Posts Tagged ‘Environment’
Show Me the Money
By Robert Singer
We have been conditioned from birth to believe that everything wrong in our society is about Greed: The inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.
However, my research concludes the earth’s environmental damage and pollution was not the result of greed and the unintended consequences of our capitalistic consumer society, but was the goal.
Until the common man became “civilized” he had almost no environmental impact on the earth. Hunters, foragers and gatherers are unable to upset the ecological structures of the planet. [1]
The first civilized societies and their agrarian economies had an environmental impact but the damage was negligible because only 3% of the population, Kings and Lords were consumers.
The earth wasn’t in trouble until the House of…
Giant iceberg spotted off Australia
via Telegraph
The ice chunk, measuring some 2,300 feet long with an estimated depth of more than 1,000 feet, caused a stir when it was sighted by experts based on Australia’s remote Macquarie Island.
“I’ve never seen anything like it – we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice,” said fur seal biologist Dean Miller.
Neal Young, an Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist, said the flat-topped slab could break into dozens of smaller icebergs as it moves in the direction of New Zealand, causing a possible shipping hazard.
“It’s rare to make a sighting like this – it’s certainly impressive-looking,” he said.
He said the iceberg had probably split from a major Antarctic ice shelf nine years ago, and said more could be expected in the area if global warming continues.
“If the current trends in global warming were to continue I would anticipate seeing more icebergs and the large ice shelves breaking up,” he added.
But Professor Jonathan Bamber, from Bristol University, said icebergs the size of Wales can break off the Antarctic and it is too early to say if it is caused by climate change.
Pervasive Plastics: Why the U.S. Needs New and Tighter Controls
John Wargo writes on Yale Environment 360:
Since 1950, plastics have quickly and quietly entered the lives and bodies of most people and ecosystems on the planet. In the United States alone, more than 100 billion pounds of resins are formed each year into food and beverage packaging, electronics, building products, furnishings, vehicles, toys, and medical devices. In 2007, the average American purchased more than 220 pounds of plastic, creating nearly $400 billion in sales.
It is now impossible to avoid exposure to plastics. They surround and pervade our homes, bodies, foods, and water supplies, from the plastic diapers and polyester pajamas worn by our children to the cars we drive and the frying pans in which we cook our food.
The ubiquitous nature of plastics is a significant factor in an unexpected…
Spices, Hormones and Cocaine! Found in Drinking Water
Christine Dell’Amore writes on National Geographic News:
How’s this for a sweet surprise? A team of researchers in Washington State has found traces of cooking spices and flavorings in the waters of Puget Sound. University of Washington associate professor Richard Keil heads the Sound Citizen program, which investigates how what we do on land affects our waters.
Keil and his team have tracked “pulses” of food ingredients that enter the sound during certain holidays.
For instance, thyme and sage spike during Thanksgiving, cinnamon surges all winter, chocolate and vanilla show up during weekends (presumably from party-related goodies), and waffle-cone and caramel-corn remnants skyrocket around the Fourth of July. The Puget Sound study is one of several ongoing efforts to investigate the unexpected ingredients that find their way into the global water supply…
Are Algae Mass Murderers?
David Biello writes in Scientific American:
Algae seem harmless enough. These precursors to plants thrive throughout the world’s waters. But these single-celled plants have global consequences. We can thank them for oxygen in the atmosphere, oil in the lithosphere as well as dead zones in the oceans and now even a dead horse in France.
That’s right. The fumes from decomposing algae on a French beach killed a horse and rendered its rider unconscious this past summer. And poisonous tides caused by algal blooms make eating shellfish dicey at times as well as causing mass die-offs of fish, birds and even sea-going mammals. Plus, according to a new theory, that might just be a small taste of the plants’ killing ability.
James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think that such algal blooms…
British Proposal Calls For Orwellian Personal Carbon Allowances
Britain’s broadsheet the Telegraph reports on a controversial proposal:
Everyone in Britain should have an annual carbon ration and be penalised if they use too much fuel, the head of the Environment Agency will say.
Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity.
Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using. If their “carbon account” hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits. Those who are…
To Spot an Alien, Follow the Pollution Trail
David Shiga writes in New Scientist:
Do aliens pollute their planets? Let’s hope they do, as this would give us a promising way of spotting where they live.
Radio noise may be too short-lived to help us find aliens, if our own activity is any guide. During most of the 20th century, our television transmission antennas leaked a lot of their energy into space. More recently, they have begun to be supplanted by satellites that beam their transmissions at the ground, as well as by cable. Inquisitive aliens searching for signs of intelligent life on Earth may soon have to look elsewhere.
Light pollution from cities might still give us away. “Observed over interstellar distances, they would reveal to the observer the presence of a technology,” say a team of astronomers led by…
Evolver: 2012, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Dimensional Shift
Where will you be when the 5,125 year Long Count Calendar of the Classical Maya ends on December, 21, 2012? Will you be hiding in an underground cave from global cataclysm and magnetic polar reversal? Will you be entering a multidimensional realm of hyperspace triggered by mass activation of the pineal gland? Will you be picking up the pieces of a ruined world or dancing the night away at the party at the end of time?
Considering that nobody knows what’s going to happen in 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar functions as a tremendously intriguing meme upon which we can project our hopes and fears, dreams and desires. Hollywood has now offered up a massive collective shadow projection in the form of a $250 million disaster epic that takes the…
The Tiny German Village That Went Off the Grid
Jonathan Scheff writes in Discover Magazine:
In 1998, the gears began turning to convert Jühnde, a tiny village in Saxony, Germany, into a bioenergy hub that receives every bit of its electricity (and most of its heat) from biomass. The system went live in 2005, and its subsequent success has turned Jühnde into a celebrity in green circles, as well as a model for other bioenergy-seeking towns and cities.
This image shows Jühnde’s unique bioenergy plant, with its two domed fermentation silos. The biogas plant has caught the attention of international communities and organizations such as Reynolds, Indiana—a.k.a. BioTown, USA.
There are lots of photos in addition to the one shown here; review them all at Discover Magazine.
Giant Snakes Threaten the U.S.
Sounds like a bad B-movie, like the ones the Sci-Fi Channel airs on a regular basis.
Larry O’Hanlon writes on Discovery:
No exaggeration: U.S. Geological Survey’s biologists have just published a report detailing the ecological risks of nine species of giant non-native boas, anacondas and pythons in the United States. Already Burmese pythons are reproducing in the wilds and no-so-wilds of South Florida, with an estimated population now in the tens of thousands. But things could get a lot worse. There’s even this tidbit about threats to humans in the press release:
Based on the biology and known natural history of the giant constrictors, individuals of some species may also pose a small risk to people, although most snakes would not be large enough to consider a person as suitable prey. Mature individuals…
Nature Illustrations From Chernobyl
Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, 65, is a Swiss-born scientific illustrator who spent 25 years working in the scientific department of the Natural History Museum at the Unibersity of Zurich.
Since 1967, she has visited 25 nuclear sites around the world, most notably Chernobyl, after disaster struck in 1986. Her work meticulously depicts the deformed mutant insects and other creatures found in radioactive zones. Her large body of illustrations are disturbing yet beautiful, as noted in Fast Company.
UK police use anti-terrorist legislation to stop climate change activist travelling
Want to go to Copenhagen to protest at the UN summit? The Orwellian state marches ahead in the UK.
From the Guardian website.
UK border police used anti-terrorist legislation to prevent a British climate change activist from crossing over into mainland Europe where he planned to take part in events surrounding the forthcoming United Nations summit in Denmark.
Chris Kitchen, a 31-year-old office worker, said he feared his treatment by police could mark the start of a clampdown on protesters, hundreds of whom are planning to travel to Copenhagen for the climate change talks in December.
The Solution to our Environmental Woes is to End Prohibition
via chycho
The best solution to our environmental problems is to end prohibition. There is no other viable option short of the immediate end to military conflict that will have the same positive impact on the ecosystem. Our first step towards a sustainable existence should begin with cannabis. Its assimilation into our civilization is the safest, simplest, most efficient immediate solution that we can implement in time to prevent an ecological catastrophe.
Cannabis is a plant, and its use is as old as civilization itself. It has thousands of immediate and potential applications. Its cultivation rejuvenates the soil, it can replace wood products, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint, plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care. It is one of the most important bounties of nature.…
