Archive for CO2
There is always a variety of green stories in the news and this week is no exception. This edition of green news of the week features: Toys R Us green building plans, Jake Gyllenhaal promotes sustainable solutions, 25 Recycling facts not everyone knows, Greenland glaciers melting at a record pace, CO2 emissions in the US have increased by almost 4 percent, and Ford and Toyota are working together on hybrid engines for SUVs and trucks. If you see a headline and want to learn more, just click on it to read the full article.
Toys R Us Embeds Green Building Elements in Store Expansion Plans
Green building development, recycling, renewable energy and sustainability plays a key role in Toys R Us plans for 21 new stores and 23 existing stores being renovated. “According to Toys R Us, the new and renovated stores all have sophisticated energy management systems; outdoor signs with LED bulbs that last at least 2 1/2 times as long as the fluorescent bulbs they replace; low-flow plumbing and water fixtures that are expected to save about 34,000 gallons a year at each superstore; high-efficiency automatic hand dryers that use 80 percent less energy than standard devices and a cardboard baler that supports the company’s recycling program.”
Jake Gyllenhaal Helps Inner-City Kids Learn About Sustainable Farming and Healthy Eating
Jake Gyllenhaal gets his hands dirty teaching kids about sustainable farming and healthy eating. Jake is endorsing an ‘edible education’ by teaching kids to grow and cook their own food just like his family did when he was growing up. Watch the video with Gyllenhaal on The Today Show over at ecorazzi.com
25 Interesting Facts You May Not Know About Recycling
Recycling should be a common practice in any green lifestyle, but it’s important to recognize the environmental impact of the decisions we make. This list of 25 recycling facts is often surprising, always informative and underscores why recycling is essential for the long-term health and sustainability of our planet.
Greenland glaciers show record losses
Increased service temperatures have caused significant losses for Greenland’s glaciers in 2010 and 2011, according to an announcement from researchers this week. “Our fieldwork results are a key indication of the rapid changes now being seen in and around Greenland, which are evident not just on this glacier but also on many surrounding small glaciers,” study researcher Edward Hanna said in a statement. “It’s clear that this is now a very dynamic environment in terms of its response and mass wastage to ongoing climate change.”
U.S. Carbon Emissions Up Nearly 4 Percent
Here’s some shocking green news on CO2 emissions considering all the global green progress, I found this quite disappointing. “U.S. carbon emissions rose by 3.9 percent in 2010, which is the greatest increase since 1988, according to an annual report from the Energy Information Administration.”
Ford, Toyota to work together on hybrid trucks
Ford and Toyota announced Monday they will collaborate on a gas-electric hybrid engine for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. “Those kinds of models are indispensable to American customers. And providing them with our hybrid technology will help conserve energy and reduce output of greenhouse gas here in the United States. That was our thinking in considering the collaboration,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota’s executive vice president for research and development.
And that’s a few of the highlights from this past week in green news.
August 25, 2011
Tags: carbon emissions, Climate Change, CO2, co2 emissions, conserve energy, edible education, energy efficiency, Ford, Ford Hybrid SUV, Ford Hybrids, glaciers, glaciers melting, green news, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases, Greenland glaciers, hybrid engine, hybrid engines, hybrid SUV, hybrid trucks, Jake Gyllenhaal, LED bulbs, low-flow water fixtures, organic farming, organic foods, recycle, Recycling, recycling facts, reduce waste, renewable energy, sustainability, sustainable bottles, sustainable farming, Sustainable Practice, sustainable practices, Sustainable Solution, sustainable solutions, The Today Show, Toyota, Toyota hybrid SUV, toyota hybridsAl Gore and David Letterman – An Eco-friendly Master Class Part 5
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Now the long awaited (slight exaggeration) conclusion of our in-depth recounting of the Letterman/Gore interview. The Nobel Prize Laureate appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which is an eco-friendly follow up to his Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. We pick up near the end of multi segment interview when the conversation shifted to the ever-growing global population.
Dave said that two million women a year die in childbirth and one billion humans go hungry. He then asked if it is possible that we are not supporting the population of our world and should the population issue be a cause for concern? Gore said that this is a complicated issue as fantastic growth has helped to create the collision between people, earth, and the environment. In the last one hundred years the population of the earth has quadrupled. It is estimated that the population will continue to grow from 6.8 billion (currently) to over 9 billion, where is should stabilize in 2050. The fact that the population is stabilizing illustrates that the issue is being addressed successfully, Gore called it “a success story in slow motion”. The stability of the population is largely dependent on four factors:
- The education of girls and women
- Women having a say in their lives and communities
- Women having control over their fertility
- Higher child survival rates
Basically, when women have a say in their lives and are employed, they are predisposed to having smaller families. Additionally, when children survive at a higher rate, parents have a natural preference to have a smaller family. This shift happened in the United States decades ago and is now occurring all over the world.
The next issue that Letterman brought up has been a plank in the platform of every politician running in the United States in the last few years, which is the dependence on foreign oil. Gore shared that as long as the U.S. remains as dependent on foreign oil as they are, there will be a national security threat as well as an eco-friendly one. The reason for this is that oil reserves are mainly located in the Middle East, the largest of which are owned by the Saudis. Gore feels that to do right by the planet, future generations of children and the security the country, Americans need to be using renewable energy. When relying on foreign oil, any unrest in the Middle East is a threat, as the supply could be cut. Gore said that millions of new jobs could be created by retro fitting homes, putting up windmills, solar panels, and geo thermal installation.
Tags: Academy Award, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, carbon emissions, Climate Change, CO2, David Letterman, Eco Friendly, eco-friendly society, Eco-friendly Television, eco-friendly television pioneer, eco-friendly television programming, environmental issues, extinction, fertility, foreign oil, Geothermal Energy, Global Climate Crisis, Global Warming, Late Night with David Letterman, Noble Prize, planet forward, renewable energy, solar panels, windmillsAl Gore and David Letterman – An Eco-friendly Master Class Part 4
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This is the fourth installment in the saga that is the Letterman/Gore interview of 2009. As you are well aware the Nobel Prize laureate was on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote his latest book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which is a follow up to his award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The interview became an eco-friendly Master Class and fodder for discussion.
Unlike the other blogs in this series we will be looking at a host of issues, the first topic of conversation is the extinction of animals. The point was made that when Dave’s son Harry (now six) and Gore’s grandchildren are the age these two men are now, it is predicted that there will be fifty percent fewer species of animals and plants in the world. Gore mentioned the eminent biologist E. O. Wilson, who believes that the most serious crisis facing the earth is extinction.
Apparently, in the history of the world there have been five great extinctions; however, in the past these were cause by something like an asteroid hitting the earth. The last great extinction was about 65 million years ago, so that goes to show that it is truly a rarity. We now find ourselves in the midst of the 6th great extinction, in the history of the planet earth. The main difference this time is that the extinction is not caused by asteroid but by humans. We can change how we conduct our civilization, we need to become an eco-friendly society, if we want to reverse these effects. Letterman chimed with his dry wit claiming that he felt that an asteroid would be much more exciting.
Tags: Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, asteroid, Australia, carbon emissions, Climate Change, CO2, David Letterman, E. O. Wilson, Eco Friendly, eco-friendly society, Eco-friendly Television, eco-friendly television pioneer, eco-friendly television programming, environmental issues, extinction, Global Climate Crisis, Global Warming, Late Night with David Letterman, Noble Prize, pacific gyre, planet forward, reduce waste, waste reduction
