Photo by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite

The northern and western highlands of Scotland were still winter-brown and even dusted with snow in places, but the waters of the North Sea were blooming with phytoplankton (tiny, plant-like organisms) on May 8, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region and captured this image.

Phytoplankton are tiny organisms—many are just a single cell—that use chlorophyll and other pigments to capture light for photosynthesis. Because these pigments absorb sunlight, they change the color of the light reflected from the sea surface back to the satellite (shades of bright blue and green). Scientists have used observations of “ocean color” from satellites for more than 20 years to track worldwide patterns in phytoplankton blooms.

Phytoplankton are important to the Earth system for a host of reasons, including their status as the base of the ocean food web. In the North Sea, they are the base of the food web that supports Scotland’s commercial fisheries, including monkfish and herring. As photosynthesizers, they also play a crucial role in the carbon cycle, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some oceanographers are concerned that rising ocean temperatures will slow phytoplankton growth rates, harming marine ecosystems and causing carbon dioxide to accumulate more rapidly in the atmosphere.

NASA image by Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey (some editing by FEWW).

The answer to this amazing question is unfortunately quite simple, it is again another marketing technique to try and approach the suddenly 'conscious' and environmentally friendly consumer that is now trying to look into reducing their CO2 footprint on mother earth. The increased profit margin for this premium product goes nowhere else but into the pockets of the producers of these cars.

You yourself do not gain simply because the price of a hybrid car, where most people would not exactly like to shell out $100,000 for having your pickup converted to run on hydrogen. But be sure to get one once you've brought home your next million dollar paycheck, as it may improve your image amount your social circle of elites when you roar by withing showing any signs of polluting the environment. The story about the actual milage which you get/L won't even be started... Oh yes, and talk about refueling every 120km, with the one in a million hydrogen fuel stations that are out there.

The next question of the hydrogen fuel comes up with the government subsidies which may be potentially given to those who stimulate the research into hydrogen cars, and 'try' and reduce their environmental impact on the earth. So not only are less taxes collected due to fewer taxes being collected from oil, but instead money is passed on to those who drive a car that is less efficient then a regular diesel hybrid.

Now before going nuts about the hydrogen economy of the future, go back to your gr.12 physics textbook and look at the chapter on thermodynamics. Or if thats too far here is a quick online review of it. Hydrogen isn’t an energy source — it’s an energy carrier, like a battery, in which case it takes more energy to put it there then it is actually worth. You better also not be surprised about having your new hydrogen car weighing several times more then a normal ones. Just please don't forget the words of the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHTSA) “Vehicle weight reduction is probably the most powerful technique for improving fuel economy. Each 10 percent reduction in weight improves the fuel economy of a new vehicle design by approximately eight percent.” But on the other hand you get to drive like a tank and carry a sticker on your car showing that this is a hydrogen car and that if you get into a serious accident the whole block will go up in flames. (Free hydrogen is extremely reactive. It is ten times more flammable than gasoline, and twenty times more explosive.) When expecting your next hydrogen delivery to arrive at your local gas station please don't hope that it will actually be able to fuel more then 60 cars, as the 40 ton truck will only be carrying 400kg of hydrogen, and will use up 20-40% of the energy delivered just by getting to your station.

So the next time you get into your 'clean' hydrogen powered care, along with your going green handbook take the single page about the 'Five Myths of the Hydrogen Fueled Vehicle,' and show those damn gas car drivers about who is boss on the road.

Andrei Ryan 14/05/08

I'm a big fan of cheat sheets so I created some to take with you to the grocery store.

Foods to limit or avoid:
Sugar: Weakens collagen bonds! (Fructose, Corn Syrup, Glucose, Dextrose, Maltose and Sucrose, etc.)
Starches: Pasta, Bread, Potatoes, Rice (White flour, white bread, and white rice are not as healthy as their whole-grain counterparts; if you eat potatoes, baking them with the skins on is best. Make sure to eat nutrient and fiber-rich carbs instead of empty "white" varieties.
Red Meat
Butter
Cheese
Saturated Fats
Trans Fats: Hydrogenated oils found in almost every pre-packaged food; they slow metabolism and fat burning, and cause accelerated aging.

Note: Anything you put into the bloodstream has a toxic affect on the liver and skin. Alcohol and caffeine are two examples.

Caffeine: When applied topically to the skin, can prevent the occurrence of skin cancer caused by UV radiation. It has also been found to be an effective antioxidant, scavenging OH radicals, thus producing another mechanism for its anticancer properties. Conversely, the production of DHEA, melatonin, and other vital hormones start to decline and caffeine speeds up that downhill drop. Caffeine increases cortisol, a stress hormone, levels in the blood for up to 18 hours. Caffeine dehydrates the body and contributes to the aging of the skin and kidneys. It has been shown to inhibit DNA repair and slow the ability of the liver to detoxify foreign toxins. Caffeine also keeps people from sleeping properly.
Alcohol: Causes small blood vessels in the skin to widen, allowing more blood to flow close to the skin's surface. This produces a flushed skin color and a feeling of warmth.

Tip: Gaining and losing weight causes skin to sag and wrinkle. Maintain a healthy weight via diet and exercise. Exercise regulates hormones, reduces cortisol (which has been proven to lead to acne) and insulin levels.

Foods for optimal skin:
Water: Always drink lots of water to keep skin hydrated and to flush out toxins. Here’s how to figure out how much water you need each day: Take your body weight and divide by 2. Divide this number by 8. The resulting number approximates how many 8-oz. glasses of water you need each day. If intense activity is performed, add 2 extra glasses to that number.
Whole Foods: Foods as close to their natural state as possible without additives or processing minimize inflammation and oxidation “rusting.”
Artichokes: Rid the digestive system of toxins and carcinogens; a great source of folic acid, which can help ward off cervical cancer and is beneficial to women who plan to have a baby.
Enzymes: Break down complex food molecules into small molecules, and releases energy from food; acts as a catalyst in many cellular functions. (Pineapple, Papaya, etc.)
Leafy Greens: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, collard greens, kale, bok choy, cauliflower, mustard greens, swiss chard, broccoli, spinach
Orange Foods (rich in beta-carotene): Cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, mangoes, butternut squash; dark leafy greens are also rich in beta-carotene. (Rich in fiber, anti-inflammatory)
Garlic: High in antioxidants; promotes circulation
Good Fats: Avocado, nuts (almonds, etc., rich in Co-Q10, an antioxidant that boosts cells turnover), seeds, olive oil (has a high level of Vitamin E, reduces age-related diseases and gives a youthful appearance from the inside out.) Fats are used to produce the materials in the sebaceous glands that lubricate the skin. They also assist in the absorption of fat-soluble Vitamins A,D,E,K.
Grains: Quinoa, barley, buckwheat, bulgar wheat, rye, millet, yellow corn, amaranth, spelt, cous cous, wheat germ, flax seed, wild rice, brown rice, oats.
Antioxidant-Rich Fruits/Berries: Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc. (high in antioxidants); red grapes
Herbs: Rosemary (boosts liver function, reduces inflammation, has high levels of Vitamin E), ginger (boosts metabolism), tumeric (antioxidant, cancer-fighting), licorice (helps with digestion and removal of toxins)
Agave Nectar: Low glycemic sweetener to replace sugar
Proteins: Used by every cell of the body to make other usable proteins. They duplicate DNA and make muscle tissue and keratin. Collagen is made from protein. (Fish, Eggs, Dairy, Beans, Meat, Soy). Amino Acids are obtained from eating proteins.
Green Tea, White Tea, Rooibos Tea: Rich in antioxidants and low in caffeine.
Soy: Anti-inflammatory, balances hormones.
Wheatgrass: High in antioxidants.
Tomatoes: Rich in lycopene, a cancer fighter.
Cocoa Powder/Dark Chocolate: High in phenols (antioxidants) and flavanoids (antioxidants)Cold Water Fish: Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which improves cellular function and reduces the body's production of inflammatory substances that can damage the skin. Salmon, halibut, herring, snapper, bass, sardines, and trout. Salmon also contains high amounts of protein and Coenzyme Q10, a powerful antioxidant that boosts cell turnover, plus it's rich in dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE), which increases tone in the skin.

bot waters are naturally flavored and provide B vitamins as well as hydration.

Christina Komeshian is a Licensed Esthetician practicing in Breckenridge, Colorado. Her background includes working as a freelance beauty writer for newspapers and magazines, including Nylon. As a high school student she worked at a health food store and an organic farm in Putnam County, New York. This is where her appreciation of natural foods began. She recently created a line of bite-sized organic cookies with health benefits.

E-mail Christina Komeshian at Skindrop Facial Studio.

Bahwa setiap harinya sampah kertas di seluruh dunia berasal dari 27 ribu batang kayu? (WWF)

Pada tahun 2005, Indonesia mengkonsumsi kertas sebanyak 5,6 juta ton. Untuk itu dibutuhkan sebanyak 22,4 juta meter kubik kayu yang diambil dari hutan alam. Atau sama dengan menebang hutan seluas 640 ribu hektar/hari.

Sementara kegiatan penebangan dan kebakaran hutan merupakan penyumbang emisi terbesar, yaitu sekitar 64% dari total emisi di Indonesia. Diantaranya diakibatkan oleh kegiatan pabrik kertas. (Kementrian Lingkungan Hidup)

So…

Hemat Kertas untuk Selamatkan Hutan dan Kurangi Emisi

Tips hemat kertas

• Gunakan kertas bolak balik. Tindakan ini bisa menghemat penggunaan kertas hingga 50%
• Kumpulkan kertas yang satu sisinya masih kosong. Pakai ulang kertas tersebut untuk mencetak dokumen atau buku catatan.
• Kumpulkan kertas bekas yang telah digunakan kedua sisinya serta sampah kertas lainnya untuk didaur ulang (Kedai Daur Ulang Pak Salam Jl. Mampang Prapatan XI No.3A, Jak-Sel. Telp. (021) 7900742)

Boros Kertas supaya bahan bakunya cepat habis atau...

Hemat Kertas supaya bahan bakunya selalu tersedia

(Taken from Green Festival)

]]> http://feww.wordpress.com/?p=276 Thu, 15 May 2008 06:02:21 +0000 terres http://feww.wordpress.com/?p=276 How do you say "hypocrite" without calling yourself "hippo turd" in German?

Brazil biofuels must respect Amazon: Merkel

German coal-powered plants must respect Earth: The World

German Chancellor Merkel urged Brazil to adopt tougher environmental standards in biofuels production. [She added rich nations needed to pay up to help protect the rainforests' biodiversity.]

"Biofuels are a way to replace traditional fossil fuels but only if they are produced sustainably," Merkel said in Brasilia. [She could hardly hide her disgust at the fact that Germany couldn't import "cheap" Brazilian ethanol anytime soon.]

Merkel and Sarkazy. Two turds of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: Gerald Herbert, AP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

"There are statistics that raise concerns about deforestation, the process of displacement between soybeans, beef and the rain forest," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Lula.

Merkel with the other one third of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: global-metropolis) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Meanwhile Lula made his statement of the year saying that "Brazil was the most interested of all countries in protecting the Amazon but that the millions of people living there also had a right to prosperity." (Source)

So, remember children, Lula style "prosperity" first, ecosystems second! Because if you are prosperous, you don't need Earth!

Previously ...

Dr Hansen at Columbia University Earth Institute wrote to Dr Merkel (April 2008 ):

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants in your country, a
matter with global ramifications, as I will clarify.

For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I
write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the
planet and life on Earth, including all species.

I recognize that you strongly support policies aimed at reducing the danger of global warming.
Also Germany has been a leader in pressing for appropriate international actions.

Yet there are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Germany. Consummation
of those plans would contribute to foreseeable adverse consequences of global warming.
Conversely, a choice not to build could be a tipping point that seeds a transition that is needed to
solve the global warming problem. [...] (Source)

Red alert: Areas of significant changes to Earth systems observed in North America over the last 20 years, represented by various symbols (blue, green), are linked with areas of rising temperatures, noted in red. Image: NASA

SYDNEY: The largest study of its kind reveals that global warming is already having a massive effect on life across the planet – greater even than habitat loss and deforestation.

The study, which analysed nearly 30,000 data sets stretching back to 1970, suggests that warnings spelt out last year by the U.N. underestimated the impact of the problem.

Significant changes

The data set covered phenomena as varied as the earlier leafing of trees and plants; the movement of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere in response to warmer weather; the shrinkage of glaciers and melting of permafrost; and changes of bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia.

The study concludes that "significant changes" are already occurring among natural systems on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica, and in most oceans.

Published today in the U.K. journal Nature, it goes beyond the scope of the landmark report issued by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February 2007.

In that document, the IPCC said man-made global warming was "likely" – within a probability of 66 to 90 per cent – to have had a "discernible" effect on many physical and biological systems.

The new study is authored by many of the experts who wrote the so-called Working Group I report, which was the first of a trio of major assessments released last year by the IPCC. Its approach widens the net of data for making a fresh analysis.

Related article:

Climate change "unequivocal": UN report

The U.S. Government has listed the Polar Bear as an endangered species. It cites the rapid loss of the ice pack due to global warming as the reason. This is the first time the administration has officially admitted to global warming. Though the Department of the Interior says this shouldn't be used as a means for addressing the issue of Global Warming, it certainly does say that the Arctic ice is melting at a very rapid pace and the Polar Bear is in danger of extinction. "This listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting," said Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne. He said he had consulted with the White House on the decision, but "at no time was there ever a suggestion that this was not my decision." This certainly seems like a step in the right direction though. The Bush Administration and the Federal Government has spent so much time trying to ignore the effects of Global Warming by playing Ostriches with their heads in the sand that it's about time they pulled them out of the ground and looked around. Unfortuantely, we may have waited too long.

UK RELEASES FILES ON UFO SIGHTINGS.

The Ministry of Defence in Britain has released the files on over 11,000 UFO sightings in Britain. The British Isles have been a UFO hotspot for years and now they have declassified their files deeming UFOs as no threat. It appears the Brits prefer the Close Encounters aliens over the Independence Day version. According to the files, the alien craft come in all shapes and sizes, but the aliens themselves seem to be uniformly green. So much for the "Grays" idea.  Though 90 percent of the sightings are dismissed as explainable, 10 percent are left with a question mark. For me it certainly explains the presence of Boy George.

BRIAN URLACHER HOLDS OUT FOR RAISE

 Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears feels his 56.5 million dollars isn't enough and wants a raise. He cites his arthritic back as an issue. I wish I could get that kind of money for my arthritis. Urlacher claims that since salary caps now exceed 100 million that his piece of the Bear's pie should be bigger. He is intending on boycotting the May minicamp in protest. He still has four years to go on his nine year contract. I'm endlessly amazed by the amount of money athletes think they deserve. I agree that football takes a toll, but they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. He signed on the dotted line, he should keep his word. 56 million dollars should be enough for anybody.  

MICROSOFT MAY EXTEND LIFE OF XP

Due to pressure from some computer manufacturers, Microsoft may be giving in and not taking XP off the shelf on its deadline date. Vista simply hasn't worked well. Customers are requesting that their new computer still be loaded with XP and many of the manufacturers have said they will continue to load them through 2009. If you want to continue to get XP you must actually request it on your new computer, but it is still available. Microsoft may be reconsidering pulling it off the shelf on June, 30. Online petitions and negative customer feedback has been ongoing.  Face it, Vista needs to go back to the drawing board. XP is a good operating system and if it isn't broke, don't fix it.  It goes to show that if you try to market something crappy, people won't take it. Apparently computer users aren't suckers born every minute.

 $33 MILLION PAINTING?

Somebody paid $33 million for this? What are they crazy? This is a painting by Lucian Freud and this is the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist. It sold Tuesday at Christie's. I'm sorry but if I had that kind of money, this is not where it would go. A weekend retreat in the Caribbean comes to mind. Sending money to help people in Burma or China also comes to mind. Some people have way too much money and no sense. Almost 350 million dollars was spent on this one auction and most of it by Americans. Christie's percentage alone must have been incredible. So much for the theory that Americans don't have much disposable cash. Ugh, I certainly wouldn't want this painting in my living room.

Alaska industry and political leaders reacted with disappointment, even vehemence, to the decision Wednesday to protect the polar bear as "threatened," despite assurances from the Bush administration that the listing would mean no new regulation in Alaska.

...

"Reinterpreting the Endangered Species Act in this way is an unequivocal victory for extreme environmentalists who want to block all development in our state," said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

The rest.

Policy cannot be informed without information.  Localized climate policy requires localized models.  This means big computers and big bucks, given that current models and the computers they run on are limited to "cells" of about 100km, enough to be certain there is a problem, but not good enough to inform hard practical policy decisions.

And even higher resolutions — a kilometre or less, say — may well be needed to handle such critical issues as cloud formation realistically.  Hence the need for computers a couple of
generations beyond the current state of the art.

Didn't see any of this in Penny Wong's 2008-05-14 Media Statement about $2.3B in four years to tackle climate change, did we?

There's money to "adapt", but adapt to what?  How will agriculture be affected, and in what areas?  What do we do if a metropolis will get more rainfall than productive land (farmland and water catchments) a hundred kilometres away?

The Nature article points to the need for public purses to put climate modelling on the best computers in the world, which are now often limited for use...

in areas of national security such as communications intelligence or nuclear weapons design. And climate prediction is a national security issue if ever there was one.

It smells like the budget money is all about scoring political points for "doing something", rather than figuring out what are the right things to do.

See Also:

• "They say they want a revolution" Nature Online (2008-05-14) doi:10.1038/453268a
  

  Climate scientists call for major new modelling facility.

• "Warming world altering thousands of natural systems" Nature Online (2008-05-14) doi:10.1038/news.2008.823
  

  Analysis shows effects of climate change on almost 30,000 biological and physical phenomena.

• "The Next Big Climate Challenge" Nature (2008-05-14) doi:10.1038/453257a

It caught everyone by surprise. I saw the petrol attendants running inside their office. Initially I thought they were taking cover but they came out in a few moments with bright, yellow raincoats, ready to serve.

The Met Section said the speed of the wind last night was at 38 knots or at 76 kilometer per hour. Media reports said that hotlines for the emergency services were inundated with calls, so many that they were concern of genuine ones who could not reach them. I also read that the town Miri in next door Sarawak was also affected by the strong wind at around 10 last night. This mean that the wind was travelling west.

It was a bit scary though brief. A sign of global warming and Brunei is not spared as well. I wonder if the relevant authority could alert residents BEFORE such things occur, so we could be well-prepared and take appropriate measures - like staying indoor.

This is the prayer in the event of strong wind in Malay as taken from the Ministry of Religious Affairs website:

Ya Allah, sesungguhnya kami memohon kepada-Mu kebaikan angin ini, kebaikan yang terkandung di dalamnya, dan kebaikan yang diperintahkan kepada angin. Kami berlindung kepada-Mu dari kejahatan angin, kejahatan yang terkandung di dalamnya, dan kejahatan yang diperintahkan kepada angin.

Are you confused by the whole global warming thing? Do your eyes glaze over and do you quickly turn the page at the very mention? You are not alone.

The Interior Department ruled today that the polar bear will be protected as a "threatened species". The polar bear population across the Arctic has doubled from an estimated 12,000 to 25,000 since 1960. But some scientists believe that sea ice, necessary to the bears, may diminish in future years because of global warming. This is an enormous threat to the American economy.

But there has been no global warming for the past 10 years, and there has been actual cooling for the last 5 years. What's up with that?

"Threatened" is a term with specific meaning. It means their numbers are declining and the species is likely to become "endangered". But if the numbers of bears are increasing, then why... Because the predictions of computer climate models said that in future years the sea ice may diminish. But...

But the predictive ability of the climate models is increasingly in question. Meteorologists will tell you that they can predict the weather with some degree of accuracy about 5 to 7 days out. Many scientists say that the climate models have no predictive ability whatsoever.

Well then, how effective is the Endangered Species Act? It's very hard to tell. In some cases, an order to stop shooting the animal in question meant that the species increased. Many have been de-listed because it turned out that they weren't threatened or endangered in the first place. Counting species accurately is exceedingly tricky. Do they only live here, or could they live just as well there? Is this a lone population or are there 20 more just over the next ridge? Faulty data is frequent.

The Endangered Species Act is, for many environmentalists, not a law to protect plant and animal species, but a back door means of preventing economic development of some chosen area. It is for others a mythical attachment to the idea of "a balance of nature", which does not exist, for in nature there is only constant change.

The drive to list the polar bear as endangered is more about drilling for oil in the Arctic than it is about the bears. And the propaganda has been intense. We watched "The Golden Compass" recently, a movie made about a children's book, a fantasy that includes ice-bears — essentially talking polar bears. To watch the movie, we had to endure a commercial from the WWF featuring a little girl pleading for other children to enlist their parents in the campaign to save the polar bear. Unbelievably crass.

So, it is back to the courts, for both sides have said they will sue.

This is a dreadfully dishonest way to deal with national conundrums. No matter how much the naive urban people dream of a world energized by the power of the sun and the wind and hydroelectric power, it's not going to happen. At least not in the foreseeable future. And if you don't like the price of gas, write to the Congressional Democrats — they have a lot to answer for.

In the meantime, no wonder your eyes glaze over...

Today there was the expected rush of letters to the editor of same paper - people morally indignant at having had to suffer such a shocking and distasteful image over breakfast. One imagines some people having to fight their toast down.

I also thought the photo fairly disturbing, but then I started reading the articles accompanying it. You know what? I don't think SCMP printing that photo is reprehensible, disgusting and outrageous. What is, though, and more, is that the collapsed schools (and there were many) were found to be built with inferior building materials in a shoddy manner; hastily put up and without any thoughts of students' safety.

Ultimately it's the Chinese government and its failure to rein in corrupt officials that has to bear responsibility for this. In this culture of corner-cutting, kickbacks and graft, where 40 companies can get together to produce infant milk powder without nutrition, killing dozens of babies, are we really surprised to see that construction companies don't mind putting a whole school at risk to make a few thousand yuan?

But wait, there's more. Now scientists are saying the earthquake could have been caused to a large degree by the Three Gorges Dam; its massive weight of water influencing the geology around it.

Earthquakes, landslips and other "natural" disasters - exactly the type of thing knowledgable geologists and scientists warned against before the dam was built.

Another feather in the cap for our great omniscients up north.

Tuesday night’s Budget was a slap in the face for all those Australians who voted for the Labor Party at the last election in the belief that a new government would be willing and able to make Australia a true global climate leader.

From the day he took leadership of the Labor Party, Kevin Rudd worked hard to present himself in contradistinction to John Howard on climate change. Climate was, more than anything else, supposed to be symbolic of the generational change from Howard to Rudd. My warnings at the time, that the Rudd Opposition had not fully digested the science, did not understand what was required, and was not offering well-thought out policy alternatives, did not fit into that narrative and were largely ignored. Hate to say it, but ...

The first Rudd-Swan Budget was qualitatively barely different on climate change from the last Howard-Costello Budget. Investment was not substantially increased, nor was it reprioritised. If anything, it was shifted further into the future and skewed more towards coal and away from renewables. We still have tokenistic, ad hoc gestures dressed up for press releases and photo opportunities rather than a comprehensive, prioritised effort at rebuilding Australia for the post-carbon economy.

Had Howard and Costello scraped through last November, we would have had an emissions trading scheme, a significantly higher renewable energy target and continued minimal and piecemeal Budget investment in renewables, efficiency and mass transit. Spot the difference.

The Government is already scrambling to fix up one mistake: the allocation of absolutely no funds to the renewable energy commercialisation program until 2009-10. When so many renewables technologies are ready for that funding, the proposed patch-up job of funding geothermal drilling is a band-aid when a complete rethink is needed. What’s more, the proposed solution is robbing Peter to pay Paul, taking funds from R&D for solar energy storage rather than from the coal corporations’ overflowing coffers.

A second clanger is gaining momentum: the ludicrous decision to means test the rooftop solar panel rebate. While means testing is generally policy that we Greens support and advocate, applying it to a policy geared at bringing down the price of what is currently the Rolls Royce of renewables is either an utter failure to think or a deliberate move to undermine the industry. What family on less than $100,000 will spend $20,000 on solar panels? The move has already sent shockwaves across the country, with speculation that the installation and manufacturing industries could collapse, along with the Solar Cities program and other so-called government priorities.

Kevin Rudd has called climate change the greatest moral, economic and environmental challenge of our time and a top priority for his government. This is reflected in his first Budget by giving it one fortieth of the funding allocated to Defence. Defence’s $100 billion over the next four years stands in stark contrast to the $2.3 billion for climate change over that time.

In the next decade, Defence will get over a quarter of a trillion taxpayer dollars. Let’s just imagine for a moment where that kind of prioritising could take Australia’s climate change effort.

Within the decade, we could retrofit the whole nation for energy efficiency, replace all existing generation capacity with renewables, with solar thermal and bioenergy providing baseload, compensate existing generators, stop all logging of our native forest carbon stores, set up Just Transitions retraining programs for all workers affected by those transitions, move towards an electrified vehicle fleet and begin the re-design of our cities for sustainability with mass transit and cycleways.

My office has already taken calls and emails from Labor voters angry that the government they voted in to tackle climate change has so betrayed them. The coming years will be telling indeed. It is worth remembering that revolutions occur not when people are most ground down, as they were during the Howard years, but when they have an expectation that something might have been done.

Among college-educated poll respondents, 19 percent of Republicans believe that human activities are causing global warming, compared to 75 percent of Democrats. But take that college education away and Republican believers rise to 31 percent while Democrats drop to 52 percent.

My first reaction, which was shared by my wife, was to credit this to the tendency of a college education - by exposing one, e.g., to the way that scientific theories are falsified and paradigms superseded - to inculcate a certain degree of skepticism, and an unwillingness to take the claims of would-be authorities at face value. After a bit more thought, though, I was inclined simply to blame it on the fact that college very often seems to make us stupid: consider, in a similar vein, ISI's startling findings on the impact that the college experience has on students' civic literacy. Then again, it's hard to imagine how going to college could make someone dumber than this:

”I hope that he will understand, if he is the nominee, the degree of disillusionment that will happen if he doesn't become a greater man than he will ever be,” Penn said.

(Penn skipped out on college, by the way.)

So color me baffled, then. Just know that it's not, so far as I can tell, the fault of the philosophers.

Everything has energy, why not a geographical place? How you feel about a geographical location is quite different from its existing inherent energy.

While living in Germany, long ago, a psychic told me that Germany's earth energy was not good for me. I would definitely agree as it brought out a part of me I didn't like which prompted serious study about my own energy in an effort to understand and heal my darker side.

A really good example I like to use is the Italian movie "Life is Beautiful” about a father and his child in concentration camp awaiting execution. The father refuses to mar his child with the “reality” of the Nazi’s intentions and tells him the camp is a big game where you can win a real army tank. He puts on funny skits in front of the officers to keep his son laughing and sane. The father is eventually executed, the child survives is reunited with his mother, unmarred by the experience.
**What the father did was triumph in a horrific situation but he couldn’t prevent the reality of other energetic forces no matter how strong or positive his state of mind was.

I went on a trip to Croatia, in Istria, in the guide books it talks about the positive energy of the area, where many alternative healing seminars were starting to take place as a result. The area has the greatest concentration of "conscientious objectors" in the warring history of former Yugoslavia.

Presently in Korea, where I make frequent overnight visits at a Buddhist temple and am in agreement with others the energy there is distinctly powerful and positive. I recently took a job offer to be close to this energy and study at the temple.

I read that Hitler was quite interested in Geomancy. Here's an excerpt from Mary Sutherland's Upcoming Book, 'In Search of the Mound Builders'

"The forces of nature do not discriminate. He who has the knowledge, hold the power, whether it be of the dark side or light. On its darker side we have Adolph Hitler. For his Aryan Race Master Plan, Hitler researched folk customs and geomancy; first to learn more about their Aryan forefathers and later to control Europe geomantically.

Hitler established the German Ancestral Heritage Organization, to study the spirit of the people, the land of the Nordic Indo-Germanic (Aryan) race inhabited and to get other Germans involved in its study. Wilhelm Teudt, head of the organization worked closely with Heinrich, head of the dreaded Nazi SS. Teudt visited Himmier at Wewelsburg, the SS’s Grail Castle in Saxony. The circular Nordturm (North Tower) of this geomantically designed triangular castle was said to be ‘the center of the earth’. It was built to support the Nazi Aryan race doctrines.

Himmler, Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and other Nazis experimented with geomancy throughout Europe in an attempt to control that part of the world. The Fuhrerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Hitler’s main headquarters , was intentionally constructed on an ancient holy power well.

One example of the Nazi’s belief in geomancy happened during the German rush to take Moscow. At one point, a detachment of mountain troops were diverted to place the Nazi flag on top of a strategically unimportant mountain, Mt. Elbruz. But for the Nazis, this mountain was very important. The Persians, Aryan stock, believed that Mt. Elbruz was a world mountain, center of the Earth Energies. Himmler was convinced that if the Nazi swastika controlled Elbruz, they could better control the Russians.

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There is this book “guns germs and steel” (A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years) by Jared Diamond where he discusses how large mammals became extinct in many parts of the world.

In Australia and New Guinea they were slaughtered by the pre-historic humans who arrived there about 40,000 years ago. Excavations have revealed that Australia was home to an ostrichlike 400 pound flightless bird, a great python 16 feet long, a Giant Goanna 23 feet long weighing 1,350 pounds, Palorchestid (elephant like mammal with claws), the Marsupial Lion and land dwelling crocodiles. Humans hunted them down and killed them and their prey and also depleted their numbers by taking over their natural habitats.

But modern hunters have been equally cruel. In New Zealand, the Moa became extinct only around 1300 A.D. after the arrival of the Maori hunters. The giant lemurs of Madagascar were killed by modern humans too - around 2000 years ago. And 1500 years ago there was another carnage - of the big flightless geese of Hawaii called the Moa-nalo. And let's not forget the the dodos of Mauritius who were killed as late as the mid seventeenth century by modern humans. All these creatures who had survived for millenia started to disappear after the arrival of humans.

The Americas too had been full of large mammals and 15000 years ago "the big American west looked much like Africa’s Serengiti plains." Many species became extinct about 12-17000 years ago.

But lets get to the burning question: Why were large mammals not exterminated in Africa or parts of Asia? Jared Diamond has a theory…he believes that the animals in America and Australia were easy to kill as they did not evolve alongwith humans and had therefore not developed a fear of them (in these continents humans arrived millions of years after the animals had already evolved). For example the dodos of Mauritius were so tame that people could just walk up to them and kill them. Large mammals in Australia had never seen humans before and therefore were rapidly killed by them. I am sure that this theory is true to a large extent but it doesn't explain everything.

After all, most of Europe’s large mammals met a tragic end too…at one time Europe was choc-o-bloc with lions, elephants, rhinoceros and Hippopotamuses. All gone now. But here humans and animals did evolve together. In Euroasia proto-humans arrived about 100,000 years ago (from Africa). While there are many theories as to why the big mammals disappeared in Europe (and elsewhere), there is no doubt that humans played a very big part. Europe was populated very rapidly and human settlements must have encroached on animal habitats. Besides, ideas such as conservation did not exist at the time and hunting and animal sport was part and parcel of society. Today the only large mammals that Europe boasts of are its bears and moose.

If animals survived in Africa, perhaps it was also because the humans there did not have the sophisticated weapons or large organised human societies that Europe had. Dense jungle remained dense jungle and enabled animals to survive…and today luckily ideas about conservation have taken root in countries like Kenya.

What about Asia then? Why did large mammals survive in Asia but not Europe despite large human settlements and populations in Asia? Surely it couldn't be because humans evolved alongwith the animals? If this was the case then Europe would have its animals too, right? Well, I shall try to answer this question by talking about India as that is the country I know most about...however, my knowledge of ancient India is not deep.

Pre-historic India did not kill off its mammals and one of the major reasons is because ancient India revered its animals and not just the cow! Not because (as Jared Diamond says) the animals were able to withstand human attack because they evolved together. Well, maybe to some extent this is true...but I think animals survived in India mainly because animals have always been an important part of Indian culture. Elephants were domesticated by the ancients, not slaughtered. True, we had hunting too as royals in India had an obsession with it, but at the same time it was not on such a large-scale that it eliminated wildlife. I am not sure why. On my post on the Ellora cave temple sculptures a Canadian blogger (Suburbanlife) made an interesting observation while referring to the carvings on the temples:

...obviously the natural world’s living beings other than mankind has equal importance in the representations of the world in your religions, as contrasted with similar carvings in holy places in Europe, where the imagery is human-centric, and nature exists to be a backdrop for human activity, and might be considered of secondary importance to mankind.

This prompted a reader to write about this subject in more detail:

Animals indeed are quite integral to much Indian imagery, particularly Hindu religious or mythological imagery. Indian literature is also replete with references to animals such as in our collection of fables with animal characters and morals for humans collected in the Panchatantra, believed to go back to 2nd or 3rd century BC. Many historic figures are often depicted complete with their favourite horses, their pets and sometimes their hunted tigers and lions. In Hindu mythology, all “Gods” have animals who carry them around - their vaahan or vehicle...

You can read more about the importance of animals in Hinduism here. And here are some photographs depicting this symbiotic relationship between animals and humans in ancient India...the first three photographs are from the Ellora Temple Caves and the last two from Mammallpuram, the cave temples in Tamil Nadu:

Today we have forgotten our great ancient Indian culture…wild animals in India are being hunted and killed and in the case of tigers, they are being exterminated. On one hand we have discarded our ancient love for animals and on the other we have not bothered to embrace the modern culture of conservation...well not seriously enough.

Let me end this post with a tribute the Bishnoi people, a community in India which loves animals and protects them with their life. The photograph below is an award winning photograph by Himanshu Vyas for the best photo-journalism and was presented this year. He had gone to village in Rajasthan where the Bishnois live when he heard about a woman who was looking after a fawn.

(Photo credits: The photo of an ancient palordchestic is from pbs.org, the cave temple photos are copyrighted to me and the last photograph of the Bishnoi lady feeding a lamb is by Himanshu Vyas)

Related Reading: Tigers in India down to a thousand??
A visit to Mammallapuram - a photo essay
The cave temples of Ellora at Aurangabad - a photo feature
A tour of the Ajanta Caves at Aurangabad - a photo feature
Countering the Hinduphobia of the west

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The design does have some obstacles to overcome. The solar panel cannot be covered or it will not generate electricity. I suppose that is not all that big of a deal, the lingerie is not really any more provocative than other items that are worn as outer layers. It looks like the perfect outfit for a day spent in the Wrigley Field bleachers. But the biggest drawbacks I see are - one -> that you are not supposed to wear it in the rain or you risk damaging the solar panel. (You definitely would not want to leave the house with out a raincoat it seems.) Second, and maybe the biggest obstacle in my opinion -> you can't wash the product without risking damage to it. Yew!! :shock:

Also ladies, before you ask, sorry but it did not say if will it come with a battery replacement adapter for your Jack Rabbit Pearl.

What started my rant today? I received a spam email from a girlfriend asking me to boycott petrol stations tomorrow. She told me that I should NOT buy gas for my car tomorrow but if I needed to I should BUY IT TONIGHT??? Ok, 10 million people (hypothetical number) do not purchase gas tomorrow but rather purchase it tonight?? That doesn't make sense. Gas stations STILL make money.

After chewing on that for a couple of hours earlier today, on my home from work I heard a dj from one of our local radio stations complaining how gas was right at or just over 4 USD a gallon. Then I get home, catch up on reading some blogs that are hit or miss for me (I don't read this particular blog all the time so I was going back to some older posts that I had not read) and WHAM (like hitting a brick wall) we should drill for oil in the arctic or my backyard appeared before my eyes. I think I even saw the words enviro nazis used. Why? Then I thought about commenting....How about selling your fleet of diesel vehicles and SUVs and travel in something that doesn't use as much fuel? I did (not that I had a fleet of them). Conservation, hello? Sad. I wanted to rant in comments but realizing that was an older post, I decided not to. Besides, the bloggers mind is closed and it would be like me throwing pearls before swine. (huge sigh)

Everyone is entitled to their opinion...free country and all that. I am not out to bash all for their beliefs. But one thing I'd love to drill into people's head is that we don't have to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or everywhere there is oil, all we need to do is conserve, drive more fuel efficient cars, don't travel as much, take public transportation, ride a freaking bike, buy local goods (cuts down on fuel transporting goods in). Stop guzzling so much gas! Cut it OUT!!

We do not need to endanger any of those animals in the arctic. Bless their hearts they need a place to call their own. Drives me nuts!

Animals have rights!! They need a home, a shelter, a place to call their own. A place to be happy. They have feelings! They have good days and bad. They get their feelings hurt just like humans (if you don't believe it, go look at a puppy or kitty in the shelter that has been yelled at or abused, go look into their eyes and see their pain. They are pitiful. The reason some growl or lash out is because they've been conditioned into thinking you will hurt/abuse them. They are only protecting themselves.) Why disregard the arctic animals' feelings or violate and force them from their home just to drill for OIL???? Conserve what we have, be sensible, be responsible. Don't own 4 diesel 4 wheel drive trucks and 3 SUVs, bitch about oil prices and then say we need to drill all the oil from every square inch of land (arctic or backyard...if you say backyard, think about those squirrels, birds, chipmunks, etc... running free).

Ok, I am hopping down from my soap box. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and for what it's worth, there is mine. I don't bitch about oil prices, I conserve. I could care less if we end up paying 10 USD a gallon, I conserve! Heck, even though I loved her, the whole time I owned my Ford Explorer I felt bad that she was a gas hog. I did conserve when I had her... we didn't always drive her. She sat at home a lot in the drive way. I would drive her to softball practice and to the game. But other times, she sat in the drive. Brad and I carpooled to work, then and now.

Well, here I am. All out here to be abused now because of my take on oil and how we should be responsible.

Next rant will be on cutting down trees... he he, don't get me started on that!

Oh, and a lovely Robin enjoying his freedom and home...

P.S. At least I'm not going this far.......yet.

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Think of it this way--imagine the many thousands of years humans have been on this Earth. Think about just the last few hundred years and how much crap we are leaving behind. There aren't many remnants left of ancient civilizations compared to how many people there were. They used the Earths natural resources to build there homes and get by in daily life. Think about the legacy we are leaving behind. We'll just imagine that one day a thousand years ago everyone on Earth disappeared. Imagine everything they left behind. It wouldn't be much and what was left behind would eventually disintegrate.

Now imagine if everyone today disappeared. Imagine everything we would have left behind. The majority of our materials would stick around for hundreds and thousands of years. The metal, steel, radioactive waste, weapons, cars, buildings, trash heaps...you get the point.

Aside from all that, today, in this day in time the oceans which make up 70% of the Earth are in serious danger. Think about that for a moment...really think about it. 70% of this Earth is being ruined...the main culprit? Us. THAT, my friends, is a cold, hard, sad and sorry fact.

Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger

Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.

One manifestation of this warming is the melting of the Arctic. A shrinking ratio of ice to water has set off a feedback loop, accelerating the increase in water surfaces that promote further warming and melting. With polar waters growing fresher and tropical seas saltier, the cycle of evaporation and precipitation has quickened, further invigorating the greenhouse effect.

Atmospheric litter is also altering sea chemistry, as thousands of toxic compounds poison marine creatures and devastate propagation. The ocean has absorbed an estimated 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with 20 to 25 tons being added to the atmosphere daily. Increasing acidity from rising levels of CO2 is changing the ocean’s PH balance.

Other sea nurseries are also threatened. Fifteen percent of seagrass beds have disappeared in the last ten years, depriving juvenile fish, manatees, and sea turtles of critical habitats. Kelp beds are also dying at alarming rates.

While at no time in history has science taught more about how the earth’s life-support systems work, the maelstrom of human assault on the seas continues. If human failure in governance of the world’s largest public domain is not reversed quickly, the ocean will soon and surely reach a point of no return.

That's not all. This all starts a chain of events. For instance, overfishing is the main cause for the rise in blackmarket bushmeat. The natives' diet is primarily fish. When the fish population is low they turn to bushmeat. PBS aired a documentary in which researchers found a direct correlation between the rise in bushmeat hunting and a deline in fish populations.

Want to hear more? I'm sure you don't and I don't want to keep talking about it but people NEED to know. Overfishing is causing a rise in plankton population (fish eat plankton) the plankton die and fall to the ocean floor where they decompose. This process creates sulfur and methane that is trapped in the ocean floor. When a low pressure weather system comes along the built up pressure in the ocean floor is released and an eruption of sulfur and methane is created. This turns the water a milky yellow color and communities along the oceanside are stuck with a rotten egg smell. Aside from the inconvenience of the smell of sulfur, methane is a contributor to global warming.