The ingredients that stirred extremists to take on the Capitol will only grow more plentiful as the climate crisis worsens. If officials aren’t ready to take a clear-eyed look at that reality, we’ll face even more extreme assaults in the coming hotter decades.
Throughout the pandemic, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continued to rise. Climate scientists at the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station explain why.
Source: Why CO2 levels are still rising after Covid-19 forced carbon emissions down
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is generally considered a fantastic way to get a renewable power source. The problem is how exactly you go about splitting the water. Current methods require some power input in order to kickstart the reaction, reducing its effectiveness as a sustainable power source, since power needs to flow continually in to the system. But a new technique could meld together a number of other methods and produce constant, carbon-neutral hydrogen from two things we have in abundance: fouled water and seawater. More »
In Meghalaya, India, locals have to deal with heavy rainfall and frequent flash floods along the many streams that supply water to the area. And yet this forbidding environment has given rise to an architectural practice that sounds like something out of environmental science fiction: for at least a thousand years, the people of this area have been building bridges using the root systems of rubber trees.
All of that water pouring out of spillways and topping levees up and down the Mississippi River has to go somewhere, and many living in those areas prone to flooding have taken drastic action to keep from being inundated. In what could be called a testament to the human instinct to protect hearth and home, some in the disaster zone are holding out by taking civil engineering into their own hands, building makeshift levees to keep the rising waters at bay. Click through the gallery to see how far some homeowners have gone to protect their properties.
Click to launch the photo gallery
Many residents of low-lying areas can’t rely on government infrastructure to protect their homes–in fact, in some cases it’s the government that’s flooding them. In an effort to spare population centers like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Army Corps of Engineers have opened the Mississippi’s three major spillways–the Birds Point-New Madrid spillway in Missouri, the Morganza spillway near Morganza, La., and the Bonnet Carre just north of New Orleans–the first time all three have been opened up at the same time.
In other places, the overflowing Mississippi has left local rivers with no place to put their overflow. Floodwaters claimed their first victim today as a 69-year-old man was pulled form the waters by firefighters in Vicksburg, Miss., which is today buried beneath the levee-topping Yazoo river. The destruction in Vicksburg–where the water is expected to crest at 57.1 feet today–and along the Yazoo River (where the images in the gallery above were taken) is just a microcosm of the larger devastation stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf.
Storage of carbon dioxide was supposed to be a boon to the environment in Canada. But are reports of dead animals and bubbling ponds signs that it’s a danger? More »
Wi-Fi, sweet deliverer of information and porn, may be killing trees. A study by a Dutch university suggests that Wi-Fi radiation causes weird abnormalities in trees. This is disturbing, as we love both Wi-Fi and trees. More »
Turn your speakers up and listen for “Oh my fucking god!”
Awesome video of this quick moving storm but its also a little anticlimactic.
Clearly dissatisfied with what it sees in the mirror, Panasonic has today announced its decision to bulk up. A new share issue expected to raise ¥500 billion ($5.7 billion) will be enacted soon as part of raising the cash to complete the buyout of Sanyo Electric and Panasonic Electric Works. Don't ask us why a company named Panasonic has to buy another company with Panasonic in its name, but them's the facts. The total outlay is expected to come in at around $9.4 billion and is justified by Panasonic as fundamental to its future strategy of expanding into environmentally friendly tech and developing a three-pronged operating paradigm by 2012. The Osaka-based company is also reporting a ¥43.7b ($498 million) profit for the last quarter — a major upswing from a ¥53b loss in the same period last year — though that's information the market seems to have ignored. Panasonic shares have plunged down 7.7% in the immediate aftermath of the acquisitions being announced, while Sanyo's have shot up. Click past the break for the novella-sized press release explaining the details of the deal.
Panasonic to spend $9.4b on buying out Sanyo and PEW shares, posts robust quarterly profits originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A common chemical found in antibacterial soaps is turning up in lakes and streams and could potentially harm wildlife and human health.
Without proper composting facilities, throwing away biodegradable materials may actually be worse for the environment.
