Climate & Energy

duplicitous indeed, but then again as much as this saddens me, it doesn't shock me, don't think that RSPCA labelled free range eggs are OK, they have a pretty low standard by which they make this assessment, talk to ciwf http://www.ciwf.org.uk/ to confirm this! Seems all these animal rights organisations have some skeletons in their closets after all! :( - Halil from Bookmarklet

Furthermore, intense water stress associated with vicious droughts in southern Sudan are driving wild coffee plants to extinction, now predicted to occur by 2020. - Halil from Bookmarklet

An earthship is a type of passive solar house made of natural and recycled materials. Designed and marketed by Earthship Biotecture of Taos, New Mexico, the homes are primarily constructed to work as autonomous buildings and are generally made of earth-filled tires, using thermal mass construction to naturally regulate indoor temperature. They also usually have their own special natural ventilation system. Earthships are generally off-the-grid homes, minimizing their reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. - Halil from Bookmarklet

Jenny just mentioned she wants us to live in one of these the other day :) - Eivind from Android

It took over two-and-a-half-years for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics to finally accept a paper outlining a new meteorological hypothesis in which condensation, not temperature, drives winds. If proven correct, the hypothesis could have massive ramifications on global policy—not to mention meteorology—as essentially the hypothesis means that the world's forest play a major role in driving precipitation from the coast into a continent's interior. The theory, known as the biotic pump, was first developed in 2006 by two Russian scientists, Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics, but the two have faced major pushback and delays in their attempt to put the theory before the greater scientific community. "It is, at first glance, incredible that such a process could be so influential, be based on basic physics, and yet have gone unnoticed for so long by so many," says co-author Douglas Sheil who worked with Gorshkov and Makarieva on the new paper. "I shared this view initially, but over time it has withstood a large number of queries and challenges." - Halil from Bookmarklet

"More and more of the effects of climate change on plants and animals are being discovered," Williams, a co-author of the study, explained. "In this study we found that spring-emerging elfin butterflies in Massachusetts are appearing about eight days earlier than they did 24 years ago and that they are especially sensitive to average temperatures in March and April," he said. "Summer-emerging hairstreak butterflies, on the other hand, are emerging only about three days earlier than they did 24 years ago. The effect of rising temperatures on butterflies is similar to that on plants and bees but greater than that on migratory birds, showing that living organisms respond differently to climate change. This difference can lead to mismatches between some animals and their food supply," Williams noted. - Halil from Bookmarklet

But, as wind farms will continue to be built, the result is that they are moved to areas where land is cheap, and human habitation scarce. Unfortunately, these tend also to be the areas where biodiversity is rich, and endangered species populous. In trying to keep renewable energy as inconspicuous and inconsequential as possible, we end up blighting the very thing we set out to protect. - Halil from Bookmarklet

I'll be frank. Wind farms exist because people in general refuse to change their consumption habits and companies have to find alternative ways to supply energy without erecting more coal power plants or blowing up more mountain tops, plus we also have this incredible NIMBY attitude about almsot everything. We can vilify energy companies all they want about wind turbines but we are the... more... - Hookuh Tinypants

This was the first record of a Barn Owl being killed by a small wind turbine anywhere in the UK. The ringing information is presently being processed by the BTO and it is assumed that the record will be documented in the ‘Birds of Cumbria’ annual report for this year, but will not be published until 2014/15. Many Environmental Assessments written for wind farms suggest that Barn Owls would not be affected by wind farms in this country even though there are records from Canada of Barn Owls being killed by turbines. Significantly therefore this new record would appear to prove the so called experts wrong, undermining the conclusions of the Environmental Assessments which had claimed the barn owl was at no risk from wind turbines in this country. This record is now undeniable proof that the barn owl is at just as much a rink of being killed by a turbine as all the other birds of prey in the UK. - Halil from Bookmarklet

It is tough but this article http://ff.im/1cKzqx does make a good point about the locations of wind farms needs to be better assessed and the impact on local wildlife needs to be seriously considered and factored when considering any new wind farm sites. - Halil

Scientists now plan to use the teeth as part of a probe into global warming - hoping the teeth will enable them to perfect a scientific technique which records ocean temperatures. Experts have found that oxygen atoms in the discarded teeth can reveal the temperature the sharks lived in, and hope that when the technique is perfected, it can be used to study fossilised shark teeth]. This technique will then help them determine the changing temperature of the world's oceans over the centuries. - Halil from Bookmarklet

Are the figures really exaggerated or more propaganda to further justify the plundering of earths limited resources? ~ Extra reading: World’s unknown species ‘can be named’ before they go extinct http://www.bbc.co.uk/news... - Halil from Bookmarklet

+1 well said and totally agree, you need to submit something like a "comment is free" article to the Guardian Kelli. But what bothers me about this reckless article is that unscrupulous and insalubrious corporations/individuals/politicians etc will use this type of misguided reporting to argue their point, what ever that may be; eg, deregistering/reclassifying endangered species, building/developing on green spaces, plundering resources etc etc etc. - Halil