Green Options

If it wasn’t bad enough that we seem to be pumping more and more in the way of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, we humans seem to be doing a pretty damn good job of eating away any chance of removing said emissions.

The latest comes in a one-two punch. First of all experts are labeling the fight to save the Florida Everglades as a “losing battle,” while Brazil’s Environment Minister is blaming upcoming elections and increasing food prices for another rise in Amazon deforestation.

So no matter which way you look at it, the simple fact of the matter is, humans are irreversibly stupid.

One of the greatest steps forward that local communities have taken of late is the push to collect rainwater to offset your water use. It is often an easy way to help out the environment and, in the long run, simply save water. There don’t really seem to be any catches to it either. Rain falls from the sky, hits your roof and runs in to your drums or barrels or tanks.

If only it were that simple.

Notch up another one for the members of the Idiots Anonymous who have apparently been camping out in Bellingham, Washington. Apparently, rainwater doesn’t actually belong to individuals, but to the state as a whole. Therefore, all the wonderful efforts of communities to collect water are actually illegal.

It seems somewhat ridiculous to be talking about the “additional” effects that a nuclear war would have on the environment. A slew of jokes run through my mind, touting the ridiculous nature of this story.

But a team of researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, led by Michael Mills, has created a computer model that shows the effects that 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs would impose upon the environment.