Natural Selection

Hey, sweetie...maybe it's because you're wearing a BABY SEAL hat on your head.

http://snipurl.com/polarbearwoo

I don't know the story behind this, so I'll give the benefit of the doubt that she was put up to it, or it's staged, because I don't really understand her reaction.

Bush Greenwatch

Speaking of Bush in the previous post...I guess updating this website could be a full-time job.

Bush Green Watch

"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country."

-President Bush on the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, Washington Post, April 24, 2001

Makes perfect sense, George. Keep up the great work.

This helps.

I posted a little earlier about not really knowing what to believe when it comes to global warming, since different sources give different theories. One NASA employee spoke to support the belief in global warming, and yet the very same man finds himself making the news again...

NY Times:

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," he said.

Toast the Earth!

Never let it be said that Treehuggers don't have a sense of humour, I guess...Check out the Toast the Earth cartoon!

Not sure if it'll work, so my apologies if I got it wrong.

Shop MEC

Or if you already did, shop MEC more.

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), Canada's largest outdoor clothing and equipment retailer, has renewed its commitment to the environment by making its Alberta stores 100% emissions free.

This year, MEC has doubled its wind power purchase — which offsets emissions caused from the electricity its Edmonton and Calgary stores use — from 50% to 100%.

Link.

Tip Clips

As election coverage was plodding along, one site I came across reviewed and ranked various aspects of the parties involved. The one that stood out to me was the category for "best innovation" (being that it was won by the party for which I planned to vote).

The main Green Party site was singled out for David Chernushenko's energy/money saving tips. These aren't the obivous ones about turning out lights you're not using and not letting water run when you brush your teeth, but more having to do with the best appliances to use, how best to use them, and so on.

I include the link here, and hopefully you'll find them useful for saving one, the other, or both.

Energy Police?

That term sounds weak. They need something more bad-ass, like "shock cops" or something.

BEIJING - Beijing is setting up an "energy police" force to crack down on excessive lighting and heating and other power waste in shopping malls and office buildings, the China Daily said on Wednesday.

The 20 energy-efficiency supervisors would be the front line in the capital's campaign to curb power use, echoing a national drive to improve energy efficiency to curb pollution and dependence on imported oil as the economy grows.

"We have been advocating energy saving for years but it has remained only a slogan because of a lack of a supervising system," Beijing vice mayor Zhang Hao was quoted as saying.

The "energy police", as Zhang called them, would be authorised to fine owners of buildings that used too much power, adding teeth to city orders to improve energy efficiency that carried no penalties, the newspaper said.

China has struggled to generate enough power to keep up with its breakneck economic growth, about 9 percent annually, and has faced severe energy crunches the past two summers.

China consumes over four times more energy to generate a unit of GDP than the average Group of Seven developed country, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Wild Dogs Kill Croc

My Pappy sent me this picture a few days ago. A part of the attached message really struck a cord with me. It said "Sometimes nature is cruel but there is also a beauty in that cruelty."

This is a good example of that. The picture is said to be taken from Nature Magazine.

The crocodile as one of the ultimate predators can fall
victim to the kind of implemented 'team work' strategy
which is possible due to the pack mentality and social
structure of canines. 

Chilling.

Bullfrog Power

Some of you know this already but here's a change Christine and I are looking at making.



I'll plainly admit, and have, when I'm not sure when I'm talking about, but this is something I believe in. If I recall correctly, Christine brought these guys to my attention.

Bullfrog Power is the only electricity retailer in Ontario that buys power exclusively from wind and low-impact hydro generators who meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity.

For the moment, I have them on Google alert to see what kind of news they make. If it remains good, we'll probably switch in the spring. Damn it, if it's good enough for the Tragically Hip's Gord Downie, it's good enough for me!

In the meantime, I'm trying to get in the habit of turning off lights when they're not needed. Even more difficult is trying to get Christine to do that. She doesn't read this stuff so don't tell her I said that. ;-)

Ribbit!

Is It Getting Hot in Here?

Or is that only in Calgary? :-)

Here's kind of what I was talking about in my first post about struggling to determine who to believe:

Global warming skeptics have regularly put forth the theory the comparative warmth of cities via the "urban heat island effect" -- whereby metropolitan areas register considerably higher temperatures than their surroundings -- has skewed the global temperature record. For instance, at JunkScience.com, a website founded by Steven Milloy, who has claimed that global warming represents "flawed science," a September 12, 2004, article suggested that the urban heat island effect "create[s] the illusion of 'global warming.'

Meanwhile, NASA says...

A NASA official said researchers have calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average surface temperature worldwide since they began keeping records in the late 1800s.

James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said they can't be 100 percent certain of last year's record warmth because they had to estimate temperatures at the Arctic. However, Hansen said he's "reasonably confident" that last year was the warmest year.
.
.
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Earth is now the warmest it's been in 10,000 years.

Ah. So who do you believe?

I think my strategy with this one is to err on the side of caution. If I'm wrong that Global warming is real, what's the worst that could happen? I'd look like an idiot. Big deal. Not the first or last time. In fact, if I stopped doing it, I think I'd miss it in a weird kind of way...