EarthBlips - Latest Other News Articles

Tai Babilonia Strips Down, Skates To Stop Fur (PHOTOS)

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:01:41 +0000

Former Olympic figure skater Tai Babilonia took to the rink today to support PETA's "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" anti-fur campaign. Babilonia skated at Rockefeller Center in a revealing outfit that showcased her figure and the large anti-fur sign she carried. In a press release, Babilonia said , "Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean we should be cold inside. There are many more warm things to wear nowadays than fur." For more information about PETA's campaign, visit FurIsDead.com . LOOK:

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Obama Turkey Pardon: Thanksgiving At The White House

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:13:46 +0000

On Wednesday, President Obama will participate in the the annual White House Thanksgiving Turkey pardon, a tradition where presidents "pardon" a turkey from slaughter in a White House ceremony. The turkey is typically shipped off the Disneyland to live out the rest of its days. The year, The president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk has written in a blog for HuffPost: On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I am writing to ask three things: 1) that you please send this year's pardoned turkeys to a credible sanctuary; 2) that in your speech at the pardoning ceremony, you acknowledge the millions of compassionate Americans who personally pardon turkeys every year by choosing a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal; and 3) that you invite PETA's chef to present a delicious cruelty-free Thanksgiving meal for you and your family, including Tofurky with all the trimmings, from corn bread to cranberries, and an all-American vegan apple pie ...

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Hundreds Of Icebergs Breaking Off Of Antarctica, Headed For New Zealand

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:38:36 +0000

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that hundreds of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday. The nearest one, measuring about 30 yards (meters) tall, was 160 miles (260 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand's Stewart Island and was part of a "flotilla" of icebergs that can be seen on satellite images, Australian glaciologist Neal Young said. The alert comes three years after cold weather and favorable ocean currents saw dozens of icebergs float close to New Zealand's southern shores for the first time in 75 years. New Zealand maritime officials have issued navigation warnings for the area south of the country. "It's an alert to shipping to be aware these potential hazards are around and to be on the lookout for them," Maritime New Zealand spokeswoman Sophie Hazelhurst said. No major shipping lanes or substantial fishing grounds are in the area, but most ...

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Ingrid Newkirk: President Obama, Send Pardoned Turkeys to a Sanctuary, Not Disneyland

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:58:51 +0000

Dear Mr. President: On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I am writing to ask three things: 1) that you please send this year's pardoned turkeys to a credible sanctuary; 2) that in your speech at the pardoning ceremony, you acknowledge the millions of compassionate Americans who personally pardon turkeys every year by choosing a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal; and 3) that you invite PETA's chef to present a delicious cruelty-free Thanksgiving meal for you and your family, including Tofurky with all the trimmings, from corn bread to cranberries, and an all-American vegan apple pie with vanilla soy ice cream on top. The vegan meal would provide some balance to all the free publicity given to the turkey industry on this occasion. As you may well know, Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be America's national bird. Franklin noted how courageous turkeys are, and today's animal behaviorists say that turkeys are indeed ...

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Convoys May Replace Carpools As A Greener Way To Travel

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:44:23 +0000

The project, based on the concept of linking vehicles together using wireless sensors, is aimed at finding an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way of getting cars to travel together, convoy style.

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70,000 Orphaned Baby Redwood Trees Looking For A Good Home

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:49:34 +0000

Thousands of foot-tall orphaned baby redwood trees sit in rows in a Humboldt County greenhouse, products of the ongoing economic slump and changes in forestry practices. They were grown for replanting commercial timberland then abandoned when they were no longer needed.

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China's Middle Class Rises Up In Environmental Protest, Uses Twitter To Organize

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:34:08 +0000

More than 1,000 people took to the streets in a district of Guangzhou to protest against the building of a rubbish incinerator near their homes. The crowd expanded as members sent real-time reports on the protest through Twitter, the micro-blogging website, and posted photographs on the internet.

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PETA's Thanksgiving Turkey Ad NBC Won't Air (VIDEO)

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:44:42 +0000

The animals rights group PETA is known for its shock tactics and pushing the envelope with its ads. Past ads that networks refused to air include the " veggie sex " ad slated to run during the Superbowl, and Pamela Anderson's stripping airport cop video. This ad, however, doesn't use sex or naked people to make people squirm. According to PETA's blog : When we first submitted our newest commercial to NBC in the hopes of running it during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the station asked us to give more information about the cruelty behind turkey slaughter to back up the statements made in the ad. But even after we sent the network this New York Times article chronicling the grisly facts about turkey factory farming, it nixed the ad, claiming that "this commercial does not meet NBC Universal standards ." WATCH: 'Grace': PETA's Thanksgiving ad Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter!

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Ontario Renewables Act to provide $4.5bn economic boost

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:44:00 +0000

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen , Tuesday 24 November 2009 at 10:44:00 Study argues that legislation designed to promote adoption of renewable energy will provide significant economic gains Recently introduced green energy legislation in Ontario, Canada could inject $4.5bn into the region's economy, according to a new study which argues that well managed renewable energy projects could attract...

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Op-Ed: Tornado Scientist Risks Life for Ph.D.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Storm-chasing scientist Reed Timmer describes an encounter with a surprisingly strong tornado that was nearly catastrophic but yielded great data for his PhD work.

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Obama Going To Copenhagen? White House To Announce Soon

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:58:08 +0000

The White House will announce soon whether President Obama will attend the climate change meetings in Copenhagen, a long anticipated decision that will signal how much effort and political capital the United States wants to spend on promising to curb carbon emissions.

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Sushi DNA Tests Reveal Fish Fraud

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:58:53 +0000

[A] team of researchers from Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History ordered tuna from 31 sushi restaurants and then used genetic tests to determine the species of fishes in those dishes. More than half of those eateries misrepresented, or couldn't clarify the type of fish they were mongering. Several were selling endangered southern bluefin tuna.

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Dutch Designer's "Fragmented Textiles" Are Like Legos For Fashion

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:56:16 +0000

Here's another eco-fashion innovation that is both puzzling and promising: "Fragmented" clothing that features customizable snap-on pieces, requires no sewing, and reduces textile waste.

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Han Shan: Oil Giant Chevron Accused of "Extortion" on Capitol Hill

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:24:47 +0000

Chevron is piling on the lobbyists and PR firms in an extraordinary effort to evade responsibility for its massive toxic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But in a recent article for Politico , Kenneth Vogel, who tracks the confluence of money, politics and influence for the influential Washington news outlet, writes that the oil company's increasingly combative approach is backfiring, "drawing fire from environmentalists, media ethicists, state pension funds, New York's attorney general, members of Congress and even Barack Obama when he was a senator." Facing the possibility of a $27 billion judgment in an Ecuadorean court, Chevron is employing an increasingly aggressive kitchen sink strategy, with a major lobbying effort in Washington, and a multifaceted PR campaign in the U.S. and Ecuador that produced a phony news report and promoted a contrived bribery scandal to smear the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In DC, Chevron has been lobbying Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative ...

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Norman MacAfee: Zero Destruction

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:25:52 +0000

It is exactly a year since my last post here. I got what I wanted: Bush out, Obama in. Now, a new concept: Zero Destruction. Last year, our neighborhood in New York City was fighting a plan to tear down half a city block of buildings from the 1920s and early 1940s. These had been built to last centuries, and most of my neighbors saw the folly of razing great old buildings and putting up new ones that could only be far flimsier. We protested, the Zoning Board agreed with us, and the plan has been cut back to keep the Great Old Buildings. In the 1950s and 1960s, New York went on a pointless destruction rampage. The most prominent victim was Pennsylvania Station (modeled on the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, still standing twenty centuries after construction). Alas, the old Penn Station had little more fifty years of life before it was razed in 1965 and replaced with something tacky and hideous. It was from that destruction that the preservationist movement in New York was born. Grand Central ...

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Jerry Cope: Copenhagen Now; Inhofe Is The Fourth Horsemen

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:17:37 +0000

Twelve years have passed since the Kyoto Protocols were signed and agreed upon by 187 countries, except of course the US. In the intervening years there have been countless summits, meetings, discussions, and peer-reviewed scientific reports leading up to the next global climate agreements scheduled to be concluded at COP15 in Copenhagen this December. As the scientific research indicates that critical climate tipping points are being reached, the Obama administration has for some time been releasing statements to lower expectations for consensus agreement in Copenhagen and now has proposed the world wait until next year for international action to address climate change. President Obama has proposed in 2010, if the US Senate can agree on a bill that will appease the powerful carbon industries and their K street lobbies in Washington (who have increased spending to thwart climate legislation by over three-hundred percent this year), to perhaps then negotiate and sign a global climate ...

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Internet Intercedes to Make Solar Cheaper

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

A new internet service provides instant online solar quotes, organizing would-be solar buyers into groups who get a collective bargain. The site addresses the soft, mushy costs of doing business that help make distributed solar power more expensive than fossil fuel power plants.

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Ellen Kanner: Meatless Monday: History Lesson

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:08:33 +0000

With frantic schedules, fast food and frozen entrees,Thanksgiving may be the one day of the year we return to the kitchen. And in so doing, we return to ourselves. We connect with the people who matter in our lives by inviting them to our table for a special meal. We connect to the past by honoring the spirit of that first Thanksgiving -- even if you may be wondering what exactly to be thankful for. Perhaps it's been a sucky year -- for you and a lot of others, ace. Unemployment's at 10.2 percent and a record 49 million Americans have faced food shortages this year. If it's any comfort, those celebrating the first Thanksgiving had a hard time of it, too. Back in England, the Pilgrims had been merchants, artisans and land owners. In this wacky new world, they had nothing and no workable skill set. Fortunately, the Wampanoag, Native Americans who'd been living in the 'hood, took pity on the inept newcomers. They gave them the seeds for native crops like corns and beans and squash, ...

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India approves $922m for solar plan in bid to boost PV capacity

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:02:00 +0000

Yvonne Chan in Hong Kong, BusinessGreen , Monday 23 November 2009 at 09:02:00 First phase of ambitious project aims to have 200MW installed by 2012 India's cabinet has approved an ambitious US$20bn solar mission aimed at increasing the nation's installed solar capacity to 20GW by 2022 – a move intended to strengthen its position at... > >

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John Passacantando: Obama Punts on Copenhagen and Eisenhower Calls off Invasion at Normandy

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:53:44 +0000

Bill McKibben pulls it all together today in his Washington Post essay explaining what's at stake if President Obama sticks to his decision to let the coming climate meeting in Cophenhagen fail. Try to re-imagine World War II in this context. Just before the invasion of Normandy, General Eisenhower decides not to send the Allied forces into Normandy. It's too windy, too choppy, the risk of failure too great. Instead he says, "I will work with Allied leaders toward a more modest interim invasion and I assure you that we will have a really big invasion next year." That is exactly where we are on global warming when it comes to US leadership. The fossil fuel industry sets the agenda, the agenda is to delay action, and politicians from both parties dutifully follow. I remain audaciously hopeful that my president could pull this off if he chooses to. The question is, will he?

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Kevin Grandia: Stolen CRU emails: Who are the criminals behind the conspiracy theorists?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:39:08 +0000

Former Republican strategist Marc Morano is having as much fun with the stolen emails from the Climate Research Unit that he did with the Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth attack he lead against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Morano and his site Climate Depot has become the climate conspiracy hub since this story broke on late Thursday. This cabal of climate deniers seems to think that 12 year-old emails between climate scientists somehow refutes the thousands of research papers produced over decades by thousands of researchers at some of the best scientific institutions in the world. While Morano is the master of right-wing spin and is using these emails for his political agenda, the bigger question here is: Who stole all this private data from the University in the first place? The folder of information contains over 3,800 separate files and it is clear that someone has taken a lot of time to pull together what they thought would be the most damaging. This is ...

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Who's Eating Madagascar's Lemurs?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:40:53 +0000

Bit by bit, the natural resources of Madagascar -- a biodiversity hotspot known for its unique vegetation and wildlife -- are being plundered.

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Michael Plank Strapped 15 Live Lizards To His Chest, Arrested At Airport: Authorities Say

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:52:32 +0000

LOS ANGELES — Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday that 40-year-old Michael Plank of Lomita, Calif., was returning from Australia when U.S. Customs agents found two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks – another type of lizard – fastened to his body Tuesday. Plank has been released on $10,000 bond and will be arraigned in federal court on Dec. 21. Authorities say the lizards' value totals more than $8,500. All Australian reptiles are strictly regulated and Plank did not have a permit for them.

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Bob Dinneen: Reminding Al Gore: 5 'Encouraging Truths' About Ethanol

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:39:41 +0000

Having an appreciation for Al Gore's commitment to science and advocacy of responsible policies on energy, the environment, and the economy, I was disappointed by his treatment of ethanol and other biofuels in his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. During the late 1970s, Gore was an early supporter of grain-based ethanol and other efforts to promote biofuels. Now, as he writes in his new book, Our Choice , he has changed his mind. Because of his devotion to science and the facts, I have sent him a detailed letter, filled with what I hope he'll consider encouraging, not inconvenient, truths: Encouraging Truth #1: Ethanol has come of age. Ethanol has come a long way since when Gore first championed it. With 10.5 billion gallons set to be produced and sold this year, ethanol is a major factor in America's motor fuel supply. Today's ethanol industry is helping support nearly 500,000 jobs, providing more than $20 billion in new household incomes. Last year alone, ...

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World's Largest Earthquake-Safe Building

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:45:00 +0000

A new 2-million-square-foot terminal at an Istanbul airport is the largest building in the world to sit on high-tech seismic isolators designed to help the building survive earthquakes intact.

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Electric Rolls-Royce Could Be Out By Christmas 2010, Rumors Report

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:19:01 +0000

Rumors of an electric Rolls-Royce Phantom are back, with the word being the super-luxe automaker could have one on the road within 12 months.

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Inhofe To Boxer: 'We Won, You Lost, Get A Life' (VIDEO)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:57:01 +0000

Sen. James Inhofe has won the battle against global warming -- or so he thinks. "I proudly declare 2009 as the 'Year of the Skeptic,' the year in which scientists who question the so-called global warming consensus are being heard,'' the Oklahoma Republican said in a long speech Tuesday during a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works meeting . "Until this year, any scientist, reporter or politician who dared raise even the slightest suspicion about the science behind global warming was dismissed and repeatedly mocked.'' "Today, I have been vindicated," he said. The reason for Inhofe's glee? Not any scientific shift, merely the news that a binding international agreement on climate change will likely be put off until 2010 . President Obama has been hobbled by Congress in his attempts to lead the way for the global pact . And Inhofe had a message specifically for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) -- "We won, you lost, get a life." Watch: Get HuffPost ...

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Tensie Whelan: Expecting More from Copenhagen

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:34:46 +0000

Expectations for a climate treaty had been in a dramatic downward spiral until President Obama's meeting with Hu Jintao in Beijing this week, where they agreed to shoot for emissions targets, and press for an agreement at Copenhagen that would "rally the world." Was it was all part of a concerted White House strategy to downplay expectations for a global treaty, then build them up again, so Copenhagen felt like a success? While I don't go that far, there is an odd disconnect between the pessimistic and optimistic story lines that we have to transcend. Instead of letting our expectations be manipulated one way or the other, we need stay focused. We need to be crystal clear about what can realistically be accomplished at Copenhagen, and unmistakably vocal about demanding that negotiators accomplish it. President Obama put conditions on his willingness to attend the Copenhagen conference, saying he'd go only "If I am confident that all the countries involved are bargaining in good faith ...

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Rudd may call election over carbon trading programme

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Cath Everett, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 16:34:00 Australian premier could act if Parliament fails to pass his green plans Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose government was elected in 2007 on a pro-green platform, may call an early election if Parliament fails to pass his carbon trading programme next...

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Helena Christensen: Meltdown: Images of What We Lose When the Glaciers Disappear

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:27:02 +0000

My mother was 18 years old when she sailed across a vast ocean from her native country, Peru, to her stepfather's homeland of Denmark. When I was a little girl, my family used to visit Peru every couple of years. I have such vivid memories of playing with the local kids in the streets, trying to catch stray puppies, swimming in mountain rivers and eating freshly caught fish. I recently traveled back to my mother's homeland as a photographer and ambassador for the humanitarian organization Oxfam. I wanted to draw attention to the effects of climate change on this beautiful country of rainforests, mountains and coastal deserts and raise awareness of the heartbreaking issues the people of Peru face. As with many poorer countries, Peru is bearing the brunt of a problem it has done little to cause. What is happening scientifically is complicated to explain, but the effects are clear for everyone to see. Peru's CO2 emissions account for only 0.1 percent of greenhouse gasses in the earth's atmosphere. ...

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Merkel calls for carbon emissions cuts

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Cath Everett, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 15:50:00 German Chancellor fears that ambitions to secure a global pact have diminished For the second time in a week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on all countries to fix binding targets for cutting carbon emissions by the first half of next...

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California in TV set clampdown

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 15:30:00 New sets must conform to energy usage regulations California has become the first US state to adopt regulations limiting the energy consumption of TV sets. New sets sold in the state must use one third less energy than...

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Why New Renewable Energy Records Don't Mean a Thing, Unless We Also Reduce Overall Demand

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:40:55 +0000

Without actually reducing overall energy demand, just adding more renewable energy (and touting absurdist records like the top energy source for a three hour period in a day) won't get us anywhere.

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Dung Helps Reveal Why Mammoths Died Out

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:37:43 +0000

Their results showed a slow decline in megafauna that began about 15,000 years ago and appeared to last for about 1,000 years. This discovery rules out one idea that the extinction might have been caused by an extraterrestrial object striking Earth 13,000 years ago.

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Displacement Of Local Peoples As Coporations Buy Carbon Offsets

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:33:58 +0000

THERE IS ANOTHER vexing question inherent in preserving forests: What happens to the people who use the land? Efforts to protect biodiversity in the dwindling wildlands of the world have increasingly run into a discomfiting tension between the impulse toward absolute preservation and the needs of people--many of them indigenous--who have lived sustainably in forestlands for decades or centuries. Such tensions are playing out in the new economics of carbon offsets.

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Cigarette Butts' Toxicity Kills Fish

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:28:16 +0000

Even with a small amount of unburnt tobacco clinging to it, a single cigarette butt soaked for a day is enough to turn a liter of water a sickly yellow brown and kill 50 percent of fish swimming in it. Without tobacco, it takes about 4 smoked filters to do the same job.

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Fox's News Corp. Begins Keeping Tabs of All Its CO2 Emissions

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:25:41 +0000

News Corp. - owner of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and numerous other media properties - is adding software to help manage its environmental impact and energy use.

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Taiwan Firm Crafts Stylish Shoes From Recycled Paper

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:53:29 +0000

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Confronted with an ever-growing pile of old newspapers, Taiwanese fashion designer Colin Lin came up with the idea of using them to make shoes and tote bags for her environmentally friendly footwear company. Lin, 50, says they are now hot items in Taiwan as well as markets from the United States to Europe, finding a niche with green-minded customers who have a fondness for novelty. Since the products were launched late last year, the firm has sold about 4,000 pairs of shoes made of recycled papers, Lin said, a fraction of its many lines of footwear. Both the shoes and tote bags are very much in line with Lin's environmentally friendly approach to business – an approach that in recent years has led her to use fish skin and raffia as replacements for leather. "My concern is for comfort, fashion and the environment," she said. Lin's shoes and tote bags stand out in a crowd because they are replete with the telltale Chinese characters that are printed in ...

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Solar-powered aeroplane takes to the runway

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Cath Everett, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 12:22:00 Prototype hits speeds of five knots in Switzerland A prototype of the world’s first solar-powered aeroplane had its initial runway outing yesterday in Switzerland, hitting speeds of up to five knots and covering 2km....

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Solid-state devices get energy boost

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Cath Everett, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 11:54:00 Massachusetts Institute of Technology hopes for commercialisation of quantum-dot devices Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on a way to boost the energy efficiency of solid-state devices by harvesting the currently wasted heat they generate for...

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Gadhimai Festival: Nepal Mass Animal Sacrifice Festival To Go Ahead Despite Protests

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:38:26 +0000

KATMANDU, Nepal — A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday. The Gadhimai festival, celebrated every five years, is attended by many Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes, pigs, goats, chickens and pigeons are expected to be slaughtered this year on Nov. 24 and 25. Organizers said they will not bow to "interference" from animal rights and religious groups that have held protests in Katmandu and in the festival area in Bara district, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the capital. "We will not stop this centuries-old tradition now. This is our religion, belief and tradition and we will continue with it no matter what," said Motilal Kushwa of the organizing committee. Kushwa said thousands of people have already arrived at the site with animals meant for sacrifice next week. Participants believe that animal ...

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Aquamarine to flick switch on first Oyster device

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:43:22 +0000

James Murray, BusinessGreen , Friday 20 November 2009 at 00:15:00 Company confirms nearshore wave energy device is delivering more power than expected Marine energy firm Aquamarine Power is today expected to formally launch its first grid-connected wave energy device at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).... > >

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Potential E-Waste Nightmare: Microsoft Bans Nearly a Million Xbox Users

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:02:10 +0000

After discovering nearly a million users had modified their consoles to play pirated games via the Xbox live service, Microsoft gave them the boot from the service and now the modified consoles are making their way onto the market by the hundreds, with more likely to follow.

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A Seahorse Hitchhikes Over 3,100 Miles Away From Home

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:46:22 +0000

[A] seahorse that lives on the western coast of the Atlantic has been found in the Azores almost 5000km away from its possible home.

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Lab Grown Meat Could Be Safer Than Animals, Bioengineers Say

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:16:04 +0000

Increasingly, bioengineers are growing nerve, heart and other tissues in labs. Recently, scientists even reported developing artificial penis tissue in rabbits. Although such research is meant to help treat patients, biomedical engineer Mark Post at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues suggest it could also help feed the rising demand for meat worldwide. The researchers noted that growing skeletal muscle in labs the kind people typically think of as the meat they eat could help tackle a number of problems:

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Government charges up electric car network with fresh £30m

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Tom Young, BusinessGreen , Thursday 19 November 2009 at 17:07:00 Business and local authorities encouraged to bid for new grant money The government formally launched its new "Plugged-in Places" initiative yesterday, inviting local authorities and businesses to bid for up to £30m of funding to set up networks of electric car...

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Heather Taylor-Miesle: Senator McCaskill is Tired

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:05:15 +0000

For those who missed this lovely tidbit in Wednesday’s Bloomberg story: Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill questioned whether the Senate would have anything left for the global warming debate after it is finished with health care. "I've not been around here a long time; I'm pretty new," McCaskill said. "But I've got to tell you, after you do one really, really big, really, really hard thing that makes everybody mad, I don't think anybody is excited about doing another really, really big thing that's really, really hard, that makes everybody mad." So, let me get this straight. Passing one bill was so very, very tough that Congress cannot possibly have the stomach to take on another immediate threat? Wow. I wish I only had to take on a challenging project every two years. In contrast, let’s take a look at Congressman Perriello (D-VA). This is a guy who barely won in the last election and he has refused to play it safe. In fact, after ...

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Leo W. Gerard: Hell if D.C. Didn't Offshore $849 Million in Stimulus for Windmills Already

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:49:52 +0000

It turns out a Texas windmill farm developer's request last month for nearly half a billion dollars in stimulus funds to create 2,000 jobs in China doesn't rank first on the audacity scale. Shockingly for American taxpayers, and sadly for the staggering 10.2 percent of Americans who are unemployed, it doesn't even rank second. That's because Washington already has doled out hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to foreign renewable energy firms. Of the $1.05 billion in clean energy grants awarded by D.C., $849 million -- 84 percent -- went to foreign wind companies, according to an analysis by Russ Choma of the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He wrote: "The cash grants were given for the installation of 1,763 megawatts of capacity - 1,566 installed by foreign companies. Using the Renewable Energy Policy Project's own numbers, as many as 4,500 manufacturing jobs may have been created overseas." A strong, broad Buy American clause in the stimulus bill could have prevented the ...

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Les Leopold: Clinton's Cash for Caulkers? Not enough Economic Insulation

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:18:45 +0000

Bill Clinton and John Doerr, the venture capitalist, are urging the Obama administration to use unspent TARP funds to stimulate jobs and reduce energy wastage by providing cash to homeowners and businesses for weatherization. It's being sold as a way to counteract our jobless recovery (make that our job- loss recovery). They claim that the two-year $23 billion program will pay for itself in the not-so-long haul because of the obvious energy savings. To be sure, using TARP money for something other than increasing Wall Street profits and bonuses would be a welcomed change. But it is questionable whether the Cash for Caulkers scheme can stimulate sufficient employment soon enough to help the 30 million who are jobless and the 49 million who are skipping meals. A more direct approach would be the creation of a national Caulkers Corps, modeled after the New Deal's Works Progress Administration and its Civilian Conservation Corps. Like those programs, the Caulkers Corps would directly hire the ...

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WWF tops list of NGOs that are best for business support

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Tom Young, BusinessGreen , Thursday 19 November 2009 at 14:37:00 Survey finds top CSR managers are planning to increase links with environmental NGOs WWF and Forum For The Future lead the growing numbers of NGOs advising top UK firms on environmental issues, according to a new report from industry analyst Verdantix....

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