The Conservation Report

Besides being a nuisance, contributions to climate change, global warming, and deforestation are more reasons to hate junk mail. From IWKRG-TV, AL:

Not that the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year are irksome enough or that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars or 51 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The group estimates that every year, more than 100 million trees are cut down to make junk mail - the equivalent of clear-cutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months!

According to the report (PDF), those trees come from endangered forests like Canada’s Boreal, the forests of the Southeastern United States, Indonesia and northern Europe, as well as smaller areas of rare or disappearing forest ecosystems in the Western United States, Brazil, Chile, and Russia.

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On the Net: REPORT: Junk Mail’s Impact on Global Warming

AIR POLLUTION: Beijing Olympics: China to celebrate week of ‘fresh air’: China’s Olympic organisers are hoping to celebrate a week of “clean” skies tomorrow after recording another day when Beijing’s notoriously poor air quality was officially judged good enough for the Games

APICULTURE: Commercially raised bees spreading disease

AQUACULTURE: The salmon business: Can marine farming ever be eco friendly?: Every day, a million Britons tuck into salmon, and demand is rising fast. Marine farming is the supermarkets’ answer – but can it ever be eco-friendly? Martin Hickman reports

ARCTIC MELTING: Stuck polar bears eating birds, Canadian ice shelf loses 7-square-mile section

BIOFUELS: McDonalds to power Manila’s police cars

BIG OIL: BP 2Q profits soar

CONSERVATION: Ancient tree needs help: environmentalists: The founder of National Tree Day wants the Federal Government to help save a rare Tasmanian tree

CRONYISM, LIES, COVER-UPS AND INDICTMENTS: Senate Democrats call on EPA administrator Stephen Johnson to resign, want DOJ investigation

ECO-DRIVING: You can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions to supplement your driving directions, which can save you gas in high density areas, and google will find known routes that are direct, flat, and that use pedestrian pathways

ENERGY: U.S. Motorists May Drive Less for 1st Time Since 1980, Energy conservation: Starting at home

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: A look at the ‘tough’ Montana judge in the gray wolves case

EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND TOXINS: Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins

FOOD: L.A. blocks new fast-food outlets from poor areas, In New Orleans, a fried chicken institution revived, Every bite you take: How Sysco came to monopolize most of what you eat

FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS: 180mpg hatch by 2050

GREEN GRAFFITI: Anti-Bush graffiti: 25 countries, six continents

GROSS IN APPROPRIATE USE OF RESOURCES: Airbus superjumbo lands at New York’s JFK

HIV/AIDS: U.S. blacks, if a nation, would rank high on AIDS, Number of new HIV infections in US much higher than government reported, study finds

HUMANITY: US House of Representatives set to apologise to black Americans for ‘enslavement and racial segregation’

INVASIVE SPECIES: Underwater, a disturbing new world: A Tribune team follows researchers to the bottom of Lake Michigan as they try to explain the rapidly shifting ecosystem

OFFSHORE DRILLING: Obama shifts, says he may back offshore drilling, GOP continues full-court press on oil drilling

OIL: Bush wants lower royalties levied on oil shale: Department of Interior says move would be an incentive

PLASTIC: Congress weighs ban Of chemical used in plastics

RECYCLING: Houston resists recycling, and independent streak is cited

REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE: How to carry groceries with a square of cloth

SCIENCE: Personalized stem cells one step closer to reality: Researchers create disease-specific, individualized human stem cells, Exercise pill: Drug burns fat, boosts endurance without moving a muscle, Ice on Mars confirmed by Phoenix Lander

SHARK: Rare shark stolen from tank, Great white shark filmed breaching at night: A first

TIDAL POWER: France plans groundbreaking tidal power experiment

TRAFFIC: Solo drivers would be able to a pay a toll for the privilege of using carpool lanes to speed their commutes on a dozen highways from the South Bay to Sonoma and east under a plan approved Wednesday by Bay Area transportation officials

WASTE: Within the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona, is one of the largest stockpiles of discarded vehicle tyres1 in the US - perhaps as many as 10 million individual tyres

WIND POWER: Japan owes its energy efficiency in part to wind farms, Wind-powered tall ships are once again important as oil prices hurt trade, World’s largest wind farm planned in Oregon

I just watched someone get out of a Hummer H2 and step in dog shit. How prophetic.

AGRICULTURE: Global quandary: How to feed a growing planet

ANIMAL WELFARE: Tales from a N.Y. animal sanctuary

ARCTIC DRILLING: ANWR: Two Cents a Gallon in a Generation

AVIATION INDUSTRY: Its back against the wall, airline industry looks to come clean

BIOFUELS: Kudzu gets kudos as a potential biofuel

BOTTLED WATER: Deposits on bottled water? Group pushes to spread law to other nonrefundable containers littering state

BYCATCH: Bycatch fees won’t help seabirds, says study

CAR-FREE ZONE: On 3 days in August, New York City will try no-car zone: “[T]he idea was to make the streets a haven for walkers, cyclists and others. Fitness, dance and yoga classes will be held along the route, and there will also be places to rent bicycles.”, Manhattan says goodbye to the car … just a little

CIVILIZATION: The plan for tomorrow’s mega city

DESALINATION: Innovative Watertecture in the Dead Sea

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: With the Chevy Volt, General Motors—battered, struggling for profitability, fed up with being eclipsed by Toyota and the Prius—is out to reinvent the automobile, and itself., The electric car lives: Backed by U.S. venture capital, Norwegian company Think is betting its Ox concept vehicle can prove the electric car’s time has finally arrived

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: Justices turn down appeal by Exxon

EXTINCTION: Mass extinctions due to sea level changes, study says

FISHERIES: Japan squid industry halted, U.S. Supermarkets not doing enough to protect fish - Greenpeace report

FUEL CELLS: UTC power to supply 4.8MW fuel cell system for WTC site

FUEL SPILL: Uruguay spill killing wildlife

GREEN: Go green and save green: expert’s guide

GROSS INAPPROPRIATE USE OF RESOURCES: Hummer by the numbers

HUMAN POPULATION: World Population To Hit 7 Billion By 2012

HYDROGEN VEHICLE: Honda makes first hydrogen cars

MARINE MAMMALS: Roaming polar bears spotted in Iceland, Sea lion seizures may result from toxic algae

NATURE: Jellyfish outbreaks a sign of nature out of sync

OCEANS: Schools of robo-fish for finding oil spills, tracking wildlife

OCEAN WARMING: Oceans warming faster than realized

OFFSHORE DRILLING: Offshore drilling like searching the couches for loose change?, McCain’s offshore drilling position a flip from three weeks ago

OIL: Oil trading volatile despite Saudi output pledge, Making the most of strategic oil reserves, Too few luxuries per gallon, Orlando tells limo operator

RENEWABLE RESOURCES: Cheaper solar? Just add steam

SOLAR: 10% of U.S. electricity from solar by 2025

WEATHER: Heat wave strains California’s power grid

WIND POWER: Invention brings wind energy home, Construction to start on rotating wind-power tower

Dog poop freeze spray?

Omigod, I almost had an accident on my carpet while watching this commercial. Some of my reactions while watching this commercial on YouTube:

1. It seems like I’m not missing anything by not having a television.
2. However, this may be the best commercial ever that promotes one of the most useless products of all time.
3. The actors and music are priceless!
4. I suppose this product isn’t child safe.
5. I can use this stuff as a weapon.
6. It’s a tort action in a can.
7. No wonder we have so many environmental problems.
8. Decadence.

On the Net: POOP-FREEZE

Doesn’t a banana already come in a guard – naturally?

On the Net: Banana Guard

What a waste. From The Huffington Post

What would you do if your net worth were $22 billion? If you were Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, you might build yourself the world’s most expensive home. As designed by Chicago architecture firm Perkins + Will, the in-progress glass-tower is estimated at $1 billion and is known to feature, at the least, a health club, multiple “safe” rooms, 3 helipads, 168 parking spaces and require 600 servants to maintain, and physically, the structure stands at 27 stories, or 570 feet tall.

Image Found Here

Bah, Humbug! What a waste of resources especially since it is so close to the ocean. I like swimming pools and do my fair share of consumer damage but I do not see the need in such a monstrosity especially when we live in a world where natural resources are becoming increasingly rare. At least it’s pumped with local saltwater and not filled with freshwater. It is certainly the Hummer of swimming pools. From the Daily Mail:

But if you fancy splashing out on one of your own – and you have the space to accommodate it – then beware: This one took five years to build, cost nearly £1billion and the annual maintenance bill will be £2million.

Image Found Here

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More ridiculousness on the Net: SUSTAINABILITY: Tactfulness reflects sustainability - a hint to a green Christmas
On the Net: SUSTAINABILITY: How green is your Christmas tree?

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Why aren’t federal or state automobiles electric or hybrid? I understand some federal programs cannot logistically use electric or hybrid automobiles however, what about the state and federal employees that can drive an electric or hybrid car especially in cities or when commuting between cities? I agree with Chris Dodd. From USATODAY.com:

Voters were invited to ask questions via video at the July 23 debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube….

One clip featured a snowman asking the candidates what they would do to make sure his son lives a full and happy life, then cut to a shot of a tiny snowman. Chris Dodd responded that he’d make federal car fleets all hybrids or electric, and touted his plan for a carbon tax. “You’ve got to tax polluters,” he said.

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The Conservation Report also asks “is it our inalienable right to drive an SUV for any other purpose than necessity?” Will SUVs be practical 25 years from now? How practical are SUVs today?