Environment World

Space travel doesn’t spring to mind when thinking of climate change that we see everyday but there’s alot of CO being pumped into the air for each launch. I do agree we must get into space cheaply and safely to put those things we need up there like a solar power plant (just an idea I’ve had). In the article it talks about remotely powering the elevator, if we can do that why not some solar panels to give us some clean power.

I’ve posted about China in the past but with the Olympics coming up there is a real urgency to clean up the place before everyone becomes ill. I hope they’re up to the challenge.

But on a bad day — come August, say, when temperatures approach 100 degrees — the atmosphere around Beijing becomes a photochemical bouillabaisse of coal smog, steel-mill spume, and tailpipe crud, mingled with concrete dust and baked in the oven formed by the surrounding hills.

Sounds to me that this interviee is on the fence and he’s from New Orleans, go figure.

To Summarize:

I have tried to put the burden of Global Warming to the environment but it always comes back to US (not the U.S. but us). Here’s another nail in that coffin and it tells me we got to move on this NOW! Here is the summary of that article that hopefully shuts up the naysayers and get over the complaints about the need for alt energy including nuclear.

Sun1 Last week I blogged here about the lack of evidence that cosmic rays cause global warming. Now another argument against human-created global warming has been found lacking: that the Sun’s increasing energy output is raising temperatures here on Earth.

This is an incredible series of concerts at Live Earth, check it out you’ll love it. After this is the pledge that Al Gore has asked everyone to follow:

1. Demand that my country join an international treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90 percent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.

2. Take personal action to help solve the climate crises by reducing my own C02 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral”.

3. Fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the C02.

4. Work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation.

5. Fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal.

6. Plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests.

7. Buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crises and building a sustainable, just and prosperous world for the 21st century.

This where to go commit to the pledge SOS | Live Earth | 7.7.07

Wired News - AP News
I’m not pleading for help for China, they’re big boys now. I’m just trying to call attention to the health of the world population and the dangers of commerce if unchecked. World WAKE UP!

Wired Science - Wired Blogs

I’ve read and reported that the effects of Global Warming but this article makes a strong case that it may not be. In either case cleaning things will have huge benefit on us and our children.

Beyond the Beyond - Wired Blogs
As the world warms, states at risk face severe threats to their groundwater, agriculture, and ecosystems, factors that can rapidly undo political and economic gains. This year’s index found a strong correlation between stability and environmental sustainability, a country’s ability to avoid environmental disaster and deterioration. That means that in poorly performing states on the edge, including Bangladesh, Egypt, and Indonesia, the risks of flooding, drought, and deforestation have little chance of being properly managed. And that suggests storms are brewing on the horizon for the world’s most vulnerable….”

The U.S. MUST go nuclear if there is a desire to save human lives. There may be desire to check if those places with a low water table have a population that can adapt to life underwater but I don’t agree with a population of mermaids (they will eat all the tuna which is my favorite sushi, mmmm maguro). There are a few places that use nuclear safely like France and Japan. If the U.S. can’t do it, ask their allies for help.

The enormous obstacles facing nuclear power are the same as they were in 1996, when the nation’s last new nuclear plant opened near the Watts Bar reservoir in Tennessee after 22 years of construction and $7 billion in costs.