Archive for the 'environment' Category
Australia Carbon Vote Delay Raises Poll Prospect
Posted on November 27, 2009 - Filed Under environment | Leave a Comment
Australia’s parliament delayed a final vote on a government carbon trade plan, missing a key deadline, throwing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s climate change policy into doubt and raising the possibility of a snap election.
Rudd wanted the carbon scheme, central to his promise to cut emissions by between 5 and 25 percent, passed by Friday and [...]
CO2 Emissions Are Not Changing the Ratio of Airborne CO2 to That Taken Up By the Oceans and Plants
Posted on November 12, 2009 - Filed Under Climate, environment | Leave a Comment
The University of Bristol in the UK has published a study based not on climate modeling, but on statistical analysis of data including historical data from Antarctic ice cores.
The study shows that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide [...]
Chocolate Goes Green: Kraft Rolls out Sustainable Sweet Treats
Posted on November 4, 2009 - Filed Under Food Industry, environment | Leave a Comment
Kraft Foods recently announced it is launching a type of chocolate derived from sustainable cocoa farming. The premium dark chocolate, Cote d’Or, contains cocoa from farms that meets Rainforest Alliance Certified standards.
Partnering with various businesses, organizations and associations, the Rainforest Alliance encourages the use of sustainable cocoa farming practices which not only help the environment, [...]
Australia’s Emissions Fall as Economy Slows
Posted on November 3, 2009 - Filed Under environment | Leave a Comment
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions fell in the year to June, the first decline since an greenhouse inventory started in 1998, as the economy slowed due to the global financial crisis.
Australian National Greenhouse Accounts released estimated the country emitted 544 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in the year — a fall of 1.2 percent [...]
Cigarette Butt Litter is More Than Just Annoying
Posted on October 27, 2009 - Filed Under environment | 1 Comment
Dear EarthTalk: Has anyone ever studied the environmental impact of discarded cigarettes? I’m constantly appalled at the number of drivers I see pitching their butts out their car windows. – Ned Jordan, via email
It’s true that littered cigarette butts are a public nuisance, and not just for aesthetic reasons. The filters on cigarettes — four fifths of [...]
Feds Designate Polar Bear Habitat in Alaska
Posted on October 26, 2009 - Filed Under environment | Leave a Comment
The Obama administration said it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as “critical habitat” for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear [...]
Cars and the Environment
Posted on October 24, 2009 - Filed Under environment | Leave a Comment
Thinking green is the latest step in society’s love affair with the car. How does your driving fit in?
And maybe it is. But cars are so incredibly useful, and technology promises so many ways of making them better that it’s hardly time to buy a horse.
Numerous studies have attempted to measure the automobile’s ecological footprint, [...]
Cell Phones and Radiation: 10 Best and 10 Worst
Posted on October 23, 2009 - Filed Under Environmental Problem, environment, environmental issue | 2 Comments
How much radiation does your cell phone emit? It’s easy to find out the answer thanks to the Environmental Working Group’s new online guide to cell phone emissions.
The non-profit research and advocacy group ranked over 1,000 different cell phones according to radiation levels. It looked at the publicly available, but difficult to find, specific absorption rate (SAR) [...]
What is Greenhouse Effect?
Posted on October 23, 2009 - Filed Under Environmental Problem, environment, environmental issue | Leave a Comment
The greenhouse effect is the process in which the emission of infrared radiation by the atmosphere warms a planet’s surface.
The name comes from an analogy with the warming of air inside a greenhouse compared to the air outside the greenhouse.
The Earth’s average surface temperature is about 33°C warmer than it would be without the greenhouse [...]
Green Cities California Launches Best Practices Website
Posted on October 21, 2009 - Filed Under environment | Leave a Comment
Green Cities California, the collaborative of 10 cities and counties acknowledged as sustainability leaders, launches a website today that’s to serve as a resource for other communities striving to go green.
The website, www.GreenCitiesCalifornia.org, is designed as a repository of best practices and other tools for policymakers who are trying to improve the environmental performance of their [...]
