The Last Frost

Freaking cool. Wal-Mart the uber-mega-huge-shopping-chain we all hate to love is doing something good for our planet. They aim to sell every one of their customers, 100 million in all, at least 1 compact fluorescent light bulb. The effect that 100 traditional light bulbs replaced with these CFL's would make on the power grid would be massive. This means less greenhouse gases pumped into our atmosphere. If any company could set a goal of getting just one bulb into every american household it would be Walmart, afterall they are the world's largest corporation, and the largest corporation in world history.

So what kind of an effect would this have if they prove successful? According to FastCompany.com, "…if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people"

That's enough to power San Francisco, twice over, with some to spare.

Who will this hurt though? The manufacturers of traditional light bulbs. CFL's last much longer than traditional bulbs, meaning people won't need as many. The effect could be devastating for the traditional incandescent industry. Again, something Wal-Mart is good at. In my opinion though, traditional light bulbs are so 20th century. I love T. Edison, but man, couldn't we have improved on his invention just a little? Look how far we took the Wright Bros. concept, we flew to the moon! Yet we still light our houses with the same old technology around since the turn of the 20th century. 

Wal-Mart Aims To Sell 100 Million Compact Fluorescents In One Year » [Treehugger]

This is old news, but it sure is interesting. Apparently another side effect of global warming is an increase in the rate of mountain growth in certain areas of the world. Mount Blanc in the south of France is one such mountain that is seeing an increase in height due to this effect.

So this is how it works, as the temperatures increase, glaciers retreat. All that ice weighs quite a lot, so much in fact that it actually weighs down the Earth's crust. Think of it like a boat in water. The Earth's crust is the boat, and glaciers are the ballast, as the ballast is removed the boat sits higher in the water. I don't know about you, but this sure gives me an appreciation for the sheer power of the forces of climate change.

So if global warming can shift the earth's crust, so how long until a scientist links global warming to an increase in earthquakes throughout the world? 

Taller Mountains Blamed on Global Warming, Too » [LiveScience.com]

Anytime a big corporation (especially big oil) says, 'It's not about market share, it's about doing the right thing.', bullshit alarms should sound — loudly.

According to this article, British Petrolium is declaring a war on global warming. I'm all for big corporations getting down and dirty with the environmentalism movement, but this is like Budweiser sponsoring an AA meeting. Then again, whenever people declare war on something the job gets done right? Like the war on drugs and/or the war on terror. Hey BP, if you're listening, please stop feeding us your PR bull-crap and do something worthwhile… like go out of business.

BP declares war on global warming » [News from Channel 4]

Fuel Cell that makes electricity out of sewage. This is a good trend I'm seeing in the news lately… why not put our waste to good use?

Microbial Fuel Cell that Generates Electricity from Wastewater » [Azom.com]

A company called Green Power Inc. has developed the technology to make fuel from trash. The method works best with fresh trash, but also works with the garbage in existing landfills.

The organic materials in the trash are what is mined to make the biodiesel, while inorganic metals and plastics are recycled.  

BioDiesel from Landfill Waste NOT Soybeans » [mmdnewswire.com]

If you haven't noticed already… the post frequency (I try to have at least one a day) has dropped to about zero for the last few days. I'm traveling internationally and my internet connection is not that reliable. I'll try to squeeze a few posts in this week, otherwise we'll be back up to a normal posting schedule on Monday August 21st. 

This is something that really surprised me, but in a good way. Bloomberg and the LA Times conducted a poll of American's about whether they were concerned about global warming and 74% said they were. 

American's constitute 5% of the world population yet contribute 25% of the worlds greenhouse gasses. It was obvious purely from thoses statistics alone that America did not place climate change high on their list of priorities. I think there is a grassroots revolution going on in America that is helping to educate the public on this important environmental issue. Rising gas prices, hurricanes, and wild fires are helping to raise awareness as well.

One thing made my cynical side laugh though, 3% of American's polled think George W. Bush is doing too much to combat global warming. Ha ha ha ha… actually that's not that funny. What are those 3% smoking? 

Most Americans Worried About Global Warming » [Angus Reid Consultants]

A rock the size of TWO empire state buildings is set to crumble off the side of a mountain in the Swiss Alps any day now. The cause is a receding glacier due to unusually hot summers in recent years. The melting ice is removing the support of this cliff face.

Tourists have flocked to the area to try and catch a glimpse of the break-away.

"Glaciers in the Alps may have lost up to a tenth of their volume in the hot 2003 summer alone, researchers at Zurich university have said, and the ice now only occupies between half and a third of its volume in 1850." [MSNBC.com]

Swiss cliff crumbles as glacier retreats » [MSNBC.com]

A research group has come to the conclusion that the Amazon rainforest cannot withstand more than two years of consecutive drought without the ecosystem breaking down. In a world of uncertainty due to climate change this is not a good thing. Losing the Amazon rainforest would be catastrophic to life as we know it.

We would pretty much be in deep shit, so let's just hope this doesn't come to pass.

Amazon rainforest turning to desert, triggering ‘Irreversible’ global warming! » [GreenDiary.com]

Nanotechnology may be the innovation that makes solar power available to the people. In addition to being cheaper to manufacture than traditional silicon solar cells, these new cells will be several times more efficient. By 'shortcutting' the path the electron must take to reach the cell's electrode, the cell wastes less energy on heat. The nano tubes will also be created in such a way as to capture more energy from the sun. 

Solarity and NanoHorizons are the two companies that have partnered to develop this technology. They hope to have a working product within 12-18 months. If they can deliver on their promise, this will be a good thing for the world as whole… since solar power is truly clean and renewable.  

Solar World: Solar cells go nano » [United Press International]