Climate change, ecology, nature, environment, eco-friendly politics, non-profit projects, human rights, preservation, wildlife... all that we care about.
We disinfect everything all the time and not always wisely.
While many of us are naturally immune against these invisible enemies, aka bacteria, others are born with a deficient immune system that does not allow them to live outside of a sterile room. For them, the battle against germs is a daily struggle as they are [...]
Today, a man entered the Discovery Channel Headquarters near Washington, D.C. and held 3 people hostage at gunpoint. The man also had canisters strapped to his body that were suspected to be explosives of some kind.
After several hours of negotiations, one thing led to another and the gunman ended up shot to death by the [...]
Several people were taken hostage at gunpoint today at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C.
The man was wearing canisters strapped to his body; whether they actually pose a threat or not remains to be seen, but FBI bomb technicians and the SWAT team were on scene to deal with the problem. Despite the [...]
When you look closely then nature has weapons to deal with a lot of what mankind throws at it.
Know any female scientists? 90% of 18-24 year olds in the UK don’t, according to a recent poll by the Royal Society.
Sure, everyone knows who Albert Einstein is – well, the poll shows that almost half do, anyway – but few can name French/Polish chemist and physicist Marie Skłodowska Curie. What about primatologist Jane Goodall? [...]
A study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology – aka Satan’s Bible – is providing insight into how different species react to environmental contamination.
Scientists studying the effects of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine on local populations of insects, birds and mammals have found that species’ success in terms [...]
Space is not the sterile expanse of nothingness we might picture it to be. In fact, the space around Earth, much like the Earth itself, is littered with our junk.
NASA estimates that there are some 18,000 pieces of space trash, each 10cm wide or larger, orbiting the Earth. Honestly, to me that doesn’t sound like [...]
In Monday’s Guardian George Monbiot slams the concept of ‘vertical farming’ in a piece, entitled ‘Greens living in ivory towers now want to farm them too’.
His main beef is that a Columbia University parasitologist named Dickson Despommier has been getting a lot of support in the green media for his idea to create skyscraper farms [...]
As Russia’s crops wither and burn in record heat and wildfires, the oldest and first seed bank in the world is under threat.
Russia’s Pavlovsk agricultural station, located outside of St. Petersburg, was established in 1926 with the purpose of preserving plant diversity and breeding new crops in response to potential food crises.
During World War II’s [...]
An underwater river that dwarfs the Thames has been discovered in the Black Sea.
Europe’s giant inland sea contains currents that behave much like rivers do on land. Scientists from the University of Leeds explored these never seen before currents with a robotic submarine. The currents are created by salt water flowing into the Black Sea [...]
A new Met Office report, compiled of several recent studies, documents what scientists consider undeniable evidence of a changing climate and warming planet.
10 indicators of global warming were incorporated in the report, including rising land and sea-surface temperatures, ocean heat, sea levels and humidity; and a reduction in Arctic sea ice, glaciers and springtime snow [...]
Last night, I was watching the Weather Channel and something rather interesting was brought to my attention. A new report on Global Warming was published recently.
The report was written by more than 300 scientists from 48 countries and confirms what we’ve known all along: Global Warming is here and it’s not going anywhere, any time [...]
Latin America has huge potential for wind and solar power. Brazil already has large and long-established hydropower and biofuel industries, but along with Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries, they are increasingly looking towards European models of renewable energy.
From an article in Scientific American:
European wind farms dwarf Latin American efforts in terms of production [...]
For those of you who didn’t swoon when Edward Norton urged us to ban the plastic bag, here is another National Geographic video featuring Hollywood starlets Natalie Portman and Chloe Sevigny. I dare you to watch it without afterwards gleefully smashing your energy-sucking bulbs and rushing out for a bunch of those efficient twirly CFL [...]
Last month, there was a Solar Decathlon in Europe.
It all started in 2007, when the US Government and the Government of Spain’s Ministry of Housing signed an agreement to organize a sustainable solar architecture competition in Europe. The US actually started having Solar Decathlon competitions in 2002. This year’s Europe competition included 19 top universities [...]
Despite the recent economic downturn, the green energy market has grown to the point of eclipsing fossil fuel – at least in terms of the creation of new power capacity in Europe and the United States.
In 2009 renewables accounted for over 50% of new power capacity in the US and 60% in the Europe. Green [...]
Certain Internet giants were recently criticized by a Greenpeace report because they source their power from coal-fired stations. Facebook and Apple were named as guilty parties, while Google and Yahoo came out looking a bit more eco-friendly than the competition.
But cloud computing – or web-based computer use – can also generate heat and electricity. It’s [...]
Pipe dreams of a future of eco-friendly travel go up in smoke when you look at the projected numbers for air travel. In short, total emissions from flying are set to skyrocket.
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is being touted as 20% more fuel efficient than its rivals, lighter and more durable due to it’s carbon [...]
Though the cap on the damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is reportedly holding, hydrocarbon leakage has been detected on the seabed.
The hope has been that the cap – successfully placed over the wellhead last week – would stop the flow of oil into the Gulf until permanent relief wells are in place.
US [...]
According to the recently released yearly study Energy Revolution (conducted by Greenpeace and the EREC – European Renewable Energy Council) Europe could reduce it’s CO2 emissions with 95 percent by 2050. The results of the study show that Europe could achieve this spectacular reduction in CO2 emissions by producing up to 97 percent of its [...]
The history of this planet is an awesome thing to learn about and there are so many ways you can do that. You can go to a museum, read books, check out a historical reenactment event, or specialize in the hunt for fossils and other artifacts. Some people say history comes alive, but what if [...]
During a recent visit to Finland I discovered the most amazing thing. Apart from being a very beautiful and clean country, populated by friendly and eco-conscious citizens, Finland has one big advantage over the rest of Europe when it comes to EV’s: charging stations!
Vesa Koivisto, part of Fortum, a Finnish leading energy company focusing on [...]
Just soon as the US sent a hot Russian spy back home, an offer to help stop the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico emerged from the former ‘Evil Empire’.
Russian submarine captain Yevgenii Chernyaev has told the BBC that two unique submersibles from Russia, which are capable of diving 6,000 meters deep, would be [...]
I’ve assumed that transport via boat, whether shipping goods or people, is less polluting and has a lower carbon footprint than flying or road freight, for example. Not so, according to both scientific research and inside information from the maritime shipping industry.
While diesel cars – once known as smelly, noisy polluters – have relatively cleaned [...]
The European Energy online community www.european-energy.org – a platform for future generations – went on online during June 2010.
This Facebook application connects people, who want to act to make the planet a cleaner place.
By 4th July 2010 nearly 2,500 members had joined.
The members of the community turn off all [...]
I recently wrote about lightweight manned electric airplanes making groundbreaking 2 and 3-hour flights. As impressive as this may sound, a Swiss solar-powered plane has just demolished these achievements by a ‘comfortable’ margin of 23 hours.
On Thursday morning a former jet pilot in Switzerland’s air force successfully landed Solar Impulse, a four engine solar aircraft, [...]
An analysis based on national emissions targets suggests that global temperatures will rise by 4C (7.2F) by 2100.
Six months after over 100 governments pledged to limit their countries’ emissions in order to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2C (2.7-3.6F) above pre-industrial levels a major international study of over 60 nations, called the Climate Scoreboard, [...]
A telescope aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planck satellite has captured the image of the ‘ghost of the Big Bang’.
The image is of the afterglow of the birth of the universe, which happened around 14 billion years ago. Cosmic microwaves are detected in order to form the picture of the very young universe.
From an [...]
Ny Ålesund, Norway. Population: 30-40. Home to the most northerly post office in the world and a growing community of scientists from across the globe. The former coalmining village is now an international Arctic research station with centers operated by several European countries as well as Asian heavyweight nations China, India, South Korea and Japan.
This [...]
While oil spill news continues to look bleak, the solar industry is on the rise.
Yesterday, US President Barack Obama announced the awarding of about $2 billion to two solar energy companies that agreed to build new solar power plants in the US. This means more renewable energy and thousands of new jobs will soon be [...]
