tagged w/ enviroment
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Its not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean--often called the cradle of life on Earth.Its not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with... more
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The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-mans land between San Francisco and Hawaii. The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s. Sea turtles mistake clear plastic bags for jellyfish. Birds swoop down and swallow indigestible shards of plastic.
The petroleum-based plastics take decades to break down, and as long as they float on the oceans surface, they can appear as feeding grounds. The Greenpeace report found that at least 267 marine species had suffered from some kind of ingestion or entanglement with marine debris.
Most plastic bags end up in landfills, part of the millions of tons of plastic garbage Americans dump each year.
But whether jettisoned illegally by ships at sea, washed out from land during storms, or, as in the case of the chalupa bags, accidentally lost overboard from containerships, countless tons of plastic refuse end up drifting on the high seas.
You can help to limit the ever-growing patch of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean. Here are some ways to help:
Limit your use of plastics when possible. Plastic doesnt easily degrade and can kill sea life.
Use a reusable bag when shopping. Throwaway bags can easily blow into the ocean.
Take your trash with you when you leave the beach.
Make sure your trash bins are securely closed. Keep all trash in closed bags.
Please do what you can to help lessen the impact of plastics in our oceans and on marine life, and by applying some of these easy steps and by signing this very important petition to stop the damaging effects on our world.The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5... more
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Of course, the Space Solar Power people promise to do things in an environmentally friendly way. But in a country in which people think that overhead power lines give them cancer, which state is going to welcome having about 100 square kilometers bathed in microwave energy??? What does beaming microwave energy through the atmosphere do to the atmosphere? Does it heat the atmosphere at all? Wouldnt that sort of defeat the purpose of global warming?
Your microwave oven works by heating the water molecules in food. Will microwave energy from space pass through clouds? Will it be absorbed? Refracted? Reflected? If it is absorbed, what happens to the clouds?
In our house we use the microwave to sterilize our kitchen sponges. What will the microwave energy do to the soil around the receiving antenna?
The report from the National Security Space Office states that the antenna in orbit will be 8.5 km in diameter. At a distance of 35405km, that will cover a disc of about 54 arcseconds in diameter, as large as the planet Venus. With the addition of the rest of the powersat structure (based on an eyeball estimate of the diagram in the NSSO report), the whole thing might cover 90 arcseconds, about 1/20th the diameter of the full moon. What will its visible magnitude be at its brightest, when the sunlight hits it just right? What does the astronomy community think about a fleet of these along the celestial equator?
I would hate to gain free electrical power and lose the night sky in the bargain.Of course, the Space Solar Power people promise to do things in an environmentally... more
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Not that long ago, a U.S. president rousingly declared a national environmental awakening
It marks a new sensitivity of the American spirit and a new maturity of American public life. It is working a revolution in values, as commitment to responsible partnership with nature replaces cavalier assumptions that we can play God with our surroundings and survive.
These words might bring to mind Teddy Roosevelt, or perhaps Jimmy Carter in his energy-crisis cardigan, but no, this acclaim for an earth-friendly revolution was delivered to Congress in 1972 by none other than Richard M. Nixon. On Nixons watch was born such epic bipartisan accomplishments as the Clean Water Act, expansion of the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, creation of the EPA and, the most powerful environmental law of any era, the Endangered Species Act.
You know things are bad when Richard Nixon, he of Watergate and secret bombings and the Southern Strategy, represents the good ol days. But so he does, at least on the ecological front, as six administrations later, we have an outgoing president intent on putting Nixons environmental awakening to bed. Permanently.Not that long ago, a U.S. president rousingly declared a national environmental... more
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The Mini E's power is derived from a huge 250kg battery that replaces the back seats.
The E handles like an ordinary Mini, only smoother, as the electric motor delivers consistent torque that creates a steady pull all the way from standstill to its top speed of 95mph (152km/h).
Except, that is, when slowing down. Take the foot off the pedal and the car slows sharply as the heat from the brakes is captured as energy, which is injected back into the battery.The Mini E's power is derived from a huge 250kg battery that replaces the back... more
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The financial crisis is only one of multiple crises that will affect every country, rich and poor alike.
There's also the global poverty crisis. Tens of millions of people across the developing world are expected to fall into extreme poverty and joblessness as a result of an economic mess originating in the United States. This is bad news for workers everywhere, as it means even more brutal competition in the globalized labor pool.The financial crisis is only one of multiple crises that will affect every country,... more
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What is the Rapture?
It describes an event in the future when Jesus Christ will in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:51), change all believers (living and dead) to immortal, giving them a resurrected body, and catching them up to meet the Lord in the air. People say the word 'Rapture' isn't in the Bible, and this is misleading. The term 'Rapture' comes from the Latin word for the event. This term has been coined for the event rather than the actual Greek word in the text. The Greek word is harpazo. It means to snatch or catch away, used of Paul in being caught up to Paradise, 2 Cor. 12:2, 4. The word is used in 1 Thess 4:16-17, and translated 'caught up'. So, regardless of the word we use to describe the event, it most definitely is a Biblical term. (As much as any English term is, since the Bible wasn't written in English)
The controversial issue today is to when the event will take place in relation to the time of the second coming and seven year tribulation. Of course the point is meaningless for those that don't believe in a literal 7 year tribulation, but for those of us that do, it is a very import issue. Evangelicals believe in a literal 7 year tribulation, and a literal return of Jesus Christ. Less agree on a literal 1000 year Millenium after the return of Christ, but our viewpoint in EndTimes.org is that they are both literal, and future events. As will be shown, EndTimes.org teaches a Pretribulation rapture, a literal 7 year tribulation, the return of Jesus Christ, and a literal 1000 year Millennial reign of Christ.
THIS ARTICLE WAS JUST A PLOY, REPEAT, THIS IS JUST BAIT TO CONFIRM YOU HAVEN"T ALL BEEN ABDUCTED . IT IS EERIE AROUND HERE.IT IS LIKE A GHOST TOWN AROUND HERE. I HAVEN"T BEEN CALLED IGNORANT IN 48 HOURS, HAVEN'T RECEIVED A NASTY EMAIL IN TWO DAYS. IF SOMEONE DOESN'T CALL ME A CRAZY CHRISTIAN WITHIN 1 HOUR STANDARD ROMAN TIME, I AM CALLING THE FEDS. LOLWhat is the Rapture?
It describes an event in the future when Jesus Christ will in... more
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This undated handout photo shows a creature called a pygmy tarsier, believed for Reuters – This undated handout photo shows a creature called a pygmy tarsier, believed for the eight decades to …
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates.
Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized pygmy tarsiers -- two males and one female -- on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, the researchers said on Tuesday.
They spotted a fourth one that got away.
The tarsiers, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found. One of them chomped Sharon Gursky-Doyen, a Texas A&M University professor of anthropology who took part in the expedition.
"I'm the only person in the world to ever be bitten by a pygmy tarsier," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview.
"My assistant was trying to hold him still while I was attaching a radio collar around its neck. It's very hard to hold them because they can turn their heads around 180 degrees. As I'm trying to close the radio collar, he turned his head and nipped my finger. And I yanked it and I was bleeding."
Wouldn't it be nice if all the extinct animals came back? Passenger pidgins, Sabre Tooth cats, Tyrannosauruses Rex? Nah just kidding about the T Rex. But the Sabre Tooth would look bad ass next to me and my Katana.This undated handout photo shows a creature called a pygmy tarsier, believed for... more
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"My name is Jay Shafer and since 1997 I have been living in a house smaller than some people’s closets. I call the first of my little hand built houses Tumbleweed. My decision to inhabit just 89 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. My houses have met all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my homes have afforded is a luxury for which I am continually grateful.""My name is Jay Shafer and since 1997 I have been living in a house smaller than... more
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Community leaders and local officials broke ground yesterday in the Hill District to install a big heat pump that will use water runoff from an abandoned mine to heat and cool John Wesley AME Zion Church on Herron AvenueCommunity leaders and local officials broke ground yesterday in the Hill District to... more
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Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13 years behind bars, recycler hasn't been one of them.
But there he was one morning, pitchfork in hand, composting food scraps from the main chow line and coffee grounds from prison headquarters - doing his part to "green" the prison.
"It's nice to be out in the elements," said Knowles, 42, stirring dark, rich compost that will amend the soil at the small farm where he and fellow inmates of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center grew 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year.
Inmates of the minimum-security facility, 25 miles from Olympia, the state capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, compost 100 percent of food waste and even recycle shoe scraps that are made into playground turf.
"It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students," said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, which oversees 15 prisons and 18,000 offenders. "It's good security."
Most of the 400 inmates are in a work program, and put in between six and eight hours a day.
While there isn't scientific evidence that such activities are helping inmates, Nalini Nadkarni, an environmental studies professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., notes anecdotal evidence that it's working.
...if you ask me, we incarcerate folks for far too long for non violent crimes, and its us the taxpayers that have to foot the bill, I think this prison should be an example for institutions across our nation. I think all correctional facilities should be self sufficient, as well as most schools in our nation...what do you think current?
what do you think current Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13... more
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Frogs and salamanders, those amphibious bellwethers of environmental danger, are being killed in Yellowstone National Park. The predator, Stanford researchers say, is global warming. Biology graduate student Sarah McMenamin spent three summers in a remote area of the park searching for frogs and salamanders in ponds that had been surveyed 15 years ago. Almost everywhere she looked, she found a catastrophic decrease in the population. The amphibians need the ponds for their young to hatch.Frogs and salamanders, those amphibious bellwethers of environmental danger, are being... more
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In order to solve global energy shortages, renewable sources of energy — such as hydrogen — that don't produce pollutants or greenhouse gases are needed. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas are considered nonrenewable energy sources and have been accused of causing global warmingdue to their emissions of carbon dioxide.
Using a selecting agent to grow only these bacteria, the teams identified a gene that inactivates the bacteria's hydrogen uptake system so that all of the hydrogen produced is released. Because the bacterial cells cannot recycle the hydrogen, the hydrogen they produce can be captured and used as a fuel whose byproduct is water and heat
If successful, the invention holds the promise of hydrogen as a source for use in fuel cell technology. Fuel cell energy works by combining hydrogen and oxygen in order to produce electricity and water, which are considered more efficient, quiet, and pollution-free in comparison with other power sources.
very cool stuff more at source!In order to solve global energy shortages, renewable sources of energy — such as... more
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BAGHDAD _ The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn't agree to a new agreement on the status of U.S. forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq.
Many Iraqi politicians view the move as akin to political blackmail, a top Iraqi official told McClatchy Sunday.
In addition to halting all military actions, U.S. forces would cease activities that support Iraq’s economy, educational sector and other areas _ "everything" _ said Tariq al Hashimi, the country’s Sunni Muslim vice president. "I didn’t know the Americans are rendering such wide-scale services."
Hashimi said that Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, listed “tens” of areas of potential cutoffs in a three-page letter, and he said the implied threat caught Iraqi leaders by surprise.
"It was really shocking for us," he said. "Many people are looking to this attitude as a matter of blackmailing."
BLACKMAIL, EXTORTION, BUSH, CHENEY, ROVE.......SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT TO ME.BAGHDAD _ The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations... more
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The first guidebook of 'last chance saloon' holidays will be published tomorrow for travellers who want to visit the most endangered tourist destinations across the world. Frommer's 500 Places To See Before They Disappear provides a list of sites where it is still possible to see rare and vulnerable animal species, special landscapes and unique cultural sights in their unspoilt glory.
Co-author Holly Hughes, a former executive editor of Fodor's Travel Publications, said: 'The devastation wrought by climate change and direct man-made interference is familiar to all of us. But this book is a carefully chosen list of last-chance destinations that eco-conscious travellers can enjoy - if they move sharpish - for possibly the last time.'
According to Hughes and co-author Larry West, an award-winning investigative journalist once nominated for a Pulitzer prize, more than 20 of Britain's best-loved landmarks - and lesser-known gems - merit a place in their collection. The Tower of London and Greenwich Maritime Museum, for example, are at risk from rising ocean levels which will lead the Thames to flood its banks.
With 500 threatened destinations to choose from, she suggests heading to the Everglades in southern Florida. Filled with rare species, this ecosystem is degenerating with alarming rapidity. Already half has been lost to agricultural and urban development. Dwindling water levels and pollution have severely compromised what remains. 'The number of bird species has fallen by 93 per cent and many of the fish and even the alligators who remain show high mercury levels,' said Hughes.
...cont'd...The first guidebook of 'last chance saloon' holidays will be published... more
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