Archive for the 'Environment' Category

GOPers Finally Waking Up To Global Warming

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, Republicans

Shaun Mullen points to a growing trend among Republicans, brought about by the spectre of permanent minority status.
From TMV:
A politician knows he has a problem when his own children warn him that they might vote against him.
That is what happened to Representative Bob Inglis of South Carolina, who like President Bush and most of his [...]

November 10th, 2007 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

500 Million Chinese Need Drinkable Water?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in China, Environment

Have we made a deal with the devil?
From NY Times:
Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein [...]

August 26th, 2007 | Permalink| 24 Comments »

The science of climate change

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Environment, News, Science

The latest issue of Scientific American has a pretty informative article on the current state of climate science: why we know the earth is warming, and why we know human activity is partly to blame.
The authors are William Collins of UC-Berkeley; Robert Colman, an Australian; James Haywood of the UK’s Met Office; Martin Manning of [...]

July 25th, 2007 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

VIDEO: Do Hybrids Really Get Great Gas Mileage?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Energy, Environment, Law, Money, Video

I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t, but would car companies be stupid enough to have lied?
One man in California thinks they did and he’s filling a class action lawsuit against Honda.

July 10th, 2007 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Water In Your Fuel Tank?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Energy, Environment

Interesting new discovery as reported by the New Scientist:
Forget cars fuelled by alcohol and vegetable oil. Before long, you might be able to run your car with nothing more than water in its fuel tank. It would be the ultimate zero-emissions vehicle.
While water, plain old H2O, is not at first sight an obvious power source, [...]

July 5th, 2007 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

Welcome back, bald eagle

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Environment, Good Decisions, News

Everybody of a certain age has a bald eagle story.
I spent six of the first eight years of my life in Buffalo, N.Y. Growing up there, the bald eagle had almost mythic significance to my young mind because it was a symbol in more ways than one. Not only did it represent our country; it [...]

June 29th, 2007 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Cheney the environmentalist?

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Environment, General Politics, News

Okay, he’s nothing of the sort. In their final installment in the Cheney series, the Washington Post tackles his environmental record. It’s not pretty.
We again see the same methodology: operating in secret, reaching down to the lowest levels of the bureaucracy to effect the policies he wants.
In this case, though, it’s hard to discern a [...]

June 27th, 2007 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Video: Should We Combat Global Warming?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, The World, Video

This video has been making its way across the interwebs, so I figured I’d post it here and get some feedback.
Why? Well, the argument is very compelling so take some time today, watch it and decide for yourself.

June 15th, 2007 | Permalink| 7 Comments »

Mad Cow False Negatives: A Retraction

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, Science

The AP reported that the government was challenging a farmer for testing all of his cows for Mad Cow disease. I thought that was pretty stupid.
Turns out I was wrong…sort of.
See, they did challenge the farmer, but not for the reason that was first reported…
In the lawsuit, the government did not make an argument [...]

June 6th, 2007 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Don’t Test ALL Cows For Mad Cow Disease?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Corporate Business, Environment, General Politics

More twisted logic from the administration that keeps me in stitches nearly every single day.
From IHT:
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.
The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans [...]

May 31st, 2007 | Permalink| 16 Comments »

Should a Group of Radical Environmentalists Be Considered Terrorists?

By Dyre42 | Related entries in Environment, News, The War On Terrorism

From ABC News:
A Group of 11 Militant Environmentalists Could Be Sentenced as Terrorists Without Having Killed a Soul
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
The FBI has called them “the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat,” and their members include four of the Bureau’s 11 Most Wanted homegrown terrorists. Yet in more than 1,100 acts of arson and vandalism, the members [...]

May 23rd, 2007 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Video: Rotating Skyscraper Set For Dubai

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Energy, Environment, Ideas, The World, Video

Seriously, you have to look at this. Each floor moves independent of one another so the shape is constantly changing. AND, it creates enough wind power to power 10 buildings like it.

WSJ has more:
In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination [...]

May 20th, 2007 | Permalink| No Comments »

Video: Bush Finally Gets To Fuel Efficiency

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Energy, Environment, Money, Video

Am I jaded? Oh, you bet. How much progress could we have made if he had pushed this after 9/11?
Still, progress is progress and I applaud these steps. It’s not just key for our economy, it’s also key for winning the WoT.

May 16th, 2007 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

Skyscraper To Produce All The Energy It Needs

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Energy, Environment, The World

This is very, very cool.
From Metaefficient:
This skyscraper, to be built in Dubai, is called the Burj al-Taqa (’Energy Tower’), and it will produce 100% of its own power. The tower will have a huge (197 foot diameter) wind turbine on its roof, and arrays of solar cells that will total 161,459 square feet in size. [...]

May 13th, 2007 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Water In China

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, The World

Yes, those are bottles of water.
From the Guardian…
Beijing, China: Xu Jiehua (r), the wife of the detained Chinese environmental activist Wu Yilong, sits behind water samples collected by Wu Yilong from Chinese urban rivers and lakes.
Progress comes with a price, and when you don’t have a democracy…things can get even more out of hand.

May 10th, 2007 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

World’s Oldest Insurer: Global Warming Is Real

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, Money

This could be the single most significant thing to happen to the global warming debate ever.
See, Lloyd’s of London isn’t a former presidential candidate trying to keep himself in the public eye because he couldn’t get over his defeat. This is an insurance company. All they do is try to make money. And they [...]

May 7th, 2007 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Iraq War Fallout Felt In Greensburg

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, Foreign Policy, Iraq, War

When mother nature attacks, we need to be ready.
Unfortunately for my next door neighbor, we aren’t nearly as ready as we should be…
GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor.
Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the [...]

May 7th, 2007 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Inefficient Lightblubs Banned In Canada By 2012

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Economy, Environment

Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea, but I know people will start crying “Nanny State” if any politician brings it up. Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll be okay with paying a few extra dollars for new lightbulbs if it can significantly cut down on energy consumption.
One can hope.
From the Montreal Gazette:
Ontario announced earlier [...]

April 25th, 2007 | Permalink| 12 Comments »

Time To Rethink Nuclear Power?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Economy, Environment, Science, Technology

France embraced it long ago, and it’s paying big dividends…
Because nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases, France has the cleanest air in the industrialized world, and because the price of oil is now around $60 a barrel, it has the lowest electric bills in Europe. In fact, France has so much cheap electricity, it exports [...]

April 9th, 2007 | Permalink| 13 Comments »

How Much Solar Energy Could Power The World?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment

From Wikipedia…
Solar power systems installed in the areas defined by the dark disks could provide a little more than the world’s current total primary energy demand (assuming a conversion efficiency of 8%). That is, all energy currently consumed, including heat, electricity, fossil fuels, etc., would be produced in the form of electricity by solar cells. [...]

April 6th, 2007 | Permalink| 3 Comments »