Cricket is a unifying religion in India, a nation of vast religious and cultural diversities and Sachin Tendulkar its undisputed demigod. The greatest modern batsman the game has ever seen— and a man carrying a billion hopes and expectations every time he walks out to the center, has come out for the first time in support of the Tiger Conservation Program in the country.

Image by waqas

Tendulkar dedicated his brilliant innings of 160 to the cause of Tiger Conservation and asked people to help restore the habitat of a vanishing Tiger. So why is one sportsperson’s call out to the people of one nation to save the Tiger that significant? He told the media that at the start of the century there were nearly 40,000 tigers in India, which were now reduced to 17,000. He compared the situation to his time in school when he was told there were once dinosaurs and hoped we dint have to tell future generations about tigers the same way.

With the savvy media already picking up on the issue in a big way and youngsters talking about it, this probably is the most meaningful step towards tiger conservation in India taken in a long, long time!

Star-power and celebrity endorsement of a green and planet-friendly cause always help propel it into spotlight, but Sachin Tendulkar is much beyond a ‘star’ in the region. He has been a model ambassador for the sport for 20 years that he has played, has stayed on the pinnacle of the sport for all those years and most importantly is one individual whose words are repeated by the media a million times over and taken to heart by everyone who is both a fan of the game and otherwise.

The Indian Cricket Team has officially endorsed the tiger conservation campaign on its tour to New Zealand and even has a poster on its dressing room that says ‘Extinction is forever’.

We’re game!

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The nation that leads the world on energy will be the nation that will lead the world in the 21st century— or at least that’s the clear message emanating from the White House.

Investing in the technology and energy of the future, President Barrack Obama unveiled a $2.4 billion dollar boost for electric vehicle development in the US and urged the industry to help reduce the nation’s reliance on other nations for its energy needs in the form of oil imports. (And increase dependency on Japanese batteries, one asks?)

Innocent and so very green ...

Speeching at the unveiling of the green package, Obama talked about how the German’s were leading the world in solar power and Spain producing 30-percent of its energy from windmills.

The aim of the package is obviously to encourage more green vehicles on the road— there’s a target for a million eco-friendly vehicles on US roads by 2015. Not content in giving the green movement a thrust from the production side alone, President Obama also declared a $7,500 dollar tax credit to consumers willing to buy plug-in vehicles.

Split up into $1.5 billion to manufacturers who produce highly efficient batteries and $500 million for firms that produce other components, this is all about creating future roads with zero-emissions. And maybe some green jobs?

Image by simeon_barkas

Made from the world’s excessive dependency on oil for energy— largely thanks to their huge oil exports, the gulf nations today have arguably some of the highest GDP on the planet. But with a green wave spreading across the planets and nations calling for a cut in relying on oil for energy, the Gulf countries are now worried about the implications of the eco-friendly movement in their economies. And they … should.

Gulf Nighttime - The dunes, the ocean and oil rigs

As more and more people are turning away from gasoline, conventional power and crude oil products and head towards solar, wind and hydrogen fuel cells, the economies of the Middle East nations could take a hit of around 5 to 20 percent. Some say, even more!

At an OPEC energy conference, Mohammad al-Sabban of the Saudi Ministry of petroleum expressed his growing concerns in this regard and said that if the trend continued, then the nations of the Gulf had a huge share of international wealth to lose out on. And already, nations like Saudi Arabia are thinking of tapping into the solar industry to avert future ‘disasters’.

Is it time to understand that relying on oil is not going last forever? Those wells WILL eventualy dry. And it could be pretty soon …

Original image by chriscpk214

Whenever there is a group of environmentalists and top notch scientists (?) who claim that human activity and carbon emissions are destroying the planet, there is a group of skeptics to challenge it. But when it comes to ocean acidification, the conclusive evidence is before our eyes— we are causing irreversible damage to the planet.

Image by shoebappa

A team of scientists in Australia have found that the shells of amoeba-like organisms, called Foraminifera, have become substantially thin over the past decades. That is largely caused by ocean acidification, due to the excessive carbon emissions from human activity.

Since the carbon is absorbed by the Foraminifera, the ocean becomes a huge sink for CO2.

Studies have shown that their shells have gone thinner by 30 to 35-percent when compared to shells of organisms that lived a few hundred years ago. And the reduction in number and even extinction of these species will alter drastically the marine food chain all the way to the large whales or the great white sharks.

Scientists claim that the ocean acidity has gone up by 32% since 1800 and will go up by more than 130% by 2100. If the trend continues, not only will we be wrecking all marine ecosystems, but will turn the ocean into an acidic bed. But is there hope?

I remember the gas wars when I was a kid. I once filled up my ‘60 VW bug (I bought it used) for less than $2.00. Gas was 24.9¢. That’s right, less than a quarter a gallon. Yeah, yeah. I’m old.

The point is, when there are price wars, the consumer wins.

Toyota and Honda are going to go at it with their hybrid cars. Remember those three reasons why Honda’s New Insight Will Beat Out Toyota’s New Prius? We may have been right, eh? Honda introduced its hybrid Insight last month and it has already received 18,000 orders, more than three times its monthly sales target.

Toyota is countering by preparing to lower the price of its Prius and roll out a new hybrid less than Y2 million (Insight costs Y1.89million). But their new hybrid with an engine smaller than 1.5 litre, isn’t expected out until 2011.

In the end, however, the consumer is going to win this war.

Via: AFP

We love babies. Babies are all about hope for the future. You can’t help but think all will be well, or dang it!, we’d best clean up our act so we can make things better so our little ones will have a home here on Earth to enjoy when they are old enough to have their own offspring.

Baby siberian tiger cubs can be seen in Harbin, China. The three cubs must be bottle fed since their mother can’t produce milk. That’s how it is supposed to work. People and animals are to be friends. [Sina]

There’s a baby hippo – yeah, hippos can be small sometimes, too, at least in the beginning. This little fellow was born in the Assam State Zoo and Botanical gardens in Guwahati, India. [Xinhuanet]

This baby elephant gets to enjoy a block of ice on Thailand’s National Elephant Day in Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal. Yum! [Xinhuanet]

Finally – snow monkeys enjoy an onsen (hot spring) in Jigokudani Monkey Park in Shiga Kogen, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. One little guy has the see no evil part down, eh? [JapanToday]

What do you think about when you see babies, animal or otherwise?

Although they didn’t announce a new Favicon change, Google came out with a huge announcement. They’ve just creating a free software tool that allows all users to monitor their home’s energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Image by missha

Dan Reicher, Director for Climate Change and Energy Initiatives Google, confirmed and also mentioned that the new software is being developed as we speak and will be ‘open source’.

This will allow you to understand how much energy each gadget in your home is consuming, how much energy is being wasted and which gadgets need to be thrown out in order to cut down on excessive carbon emissions. Also, studies revealed that this helps a home slash off about 5 to 15 percent of its electricity bill each month.

There are many gadgets out there in the market today that do the same, but with Google stepping in with a free tool like that, one can only expect more efficient and energy-savvy households to take shape. Isn’t it?

So when are we going to get our hands on this new green tool? Google has not given a set deadline as yet for that, but ‘soon’ is good enough of a promise for now.

[Reuters via Ecofriend]

Japan’s supermodel Moe Oshikiri can be seen in this photo (center). Next to her is former major league baseball player Tsuyoshi Shinjo. The two, along with a whole bunch of other folk took part in a marathon (cough, cough) event at Tokyo Midtown on Monday morning.

The event was part of mobile carrier KDDI au’s “Green Road Project.”

A real runner, Olympic marathon silver medalist Yuko Arimori, also attended the event. Altogether there were some 50 runners who participated.

KDDI (Japan’s International Telephone Company) launched the project through which au users can donate 1 yen for each 1 kilometer they walk or run, after downloading the company’s online service “au Smart Sports Run&Walk.”

The money raised will buy seeds of bitter gourd and morning glory to distribute for free at au shops. All of this is part of KDDI’s greening project. So far, KDDI says that 2.7 million yen ($30K) has been raised since the project’s launch in February.

I remember when I introduced the idea of walking/running for pledges some 20 years ago. All, I got were blank stares. We eventually raised $100K over the years which we sent off to southeast Asia.

Glad to see a major company in Japan is doing something similar.

Via: JapanToday

A relatively new science that studies nature and its perfectness, biomimicry is catching on big time in the architecture domain. And the latest to transform a fleshy design into steel and concrete are the folks at Bangkok-based Aesthetics Architects. The company is in charge for designing and building the new office for the Minister of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture (MMAA) in Qatar. Hence they have given a blueprint that rivals every cactus in the country, in terms of sheer size and grandeur.

To take shape in the dry and arid Qatar, the building is shaped much like a prickly cactus that does all it can to keep the sun out and store the water. The structure uses sun shades on its windows, which can open or close to keep out the heat as per the requirements throughout the day or night.

Since the days get really hot and nights are pretty cold, the technology helps regulate the temperature inside. This sure saves a hell lot of money, but its is the energy it saves that makes the cactus skyscraper an amazing— as money is not an issue, especially considering Qatar has the highest GDP in the world.

Does it beat the wind-powered rotating skyscraper in Dubai? What do you think?

Via: Design Boom

The Australian reports that – “THREE senior Japanese scientists separately engaged in climate-change research have strongly questioned the validity of the man-made global-warming model that underpins the drive by the UN and most developed-nation governments to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

Image by brandnewbrain

One says -”I believe the anthropogenic (man-made) effect for climate change is still only one of the hypotheses to explain the variability of climate,” Kanya Kusano told The Weekend Australian.

It could take 10 to 20 years more research to prove or disprove the theory of anthropogenic climate change.”

Another says - “Before anyone noticed, this hypothesis has been substituted for truth.”

The IPCC assertion that atmospheric temperatures are likely to increase continuously and steadily “should be perceived as an unprovable hypothesis”.

There is widespread skepticism that “most of the observed global temperature increase since the mid-20th century ‘is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.’”

At a Japan Geoscience Union symposium last year, one of the scientists said, “the result showed 90 per cent of the participants do not believe the IPCC report”.

“Our nation must pay huge amounts of money to buy carbon discharge rights,” another scientist said. “This is not reasonable, but meaningless if global cooling will come soon — scientists will lose trust.”

A JSER representative said, “This paper (written by the scientists) represents the views of the individuals and not of the society.”

So, it really doesn’t matter what the scientists think, it matters what the society thinks, which at this point is neutral.

Yet another scientist said “many scientists were doubtful about man-made climate-change theory, but did not want to risk their funding from the government or bad publicity from the mass media, which he said was leading society in the wrong direction.”

My question – who stands to make out if the global warming scare continues? Those who are for the global warming hype or those who think it’s, well, um, just hype?  There’s the answer.