Thousands of 1ft tall people call for climate action - Edinburgh, Scotland

The impact of the amended legislation on climate change on farms and ranches in the United States will be “bearable” – partly owing to the opportunity to earn money for controlling greenhouse-gases.  Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said in a speech at a meeting of the American Soybean Association that it has been estimated the climate bill would push up the costs of crop production by 1.8%-4.6% in the short term.

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Clouds caused by a colossal dust storm in Taklimakan desert in China in 2007 completed more than one full circle around the globe in 13 days.  The dust cloud – measuring about 1.9 miles vertically and about 1,242 miles horizontally – was formed in Xinjiang, in north-western China. Interestingly, the cloud remained in that formation all through its journey around the Earth.

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Though alternative energy can provide jobs across many sectors in the United States economy, formulation of a policy in this regard may take many years to develop.

State laws on “green” power and regional cap-and-trade schemes on greenhouse-gas have been instrumental in impelling local economies to start converting from plants based on fossil fuel to green jobs, US governors told Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works.

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If the larger and medium economies of the world have to be motivated to cut down immensely on the carbon footprints, it might be the smaller nations which have to set an example stating that it can be done in a manner easier than anticipated.

Tuvalu, the fourth smallest nation in the world with a population of 12,000 people intends to become the first zer0-carbon country in the world – an example which could surely influence others.

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Major business groups in the United States have warned US Congress that it will trigger what may be called a “green trade war” if Congress passes a climate change bill which “threatens” other countries with taxes on energy-intensive goods.

In a letter to US Senate leaders, the National Foreign Trade Council, the United States Chamber of Commerce and two other groups urged the Senate to desist from including provisions that could “negatively impact US relations with key trading partners and disrupt the global trading systems.”  Climate change, the letter adds, is a global problem which requires international cooperation and not “unilateral ultimatums.”

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The US Green Building Council has readied its new headquarters and the Council is now seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. Interestingly, it is the USGBC that has devised the Green Building Rating System and it now remains to be seen how the council will maintain transparency here.

It may be a case where the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) will review the surroundings to evaluate the LEED worthy surroundings. Now considering that the GBCI shares the office with USGBC, we are not very certain of the transparency.

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The Ford EcoBoost strategy for the coming year got its own boost through an announcement made at the 2010 model year preview in Dearborn, Michigan. The next generation EcoBoost 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine will arrive in 2010. The engine upgrade will be coupled with the debut of a Powershift six-speed dual clutch gearbox.

For the future, Ford is advocating the use of a dry clutch system over the wet clutch option. The experts at Ford believe that the dry clutch is far more efficient when used on existing DCTs-which currently use the wet clutch system.

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Sustainable structures that consume very low levels of energy should be a major share of our community structures as they will help meet the energy crisis. Green Architects reveal how such buildings can be part of the everyday system with their Bibliosphere design. Bibliosphere is a globe like design which will together house the City ( all its major offices) and the University.

The Earth Death Star like replication of this structure is no coincidence, as the architects have done it on purpose. As a structure it offers a number of  low-impact and sustainable features.

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Eat This, Not That! took a look at what is found in bottled water.

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but for Americans and Japanese, what comes out of the tap is just as good if not better for you than what comes in the plastic bottles, and better for the environment, too! No recycling, no plastic, no contaminants!

Dasani of Coca-Cola is selling Philadelphia tap water that has been purified. The Natural Resources Defense Council found that about 22% of  brands tested contained contaminants ABOVE state health limits.

Let’s see, tap water that meets state, federal and local guidelines or trendy bottled water with fancy names that costs more than gasoline. Hmm…

I’ll put a purifier on my tap water and go with that and be kinder to the environment and my wallet as well. How about you?

Scientists get a lot of respect. Well deserved for the most part.

There are lots of people around me who are. Extremely knowledgeable folk. You can’t swing a dead cat at my church without hitting a PhD and we have less than 50 people in the building.

My son is going to be a scientist – grad school, physiology and so on.

Even with all the scientists, professional and otherwise, astronomer-types, an amateur stargazer was the one who found the  ’scar’ on Jupiter.

The guess is a  large comet or asteroid has slammed into Jupiter. It created a hole the size of Earth. And if Earth doesn’t clean up its act, we are likely to get sucked into that hold.

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