Green Videos & Green News: Environment Videos // Current

^#1

Beck's "brand new reality" on climate change relies on distorting apparently stolen emails

NASA scientist: Emails do not show that "global warming is a hoax" NASA's Gavin Schmidt: Critics "are using... more

CarolynGillis
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Al Gore Sued By Over 30,000 Scientists For Global Warming Fraud!

Al Gore Sued By Over 30,000 Scientists For Global Warming Fraud! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVMY6bQTSo4... more

MetalestDragoon
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Race in America: 'Progressive' cities

The 'progressive' towns constantly listed as our best role models also lack racial diversity, finds Aaron Renn. Why has no one called them on it?

Among the media and academia and within planning circles, there's a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and midsize cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis and Denver.

In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as "cool" urban places.

But look closely at these exemplars, and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles – places no one expects the average U.S. city to be able to imitate – you will find that the "progressive" cities aren't red or blue, but another color entirely: white.

In fact, not one of these "progressive" cities even reaches the national average for percentage of African-Americans in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.

The progressive paragon of Portland is the whitest on the list, with an African-American population less than half the national average. It is America's ultimate White City. The contrast with other, supposedly less advanced cities is stark.

It is not just a regional thing, either. Even look just within the state of Texas, where Austin is held up as a bastion of right thinking urbanism next to sprawlvilles like Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.

While Austin is far more diverse than a place like Portland, it is still much whiter than other major Texas cities, comparable only to Fort Worth. And while its African-American population lags the national average, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston both exceed it.

This raises troubling questions about these cities.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-renn_22edi.State.Edition1.1691580.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/AustinTexasCongressView.jpgThe 'progressive' towns constantly listed as our best role models also lack racial diversity, finds Aaron Renn. Why has... more

remanns
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29 comments

19 hours ago

^#4

Oil Giant Chevron Accused of "Extortion" on Capitol Hill

Chevron is piling on the lobbyists and PR firms in an extraordinary effort to evade responsibility for its massive toxic... more

coldmtn
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1 comment

8 hours ago

^#5

Report: 25% of U.S. shoppers frequently buy organic and number is rising

Hopefully, one day soon the days of GMO pesticide food will be a distant memory.

JanforGore
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2 comments

5 hours ago

^#6

Experts Produce Plastic Without Fossil Fuels - The move could see pollution drop down considerably

Up until now, scientists have always considered that the only possible way of producing plastic, one of the main materials in our... more

JackHerer
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2 comments

3 hours ago

^#7

Congress, Michigan legislature asked to fix leaks in Great Lakes Compact

And the leaks lead to privitization which should never happen to the Great Lakes. The struggle between public trust and riparian... more

JanforGore
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1 comment

6 hours ago

^#8

Global warming science alarming, say climate experts

Three UK groups studying climate change have issued an unprecedented statement about the dangers of failing to cut emissions of... more

cutee_leslie
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0 comments

9 hours ago

^#9

Building with hemp: Asheville on the forefront of a new green technique

Leave it to Asheville to be the first place in the country to build not just one, but two houses largely out of hemp.... more

JackHerer
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0 comments

20 hours ago

^#10

New reactor uses sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into fuel

Talk about a Eureka moment. Scientists at Sandia National Labs, seeking a means to create cheap and abundant hydrogen to power a hydrogen economy, realized they could use the same technology to "reverse-combust" CO2 back into fuel. Researchers still have to improve the efficiency of the system, but they recently demonstrated a working prototype of their "Sunshine to Petrol" machine that converts waste CO2 to carbon monoxide, and then syngas, consuming nothing but solar energy.

The device, boasting the simple title Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (we'll go with "CR5") sets off a thermo-chemical reaction by exposing an iron-rich composite to concentrated solar heat. The composite sheds an oxygen molecule when heated and gets one back as it cools, and therein lies the eureka.

The cylindrical metal CR5 is divided into hot and cold chambers. Solar energy heats the hot chamber to a scorching 2,700 degrees, hot enough to force the iron oxide composite to lose oxygen atoms. The composite is then thrust into the cool chamber, which is filled with carbon dioxide. As it cools, the iron oxide snatches back its lost oxygen atoms, leaving behind carbon monoxide.

The same process can also produce raw hydrogen by pumping water rather than CO2 into the cool chamber. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide can then be blended into syngas, a replacement for current hydrocarbon-based combustibles like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. While it's not a total solution for carbon emissions -- syngas, after all, burns right back into CO2 -- it is an alternative to sequestering carbon underground, where it benefits no one.

CO2 recycling could be used to trap waste carbon from factories and power plants and return that energy to productive use, rather than releasing it into the air, where it can cause problems science doesn't even yet fully understand. The next step for the team is to increase the process's efficiency to twice that of natural photosynthesis. A market-ready CR5 device is still more than a decade away, but the idea of taking our waste carbon and turning it directly back into fuel using nothing but abundant solar rays is tantalizing, to say the least.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/co2-recycler-uses-sunlight-turn-waste-carbon-back-fuelTalk about a Eureka moment. Scientists at Sandia National Labs, seeking a means to create cheap and abundant hydrogen to power a... more

pjacobs51
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32 comments

1 day ago

^#11

Glacier melt across the world

Remember, it is the rapidity of the melting that indicates other forcings besides just natural processes. Forcings those... more

JanforGore
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0 comments

4 hours ago

^#12

At LAST: a energy alternative assistence step in the right direction.

owners_Affordable_Solar_999.html Partnering with SunRun to bring affordable solar financing and service to its California... more

nursediesel
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1 comment

8 hours ago

^#13

U.S. to Propose Emissions Cuts Before Copenhagen

WASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama, the official said, will announce the specific target “in coming days.”

The announcement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible reductions rather than a single figure.

The lack of consensus in Congress puts Mr. Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic bind. He cannot promise more than Congress may eventually deliver when it takes up climate change legislation next year. But if he does not offer some concrete pledge, the United States will bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of an international agreement.

The official also said the president would decide shortly whether and for how long he might attend the December climate meeting, which runs from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18. He repeated the president’s assertion that he would consider attending if his presence could be a useful impetus to a deal.

Paul Bledsoe of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy said the president’s hands were tied by Congressional inaction. “The U.S. cannot negotiate at Copenhagen above the targets in domestic legislation without risking support for that legislation in the Senate,” Mr. Bledsoe said. “If European demands continue above the U.S. domestic targets, they set up an impossible dynamic for the administration.”

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Mr. Obama could credibly tell delegates to the climate conference that the United States intended to reduce its emissions by 17 percent to 20 percent, based on the legislation that has been approved by the House and the Senate environment committee.

“It’s important for the president to exert that leadership with consultation with Congress,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview late last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/earth/24climate.html?hpWASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United... more

current89
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5 comments

1 day ago

^#14

Their story is the story of Bhopal

And it is a story we must never forget.

JanforGore
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2 comments

22 hours ago

^#15

Radiation leak investigated at Three Mile Island

LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5AM05B20091123 Federal officials are investigating a radiation leak at... more

HowdyDo
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9 comments

1 day ago

^#16

Sigur Ros Plays a Tune With Marimba Made of Rocks

This is from their DVD titled Heima (which is really beautiful!) This was one of my favorite parts from the DVD... Only 2nd to... more

StrangE2U
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0 comments

48 minutes ago

^#17

NASA lasers measure Antarctic ice

Academic researchers on board a NASA research plane have begun using its specialist laser technology to analyse Antarctica's... more

loupetho
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0 comments

1 hour ago

^#18

NOW YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO FREE HAWAI`I TWO WAYS

http://FreeHawaii.Info Sign Up To Receive Free Hawai`i News Sent To Your Favorite Web-Based News Reader Like Yahoo Or Google... more

FreeHawaiiTV
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0 comments

6 hours ago

^#19

Antarctic ice melting 10% faster than thought

As icebergs head for New Zealand, scientists have discovered Antarctica is in worse shape than first thought. It has been known... more

jefftego
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0 comments

6 hours ago

^#20

Series (Part 4): Story of Toki Orphaned Cheetah Cub:Moved to Reserve

He was orphaned after his mother was killed by a lion. He was left alone when his brother, Sambu, suffered the same fate. Then he was attacked by three territorial adult male cheetahs and left on the brink of death. Toki the cheetah has had his fair share of brushes with the cruelty of life.

When Simon King decided Toki should be moved to new pastures, Ol Pejeta Conservancy was the best option. After going through an “adjustment period” that involved living in a more contained portion of the conservancy, Toki now lives within the confines of the main reserve of Ol Pejeta today. He continues to live as a wild cheetah in a huge, but securely fenced area. And Simon continues to be his human guardian angel. “Toki is in top form!” says Simon. “I visited him a couple of weeks ago (September 2007) in Ol Pejeta and found him resting in the shade with a tummy full of zebra he had killed. He hunts wild prey entirely for himself, but still lives in a predator-proof enclosure of some 4,000 acres, a patch of ground he shares with a host of other creatures (some of which end up as dinner) but no other large predators.” The difficult start to his life evidently didn’t compromise Toki’s physical form. Toki is a powerful cheetah, his muscles strong and solid, back and shoulders flexible, and his gait full of grace. “He always seems very content when I see him, purring deeply when I approach,” says Simon, “but I still feel there is something missing.”

That something may be the opportunity to father cubs of his own. “He has never met a female cheetah to my knowledge, and will not unless we help to engineer it. This would not be a hugely significant change to Toki’s life: he would be with his mate for a number of hours only, and then have nothing more to do with her,” says Simon. Still, just by passing his own genes on successfully, Toki would be bolstering the shrinking cheetah population and advancing the effort of cheetah conservation in Kenya.

Toki walking in Ol Pejeta (with Simon, in background)
There are fewer than 13,000 cheetahs left in the wild, and even these few are threatened by conflict with livestock and habitat destruction. “There is a great deal still to be done for cheetah conservation in East Africa, and in Africa as a whole,” says Simon. “Though they are a protected species, they are still heavily persecuted by some communities — a perfectly understandable reaction when they start eating goats, sheep or calves. They are creatures of big, wild country and increasingly their world is shrinking as more and more areas become developed and populated.”

Simon’s hope is that Toki’s future role is to act as an ambassador for his species, helping to educate communities about alternatives to killing big cats, such as developing other eco-friendly industries. “There is the obvious advantage of cats attracting revenue in the form of eco tourism, but there is much that can be done to help defend herds of stock against attack with dogs and careful husbandry.”

As for Simon’s future, you can check out what the ambitious filmmaker is up to on his Web site, www.simonkingwildlife.com. “Toki has been, and continues to be, an inspiration and a joy to have followed. He is very close to my heart. I sincerely hope that his future will be bright and that he may help to increase awareness of the plight of large predators in East Africa,” says Simon. “I shall continue to work towards Toki and all cheetahs having a fine quality of life, and hope that the films we have produced will encourage others to help conserve these magnificent creatures.”He was orphaned after his mother was killed by a lion. He was left alone when his brother, Sambu, suffered the same fate. Then he... moreHe was orphaned after his mother was killed by a lion. He was left alone when his brother, Sambu, suffered the same fate. Then he... more