There’s going to be a fight and if nobody else wants to take on Bush, California will do it for sure. Bush wants to lift the 27-year old ban on offshore drilling.

Yesterday I brought this topic up at a lunch meeting with friends. (I live in Silicon Valley) One friend immediately blurted out “Fat chance of Bush lifting that ban!” And, I was kind of thinking, why not? My friend went on to say he remembers what it’s like swimming among the oil bubbles off the shore of Galveston, TX. No way was that going to happen in this area. “Save the Puffins!”

Since 1981, America has been prohibited from doing offshore gas drilling and exploration by a federal moratorium. Reasons - protect tourism and lessen the chance of oil spills reaching popular beaches.

Experts (can we trust them?) are telling Bush there are about 18 billion barrels of oil at the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

America has a choice - accept the high gas prices and/or watch them go up or start exploring and drilling and cursing and yelling and … On the other hand we can change route to solar or wind power, and electric cars!

FIGHT!

[Source: NYTimes] - Image by visualsushi

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Soon-to-be Republican U.S. presidential candidate, John McCain wants to add to the 104 nuclear reactors currently operating in the States. He wants to add 45 nuclear power plants by 2030.

Additionally, he wants to pledge $2 billion each year in federal funds “to make clean coal a reality.”

The 104 nuclear reactors produce about 20% of the country’s electricity needs. And America has enough coal to last us forever maybe? Though, forever is a really long time.

America has not seen a new nuclear power plant go online in over 30 years but if McCain had his way, we’d have 45 in 20 years and another 55 after that, providing for nearly half of our energy needs.

In addition to the energy these two projects will deliver…can you say J-O-B-S? No relation to that Apple Inc. guy.

Hear hear! Nuclear power is a viable alternative in my book IF it is managed correctly. Clean coal? Absolutely. What’s the alternative?

source

Who said apes are not smart? If you did, you may want to reconsider because researchers from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden explained that apes are able to plan for their future needs, just as we humans do – by using self-control and imagining future events. Now we understand why they go fishing …

Mathias and Helena Osvath, the two researchers demonstrated that chimpanzees and orangutans could override immediate drives in favor of future needs.

They were then tempted with their favorite fruit alongside the hose to test their ability to suppress the choice of the immediate reward (favorite fruit) in favor of a tool (the hose) that would lead to a larger reward 70 minutes later on (the fruit soup). The apes chose the hose more frequently than their favorite fruit suggesting that they are able to make choices in favor of future needs, even when they directly compete with an immediate reward.

Though I like apes very much (how not to love - pic) I’m not sure if they plan or not. Maybe they’ve just built habits or were forced to develop habits, what do you think?
The research is going to be published online this week in Springer’s journal, Animal Cognition.

Original image by guppiecat

Those living in New York should be really happy this summer, because the Department of Transportation is planning a 6.9-mile car-free path from the Brooklyn Bridge to the 72nd street entrance of Central Park.

Three Saturday mornings in August (the 9th, 16th, and 23rd) for six hours the streets will belong to those that want to “Play. Run. Walk. Bike. Breathe.” The experiment is called “Summer Streets”.

The “Summer Streets” campaign which was inspired by the Ciclovia festival in Bogota, Columbia, is a full-fledged summer activity program, with dance, fitness, and yoga classes on tap.

“The length of Summer Streets is what makes it amazing. This connects communities who don’t have parks to those who do. It also connects people from Prospect Park to Central Park,” said Wiley Norvell, of Transportation Alternatives. “I want to make sure to help New Yorkers make the most of the opportunity.”

There are already people griping about the campaign, saying it will affect their business negatively: “They’ve got to be kidding,” manager and owner of the League of Mutual Taxi Owners Vincent Capone told The Sun. We need these kinds of campaigns guys. Forget about your personal interests for a couple of days, it’s not that big a deal, eh?

Good initiative New York, we want more!

This kind of initiatives really get us rolling on the floor and wagging our tails.

The Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados is preparing a bill that will actually ask people to plant trees when they have fees to pay. The law is trying to recover the rainforest and offset the country’s carbon emissions.

We’re talking about fees concerning marriage, divorce, buying a new car or real estate transactions.

• getting married is 10 trees (additional 25 trees if you are divorcing later)
• buying a new car is 20 trees (light-duty van goes for 40 trees while a heavy duty is 60 trees)
• selling a house is 10 trees
• selling a business is 20 trees

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated that about 65 million trees would be planted per year under the proposed rules.

Apparently everything we do, harms the environment and though I do not agree with this concept, planting trees - no matter the reason - is a great solution to living a healthier life with a cleaner environment. Don’t you think?

[Source: Globo] (Image by Craig Jewell)

There’s a guy in North Carolina, Amychelle Jones, who has been sharing his home with 60,000 bees. I wonder if he counted them. One bee, two bees … but back to the story.

(honey oozes out of the walls)

The knucklehead noticed something coming out of his walls and he realized it was honey after tasting the oozing liquid on the wall. Turns out there was a huge bee hive behind the wall. Don’t know about you, but I’m not tasting things that are coming out of my wall.

“I came over here and dipped my finger in it and tasted it. Sure enough, it was honey coming out of the wall,” Jones said.

The bees were removed with a vacuum. SSsssuuuuccckkkkk!!!

“There’s no hive,” beekeepers said. “There’s no queen bee, so they’ll find their way out.”

I guess Jones knew how not to get rid of bees but I really wonder does he know anything about animal rights ?

Source: Wyff4

Sumitomo Electric Industries has an electric vehicle prototype that is driven by a superconducting motor. It’s the first in the world and we will get a glimpse of the vehicle at the G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido beginning on June 19.

Sumitomo wants the world to know that high-temperature superconductivity technology is an option for electric motors.

The usual electric motor uses low current and high voltage which translates into low torque. Sumitomo is proposing a superconducting coil with high current, lower voltage and fewer turns producing a higher torque.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Don’t touch the engine to see if it’s warm or you may not be back on GreenPacks to read more articles!

Neste Oil will invest about $1 billion to build a new biomass-to-liquid diesel plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands that will manufacture NExBTL renewable diesel fuel. The goal, 800,000 tons per year by 2011. Palm oil, rapeseed oil and animal fats will be mixed to make a high-quality diesel fuel.

Neste already has two such plants, though smaller, in Finland and Singapore.

(GreenPeace demonstration against Neste Oil diesel containing palm oil: rainforest destruction and climate change in diesel tank)

NExBTL fuel is supposed to reduce total life cycle C02 emissions by 40-60% as compared to regular diesel fuel. The company is also researching the use of non-food vegetable oils, wood waste and algae to make diesel fuel.

“Where do you buy gasoline, Alex?”

“I buy mine at the Piggly Wiggly Gas Mart, Bill. How about you?”

“My car runs on buffalo chips.”

Sooner or later, we are going to figure out how to make replenishable fuels without cutting into the food supply. It’s just a matter of time.

[Source: Neste Oil]

Image by Greenpeace Finland

Oprah just finished a 21-day cleanse. She eliminated caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from her diet. She gained some awareness:

“What I know for sure is I’ve reached a new level of awareness about food, eating and the whole process of how it gets to my table. I used to say thanks before a meal out of perfunctory habit. Now I consider it true grace to be able to eat anything in a world of increasing food shortages and starving people.

This has been exactly what we intended: enlightening. I will forever be a more cautious and conscious eater. That’s my commitment for now. To stay awakened.”

Question for Oprah - How long is forever? And now that you are a more cautious and conscious eater, what difference will that make to the rest of the world? And, yes, Oprah, you can make a difference to the world other than giving all the studio guests a new car. It am not an Oprah fan, but a fan of everyone in the world having something to eat. I did my own cleanse, too.

There’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a better way. Repeat after me. There’s got to be a better way. At least two more ‘better ways’ have taken a step forward in the past couple of days.

Germany’s Robert Bosch GmbH has agreed to work with South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co to develop the next-generation batteries for hybrid cars. Bosch is the world’s top parts maker and Samsung is, um, Samsung. In a 50-50 joint venture, the two giants will spend some $500 million over the next five years to improve on the lithium ion battery for hybrids, then sell them to GM, Ford Motor, Hyundai and any other takers.

In short, they will spend the next five years chasing Toyota and Nissan. Toyota is working with Matsushita Electric and Nissan has formed a partnership with NEC Corp.

The goal - bring down the costs of the hybrid car battery and in turn bring down the overall costs of the more eco-friendly cars. Presently hybrids go for as much as $5000 more than their gasoline counterparts, they are better on the environment but not the wallets of consumers. That’ll change.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor Co is even farther ahead with the launch of the Clarity hydrogen-fueled car for lease in the United States.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)