Thanks to the senseless human activity and excessive greed, the days for one of the ocean’s largest and fastest predators are numbered. Bluefin tuna populations have been rapidly shrinking in the Atlantic and the experts at WWF predict that if fishing of this depleting breed is not completely halted during the breeding season, in a mere matter of 3 years, they’ll probably disappear.

The Bluefin tuna spawns only from the age of four and the current fishing patterns, they will be wiped out by 2012, “thanks” to a very high demand in the Japanese market as a sushi delicacy.

While a growing numbers of restaurants and retailers including Carrefour’s Italian supermarkets are boycotting, illegal fishing and the greediness to make more cash each year are surely proving to be the death knell for the Bluefin.

Racing in the oceans at the speed of a sports car, is apparently not enough for the Bluefin tuna to escape a tragic future. Something HAS to be done, NOW! [via Reuters]

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

We love animals here at Greenpacks.We don’t like when they are abused, mistreated and exploited. And that includes goat fighting.

Goat fighting?

Goat-fighting at Wadian Township, Linquan County, Anhui Province, China

I had never heard of the practice until just yesterday when I happened upon a short article in at a Chinese news site that I look at from time to time.

I suppose if we look around to most cultures we will find that there is fighting going on for sport … among animals trained to do so.

Thank goodness we are not so depraved in America. We just let people beat on each other. But, then there’s Michael Vick and the dog fighting and …

Why can’t we all just get along? [via Sina]

Russia has a lot of nerve to say the least.

The Russian government wants financial and technological assistance from Japan to build a pipeline and LNG export terminal for the Sakhalin I oil and natural gas development project.

If I remember correctly, Japanese companies Mistui and Mitsubishi helped build Sakhalin I hoping to cash in only to have Moscow change the laws in Gazprom’s favor leaving M&M out in the cold – literally.

Now, Moscow realizes they have the technology to export the LNG and they want Japan’s help again to cover the $5 billion costs invoved in the project. For that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Japan next month to beg for money.

Gas reserves at Sakhalin I are estimated at 485 billion cu. meters and Sakhalin II has 480 billion cu. meters.

Some 60% of Sakhalin II’s output is to be shipped to Japan to supply about 8% of the Japan’s needs … until Moscow changes the law again.

Fighting over the Earth’s natural resources! exploiting one another over the Earth’s natural resources!! Look no further than Russia!!!

Image courtesy of StephenMitchell

Yesterday I wrote about homes having their own wind power. Today, I came across an article where Toyota is planning to develop batteries for homes to run off of.  Now if, the wind power could charge the batteries, we might really be on to something.

Toyota Motor Corp. is working with Toyota Home to devise a power storage system to be used by as early as 2011. A home power system will be more practical for plug-in hybrid cars due out by 2010.

Their goal is to

1. design a device that costs hundreds of thousands of yen
2. is small enough to fit in the home or be placed outside
3. can store electricity during off-peak night hours
4. can store power generated by solar cells
5. can make power available for lighting and other uses in the home during the day
6. be a high-speed charging device that can power up plug-in cars.

Toyota’s prototype uses lithium ion batteries and can store some 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is enough to meet the daytime energy needs of the average household.

But, can you drive the house?

Only then would Toyota REALLY have something.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

Powered by a hot-swappable lithium battery pack, the E1pc Electric Motorcycle by MotoCzysz will race in the TTXGP competition using its latest green technology that makes it completely emission-free.

The sexy bike is a great combination of brilliant aerodynamics and a low weight (carbon fiber and aluminum) chassis, that allows it to carry 125 kg of lithium batteries and still manage to output some 115 hp of power and as much as 300-ft-lbs of torque. Reaching a max speed of 150 mph on a single speed gear box and 175 mph on a multi-speed gear system, the lightweight E1pc is definitely competitive on track.

While designed keeping the requirements of the TTXGP races in mind, a road version of the E1pc could easily be one of the very best electric bikes on offer in the market today. The designers also claim that you could cut down the weight of the hot-swap battery pack to as much as just 30 kilos to create a light and efficient urban commuting vehicle.

That is indeed versatility at its best, don’t you think? [via EcoFriend]

If you are adamant about shopping with designers and makers who think about the good of the planet while delivering the best for their customers, then 3rdWhale iPhone app is just the thing for you.

At the click of a button, the free app allows you to search for greenest businesses close to you and those eco-friendly product that you’ve been craving for so much. Over 20,000 business listings for over 30 major cities in Canada and the US have already been enlisted. And with more to follow you are guaranteed to find what you need not too far away from home.

But how does it work? Green businesses are being listed by going through directories that certify and accredit green products and services. Then checked, compared with standards and then assigned ratings: 1 to 3 Whales. Definitely a must have for the iPhone user with an eco-friendly bent, the geeky chaps decided to bring in an Android version (soon), too. [via TreeHugger]

Warren Buffet is breaking his own rules.

The rules -

1. When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.
2. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will.
3. And perhaps most famously, Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

Munger, 85-year old, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathway, advised Buffet, 78-year old, to take up the new venture and Buffet agreed, despite the fact I don’t think he knows Chinese or electric car technology. I may be wrong.

Buffet does, however, know the future. And, he may not have much left in his. Electric cars is what he is betting on for those who will take over his business. Hathway bought up 10% of BYD with an investment of $230 million.

BYD are the initials of the company’s Chinese name. It was started in 1995 in Shenzhen, China.

Wang, a chemist and government researcher raised $300,000 from relatives, rented about 2,000 square meters of space, and started making rechargeable batteries to compete with imports from Sony and Sanyo.

By the turn of the millennium, BYD had become one of the world’s largest cellphone battery makers. BYD makes mobile-phone handsets and parts for Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung.

Wang went into the automobile business in 2003 by buying up an almost defunct Chinese state-owned car company. Though he knew almost nothing about making cars … well now, Warren Buffet is his friend. The BYD sedan called F3 is the bestselling sedan in China, beating out the Volkswagen Jetta and Toyota Corolla.

BYD has a plug-in electric car with a backup gasoline engine. The company is ahead of GM, Nissan, and Toyota.

And, did I say that Warren Buffet is interested?

I was the first one in my neighborhood to get solar panels. That was when I lived in Japan and more than 20+ years ago. I wonder if I can be the first one in Sunnyvale (home to Yahoo) to have a wind turbine on the roof of my house. I wonder if I want to be the first person to have a wind turbine on house.

Image by stuant63

Home wind turbines are coming and in many cases are already here. But, in truth, call me shortsighted but if I live in a place where it’s windy enough for me to get the benefit of a whirlygig on my house, I think I might want to move. Perhaps if I lived alone out in the middle of a field in the middle of the plains of Oklahoma, or on a mountain top or, or…

About the only real reason I can think of someone wanting a wind turbine on their house would be the ‘cool factor.’ And what about noise? And they have to be big enough to really get some power generated out of them…and, and…

Am I really being too shortsighted here? I can’t see the forest for the wind turbines.

Biomimicry is the art of imitating life and designing structures with inspiration from nature’s best blueprints. While most energy-saving and water conserving buildings take their motivations from plants, UK-based Moxon Architects have turned towards the porcupine for their stroke of brilliance. Or so it seems with the design for Oliver’s Place Preston.

The 40,000 square foot office building sports an array of aluminum “reeds” that are all arranged in the same direction to incorporate passive solar heating into the structure and regulate its temperature— thus saving energy.

The prickly looking extensions are arranged in such a fashion that they allow early morning winter sun to go through to the interior of the building unabated, while hot summer sun at noon would be blocked off. Apart from making a grand and distinct visual statement, it also keeps the rain away as it continues to save energy in the form of the building’s heating and cooling needs. [via Eikongraphia]

The Duggar Family is doing their part to overpopulate the world. As if the two-thirds world didn’t need educating, there are folks closer to home (for me) who need it. Now, the Duggar Family is expecting grand kids.

Their oldest boy, Joshua, and his wife, Anna, are three months along.

I love kids as much as the next guy. And I am a family name. However, 18 kids! More on the way. And, how much is 18 X 18. It’s 324 I think. And 324 x 18 = 5,832. In just three generations this family could be 5,800 strong. One hundred thousand strong in four generations.

Were this a small country, family planning, abortion activists and all such folk would be all over them. So, when are too many kids, too many? This is something that should be decided BEFORE a child is born, of course.

But, the Duggar Family … yeah, they are taxing our world’s resources.

Thinking out loud here… What if everyone in China had been like the Duggars when they heeded Mao’s cry to “Populate the Middle Kingdom”?