You can travel on over to the EIP's website. Or you can read the official report for yourself, but here are the cliffnotes.
Essentially, there are less suits and circumstances being dealt to polluters. In fact, the numbers have fallen by more than half over the last 8 years. This means that less action is being taken to help the environment. Because let's face it, there is not 50% less pollution in the environment, so there is no reason for being less proactive in cleaning up our air and earth.
Not to completely bash the current leader of laws, since pollution-control equipment has grown expoentially. But I do think more needs to be done and it needs to be consistent. There's my Sunday morning rant. =o)
Working for the University of Delaware as their web developer has been such an amazing experience. Being fortunate enough to be the developer for their College of Agriculture & Natural Resources in addition to their Cooperative Extension Programs for each county in Delaware has been an even greater experience. I'm learning so much about what is going on with the farms and environment around my own home. Things I never would have known about otherwise. This has piqued my interested in finding more Energy resource information to do my part in helping out.
For the last two years, UD has been leading the solar cell initiative. There are fifteen other participating colleges in the nation. Partial funding is being received from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At UD, the goal is to create solar cells that operate at about 54 percent efficiency in the laboratory and 50 percent in production.
This spring, the U.S. Department of Energy highlighted 13 industry-led solar technology development projects for negotiation of up to $168 million (FY’07-’09), subject to appropriation from Congress; Newark, Delaware (home to the University of Delaware's main campus) was one of the 13 highlighted. There has been an abundant amount of people furiously working to find alternative energy plans. There are websites which give more information and explanations of why this is so important. Energy resources information.
I believe more and more colleges and companies will begin to put forth stronger efforts to harness solar energy as a form of electricity. Solar energy is a clean, renewable energy source and with the price of electricity and gas these days it is imperative to find other means of not only creating, but storing solar power. It is very exciting for me to be able to spread the word about what my employer is doing to aide this cause. And it's even more thrilling to know I will be developing sites to further promote alternative energy methods.
Man, don't you just hate it when people have to go and mess up a good thing? I love sushi, not all of it, but a good bit of it. (Thanks to my brother and Ken and Kristina)
True World Foods, Inc. (TWF) is the premier sushi quality seafood distributor in the US. In 2006, TWF announced a new partnership with Kyokuyo Co. Ltd., a canned whale meat provider in Japan, to sell sushi in the US under the brand name "Polar Seas."
What is their problem? Why can't people just back off the whales!?
In all honesty I'm going to stop purchasing anything manufactured by TWF until they make sure they let their partners at the Kyokuyo Company they need to stop selling whale meat.
Having a day declared in the name of a good cause is a wonderful thing, because it allows institutions, committees, students and basically people everywhere to come together and show that they care about the same topic.
There are different things you can do to participate in this event. You can prepare an lesson for a local school about endangered species or if you can't do that, you can put something together to share with your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Here is a list of events happening around the country. See if there is one in your hometown.
Those of you involved with the "International Fund for Animal Welfare" should have received a bulletin regarding the killing of whales to study them. It's actually quite horrifying the way it happens.
The bulletin stated:
"Often, the first blast isn't enough to kill the poor whale. Whaling ships have been filmed hoisting live whales up the side of their huge industrial ships by the tail, leaving the whale's blow hole underwater. The helpless whale can only thrash against the side of the ship, desperate for air, until it slowly drowns."
That is just dispicable, I don't understand how people can be so cruel. Do they think the whales can't feel it? It is insane.
Anyway, you can do you part in helping these poor animals by taking action and writing a letter or promoting the Stop Whaling website. For more information please head on over to the IFAW site.
People are debating whether or not windmills should be more actively used to generate electricity in the US. There is a debate that further studies should be done to find out who dangerous the blades of a windmill are for birds and bats.
I like animals. I had a bird once. I see bats all the time, they don't bother me. But I'm for windmills. So my thoughts are birds are dying for many reasons, many, many reasons including neglected habitats and pollution. Bats..yes, I know they fly at night but they have sonar abilities to sense sound and I am certain they would be able to feel the movement of the air near the windmill and know not to fly into it.
To have electricity generated by wind, carbon-free has so many benefits it seems silly to me to put a halt on their increase just because someone is concerned about the bird and bat population. No, I'm not dense, I know bats and birds eat bugs and if they die then we have more bugs which could effect produce, etc. There is going to be a domino effect or catch 22 to every thing. That is how life works. Cause and effect.
We'll see what happens. I'm sure people will study it to death and waste time brewing about the "what ifs." Until it gets settled we will just keep emitting more and more carbon dioxide into the air.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm aware that wild orchids should not be something I'm worried about. However, they are such beautiful flowers! And so it bothers me to know many orchid species are facing extinction in China.
The price and demand of orchids changes depending on the rarity and so this could become a huge money making scheme. I hope that is not the case. It would be best to instead find a way to save the dying flowers.
