Hunters Are Worried About Global Warming
Pulled from the SF Chronicle with Commentary from Matty Byloos for GEaP; April 9, 2008
Global warming could force elk and mule deer from much of the American West. Wild trout could disappear in lower Appalachian streams. Read the rest.
Aspen Environment Forum: The Word on Gray Wolves
By Lisa Hymas for GRIST; March 28, 2008
The gray wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains is being dropped from the federal endangered species list on Friday. Read the full story.
Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why
By Tina Kelley for New York Times; March 25, 2008
Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus.
Building Green — USGBC’s LEED Approach
Jake Kulju
As more homeowners become conscious of their environmental impact and the significant health risks that conventional building poses, a market for green building has been steadily growing over the last decade. To monitor the process, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was established as an official regulator of LEED building projects.
What Is LEED?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system of the USGBC that gives green builders the tools they need to meet the five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED acts as a benchmark for the “design, construction and operation of high performance green building.” LEED was formed Read the rest…
Investigating Biodiesel: The Good and the Bad Sides
post by Jim Bashkin at Chemistry for a Sustainable World
There are good and bad sides to biofuels, as Jane Goodall points out. I will explore this in detail in a series of articles that express my opinion and cite scientific reports or discussions. First, a bullet-point summary of key points is given below.
Much of the good/bad duality of biofuels has to do with the following questions:
* Where do the biofuels come from?
* What are we destroying in order to generate biofuels?
* What are we consuming in order to generate biofuels?
* What are we failing to produce in order to generate biofuels?
To find out more on this subject and to finish the the rest of the report on biodiesel, read James Bashkin’s “Biodiesel” published at Chemistry for a Sustainable World.
This blog posting is Copyright 2007 James K. Bashkin
Further Investigating Ethanol as an Alternative Fuel Source
post by Jim Bashkin at Chemistry for a Sustainable World
I’m a very serious environmentalist, but some of the “solutions” to problems have become so politicized that people are losing track of the facts.
One flaw in ethanol is that it is already partially oxidized (which is a chemical term for partially burned, and in this case already containing an oxygen atom). That is one of the reasons why burning ethanol the rest of the way doesn’t release as much energy as burning gasoline does, requiring about twice as many gallons of ethanol per mile to be used to power a car versus the mileage per gallon from gasoline / petrol.
The huge amount of gas that we use in the US simply overwhelms what can be produced from farming. Further, we can do a lot of damage to the environment producing all that ethanol without helping the “oil problem.”
One of the biggest problems with ethanol production Read the rest…
South Africa Travel: Taiping Four Return to Cameroon
So it seems that after several years of life in the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Pretoria, the four gorillas have finally been returned to their original home in Cameroon, courtesy of Kenya Airways.
According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, “around six years ago, four infant Western Lowland gorillas were violently removed from their families and forest home in Cameroon and transported half-way around the world.” Eventually, after stopping over in Malaysia, their travels eventually landed them in South Africa.
Travel to and From South Africa: Gorillas Safely Arrive
Originally smuggled out of Cameroon in 2002, the four have Read the rest…
Helping Hooves Charity from Heifer Project International
Heifer Project International is a charitable association that employs sustainable methods which serve to act as “long-term solutions emphasizing community involvement.” They’ve been around for decades (nearly 60 years), and have dedicated themselves “to helping people obtain a sustainable source of food and income.”
Their goals are aimed at solving world hunger, but the process is what distinguishes their relief efforts. With things like Helping Hooves, it seems that those who receive support also “agree to share the offspring of gift animals with others,” thus inspiring a sense of ownership and compassion down the line. Essentially, this erases any idea of victimhood, instead empowering everyone to get involved and to feel a sense of assistance and accomplishment.
Gifting a Water Buffalo from Heifer International for the Holidays
So this holiday, consider making an unusual gift from your family to another family in need. Give them a water buffalo. Read the rest…
I think recycling is like going to church — you show up once a week, it makes you feel good, and you’ve done your duty. Then you can get back to all the fun of sinning!
Let me ask you this: do you honestly know where all those newspapers go after you drop them off at the recycling center, or where you soda pop bottles end up after you put them in the blue recycling containers? Read the rest…
According to the press release, GreenIsUniversal.com is the new digital home of NBC Universal’s environmental efforts. Forward thinking? Pardon my cynicism, but I’d say enough of us have finally come forward, and coalesced into something worthy of pandering to. In other words, we’re being targeted as a block of consumers. My less more optimistic side says – whatever – maybe now that a major media corporation has gotten on the bandwagon, some heavy-duty changes can finally begin to take place.
All this remains to be seen. Hey – if environmentally-friendly products become more widely available, and some people’s consciousness shifts, then forget my judgment, all progress is good progress. When the website says Read the rest…
According to the press release, 
