For Every Sector, Little Earth Day Ideas For A Better World

For everyday people like you and I:

Celebrate Earth Day by doing simple things like checking the air pressure in your car tires. Keeping tires properly inflated can earn you another 10 cents per gallon. If everyone’s tires were properly inflated, we would be saving about 4 million gallons of gasoline every DAY. (more…)

RoboTrees Can Rid CO2 From The Winds of Earth

This is a long one kids but full of information you need to know. So, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or what ever, sit back and enjoy.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is primarily the result of the actions of two forces, nature and human. Natural actions such as volcanic eruptions, naturally occurring forest fires (i.e. lightening), and even methane hydrate released from melting permafrost. Human actions includes power generation, industrial production, transportation (cars, trucks, ships, trains and aircraft), agricultural burning, and deforestation (land clearing). Just one tank full of gasoline produces approximately 300 lbs. of CO2. (more…)

This is Reality and the Coen Brothers have teamed up by calling out the coal industry’s ridiculous claims that coal is clean!  Their latest ad is called “Air Freshener”. Please watch it now:

A lot has happened since This is Reality launched the Reality Campaign to call out the coal industry for their dirty lies. The devastating coal ash spill in Tennessee last December was a painful reminder that using “clean” to describe coal doesn’t make it true. And last week, the Environmental Protection Agency‘s decision to reconsider carbon dioxide regulation was a tremendous wake-up call to the coal industry.

Now is a crucial moment. Our message is working, and we’ve got to take this opportunity to turn up the heat. With help from folks like the Coen brothers, it’s a little easier (and funnier). Will you help spread the word, too?

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• Tests Show Toxic Water Contamination After Tennessee Coal Sludge Disaster (ecofriendlymag.com)

Taurus launches OCO Feb. 24th , 2009

NASA‘s Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite aboard a Taurus XL launch vehicle, failed to reach orbit after its 4:55 a.m. EST liftoff Feb. 24 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. As many of you know I spent many years of my career at NASA, and once NASA, always NASA, so I have seen my share of heartbreaking, tragic, disasters. In NASA terms, this launch failure is known as a ‘setback’. And that’s all it is. Or as my 15 year old nephew would say, “Ah Man, that really sucks”.

Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL failed to separate. Resulting in the spacecraft not having enough lift to reach orbit and likely landed in the ocean near Antarctica. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite, which shields the spacecraft during launch and atmospheric ascent. A Mishap Investigation Board is to determine the cause of the launch failure. (more…)

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), is NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to making space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the principal human-produced driver of climate change. This new Earth science mission will have the accuracy, resolution and coverage needed to provide the first complete picture of the geographic distribution and seasonal variations of both human and natural sources of  carbon dioxide emissions and the places where they are being absorbed (sinks), at regional scales, mapping the globe once every 16 days. (more…)

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only drives global warming, but also raises the amount of CO2 dissolved in ocean water, tending to make it more acidic, potentially a threat to sea life. The ocean’s delicate acid balance may be getting help from an unexpected source, fish poop.

Alkaline chemicals like calcium carbonate can help balance the acid. Scientists had thought the main source for this balancing chemical was the shells of marine plankton, but they were puzzled by the higher-than-expected amounts of carbonate in the top levels of the water. (more…)

Every black cloud……….

In the western United States over the past few decades, wildfires have/are
burning more area for longer periods of time. Scientists have correlated the
rampant blazes with warmer temperatures and earlier snow melt.

The global average temperature in the past 100 years has risen 1.3 degrees F. (more…)