ENN: Environmental News Network [[ ENN Daily Newsletter - Thursday, May 1, 2008 ]]
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Pittsburgh, a former steel-making center once known for its sooty skies, is the worst U.S. city for short-term particle pollution, the American Lung Association announced on Thursday.
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The Proximity Hotel is proof that a hotel can be very green without sacrificing the comfort of its guests. The hotel is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it achieved a Gold LEED certification this year from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Proximity uses 36.5% less energy and 30% less water than a conventional hotel. It gets 60% of its hot water from 100 solar thermal panels on the roof. The hotel also boasts the first regenerative drive elevator, which recaptures energy as the elevator moves down. The guest rooms take advantage of abundant natural lighting with large energy-efficient "operable" windows that measure 7'4" square.
GENEVA, Switzerland - The United States and the European Union have taken a "criminal path" by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce biofuels, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food said today. At a press conference in Geneva, Jean Ziegler of Switzerland said that fuel policies pursued by the U.S. and the EU were one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis.
Despite modern marvels such as the space toilet, much of the world still endures a medieval level of sanitation. Nearly 2.6 billion people live without basic services, forced to defecate on the ground or line up to pay for the use of soiled latrines. Some historians give the flush toilet mythological origins in the court of King Minos of Crete. Queen Elizabeth I had one as well, built by her godson in 1596. In the nineteenth century, architects started to incorporate water closet innovations into their designs and the modern toilet was born. Thomas Crapper, a British plumber, had a hand in perfecting the cistern to make flushing quieter and more polite.
One step beyond her front door, Jayne Clampitt is greeted with the toxic fumes flowing from the roughly 1 million gallons of hog manure stored at her neighbor's farm. She no longer dries her family's laundry outside, her children avoid the nearby polluted stream, and she worries that their shallow drinking well will also be contaminated with toxins. "We thought there was this unspoken connection between farmers, respect and stewardship. But we don't see that anymore," said Clampitt, whose family raises livestock in northwest Iowa. "I should not be forced to move out of my home."
Generation Investment Management has closed $638Million in initial funding for its Climate Solutions Fund. The company is chaired by former vice president Al Gore and serves to be a leader in investing in sustainable enterprises with a slant toward solving various environmental problems.
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At a White House press conference yesterday that focused on the U.S. domestic economy, President George W. Bush addressed food prices, the Farm Bill and biofuels. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David M. Herszenhorn summarized in today's New York Times that, "With consumer confidence slipping and gasoline and food prices soaring, President Bush delivered an unusually dark assessment of the economy on Tuesday, saying the nation was in 'very difficult times, very difficult.'"
NEW YORK April 30, 2008 – Climate scientists using computer models to simulate the 1930s Dust Bowl on the U.S Great Plains have found that dust raised by farmers probably amplified and spread a natural drop in rainfall, turning an ordinary drying cycle into an agricultural collapse. The researcher say the study raises concern that current pressures on farmland from population growth and climate change could worsen current food crises by leading to similar events in other regions.
Arctic sea ice, sometimes billed as Earth's air conditioner for its moderating effects on world climate, will probably shrink to a record low level this year, scientists predicted on Wednesday. In releasing the forecast, climate researcher Sheldon Drobot of the University of Colorado at Boulder called the changes in Arctic sea ice "one of the more compelling and obvious signs of climate change."
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The Center for Biological Diversity filed suit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to compel development of a recovery plan and critical habitat for the endangered jaguar. By: The Trust for Public Land
Sixth through eighth-grade students at M.S. 53 Brian Piccolo School in the Far Rockaway section of Queens today celebrated the opening of a new community playground that they designed. By: California Safe Schools
Join Robina Suwol of California Safe Schools, www.calisafe.org at the Whole Children, Whole Planet Expo, the premier natural parenting and family expo, taking place May 17-18, 2008 at Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge. By: Center for Biological Diversity
A federal judge has found the Bush administration guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act and ordered the administration to issue a final listing decision for the polar bear by May 15, 2008. By: Environmental Law Institute
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) announces the release of Cooperative Prevention of Invasive Wildlife Introduction in Florida. The report recommends ways in which state and federal agencies can more effectively prevent harmful nonnative wildlife from being introduced into Florida. By: the Jane Goodall Institute
One hundred youth from six continents and 28 countries are heading home today after taking part in Jane Goodall's Global Youth Summit. By: PlastiPure
Austin-based PlastiPure will introduce at the All Things Organic (ATO) trade show in Chicago the FIRST plastic bottles completely free of estrogenic activity (EA). PlastiPure's patented technology allows for the production of resins free of all estrogenic activity and manufacturing methods that avoid dangerous additives to produce safer plastics. By: Rainforest Alliance
Paso Pacifico, Carbonfund.org, the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), and the Rainforest Alliance today announced an innovative reforestation project, Return to Forest, aimed at combating climate change, conserving biodiversity and supporting local communities in Nicaragua.
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A personal quest to promote the use of wind energy and hydrogen technology in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The Great Lakes area is in a unique position to become an energy exporting region through these and other renewable energy technologies. *Update 2014: Just do it everywhere - Dan*
Saturday, May 03, 2008
ENN: Al Gore's Climate Solution, Biofuels and the Arctic Sea
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