Learn how to have a Smaller Impact on the Environment

Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Visit this website to learn about the No Impact experiment and to get tips on how you can have less impact on the environment.

Visit noimpactproject.org.

From Ocean to Ozone: Earth's Nine Life-Support Systems

Last year, Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden, sat down with a team of 28 luminaries from environmental and earth-systems science and came up with nine "planetary life-support systems" that are vital for human survival. They then quantified how far we have pushed them already, and estimated how much further we can go without threatening our own survival. Beyond certain boundaries, they warned, we risk causing "irreversible and abrupt environmental change" that could make the Earth a much less hospitable place (Ecology and Society, vol 14, p 32).

Read the article.

Long-term Ocean Oxygen Depletion in Response to Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuels

A panel of 155 scientists from 26 countries is warning that rising levels of CO2 in the world’s oceans are quickly making waters more acidic and threatening the health of shellfish and coral reefs. “Severe damages are imminent,” said the panel of oceanographers, chemists, and biologists. The problem of ocean acidification has recently drawn scientific attention. But the latest report takes the most comprehensive look at the problem and warns that rising CO2 emissions are fundamentally altering the chemistry of the sea, posing a direct threat to organisms that need calcium to build their shells. The panel said that the acidity of the ocean has increased 30 percent since the 17th century and that scientists already have discovered
decreases in shellfish, shellfish weights, and the ability of corals to grow skeletons. The oceans absorb about 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and in the sea the gas dissolves to form carbonic acid. “Any increase in dead zones from global warming will last for thousands of years. They will be a permanent fixture” of our oceans, said lead researcher Gary Shaffer of
the University of Copenhagen. [Yale Environment 360]

Nature (February 2009, v2 n2, p105 – 109 ) / by Gary Shaffer, Steffen Malskær Olsen and Jens Olaf Pepke Pedersen

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Status of Global Warming

Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

Read the article to see what has been happening since then.

Climate Change Speeding Toward Irreversible Tipping Points

The speed and scope of global warming is now overtaking even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, finds a new report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme, entitled "Climate Change Science Compendium 2009."

Read this article to see what is happening and what can be done!

Two Meter Sea Level Rise Unstoppable

A rise of at least two meters in the world's sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University.

"The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable," said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany's Potsdam Institute and a widely recognized sea level expert.

This is a very sobering article and is a must read!

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch to be Studied

The garbage patch, located 1000 miles west of California, is now estimated to be almost twice the size of Texas. It consists of discarded fishing lines, plastic bottles, and other garbage that has been collecting for decades. Now a group of scientists are setting sail to study it.

Read the article to find out more about it.

Capturing Carbon with Synthetic Trees

Watch the segment on Nova Science NOW that interviews Geophysicist Klaus Lackner about his synthetic tree made to take carbon out of the atmosphere which was inspired by his daughter's science project.

View the segment

Satellite survey reveals dramatic Arctic sea-ice thinning

Scientists have evaluated for the first time how much the thickness and volume of Arctic sea ice, not just the ice's surface area, have shrunk since 2004 across the Arctic Ocean basin.

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New York City-sized Ice Collapses off Antarctica

Read this article that talks about the shattering into icebergs of an ice sheet the size of New York City that broke off the Wilkins Ice Shelf earlier this month. This is a sign that climate change is having a very dramatic effect on the world.

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No Return to Normal - Economic Crisis

Here is a great article by James K. Galbraith about the global economic crisis. Not only does he explain how current banking policy will not work but he provides solutions that will end up rebuilding this country and preserving it's assets of being a place of science and technology innovation.

Read the article: "Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than you think"

Charlie Rose Interview with Amory Lovins

This interview is from 2006 but is still very relevant with regard to energy alternatives and getting off oil completely.

View the interview

Nova Special: Extreme Ice

Photographer, James Balog, chronicles the melting arctic and Greenland glaciers. The rate of melting is much faster than expected. Large lakes disappearing in a matter of hours is captured on video as well as large ice sheets breaking off and floating out to sea.

There are a series of 6 videos totaling an hour of viewing time. Incredible footage!

Visit the site to watch the videos.

Thomas Friedman Article about Sustainable Growth in Costa Rica

Read Thomas Friedman's article about Costa Rica's model for sustainable growth. He visited on an eco tour and gives his insights.

Read the article