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Here are some of this week's hottest environmental blog posts!
It’s irresponsible at best and disingenuous at worst for our elected leaders to promote the false hope that somehow drilling off more of our beaches and in special places like the Arctic Refuge will make enough of a dent in oil supplies to lower prices at the pump. Without a doubt, the only ones who benefit from this gambit are the Big Oil companies already raking in obscene profits at our expense.
Check out this video the NRDC made with the help of cartoonist Mark Fiore:
The new process mimics the photosynthesis performed by plants, using solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. These gases can later be recombined in a fuel cell. Then the fuel cell can power your home or charge your electric car -- any time you like.
Our society revolves around computers, but the fact of the matter is that computers consume a lot of energy. This week Dell Computers claimed it is now carbon neutral. [3] Although it is hard to be completely carbon neutral, at least they are taking a step in the right direction. Grist.org reports:
Dell now sources one-fifth of its power from renewable sources, buys renewable-energy credits for the rest, and is paying for forest preservation in Madagascar in order to offset 475,000 tons of emissions. Dell, which aims to be "the greenest technology company on the planet," has also installed energy-efficient lighting, heating, and computing systems in its offices -- which provide the handy side benefit of $3 million in savings each year.
The Green Patriot Posters project is beginning its campaign with a series of bus posters in Cleveland, Ohio, designed by local artist Michael Beirut. As the title implies, they address the tie between loving your planet and loving your country. The sides of the Cleveland buses read: "This bus is an assault vehicle in the fight against global warming. Be a green patriot," with a green silhouette of a rifle-toting Revolutionary War minuteman.
Most discussions about adapting to inevitable climate change in a world with rising concentrations of greenhouse gases have focused on seawalls, drought-resistant crops and the like.
But dress codes count, as well. You probably remember recent coverage of Japan’s “Cool Biz” push to cut air conditioning and toss neckties. And the United Nations has said it’s raising thermostats in summer to curb related carbon dioxide emissions.
Here, we use satellite observations and model simulations to examine the response of tropical precipitation events to naturally driven changes in surface temperature and atmospheric moisture content. These observations reveal a distinct link between rainfall extremes and temperature, with heavy rain events increasing during warm periods and decreasing during cold periods. Furthermore, the observed amplification of rainfall extremes is found to be larger than predicted by models, implying that projections of future changes in rainfall extremes due to anthropogenic global warming may be underestimated.
What did we miss? Tell us in the comments!
Links:
[1] http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rperks/drilling_is_no_laughing_matter.html
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-crandell/solar-energy-breakthrough_b_116343.html
[3] http://www.grist.org/news/2008/08/06/dell/index.html
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maura-judkis/rosie-the-recycler-poster_b_116390.html
[5] http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/adapting-to-warming-shorts-in-the-office/
[6] http://climateprogress.org/2008/08/08/science-extreme-rains-supercharged-by-warming/#more-3530
[7] http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1160787
[8] http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d
[9] http://www.funnyordie.com
[10] http://www.youtube.com/user/aicram62
[11] http://www.1sky.org/flag_content/add/124/comment
[12] http://www.1sky.org/print/857#comment-124
August 12, 2008
6:10 PM
Marcia Everett said:
I'm concerned about the blog on Solar energy. They ask what do we do when the sun goes down? What do the countries already using solar energy do?
www.youtube.com/user/aicram62 [10]
The solutions are here.
Flag as inappropriate [11] | Permalink [12]