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POPSSaudi Arabia Wants Compensation if Global Warming Bill Passes Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, is seeing economic growth slide because of fallout from the global meltdown, but experts still expect the country, flush with cash from oil's earlier price spike last year, to be better able than other nations to cope with the current crisis. Al Sabban accused Western nations of pursuing an agenda against oil producers, under the guise of protecting the planet. “Despite the variability in the region, the current Arab position is mainly focused around protecting the oil trade rather than saving the planet form the adverse impacts of climate change,” said Wael Hmaidan, the executive director of IndyACT.
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POPSEarth Needs Users' Guide To Protect It From People Nature said in an editorial the proposed indicators were a "creditable attempt" to quantify limits on human use of the planet. However, it noted, for instance, that fertilizers caused pollution yet helped feed millions of people. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the study, said there were growing risks of abrupt and possibly irreversible changes. "Since the Industrial Revolution, a new era has arisen, the Anthropocene, in which human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change," they wrote.
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POPSEndless Oil Kutcherov's technique involves dividing the world into a fine-meshed grid that maps cracks (or migration channels) under the Earth's crust, through which the hydrocarbons can bubble up to the surface. His advice: Drill where the cracks meet. Doing this, he predicts, will dramatically reduce the likelihood of dry wells. Kutcherov expects the success rate of drillers to more than triple, from 20% to 70%, saving billions in exploration costs while opening up vast new areas of the planet --most of which has never been deemed to have promise -- to exploration. Good news for oil-dependent humans, I guess. Not so good for the environment and climate change.
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POPSContraception Cheapest Way to Combat Climate Change This is sure to stir some controversy, but it's important to remember, that this isn't about de population, (killing people already born) but simply about reducing population growth (slowing down the rate at which people are born). I am all for it.
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POPSEarth Experiment Could Buy Precious Time Initial results suggest that the biggest cooling would occur in the polar regions, which is consistent with theory, and is exactly the place where cooling is most needed. The big advantages of this scheme are that it uses sea water spray, a naturally occurring substance, and that it can be turned off immediately if there are any undesirable consequences.
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POPSClimate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security “We will pay for this one way or another,” Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine and the former head of the Central Command, wrote recently in a report he prepared as a member of a military advisory board on energy and climate at CNA, a private group that does research for the Navy. “We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. “Or we will pay the price later in military terms,” he warned. “And that will involve human lives.”
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POPSSun Not Responsible For Climate Change Professors Peter Adams and Jeff Pierce did a bunch of things that those throwing around the solar excuse didn't: a) They did detailed work analyzing the actual effects of such activity b) They actually understood what such effects would really even be c) They rigorously applied scientific procedures to this research, constructed computer models, and would have reported the results either away d) They spent many, many years earning PhDs in scientific research and the title of "Professor." We have to say, d) is our favorite. "This paper is the final nail in the coffin for people who would like to make the sun responsible for present global warming," Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, told the journal Nature. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3300177/Sun-not-responsible-for-climate-change.html
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POPSClimate Change: It's Already Too Late “There is no tipping point, just a slope that gets ever steeper,” writes Lovelock. “Because of the rapidity of the Earth’s change, we will need to respond more like the inhabitants of a city threatened by a flood. When they see the unstoppable rise of water, their only option is to escape to higher ground. We have to make our lifeboats seaworthy now stop pretending there is any way back to that lush, comfortable, and beautiful Earth we left behind sometime in the 20th century.” Dr. James Lovelock Warns the World: Enjoy it While You Can
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POPSReport Shows Greater Peril for World's Threatened Animals and Plants The newest report also includes assessments of 845 species of corals. Already more than a quarter are considered threatened, with climate change added to the list of threats they face. Still, IUCN cautions that the health of marine life could be worse than expected, as relatively little is known about biodiversity in the oceans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIJHaQ8EGn0
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POPSHere is the Weather ... for July 2080 The research will be published by the UK Climate Impacts Programme set up by the government to help plan for long-term climate change. The Met Office’s Hadley Centre used its supercomputers to model how Britain’s climate might change from now until 2099.
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POPSThe Status of "Spaceship Earth" What’s worse is that Lovelock believes that the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are underestimating the severity of climate change. He has labeled a report issued by the IPCC earlier this year as "properly cautious", adding that he believes the report leaves a tone of “we can fix this”, when there is none. He continues and adds that a possibly six to eight billion people will suffer food and water shortages, intolerable climates, and the extinction of entire ecosystems. Global Dimming - 47min:44sec
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POPSWorld Must Tackle Space Threat Okay! Just as soon as we've fixed the global economy, climate change, mass extinction, food shortages, pollution and overpopulation... we should get right to it!
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POPSThe 10 Worst Corporations of 2008 I would pick Monsanto. No contest. On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television - a documentary that Americans won’t ever see. The gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844 The list: AIG: Money for Nothing Cargill: Food Profiteers Chevron: "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies" Constellation Energy: Nuclear Operators CNPC: Fueling Violence in Darfur Dole: The Sour Taste of Pineapple GE: Creative Accounting Imperial Sugar: 13 Dead Philip Morris International: Unshackled Roche: "Saving Lives is Not Our Business"
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POPSWhere Have All the Sunspots Gone? If the world does face another mini Ice Age, it could come without warning. Evidence for abrupt climate change is readily found in ice cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica. Could something like this happen again? There’s no way to tell, and because the changes can happen all within one decade—we might not even see it coming. Sorokhtin believes that a lack of sunspots does indicate a coming cooling period based on certain past trends and early records. In fact, he calls manmade climate change "a drop in the bucket" compared to the fierce and abrupt cold that can potentially be brought on by inactive solar phases. Sorokhtin’s advice: "Stock up on fur coats"…just in case.
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POPSPeople Power Can Beat Climate Change Engaging communities involves a lot more than simply asking for sacrifices. A supportive planning system and the guarantee of a stable, premium price for energy sold back to the grid has given people an incentive to join forces and create renewable energy. At a time of economic downturn and rising fuel costs, it is hard to imagine that the advantages of this opportunity to develop sustainable income streams would be lost on the general public. It offers politicians, business and investors the opportunity to unleash an entrepreneurial spirit capable of reaping financial and environmental returns for both the people and the planet.
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POPSThe Test The next Presidency has within its reach at least two generation-spanning causes: the need to jump-start a new energy economy, and, in so doing, help to contain climate change; and the need to enact a plan to provide quality health care to all Americans, and, in so doing, complete the project of social insurance that Roosevelt described in 1935. Each of these projects is urgent, but it is health-care reform that speaks more directly to the economic and human dimensions of the present downturn. The accumulating failures in the country’s health-care system are a cause of profound weakness in the American economy ; unaddressed, this weakness will exacerbate the coming recession and crimp its aftermath. Add to this the system’s moral failings: about twenty-two thousand people die in this country annually because they lack health insurance.
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POPSAmerican Election: An Illusion of Democracy A natural resources monopoly system was, thus, created in the US, and many parts of the world, based solely on capital gain and profit rather than the well being of human life. This power elite has gained total control over the American government and its departments, and dictates its laws and its foreign policies. In such a game the peoples’ choices are easily misled. The worst form of slavery is the one where slaves believe they are free. After the elections, there's still going to be massive problems to deal with. The "War on Terror", the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guantanamo, surveillance, torture, climate change, Palestine etc. Who ever wins, don't forget both candidates are slaves to the system. It's really only the people, who in the end, can change things. Demand change, no matter who ends up in that big ol' White House. Don't forget.
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POPSThe Core Misconceptions In The "War On Terror" "Terrorism is a particular tactic of political violence. Wars are conducted between states. Declaring a war on terror is like declaring war on serial murderers. War is what al-Qaeda wants. Such language elevates the terrorists to the level of warriors in a battle. The terrorists are criminals, not warriors, and should be treated accordingly. "
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POPSHigh Food Prices May Force Aid Rationing "The programme now faces having to help countries where the price of food, rather than shortages, is the problem." Food prices are rising on a mix of strong demand from developing countries; a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts caused by climate change; and the biofuel industry’s appetite for grains, analysts say.
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POPS Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point With the world's farmers unable to increase food production, policy makers must address the "massive challenges to the ability of humanity to continue to feed its growing numbers", Wells said in a statement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62_w7WmQmRo
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POPSMake Your Computer Carbon Neutral Click the "donate for free" button once a day to offset 1 lb of carbon daily. This estimate assumes you were on your computer for about 3-4 hours today. You can decrease your emissions by switching on “sleep” mode or turning your computer off if you plan to be away for any length of time. Okay, my computer is on way more than that, but a click a day is better than no click at all, I reckon. (PS) For those who give a sh**, errr... I mean click, below are a few of the other free "click-to-donate" sites. (Got appr. 30 more, so just ask.) I use a little app called DailyRotation (94 kb, no install) to do my daily rounds, so I don't forget anyone. The world need every bit of help it can get I reckon, so get to clickin' folks! .:) www.therainforestsite.com (6 buttons) www.ecologyfund.com (5 buttons) www.redjellyfish.com (2 buttons) www.tree4life.com/ingles/ingles.htm
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POPSBan The Plastic Bag Bangladesh slapped an outright ban on all polythene bags in 2002 after they were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. Discarded bags had choked the country's drainage systems. Nylon fishing nets, fishing line, bags, 6-pack rings etc, kill hundreds of thousands of animals every year and will continue to do so for hundreds, if not thousands of years to come. Horrible, panicked and painful deaths by drowning, suffocation or internal damage. If Bangladesh can ban the plastic bag and get by, surely so could we!
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POPSFuture Of War Will Go With The Flow "Water researchers, policymakers, negotiators, scientists and environmentalists on both sides of water conflict tend to be in agreement: Tension over water runs high but war on a global front is highly unlikely. These water experts are unique in the tendency to sidestep conflict in favor of compromise." I'm not so sure. Mankind doesn't seem to be too good on compromising when resources are limited (i.e. oil.) Why would we expect things be any different regarding water?
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