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Submitted By: Aydan Corkern
Although Australia had been discovered and inhabited long before 1770 when the British Government laid claim to the eastern half of it, it was not until this time that is became somewhat civilized. Even then it was a penal colony where many criminals were sent to work off their sentences and this particular civilization began about 1788 in the colony of New South Wales. It was a wild and untamed land that drew many people to it to live and help turn into the magnificent continent it is today.
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In Category: Nature
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Submitted By: James Nash
An article in the Washington Times recently discussed how skeptics of global warming are 'treated like a pariah'. The article begins, 'Scientists skeptical of climate-change theories say they are increasingly coming under attack - treatment that may make other analysts less likely to present contrarian views about global warming.' The article cites an example of this by mentioning how a climatologist in Oregon might be stripped of his position by the governor for speaking out against the origins ...
In Category: Politics
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Submitted By: James Nash
Carbon Offsetting involves paying an organisation to neutralise the climate impact of your own activities, thereby making those activities "carbon neutral" or "climate neutral". Some offset schemes focus on reducing future emissions by, for example, giving out low-energy lightbulbs in the developing world or buying renewable electricity credits. Others focus on sucking CO2 directly out of the atmosphere - usually by planting trees.
The planting of trees clearly has a positive effect in the fi ...
In Category: Environmental Reviews
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Submitted By: James Nash
Quite simply, you pay money to account for each tonne of carbon dioxide; or one of the other 5 common environmental pollutants that you create. 'You' can refer to individuals, corporations or political entities. So say, for example, that I generate 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, and each carbon credit costs $20 per tonne. I would have to pay $200 to be carbon neutral; meaning, that I am paying a fee for each tonne of greenhouse gases I produce and this fee contributes to products that eit ...
In Category: Finance/Economics
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Submitted By: James Nash
The need for tax shifting - lowering income taxes while raising taxes on environmentally destructive activities - in order to get the market to tell the truth has been widely endorsed by economists. The basic idea is to establish a tax that reflects the indirect costs to society of an economic activity. For example, a tax on coal would incorporate the increased health care costs associated with breathing polluted air, the costs of damage from acid rain, and the costs of climate disruption.
Ni ...
In Category: Finance/Economics
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Submitted By: James Nash
With gas prices continuing to stay high, many people are looking at other fuel options, such as, for example, diesel fuel. Ethanol is another alternative fuel option that can also save you some money at the pump.
Ethanol, grain alcohol made mostly from corn in the U.S., has seen a resurgence in interest lately, including new federal mandates to produce at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2020. Most ethanol today is blended into gasoline in a mixture called E10, 10 percent ethanol to 90 ...
In Category: Renewable Energy
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Submitted By: Mike Hirn
An Ice Age brought on by global warming was the scenario depicted in the movie THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. While the science on which the movie based has been called into question, there may be some merit in the theory that global warming could cause an Ice Age.
Why is Europe's climate comparitively milder than other places at the same latitude? Alaska and Greenland, both the same distance to the North Pole as Europe, are covered with ice and permafrost while most of Europe is not.
The ...
In Category: Nature
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Submitted By: James Nash
We are on the doorstep of environmental and energy crises. In 2003, the fourth hottest year since 1880, thirty-five thousand Europeans died in a heat wave. Today we watch as glaciers recede and ice shelves break off into the sea. In the US, we import over 60% of our oil. Energy has been the primary motivator for two wars resulting in thousands of American armed forces deaths and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in the Middle East.
Hurricane Katrina exposed our energy supply/demand vu ...
In Category: Environmental Reviews
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Submitted By: James Nash
Some people enjoy baking cookies in the oven, some people enjoy baking themselves in the backyard. Even if oil-soaked sun-worshipping Saturday afternoons are the most direct experience most of us every get with the energy of the sun, we know picture of the sun instinctively that the sun is essential for life. It turns out it's also essential for just about any type of energy you can think of.
Solar energy is free and inexhaustible, and has been for the 5 billion years or so that the planet ha ...
In Category: Home Additions
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Submitted By: James Nash
There's an old joke about how you can tell when a lawyer is lying - his lips move. Can the same thing be applied to politicians? Oops - most politicians ARE lawyers!
Is the public's increasing apathy towards politics partly due to the perception that politicians can't be trusted to give it to us straight? Have many of us become so jaded that we assume it's normal for politicians to lie? Where does "spin" end and outright lying begin? Is silence on an important issue the same as lying about it ...
In Category: Politics
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Submitted By: James Nash
Carbon offsetting provokes a powerful emotional response in some people. They just don't like the idea that you can pay someone else to mop up your carbon emissions. It smacks of indulgence and cheating. Critics say buying an offset while continuing to fly, or drive an SUV, or live in a mansion with all the lights on, is at best hypocritical, and at worst, downright dangerous. It simply avoids the issue, which is that we should be reducing our carbon footprint, and simply encourages the delusion ...
In Category: Environmental Reviews
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Submitted By: James Nash
Global warming is going to wreak havoc with the world economy. That is the latest prediction based on the idea that our use of fossil fuels and our production and release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is responsible for an increase-to-come in temperatures.
We've got to act now, we are being told. There is a strong consensus that we're in for some heavy heat and that industry is to blame for it. So energy use must be curtailed and polluters must be made to pay. UN General Secretary ...
In Category: Politics
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Submitted By: James Nash
As with any purchase, buyers need to choose their offsets carefully, particularly as the voluntary offset market is largely unregulated.
One issue to consider is the offset project type. For example, although quite popular, offsets from tree-planting projects are problematic for a number of reasons, including their lack of permanence and the fact that these projects do not address our dependence on fossil fuels. Similarly, offset projects involving the destruction of halocarbon gases such as ...
In Category: Consumer Reviews
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Submitted By: James Nash
Former Vice President and Nobel Prize peace winner Al Gore made a comment at the ASIAN Summit earlier this month in Bali, Indonesia that USA is the worst nation in causing the global warming. USA is the only industrialized nation now refuses to join the Kyoto summit to restraint carbon dioxide emission. President Bush refuses to sign the treaty for fear it may slow down the domestic industrial growth.
In fact, reducing the use of the present energy form will not help much of the global warmi ...
In Category: Environmental Reviews
Viewed: 143 Times. Read More ...
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Submitted By: James Nash
Geothermal energy is derived from beneath the earth's surface. There are a variety of different thermal resources, each of which creates its own engineering challenge as to the way that the energy can be tapped. In some cases current technologies are not practical or economic for successfully extracting the thermal energy. To all intents and purposes geothermal energies are renewable because the latent quantities of energy are so large we cannot imagine them running out.
The environmentally- ...
In Category: Renewable Energy
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Submitted By: James Nash
Tips for reducing your CO2 emissions fall into a number of categories; this article focuses on what you can do at home and in the workplace to reduce your carbon footprint.
At home
Simple measures could substantially reduce the emissions from your home, and save you money as well - you could currently be paying much more than you need to in gas and electricity bills.
1. Does it need to be so hot? Turning the thermostat down by just one degree can save you up to $60 a year on your heati ...
In Category: Home Management
Viewed: 144 Times. Read More ...
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Submitted By: James Nash
Picking a good carbon offset provider can be very tricky and usually can take some work. There are some generally accepted key principles that you want to keep in mind while picking an offset provider. Most large offset providers have third party verification, which is when an outside company verifies that the offset provider says they are doing what they are actually doing. Another important principle is permanence; the carbon that is offset is truly permanently not created. The last principle ...
In Category: Consumer Reviews
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Submitted By: James Nash
I used to joke that the government issues so much information every day, it can't help but let the truth slip out every once in a while. The Bush Administration's recent report on global warming is a classic example. Though far from perfect, it contains some crucial but awkward truths that neither George W. Bush nor his environmentalist critics want to confront. Which may explain why the Administration has sought to bury the report, while critics have misrepresented its most ominous conclusion.
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In Category: Politics
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Submitted By: Dominic Donaldson
With the state of the environment hot on the international agenda, environmental consulting services are becoming ever more in demand. Services offered can cover a multitude of disciplines, from engineering to biodiversity. This diversity means that working within an environmental consultancy is possible for many people whether their interest is in meteorology and acid erosion or sustainable developments using renewable energy and environmentally friendly materials.
Sustainable developments a ...
In Category: Environmental Reviews
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Submitted By: Aydan Corkern
You know, scientists can argue back and forth from now until the sun stops shining about whether global warming is the cause of the polar ice caps melting, the reason we are experiencing some strange weather at times, or the reasons floods have seemingly become more frequent and in places that usually do not experience them, but the fact is that we are experiencing these things no matter what the cause may be. Some people believe that man is causing global warming, some believe that it is just a ...
In Category: Environment
Viewed: 145 Times. Read More ...
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