Environment & Climate
The Organic Revolution: Change the System, Not the Climate
What if there were an organic technology that could cut greenhouse emissions in half and literally suck down and sequester carbon dioxide in living soil - bringing the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere down to 350 ppm - the level scientists warn us we must acheive in order to avert a climate catastrophe?
Cook Organic, Not the Planet. Boycott Factory-Farmed Foods.
News
July 2, 2006
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As governments and citizens face up to the reality of climate change and the urgent need for action to reduce heat-trapping Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, one of the more controversial solutions presented has been that of "Carbon Sinks". Plantation forests are being presented as a means for growing trees to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air and help to reduce global temperatures. African countries such as Uganda are a focus for their location.
But activists who have looked more closely at the practice and reality of these Read more
As governments and citizens face up to the reality of climate change and the urgent need for action to reduce heat-trapping Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, one of the more controversial solutions presented has been that of "Carbon Sinks". Plantation forests are being presented as a means for growing trees to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air and help to reduce global temperatures. African countries such as Uganda are a focus for their location.
But activists who have looked more closely at the practice and reality of these Read more
News
August 2, 2006
I've written a good deal about global warming over the years, but like most people, I still have a hard time envisioning how we will know when the apocalypse arrives. Nobody will ring a bell to announce that a climate-change event has begun, and it's easy to ignore the signals that climate is changing. After all, we've always had extreme weather, and it's possible that what signifies the point of no return will not be in the realm of weather anyway but rather a derivative effect such as a financial crisis or crop failure.
That's not to say that some future dramatic event such as Read more
That's not to say that some future dramatic event such as Read more
News
July 29, 2006
Is the world running out of oil?
The prospect seems unthinkable--mostly because the consequences, if true, would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And car-less suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big-box stores--not to buy Chinese-made clothing transported cheaply across the globe, but to scavenge glass and copper Read more
The prospect seems unthinkable--mostly because the consequences, if true, would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And car-less suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big-box stores--not to buy Chinese-made clothing transported cheaply across the globe, but to scavenge glass and copper Read more
News
July 30, 2006
Climate change has hit the American West. The number of large wildfires in Western forests increased sharply in the mid-1980s, according to a new study in the journal Science, with longer fire seasons and longer-burning fires becoming the norm. That should be no surprise to the residents of Yucca Valley, Calif., Sedona, Ariz., Carson City, Nev. and other locales where the fire season already is well under way with dangerous and unpredictable results.
The increased fire threat is linked to warming temperatures and earlier snowmelts in the mountains, the study says. It echoes other Read more
The increased fire threat is linked to warming temperatures and earlier snowmelts in the mountains, the study says. It echoes other Read more
News
July 30, 2006
Moreton Bay, Australia - The fireweed began each spring as tufts of hairy growth and spread across the seafloor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour.
When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.
"It comes up like little boils," said Randolph Van Dyk, a fisherman whose powerful legs are pocked with scars. "At nighttime, you can feel them burning. I tried everything to get rid of them. Read more
When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.
"It comes up like little boils," said Randolph Van Dyk, a fisherman whose powerful legs are pocked with scars. "At nighttime, you can feel them burning. I tried everything to get rid of them. Read more
News
Washington Post
Global warming is having its moment in the sun. The climate crisis is on "60 Minutes" and in Tom Brokaw's new documentary, on the cover of Time and Newsweek, and in Al Gore's new movie and best-selling book. But while polls show that most Americans now believe that global warming is real and significantly manmade -- in 100-degree Washington last week, it felt more real than ever -- they are much less concerned about the issue than non-Americans, and much less willing to support dramatic action to address it.
The problem is, most scientists now believe dramatic action is necessary Read more
The problem is, most scientists now believe dramatic action is necessary Read more
News
July 28, 2006
Comment on this and other corp-focus columns at: http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/editorsblog/
Using a statistical lens, two just-released books shed light on the ravages of corporate globalization.
Vital Signs 2006-2007 from the Washington, D.C.-based WorldWatch Institute contends that "the health of the global economy and the stability of nations will be shaped by our ability to address the huge imbalances in natural resource systems."
The Least Developed Countries Report 2006, issued by the Read more
Using a statistical lens, two just-released books shed light on the ravages of corporate globalization.
Vital Signs 2006-2007 from the Washington, D.C.-based WorldWatch Institute contends that "the health of the global economy and the stability of nations will be shaped by our ability to address the huge imbalances in natural resource systems."
The Least Developed Countries Report 2006, issued by the Read more
News
July 26, 2006
On the beach on San Juan Island, Washington, Allison Lance walks her dogs every morning. She carries a plastic bag in her hand to carry the bits and pieces of plastic debris she picks up. Each morning she fills the bag, but by the next morning there is always another bag to be filled. Joey Racano does the same in Huntington Beach further south in California. The harvest of plastic waste is never-ending. Allison's and Joey's beaches, and practically every beach around the world, is similarly cursed.
Recently in the Galapagos I retrieved plastic motor oil bottles and garbage bags Read more
Recently in the Galapagos I retrieved plastic motor oil bottles and garbage bags Read more
News
July 26, 2006
Dear Umbra,
Are there any environmental advantages to the refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on the top?
Annette Indianapolis, Ind.
Dearest Annette,
There are three fridge/freezer configurations: side by side, bottom freezer, and top freezer. In models with comparable storage volume, the least efficient is the side by side. Top and bottom models, on the other hand, are fairly close in their efficiency advantage, performing about 10 to 20 percent better than side-by-side models. Read more
Are there any environmental advantages to the refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on the top?
Annette Indianapolis, Ind.
Dearest Annette,
There are three fridge/freezer configurations: side by side, bottom freezer, and top freezer. In models with comparable storage volume, the least efficient is the side by side. Top and bottom models, on the other hand, are fairly close in their efficiency advantage, performing about 10 to 20 percent better than side-by-side models. Read more
News
July 25, 2006
Earlier this month, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert delivered a provocative Los Angeles Times op-ed explaining why the public is more scared of terrorism than global warming. Gilbert's basic premise was that human beings are conditioned by evolution to react most strongly to situations that have certain characteristics: they must be personal (have a face or an intention attached), morally repugnant, imminent, or rapid. Terrorism, he said, fulfills all of these requirements; climate change, on the other hand, fulfills none. Thus, while we focus on combating ideological hoodlums around the Read more
Pages
for Environment & ClimateDownloads
Videos
Scientific Studies
