jemmille.com » EcoNews

What Lies Beneath…

jemmille — Sun, 13 May 2007 04:03:47 +0000

All around the world forests are being cleared en masse to feed the unending growth of the worlds societies. An untapped resource is now beginning to be explored to lessen the burden on our aboveground forests. Chris Godsall, the CEO of Triton Logging, has found a previously unused resource to provide billions of dollars worth of timber to the public. His company has developed an underwater submersible, dubbed Sawfish, that can clear timber from forests that have become submerged over time. There are some 45,000 of these underwater forests worldwide with an estimated value of $50 billion dollars. Not only is this method of foresting more eco-friendly, it is also cost effective. The Sawfish cannot clear quite as many trees in the amount of time an above-ground clearing crew but the cost to collect, haul, and transport the logs is greatly reduced by the fact that the logs can be quickly loaded onto barges straight from the water. In the end, underwater logging is cheaper. Their time spent underwater has also stripped most of the foliage and bark, requiring less prep time at the mill.

For further reading visit: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/logs.html

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Global Warming: Another Theory

jemmille — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:44:44 +0000

Could Global Warming on the Earth have absolutely nothing to do with the massive amounts of CO2 humans are pumping into the atmosphere?

A recent article on the National Geographic News website cites research by a Russian astronomer who has noticed that a warming trend has been taking place on Mars over the past decades as well.Â Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

Is his theory bogus or does he make a good point?Â I don’t know enough about climatology to say.Â Can anyone enlighten our readers?Â If so, please comment.

What…Me Worry?

jemmille — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:27:59 +0000

Every day I come across a new report on global warming and the effects that it is and will be causing. Polar ice caps are melting at a rate that is clearly visible through satellite imagery taken over the past few decades. Tropical ice caps (yes, their are such things) that provide water to rivers and streams in remote areas are disappearing at an unheard of rate. The average temperature on the globe has been increasing steadily for the past 100 years and now sharp rates of increase are being noted. The EPA has a site dedicated to the issue and New Scientist magazine on-line has section with many interesting articles relating to the subject.

Is this all a natural part of the Earth’s evolution? Based on geologic evidence the changing of the Earth’s climate from temperate to freezing is a natural occurrence that has been going on since the beginning of time. Has human involvement simply sped-up a process that was on the verge of reoccurring anyway? Is there really anything we can do to stop it? It seems to me that the best we could do is possibly slow it down.

What do you think?

Bush Ripped On Global Warming

jemmille — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:54:19 +0000

Cruise on over to Wired News and check out this article.

My favorite excerpt is a quote from John Kerry. He is referring to the political meddling that has occured regarding global warming information and research during the Bush administration. He called it, “George Orwell at its best.”

Wanna make a quick 25 million?

jemmille — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:30:57 +0000

Sounds great right? The only requirement is that you solve global warming! Richard Branson, the mega tycoon behind the Virgin enterprise, is offering a 25 million dollar reward to anyone who can find a way to suck greenhouse gasses out of the air. David Keith, a University of Calgary engineering professor who has a provisional patent on carbon atmospheric capture technology, said his technology could remove emissions for roughly $300 a ton. Currently, over 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide are released worldwide each year. Anyone can quickly see that the math doesn’t add up if we were to use the technologies currently available. That’s roughly $90,000,000,000,000 (ninety trillion dollars) to suck up the current world output. Even the United States government couldn’t foot that bill.

Doomsday Seed Vault

jemmille — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 04:32:38 +0000

With the recent release of the the Global Warming Report by the EPA, it comes as no surprise that the planning of a Doomsday Seed Vault is hitting the news. The BBC has an article on the project that is being funded by the Norwegian government. It will contain seeds from all varaties of known food crops and will be built in the side of a mountain on a remote island near the North Pole.