Environment World

Wired News: Citizen Journalism Wants You!

Although lately all I’ve done here is post links I find and put a rather 2 cent opinion around the link I may have found something to fuel me to add more than my 2 cents I may go up to 4 cents someday, yes I dream big. This is a site that may give a bigger audience to write stories that effect us all. It’s a little wider than Wikipedia but not so wide as to miss the point of whatever subject it’s reporting on. If you think you have something to add check them out and pay attention when they publish something on the web.

To summarize:

Can large groups of widely scattered people, working together voluntarily on the net, report on something happening in their world right now, and by dividing the work wisely tell the story more completely, while hitting high standards in truth, accuracy and free expression?

…If there’s a piece of it you’re especially interested in — Assignment Zero interviews Jimmy Wales about the social architecture that makes Wikipedia work (a piece we will do — then you can work on it with others at our site, and maybe get the byline, even though everyone else gets (some) credit, too.

…I suggested to Evan a big, sprawling, pro-am, people-powered report on all the various forms of crowdsourcing and peer production now popping up across the social landscape, as the tools for online collaboration keep improving and people find new uses for the web.

…I wanted to cast a wide net, from well-publicized cases like Wikipedia, Linux software and the Mozilla browser, to less familiar examples like community patent review or open-source spying, newer ventures like open-source footware, or the crowdsourcing of consumer electronics, along with open-call T-shirt design and efficient collaboration among knitters, which is peer production, too.

Evangelical Christians attack use of torture by US | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

If you asked before reading the headline, I would have said “When pigs fly” before I would have claimed this.

To summarize:

The uncoupling of American evangelism from the administration of George Bush gathered pace yesterday when one of the largest national umbrella groups of socially conservative Christians issued a statement critical of US policy towards detainees and repudiating torture as a tactic in the war on terror.

…”Tragically, documented cases of torture and inhumane and cruel behaviour have occurred at various sites in the war on terror, and current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue,” the NAE said last night.

The strong alliance between Christian evangelicals and Mr Bush, an important key to his electoral successes, has been tested in recent months with the Mark Foley scandal over his attraction towards male teenage pages in Congress, and perceived corruption in parts of the Republican party.

…Yesterday’s statement on torture suggested a new determination on the part of the evangelical churches to detach themselves from the Republican party and stake their independence - even if it is from a position more traditionally associated with the left.

Wired News: Smells Like Green Spirit

I wrote about the need to conserve energy, not because of global warming, which I flip-flopped on, but to clean up and take the massive funds available in the middle-east. The old cliche that power corrupts is true and more linked to money. Clean up everything and these 20-somethings are the hope as the been for every generation in history

To summarize:

“Energy is unquestionably the challenge of this era,” said Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president Susan Hockfield. “And there is absolutely no question in my mind that the most productive source of new ideas and approaches is today’s young people.” She speculated that no matter how the energy problems of tomorrow are solved, some of the key people to unravel them were probably attending the conference.

“Quick show of hands: How many people here in the audience have a solar system on their roof?” Resch asked. “OK, a dozen maybe. Now how many people want to have a solar system on their roof?”

Promoting Solar Nation, a new activist website, Resch said German subsidization of solar energy has made Germany the world’s largest solar market, seven times bigger than the United States. “Yet the amount of sunlight that falls on Germany is equivalent to Anchorage, Alaska,” he said. “It proves that if it works in Germany, it’ll work great in the United States.”

…As a former Fox News analyst I have some first hand experience of dealing with the beast and have the satisfcation of knowing that Rupert Murdoch had me removed from Fox air for daring to suggest that invading Iraq would be a diversion in the war on terrorism.

Wired: AP Technology and Business News from the Outside World on Wired.com

In my previous post I stated the start of my about-face on global warming, that maybe it’s not the fault of man or the greed of mankind, maybe it’s natural. I say “maybe” not because I don’t want to be non-commital but who knows. One thing I think of is that mankind should take advantageous of this state of affairs and clean-up and get rid of the greed. I found an article that doesn’t whitewash the upcoming event but tells it like it will be. Folks no matter where you stand on the arguement, global-warming is coming. Man made or not it’s coming so lets get ready for it. I really want to beat the drum anymore but no one is listening.

To summzrize:

At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.

Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.

Looking at different impacts on ecosystems, industry and regions, the report sees the most positive benefits in forestry and some improved agriculture and transportation in polar regions. The biggest damage is likely to come in ocean and coastal ecosystems, water resources and coastal settlements.

Many - not all - of those effects can be prevented, the report says, if within a generation the world slows down its emissions of carbon dioxide and if the level of greenhouse gases sticking around in the atmosphere stabilizes. If that’s the case, the report says “most major impacts on human welfare would be avoided; but some major impacts on ecosystems are likely to occur.”

Wired: AP Technology and Business News from the Outside World on Wired.com

I had decided for this blog to concentrate less on climate change but personally I would continue to read on the subject. I found a very interesting article comparing ethanol to gasoline and I had to link to it. There’s much work to be done but the U.S. are moving in t he right direction.

To summarize:

WHAT ABOUT ETHANOL’S ECONOMIC BENEFITS?

But plant cellulose is more difficult to break down than the starch in corn kernels. That’s why people eat corn instead of grass. Plus it tastes better.

Some experts estimate that it will take 10 to 15 years before cellulosic ethanol becomes competitive. But Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, thinks it will be a lot sooner than that. The Colorado-based company has started building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia that converts wood chips and other waste left behind by the forest products industry. Another company, Iogen Corp., has been producing cellulosic ethanol from wheat, oat and barley straw for several years at a demonstration plant in Ottawa, Canada.

“You can produce a lot of ethanol from cellulose without competing with food,” said Wallace Tyner, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. “But if you want to get half your fuel supply from it you will compete with food agriculture.”

I’ve been writing about climate change for so long I forgot the important things in life. I don’t know why I thought of this, I haven’t been over drinking recently. I was reading some article and it go me thinking. The thought occurred to me to tell all of you what I discovered while living in Japan. When in lived in Kyoto (before Tokyo) I sort of realized that I never suffered though a hangover. I did plenty of over-drinking, it’s sort of a sport. The secret is/was rah-men soup. It’s a tasty midnight snack and drinking a fluid besides beer (or any alcohol) did the trick. If your careful about what goes into the soup it won’t fatten you up, 10 million Japanese can’t be wrong (some do gain weight).

I saw an interesting TV show recently and it’s making me rethink about at my personal views on global warming. The views expressed on the BBC show “The Great Global Warming Swindle” has much theatrical TV in the mix but if you can see past that and look at the empirical evidence expressed it makes sense. It does have some “Don’t worry, be Happy”ness to it and it still forecasts a coming era of global warming coming. So it basically tells us it’s not our fault, it’s the fault of cosmic rays and our sun and it says to burn plenty of carbon based fuel sources. I just convinced myself that they were pulling a sales con on me but so have the greens. There are no voices of measure out there, they all want something. I side on the green side but I’m not as strict about it as last week. Poor developing countries need energy and power so the poor families in Africa don’t poison themselves cooking and heating their homes but carbon based fuel are NOT the solution! I say give them or teach biofuels to them that can run in unmodified generators. Make it cheap for them and that will come back to us by providing cheap biofuel for us.

My view it that we must stop meddling in the middle-east ’cause they have oil. They are passionate about life and with that their beliefs, don’t give that passion a reason to boil over into violence.

Back to my original point, let’s all go green and make life the most precious resource, let’s preserve it.

UPDATE: Added link to get more information

BBC NEWS | Europe | EU leaders face climate challenge

bush, bush come out to play! All the big kids are ready for you

To summarize:

Printable version EU leaders face climate challenge The Eggborough power plant in Yorkshire, England Some countries are reluctant to switch from fossil fuel power plants European leaders are expected to commit their countries to tough new emissions targets at a European Union summit focused on tackling global warming.

Across Europe leaders have been stressing the urgency of action - but now they have to make good on all the talk, he says.

At a G8 summit later in the year, which she will lead, she said she would be able to say: “Europe has taken an important step of its own and now others - the USA, China, India and the major developing countries - naturally must follow.”

A European Commission proposal - that 20% of EU energy consumption should be met by renewable sources by 2020 - is therefore thought less likely to be adopted at the two-day summit.

France, which depends heavily on nuclear power, is opposed, saying that, too, should be considered a clean source of energy.

The EU was urged to take global leadership of the issue by the former US vice-president and environmental activist Al Gore, who was also in Brussels.

Photos: Pocket-size solar power | CNET News.com

There are some great ideas to save on electricity, save the environment, ad get the perfect tan sunbathing for the others in your life. Take a look at the photos here and try to resist getting your credit card out.