Green Videos & Green News: Environment Videos // Current

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13 minutes ago

Solar Man VS EBunny

A race for everyone

solarconcert
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The End of the Line

Just watched the trailer and the background info. Feels like one of most important under reported issues out there.

leahl
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The Weekly Carboholic: study says offsets make ACES carbon cap almost meaningless

This week: study says offsets make ACES carbon cap almost meaningless; China rejects binding GHG cuts; USGS study suggests peak... more

angliss
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Cleaner Buses in Developing World May Be Key for Climate change

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Like most thoroughfares in booming cities of the developing world, Bogotá’s Seventh... more

stopnoise
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Greenpeace gets Badass at Mt Rushmore

In addition to heaps of praise and words of encouragement, we’ve been getting a lot of flak from people who were upset that we would deface a national monument. My response to them is twofold: First, there are already climbing leads established on the rock, which the park employees use to clean the monument. Our climbers used those leads and were extremely cautious not to do any harm to the monument, and in the end they did not do any damage.

Second, all of the sanctimonious claims about our disrespect for what Mount Rushmore represents are completely baseless. We have utmost respect for the accomplishments of the great leaders who built this country, that’s why we chose it as the site for issuing our challenge to President Obama to be a leader on global warming. But Mount Rushmore was built on a mountain stolen from Native Americans. Adding insult to injury, we then carved a bunch of white people’s faces into it. So you gotta ask yourself: What does Mount Rushmore really represent?

For the record, a member of the local Oglala Sioux tribe has published an op-ed praising our action.

And our larger point still stands: If President Obama wants to be considered equal to the pantheon of great American leaders depicted on Mount Rushmore, he needs to start providing real leadership on global warming, the greatest challenge of our time.

The pesident is currently meeting with the rest of the G8 leaders in L’Aquila, Italy. Yesterday they held a press conference to announce that they were setting a target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. But that is not what real leadership looks like – that target had already been endorsed by 109 nations even before the G8 announcement.

Plus, as worthy as this long-term goal is, the truly critical issue is that President Obama and the rest of the world’s leaders still have not laid out an adequate roadmap for how we’re going to get there. In other words, they haven’t set short-term goals that are ambitious enough to get us to the long term goal of keeping global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. Scientists have clearly stated that the United States and other industrialized countries must cut their emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. But the Obama Administration, like Congress, continues to promote short-term emissions reductions targets that fall far short of what science demands.

We can’t continue to put off for tomorrow what science tells us we need to do today. While the 2 degree commitment would appear to recognize the severity of the crisis we're facing, the Obama Administration and the G8 have failed to provide any plan for staying below this critical threshold. Sign our petition now and ask Obama to be a leader on global warming, not just here in America but for the world as well.In addition to heaps of praise and words of encouragement, we’ve been getting a lot of flak from people who were upset that... more

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3 responses

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2 hours ago

Carbon Markets USA :: A GreenPower Conferences Event

Globally, the carbon emissions market is booming, with the World Bank estimating its size at approximately $30 billion last year.... more

ras_menelik
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3 hours ago

CreatingNrg

>>Learn - About green energy & who we are >>Join - Connect with professionals in Green Energy... more

ras_menelik
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3 hours ago

Celebrities Ditch Underwear and Send to Bayer to Protest Bayer's Toxic Pesticide Endosulfan

We should all do the same, and whilst we are at it, send our medical bills as well... "Coordinated protests against... more

SeaJade
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3 responses

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7 hours ago

Is Virgance on the Verge of Web 3.0?

A San Francisco start-up is combining the principles of activism, capitalism, and social media. They call it Activism 2.0. But it... more

current_green_bot
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4 hours ago

Support healthy food choices in schools

On June 24 a broad coalition of Main Street Moms, Activist Moms and NGOs, along with actresses Deidre Hall and Andrea Bowen... more

JanforGore
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1 response

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4 hours ago

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - El Niño Arrives for 2009-2010 Winter

NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global... more

cwswell
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5 hours ago

New Vid: Obama on Mt. Rushmore? A Call for Global Warming Leadership!

You might have heard about the challenge Greenpeace issued to President Obama on Wednesday with our a banner hang on Mount Rushmore: “America honors leaders, not politicians. Stop global warming.”

We have an amazing video that was shot in the field at the action, and I wanted to share it with you.

<a href="http://gpeace.convio.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=472&s_src=current">TAKE ACTION NOW: Call On Obama for Real Climate Leadership!</a>

President Obama is currently meeting with other world leaders at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy. Yesterday they announced a new commitment to keeping global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius – a target already endorsed by 109 nations. While this is certainly a worthy goal, President Obama and the other G8 leaders did not commit to short-term greenhouse gas emissions reductions necessary to achieving this long-term target. Having a goal is not good enough — we need a roadmap outlining how we will reach our destination. Given that President Obama and Congress have so far proposed short-term emissions goals that will not keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, the President needs to make a strong and clear commitment to meaningful short-term emissions reductions.

Please <a href="http://gpeace.convio.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=472&s_src=current">sign our petition now</a> calling on President Obama to provide the leadership that will establish both the short-term and the long-term goals science tells us are necessary to stop global warming.

Here in the United States and internationally, leadership is still desperately needed to get the systems in place for averting runaway climate change. We can’t continue to put off to tomorrow what science tells us we need to do today.

In order to adequately tackle global warming, we need President Obama to lead. <a href="http://gpeace.convio.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=472&s_src=current">Take action now and call on him to provide that leadership</a>.

For the Planet,

<img src="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/assets/banners/jessmill-headshot">

Jess Miller
Greenpeace ActivistYou might have heard about the challenge Greenpeace issued to President Obama on Wednesday with our a banner hang on Mount... more

captainplanet71
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1 response

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6 hours ago

Gorilla in the Greenhouse

The pilot episode, entitled The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which launched on Earth Day 2008, follows the kids and KJ the Green... more

stopnoise
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3 responses

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7 hours ago

Ban criticises G8 climate efforts

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to... more

stopnoise
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2 responses

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7 hours ago

TV TrickleSaver turns your console off when the TV is off.

Even when our consoles are on standby, they still use electricity. According to green gadget maker TrickleStar, the PS3 will burn... more

Nettle
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8 hours ago

H2-WHOA! Australian town bans bottled water

Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water,... more

common_sense_allowed
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3 responses

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8 hours ago

10 Dangerous Household Products You Should Never Use Again

Air fresheners, disinfectants, and cleaners found under your sink are more dangerous than you think. By Staff , Sustain Lane.

stopnoise
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5 responses

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1 day ago

U.S.-Mexico Border Fence May Snag Wildlife

The United States-Mexico border fence may block more wildlife border crossings than people crossings. The already limited border populations of pygmy owls and bighorn sheep will likely be among those further threatened by the fence, says a new study.

"In some respects, it's as obvious as the nose on your face: If you put up a 20-foot chunk of steel, things probably aren't going to move across it, but we have to show it," said Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who was not a part of the study. "It's kind of a shame that we need to prove the obvious, but we do. So this is an important paper in that regard."

Since the U.S. government authorized construction of a fence along 700 miles of the border between the U.S. and Mexico in 2006, scientists have raised concerns that a person-tight fence would also exclude many species that rely on habitat on either side of the border. The new research suggests such concerns are valid.

"Borders are only political boundaries," said the study's lead author Aaron Flesch of the University of Montana in Missoula. "They're not biological boundaries." The study, published recently in Conservation Biology, focused on desert bighorn sheep and ferruginous pygmy owls.

By combining information about bighorn populations along the Arizona-Mexico border with computer models, the study's coauthor Clinton Epps of Oregon State University was able to predict the effect of the fence on how sheep move from one group to another.

Epps found nine populations within his study area that would become isolated from populations across the border. What's more, two populations on the U.S. side of the fence rely on a path that dips through Mexico, so they would become isolated from one another, despite both being "American" bighorn.

"The ability to move between mountain ranges is pretty important to maintain genetic diversity," Epps said, "But probably more importantly, the populations are so small, that they can just wink out." Without cross border connections, the habitats couldn't be repopulated by sheep in nearby groups.

The pygmy owl seems an unlikely species to be blocked by a border fence, given that it can fly. But the team found that 80 percent of the owls' flights are less than 13 feet above the ground, with most of those less than 3 feet above the ground. What's more, the owl tends to make short, direct flights, avoiding stretches across open areas such as the zones of cleared vegetation on either side of the fence.

"Their survival in Arizona is probably dependent on movement from Mexico into the U.S.," said Flesch, who conducted the owl study. "That's why a 700-mile-long border fence is so relevant to their recovery and the recovery of so many other animals."

Jaguars, desert tortoise, wild turkeys, bears, and Sonoran pronghorn are among other species that may be affected by the border fence.

Flesch and others support using virtual fences instead of physical barriers along the border, especially in critical habitat areas. Surveillance technology could allow wildlife to pass freely, while still catching illegal traffic across the border, they propose.

Some vehicle barriers -- vertical posts close enough together to stop cars or trucks, but not so close as to block people or wildlife -- could also be used with less obstruction of wildlife movement.

The border fence is all the more significant in today's warming climate, Flesch noted. The border happens to fall at a boundary between two climates, so many species will tend to nudge their range north as climate warms. If they are blocked by the fence, their habitat may leave them behind.The United States-Mexico border fence may block more wildlife border crossings than people crossings. The already limited border... more