BREAKING: Late this evening (8 pm EST, or tomorrow, March 31, at 9 am in Tokyo), something large and unpleasant will hit the fan about climate change. At a press conference in Yokohama, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release its Fifth Assessment Report on impacts of human activities on current and […]
The IPCC's Blockbuster 5th Climate Assessment Read More 👉
Rechargeables outdo traditional batteries in terms of both total cost of use and environmental impact. Recharging is inexpensive and can be done many times. Yet how many people go to the trouble of using rechargeables regularly? It’s easy not to, with traditional batteries available at every checkout counter. Energizer has found a new way to
Convenient Energizer PRO battery recharger Read More 👉
Occasional spring thaws began several weeks ago in parts of the country. As Lewis and Susan Case hiked along Felchner Brook in the placid, mid-March woods of Vermont, they thought they were just making a nice amateur video of a brief walk on a cloudy day. Suddenly, things changed. A roar smacked into the peaceful
Sudden Danger In Forest Thaw (Video) Read More 👉
March 22, 2014, killer landslide near Seattle (photo: Kings County Sheriff’s Office). Last Saturday’s horrific mudslide 55 miles northeast of Seattle may unfortunately herald the shape of landmass movements to come, if climate change has its way with us. A new study in the European Alps elaborates. In a draft article for Elsevier’s Science of
Alps Study: Climate Change May Worsen Landslides Read More 👉
It doesn’t take rocket science to draw a line between pollutants in small streams and wetlands and water quality downstream. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have united to propose a rule that will strengthen the Clean Water Act, applied to safeguard American water quality since 1972. The rule will
EPA And Army Corps Move Today To Safeguard Clean Water Read More 👉
For this little Fukushima irony, many thanks to Fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com!
No control at FukUShima (cartoon) Read More 👉
Though we try to keep a very positive focus here, PlanetSave isn’t just a blog about the wonders of the natural world and the glory of Mankind’s inventions. It also offers knowledge and a caution about our failures as individuals and as a species. We’ve all made mistakes before, big and small. By acknowledging anthropogenic
Review: The Long Shadow Of Chernobyl Read More 👉
Construction of the Advanced Liquid Processing System at TEPCO’s ruined Fukushima nuclear power complex (photo: TEPCO, via mainichi.jp). Still dealing with the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, subsequent tsunami, and three meltdowns at its Fukushima I nuclear power complex, Tokyo Electric Power Company had more bad news yesterday about its Fukushima ALPS cleanup efforts.
All 3 Fukushima ALPS Nuclide Scrubbers Shut Down Tuesday Read More 👉
Travelers cherish the city of Paris for the charm of its luxurious springtime, but maybe not this year. Since last Wednesday, air pollution in Paris and 22 suburbs has topped the safe limit for PM10 particulates (80 mg/cubic meter). The Paris smog readings hit 180 mg on Friday, more than twice the accepted safe limit. This
Paris Smog Can Take Cars Off The Streets Read More 👉
In “9 Facts About Factory Farming That Will Break Your Heart,” The Huffington Post yesterday announced a shocking “fact” that over 82% of U.S. dairies use tail docking. Instant reaction: horror. Wouldn’t cutting off tails not only hurt the cattle, but also embolden disease-carrying flies around them? (It does.) However, the US Department of Agriculture
Factory Farm Article Overstates Cow Tail Docking Read More 👉
Or maybe Reason # 1. (“Save the Earth” from facebook/I f*cking love science)
Another Good Reason To Save The Earth Read More 👉
North wing of the Capitol, containing the Senate Chamber (public domain photo). Watch
Big Senate Climate Caucus Live On The Internet (6 BLOGS) Read More 👉
A firefighter pauses at the $2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, August-September 2013 (Calfire photo on facebook). President Obama released the federal budget for 2015 last week. Overall, it involves the lowest deficit ($514 billion) of his five-year tenure in office and restores some funding cut in last year’s sequester. Parts of the new
Funding More Fire Suppression Won't Do The Trick Read More 👉
Thanks to electronic communication—a force we usually consider an ally—humans have come to live under a 24/7 barrage of misinformation. For those of us on the progressive side of things, climate denialism on talk shows, sermons, and facebook posts can arouse instant indignation, even ire—but we don’t always get around to refuting the fallacies. (Above
Defy Climate Denialism With "Mythopedia" Read More 👉
Laying a pipeline across agricultural land (photo: eponline.com). Friday afternoon, and officials at the State Department are probably breathing a huge sigh of relief. The official public comment period on the northern extension of the $5.4 billion Keystone XL pipeline expired today. And the unofficial public comment that’s making the news is today’s release of
XL, Or No XL? Public Comments End With Poll Surprise Read More 👉
Don’t look up… er, don’t look down… er, butt first… er, just turn around and crawl down on all fours as fast as you can (vertigo from facebook.com, no user credited).
Vertigo In The Andes Read More 👉
Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii) from Montana (source: nice-cool-pics.com). Last week, a small, grayish tufted screech owl found itself in big trouble. Softly gliding at dusk through a forested northern California neighborhood, the owl had his curious eye on a nearby chimney. Maybe it saw movement there, or maybe the chimney hole resembled the bird’s
Trapped Western Screech Owl Flies Again Read More 👉
When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce
Los Angeles Council Unanimously Puts Off Fracking Read More 👉
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society of London debut Climate Change: Evidence & Causes, a new publication produced jointly by the two world-leading scientific institutions, live on the internet on Thursday, February 27, 2014, from 10:00-11:30 EST. The new publication bills itself as “a brief, readable reference document for decision makers,
NAS & Royal Society Move Climate Talk From Debate To Mitigation Read More 👉
Not. Thanks to blogger random-renditions.blogspot.com/2012/09/implosion-please.html for this wonderful piece of smog humor! Breathe deep….
If you’re a regular PlanetSave reader, you know a lot of these facts already–but here’s an excellent one-pager about climate change, a.k.a. global warming. The presenters write in everyday language with photos and feature leads. From the webpage: “The science of global warming starts with the burning of fossil fuels, specifically in vehicles fueled by
Help Others "Get" Climate Change With This Page Read More 👉
Bad news from the annual American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu. Researchers there announced today that radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, when three reactors melted down after the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake and subsequent mega-tsunami, have finally reached the West Coast. John Smith, a research scientist at Canada’s Bedford Institute
Canada Water Tests Positive For Fukushima Cesium-134 Read More 👉
Just another day in the life of a squirrel. Video published on May 5, 2013. Forest images by National Geographic. In HD 1080 Dolby surround 5.1. Distributed by flixxy.
Raw Forest Pursuit, & A Cunning Defense (video) Read More 👉
The threatened Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (source: environment.nsw.gov.au). Sadly, we hear too much about the logging, clearing, and obliteration of earth’s rainforests, and about the global repercussions, including climate change. Here’s a story about rainforest rejuvenation, albeit on a small scale. From Germaine Greer, the Australian author of White Beech: The Rainforest Years: “This is
Abused Subtropical Rainforest Thrives Again Read More 👉
(from facebook/Dutchess County Fairgrounds)
The Snowy Side of Climate Change Read More 👉
President Obama meets with Kenguru CEO Stacy Zoern (photo: kenguru.com). More than three million Americans can celebrate when they hear this story. Made in the USA but in demand worldwide, the Kenguru—a driver-only electric vehicle with no seats—promises mobility-challenged people unprecedented access to the everyday world the rest of us take for granted. Imagine you
Kenguru EV: The Wheelchair-Friendly Neighborhood Car Read More 👉
The most dangerous creature in the world is not what you think it might be. (Photo: wholelifehawaii.org.) The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a large lamniform cartilaginous shark that inhabits the coastal surface waters of all the earth’s major oceans. Reaching over 20 feet long and three and a half tons, the mature great
The Most Sudden And Fatal Predator On Earth Read More 👉
Premium hydroponic-grown, pesticide-free vegetables and herbs growing in the U.S. Gotham Greens facility (from eponline.com). Two entrepreneurs have recently made London the home of a very creative architectural reuse for food production—underground. Steven Dring, a former executive with Bunzl, an international provider of food-related products and services, and his friend and business partner Richard Ballard,
Refitted Tunnel Shelter Farms Zero Carbon Veggies Read More 👉
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat exposes a worldwide crisis in mega-farming. (Graphic from Sunday Times review by coauthor.) The authors, Philip Lymbery and Isabel Oakeshott, believe that the increasingly globalized food production industry threatens the quality of what we eat, our health, and the very land we live on. They say people now
Farmageddon Strips Rosy Myths From 21st-Century Food: London Salon February 20 Read More 👉
Thanks to WolfCentral on Facebook.com for taking care of the groundhog this year!
Enough winter, already, Groundhog! Read More 👉
NASA says the ejecta from this newly formed 100-foot (30 -meter) crater on Mars extend over 9 miles (15 km) from the center of impact. The crater is at 3.7 degrees north latitude, 53.4 degrees east longitude on the Red Planet. Scientists viewing the images of this area from JPL’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera
MRO HiRise Cam Reveals Stunning New Mars Crater Read More 👉
Fifty years ago, the drugstore giant CVS/Caremark came into being. Also 50 years ago, Surgeon General Luther Terry released the first federal government report linking smoking with disease. Today, the events have coalesced: CVS, one of the nation’s top retail pharmacy chains (Walgreen is #1, in number of retail stores; CVS, in overall sales), has
CVS "No Go" For Tobacco: Good For The Company, Good For Our Health Read More 👉
Thanks to “Espresso for the Mind” on Facebook for this wise definition of “human being” (www.sciencedump.com).
A Cosmic Perspective on the Human Being Read More 👉
The website that brought renters, homebuyers, and realtors a powerful index of walkability has done it again, this time for public transit (source: walkscore.com). At the end of January, Matt Lerner, CTO of Walk Score, announced a new ranking of the average resident’s access to public transit in a city. It’s based on data released
New Scores/Apps For Car-Free U.S. City Transit Read More 👉
Thanks to George Takei on Facebook! for this great Groundhog Day photoon!
"Bones" On Groundhog Day Read More 👉
From President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address February 12, 2013, 9:15 P.M. EST U.S. Capitol Washington, D.C. THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens: Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress.” (Applause.)
State Of The Union: Climate Change, Energy Read More 👉
From the artist (anon): The Forest Service is leasing our national forests to gas companies for fracking in several forests already: Allegheny National Forest (PA) George Washington National Forest (WV & VA) Wayne National Forest (Ohio) Talladega National Forest (Alabama) Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest (Colorado) White River National Forest (Colorado) The Bridger-Teton National Forest (Wyoming)
Smokey Bear, Take Two: Forest Fracking Read More 👉
On his blog “I see a change,” Nigerian Youth Development Expert Olumide Idowu presents the elements of sustainable development (source: olumideidowu.blog.com). Not all online courses provide all they promise you, but here’s one that should answer all your questions about environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive economic development. It will also challenge you to find out more.
What's "Sustainable Development"? Free Online Course! Read More 👉
Thanks for this global warming image to our friend Mike at mike2.com!
Not The Polar Vortex, Just Global Warming Read More 👉
In a spot aired this afternoon called “Geoengineers: Who will rule the climate?” the world’s third largest radio station, Voice of Russia, seems to be wobbling on whether or not wholesale scientific experimentation could alter the destructive path of anthropomorphic climate change. VOR, reportedly the first radio station to broadcast internationally, serves about 109 million listeners of
International Radio Broadcast Equivocal About Geoengineering Read More 👉
Winter brings darkness and poor air quality to Beijing again this year. A viewscreen in Tiananmen Square produces a synthetic sunrise (China Foto Press/Wang Jinghua). On Thursday, a gray murk of smog displaced the dawn in Beijing. This time, China implemented an unusual and futuristic way for citizens to watch the sun come up. Video.
Second-Hand Sunrise In Beijing Smog Read More 👉
A diver in California’s kelp forest. A new study will explore possible radioactive contamination from the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns (Wikimedia Commons/Ed Bierman). Biology professor Steven L. Manley of California State University, Long Beach, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Head of Applied Nuclear Physics Kai Vetter have set up monitoring off the state’s coast throughout
Academic, Government Researchers Watch Coastal Kelp For Fukushima Contaminants Read More 👉
Move over, Copenhagen. Hamburg is following you into the 21st century by deemphasizing the role of the car. Almost half of Germany’s second-largest city already consists of green areas, parks, gardens, squares, cemeteries, and sports facilities (see map). Hamburg plans to link two large green areas in the north and south with bicycle routes and pedestrian
Hamburg Will Extend Bike, Ped Routes & Remove Cars From City Core Read More 👉
What happens when you blow a bubble and it’s cold outside? (Photo: Washington photographer Angela Kelly.) January 2014. It’s been unseasonably chilly, to say the least. Washington-based photographer Angela Kelly brings us a stunning gallery of photographs in the Huffington Post of what happens to a blown bubble when it’s exposed to extremely cold temperatures?
A Longer Life: Frozen Bubbles Read More 👉
Here’s how you can tell if your beloved pet is charged up and ready to go. (From Radio Hauraki, Live all over New Zealand and worldwide. Facebook page, November 15, 2013.)
How to know when your cat is fully charged… Read More 👉
New York “rides in” the New Year as Times Square visitors bike to help power the New Year’s Eve Ball (© Charles Sykes, Invision, for Citi, on Treehugger). You heard it right. When the festive ball drops to usher in 2014, renewable energy will contribute to the flashiness of its cascade. For the past three
Renewables (Bikes!) Power Times Square New Year's Ball Read More 👉
Medical news worth remembering at the New Year! (Originally posted in Examiner, May 23, 2013. Bonus video below shows how to open a bottle of champagne.) We’ve all heard that drinking red wine in moderation can be good for us. Advisors from the prestigious Mayo Clinic have stated that “Red wine’s potential heart-healthy benefits look
Bubbly benefits brains Read More 👉
Message from the past found under an Arctic cairn. (Photo from Denis Sarrazin, CEN/ArcticNet.) In 1959, an astute 27-year-old geologist from Ohio State named Paul Walker left a message in a bottle near the foot of an Arctic glacier. At the time, he was living in temperatures that average -18 C., 500 miles (800 km)
50+ Year-Old Message In A Bottle About… Climate Change? Read More 👉