Reducing Black Carbon Soot Would Slash Arctic Warming Two-Thirds by 2030, Cut Temp Rise by 0.5C
February 23, 2011 No Comment
In addition to burning fossil fuels and cookstoves, industrial processes such as brick production are also important sources of black carbon emissions. Photo: jerseyshowaa / Creative Commons . A new UNEP report highlights what a growing body of research shows is an overlooked and powerful contributor to global warming:
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Photo Source: Nevit Dilmen You may not have thought about it before, but electricity, just like plastic and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is 100 percent artificial . We have yet to figure out how to harness it in its natural form, such as lightning, for human consumption. Even if we did, I’m not sure there’s enough to power our world. So this begs the question – can anything t
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From our friends at Fast Company , “bridging the fuzzy border between design and business.” A primer on Active Design, which creates buildings and environments that fight America’s obesity epidemic. Today, obesity is poised to overtake tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death in America. More than a third of all Americans are obese and an additional third, overweight. Total U.S. health care costs attributable to obesity are expected reach $860 to $960 billion by 2030…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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One overlooked aspect of the ruckus in Wisconsin is that Governor Scott Walker’s budget proposal allows him to sell off the state’s power plants with no bids. And right as the pro-worker protests picked up steam, reporters noticed Koch Industries opening an office in downtown Madison, WI. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe not — there’s already a wave of speculation brewing that Scott Walker is looking to sell off his power plants to the GOP’s most notable corporate benefactors. Whether there’s truth to the rumor remains to be seen… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo credit: alex_ford / Creative Commons In Beijing, they celebrate when they have a ” blue sky day ,” when, that is, the haze clears long enough so that you can actually see the sun. Many days, you can’t even make out the next block. Washington, by contrast, looks pretty clean: white marble monuments, broad, tree-lined avenues, the beautiful, green spread of the Mall. But its inhabitants—at … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo . Oregon tried unsuccessfully to implement a rolling stop for bicycles during its last legislative session in 2009. Now it looks as if Oregonians are likely to be upstaged by that biking mecca of the western U.S. known as Utah. What? Utah? Yup. In case you weren’t aware, Utah has approximately 13,000 commuting cyclists (according to the last American Community Survey), and soon all of them ma… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit: Center for American Progress Action Fund , used under Creative Commons license. From aggressive emission cuts stimulating economic recovery to claims that cutting carbon necessitates de-industrialization , we’ve seen a lot of talk about what a cleaner, greener future would mean for our economy. James Murray, editor of B… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Europeans To Ban Fire Retardants and Phthalates Critical To American Building Industry
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Image credit Dow Chemical Comments to the post What is the Best Way To Build A Wall? Not A Simple Answer wondered why we wanted to reinvent the wall. The consensus was “Having XPS on the exterior is, I think, the easiest and best solution.” I will be honest and say that I have been frustrated over the last year that nobody seems to care that the stuff is full of HBCDD , a persistent bioacculative toxicant that according to Toxicologist Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Climate Change Is Already Making Your Hayfever Worse – Ragweed Season Now Up To 1 Month Longer
February 23, 2011 No Comment
photo: Truman / Creative Commons Global warming is already making seasonal allergy sufferers more sniffly, fogged in the head, and generally miserable. New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that warmer temperatures over the past 15 years have increased the length of the autumn ragweed season by 13-27 days throughout the m… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Arab States Stockpiling Food As Hedge Against Price Rises & Scarcity (Revolution?)
February 23, 2011 No CommentGlobal food prices have been rising for some time , are predicted to rise up to 20% in 2011, and have played a background role in the successful and ongoing popular uprisings in North Africa. Now, United Arab Emirates’ The National reports that several states in the Middle East have begun reinforcing stockpiles of food staples, with the stated motivation being to offset
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