Environment
Hank |
The federal government rarely succeeds in its attempts to legislate what I would call positive things - this is because the government has no power beyond restricting money and every effort to exceed that is met with resistance by constitutional scholars and states.
A progressive culture like the US wants more government whereas a liberal culture like the US wants freedom, and I would argue the best way to implement both goals is that, rather than attempting positive change (and failing - see American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Affordable Health Care for America Act) ,…
JohnDroz |
I was at a film festival when it just hit me...
When I was a younger version, making movies was one of my fantasies. It seemed like it would be a fascinating lifestyle to tell interesting stories in creative ways. I still love movies (thus the festival) but a new reality has long since set in: earning a living in the film business is not about good stories told in creative ways, but about producing a commercially viable product.
Early on in a film maker’s career, they are faced with a difficult dilemma: do they opt for artistic expression, or financial security?
Let’s say they have an…
Ed Chen |
In the past, support for environmental initiatives in the United States has been embraced by those on both sides of the aisle. Democrats have also made leaps and bounds in environmental protection laws including their staunch defense of the EPA. Republicans can lay claim to one of the most militant conservationists, Theodore Roosevelt, who established national parks and forests. However, today, the cooperation between the two parties has broken down to the detriment of everything from the environment to the economy.
While the common myth is that Republicans do not believe in…
Hank |
Conservation scientists from London's Natural History Museum (NHM) are traveling to Paraguay to record biodiversity. The problem? The Dry Chaco region they want to visit is home to the indigenous Ayoreo Indians, who are being put at risk by the trip, according to an indigenous peoples' advocacy group.
The Dry Chaco is a dry section that also covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil and some of the Ayoreo people have never had contact with the outside world.
Iniciativa Amotocodie (IA), the group calling out the Museum for its incursion, fears the actions will disturb the…
One solution to reducing the environmental footprint of buildings is to create 'living' materials using synthetic biology and cover them with it. Those materials could eventually produce water in desert environments or harvest sunlight to produce biofuels.
Researchers from the University of Greenwich, the University of Southern Denmark, University of Glasgow and University College London are working with an architectural firm and a building materials manufacturer to use protocells - bubbles of oil in an aqueous fluid sensitive to light or different chemicals – to fix carbon from…
With the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the toxic mud spill in Hungary, the big question is how long will recovery take? Unfortunately, yet at least scientifically apt, is that there are previous disasters to help answer those questions.
Twelve years ago there was a spillage of pyritic sludge from a mine at Aznalcóllar, in the Doñana National Park in Spain, where four million cubic meters of acidic water and one million cubic meters of waste material containing high levels of toxic compounds contaminated more than 4,500 hectares of the rivers Agrio and Guadiamar and the land…
Ed Chen |
International Environmental law and Nuclear Winter
Nearly thirty years after its introduction in the 1980s, the Nuclear Winter hypothesis has gained additional quantitative confirmation, providing a robust argument for the illegality of nuclear weapons under the Law of Armed Conflict.
The Nuclear Winter hypothesis played a significant role in the reduction of nuclear weapon stockpiles between the Soviet Union and the US. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, international attention has been refocused upon other international problems such as climate change as well as ozone layer depletion.…
Hank |
If you're like me, not only do you want to be buried, you want to be buried with your treasure in a vast underground labyrinth dug from the stone, behind a series of traps and secret doors, and your treasure will be in the very last room with my undead Lich guarding it.
Want your inheritance, descendants? Bring a sword.
But other people have long been more environmentally responsible and made the 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' route a little more direct than a decomposing coffin much less a concrete, subterranean bunker. They get cremated.
But for others, even cremation is not…
The remaining vulture population in the North West Rajasthan range suffers an increased vulnerability due to:•Isolated subpopulations•Very large foraging areas (local and non-local threats)•Very low effective population sizes•Presumably very few genetic interactions•Low natural reproductive rate•Slow generation cycle•Low potential for natural re-colonization•Intensive philopatric behaviour
Therefore, management and conservation activities require a pan-Eurasian scale. The aim of this Action Plan is to reduce the population decrease of the Eurasian Griffon Vulture in the North West Rajasthan…
Will Jaipur live for another 50 years or not ?
There are some reasons to be looked into the matter why Jaipur may not survive another 50 years.
1. Greed of builders to make buildings and selling them at high price irrespective of water level, fluoride contents.
2. Pollution of water by paper and textile industry of sanganer, Jaipur
3. Disproportional growth of Rajasthan where 90 percent of the institutions are based in Jaipur leading to almost 60 percent growth
4. Population of Jaipur was around one lack in 1946 which has grown to 60 lacks or more in a radius of 60 km on all the four sides…