Green Options

Geared towards raising awareness of endangered ocean habitats, a new online tool allows viewers an in-depth peek at underwater reefs around the world.

Google Earth has taken us up and out into the universe, and now they are taking us down and under the surface of the sea. The new Google Earth ‘layer’ will allow people to experience a ‘virtual dive’ under the water at sensitive ocean areas all around the world.

With a click of the mouse, viewers will be able to access video streams, photo galleries, conservation strategies and local stories specific to that spot.  Conservationists working in partnership with Google Inc. unveiled the new technology at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) world congress in Barcelona.

It seems as though right now the underwater Google plugin is only available for Windows, but I imagine a Mac version won’t be far behind.

I got an e-mail today from an unknown author that is worth passing on.  Parts of it are copied here, alongside my own personal thoughts.

I don’t know how much you know about the Law of Attraction or if you’ve ever heard of it. But surely you’ve heard of the phrase, ‘What you resist, persists.’ The more we don’t want something, the more it finds us. For example - the more we resist forming relationships with a certain type of person in our lives, the more we attract that same kind of relationship over and over again.  The more we resisted President Bush, the more he stayed in office.  I truly believe that the reason he won two terms as President is because everyone from all sides was so intently focused on him– Democrats with negative energy and Republicans with positive energy.

A recent study finds that one chemical’s emissions are four times more common in the atmosphere than previously thought, and thousands of times more effective at trapping heat than Carbon Dioxide.

In what is being called the “the most ambitious private sector drive yet” to go green, Wal-Mart told hundreds of the chain’s top Chinese suppliers this week that the store intends to raise standards and “green” its supply chain.

You read correctly.  At this week’s “sustainability summit,” in Beijing,  Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s CEO,  told top Chinese suppliers that the chain “intends to use its market power to get more than just low prices.” At the gathering: Procter & Gamble, FedEx, Kimberly-Clark, Coca-Cola and Rubbermaid.
The Financial Times called the summit “the most ambitious private sector drive yet to reduce waste and pollution in China’s export-focused manufacturing industries.”

“Our environmental footprint is primarily through our supply chain as a company,” says Matt Kistler, head of Wal-Mart’s global sustainability efforts. “So we have the ability to really build a world-class, better quality, better value supply chain.”

In a last minute effort to alter the endangered species rules before Bush leaves office, officials are speed-reading 200,000 public comments.  If the Administration goes through with their plan, they will implement the biggest changes to the rules since 1986.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has called 15 people to Washington this week to speed read 200,000 comments in 32 hours.  The public comments are regarding a proposal by the interior department to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams and power plants could harm species.
Dale Hall, Fish and Wildlife Service Director, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the short time frame for processing the comments was requested by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and, indeed would set a record.  Usually the review process takes months.

The Illinois voter registration materials sent to “Princess Nudelman,” a deceased pet goldfish, have stirred up some controversy in the hometown of Barack Obama.

Since 1993, Wayne Sawchuk, a former logger and grizzly bear hunter, has been working tirelessly to protect “the biggest well-kept secret in North America.”

Wayne Sawchuk recently found some atonement for decades of his life spent logging, partying and grizzly hunting. Funded mostly by private donors, Sawchuck played a major role in the conservation of the MuskwaKechika Management Area in Northern British Columbia.

Taking a month to cross, even with horses, the land has been touted as “the biggest well-kept secret in North America,” and “North America’s Serengeti.”  Teeming with grizzly, black bear, wolf, lynx, caribou, elk, moose, bison and stone sheep, it is the largest intact wildlife habitat in the entire Rocky Mountain chain and only slightly smaller than the state of Maine.

In the early 1990’s, the government of British Columbia came under pressure to make a final decision on how to manage the province’s resources.  Wayne Sawchuk, still a logger at the time, recognized the opportunity of a lifetime and teamed up with other key players to protect the tract of land.
Involved in the efforts were guide outfitters, recreational hunters, the oil and gas industry, snowmobilers, businesspeople, environmentalists, timber industries and government officials.  Sawchuk had a tremendous impact in the conservation efforts, as he led the media, government and scientists through the area on horseback so that they could get a first hand glimpse at what they were talking about.

Environmentalists across the nation argue that too many fish get sucked up and killed in the cooling systems of nuclear power plants each year.

As the presidential election draws near, Americans will be voting on a number of key issues, among the most important, I think we all agree, is energy.  Will we choose John McCain, the nuclear candidate, or Barack Obama,  the wind, solar, and fuel-efficient car candidate?
One issue that ties in to this debate: the significant loss of lake,  river & marine life that gets sucked into the cooling systems of many older nuclear power plants, battered against the sides of pipes, and heated to death by steam.

A new amended law in Switzerland protects the dignity of vegetation.

A law protecting the dignity of plants?  Laugh if you will.  I’m down on my knees in respect and awe.  At last the Western World is realizing the dire importance of taking other species into account.

Recently, the Swiss Parliament asked a panel of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians to determine the meaning of dignity when it pertains to plants.

Lo and Behold, the team published a treatise on “the moral consideration of plants for their own sake.” The treatise established that vegetation has innate value and that it is morally wrong to partake in activities such as the “decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason.”

Over a decade ago, an amendment was added to the Swiss constitution in order to defend the dignity of all creatures — including vegetation — against unwanted repercussions of genetic engineering. The amendment was turned into law and is known as the Gene Technology Act. However the law itself didn’t say anything specific about plants, until recently, when the law was amended to include them.

The obvious question at hand:  how does this new ruling affect the production of genetically modified organisms?

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested ten brands of bottled water and found that Wal-Mart’s “Sam’s Choice” contained chemical levels higher than is legal in California, and exceeding voluntary limits set by the industry.

The study found that 10 popular brands of bottled water, purchased from grocery stores and other retailers in 9 states and the District of Columbia, contained 38 chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand.  The group is not disclosing most of the brand names at this point, but did single out Wal Mart’s “Sam’s Choice,” as a brand to be wary of.
The Environmental Working Group found that some of the Sam’s Choice bottled water bought from stores in Mountain View and Oakland, California, came from the Las Vegas Valley Water District’s public water supply, which is sometimes chlorinated.  Scott Huntley, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said he had no knowledge that Wal-Mart was using Las Vegas’s water supply for bottling.

On Tuesday, the Environmental Working Group filed a notice to sue Wal-Mart, stating that the chain did not effectively warn the public about the health risks of their bottled water.