney story. Read the rest of this entry »
The Prairie Island nuclear plant at Red Wing, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River. Nuclear power advocates want to repeal the state’s 15-year-old ban on new nuclear plants.
The state that enacted one of the nation’s most farsighted clean energy laws in 2007 may be a battleground over nuclear power in 2010. A coalition of interest groups wants to repeal Minnesota’s 15-year-old moratorium on new nuclear plants. Like pro-nuke interests elsewhere, the Minnesota coalition is arguing that nuclear power is a clean solution to climate change problems.
The 2007 Next Generation Energy Act mandates that Minnesota generate 25% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. It also sets a state goal to reduce electric demand 1.5% per year through efficiency and conservation programs. The law defines renewable sources as solar, wind, small hydro, hydrogen and biomass.
But nuclear power advocates want to add nuclear energy to the mix. The so-called Sensible Energy Solutions for Minnesota says it includes business, labor and environmental leaders, although no organized environmental groups support the repeal. A board member of SESM says calls nuclear “the most sensible and carbon-free base-load electricity source in existence.”
The change was agreed during the 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee and is scheduled to come into force in 2011.
In essence it will only allow ships to use only lighter grade oils which, if spilt, evaporate more easily, are easier to clean up and are far less damaging to wildlife. Read the rest of this entry »
While public opinion remains divided about the risks and benefits of installing wind farms in the Great Lakes, several of the eight states with Great Lakes water are racing to be first to approve projects capturing energy from frequently strong offshore winds. It remains to be seen whether a public generally supportive of developing wind energy will support turbines in the Lakes for the first time. Opposition to the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound because of aesthetic impacts has slowed that saltwater proposal.
Wastewater treatment facilities end up dumping a lot of mud that is extracted from the in-flowing water. And, like everything else, that mud takes up space. Space that could be used for other things, even at the dumping yards. But researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) have suggested, and successfully shown, that the waste mud doesn’t need to be taken to a dumping ground; rather, it can be used as fuel.
This is great news for industries that are trying to comply with the Kyoto Protocol and cut CO2 emissions. It is also good news in a world that is trying to shake itself free of the addictions to traditional oils and coals.
Coal power supplies most of the electricity that we use here in America. It’s been that way for a long time. Because of coal’s popularity as a source of power, mines, both active and abandoned, lay scattered across the nation. And now, with coal’s popularity waning, the number of abandoned mines could increase. Since 2001 alone, 100 coal-fired plants have taken their turn in front of the firing squad.
And it doesn’t seem as though it’s over. If the trend of extinguishing coal-fired plants continues, more and more mines will be shut down, not to mention mines that simply up and quit. But what is to be done with the abandoned mines? It isn’t as though we can just dispose of them at some hi-tech facility. These mines will become useless scars.
Two engineers from the University of Oviedo have an idea, though. In their research, which is being published in the journal Renewable Energy, Rafael Rodríguez and his colleague María Belarmina Díaz claim that mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns.
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is hosting a “Dump the Pump” video contest. The winner will get one free year on public transportation!
Advocates for better, green transportation achieved great success this year with a transportation bill in the House of Representatives that could change the United States forever. Not only advocates have brought this to where it is, though. The general public, the US Chamber of Commerce, AAA, the AFL-CIO, Associated General Contractors of America, and others have brought it to where it is today. This progressive bill would reverse auto-centric federal transportation policies that have led the US into various environmental, social and economic crises for the past several decades.
The sun is coming out. And Europe isn’t waiting any longer. Some of the biggest businesses in Europe are ready to invest in the largest solar energy project in the world. They are looking to create a “solar energy belt” in the Middle East and North Africa.
How will the energy get to Europe? It will go through huge “super grids” under the Mediterranean Sea. Has this kind of thing happened before? Siemens CEO, Peter Löscher, says: “A few years ago we connected Tasmania with the Australian continent. And from 2011 there will be a 250-kilometer undersea cable supplying Majorca with electricity from the Spanish mainland. For us, this kind of thing is now part of our core business.”
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