Green Options

From halting tribunals at Guantanamo Bay to accelerating the drawdown of troops in Iraq, Obama is wasting no time as the United States’ 44th president.

New Orleans-based activist group, Levees.org has learned that harassing comments being left at their blog were coming from computers registered to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

By Janet Larsen

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update76.htm

Standing before the United Nations General Assembly in October 1987, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, made an appeal representing “an endangered nation.” That year for the first time, “unusual high waves” in the Indian Ocean inundated a quarter of the urban area on the capital island of Male’, flooded farms, and washed away reclaimed land. Gayoom cited scientific evidence that human activities were releasing greenhouse gases that warm the planet, ultimately raising global sea level as glaciers melt and warmer water expands. The trouble extended beyond small islands; studies showed that rising seas would wreak havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Netherlands, and the river deltas of Egypt and Bangladesh.

Fast-forward through two decades of swelling seas and more powerful storms and the call has moved from the need to study global warming to the necessity of dramatic action to stabilize climate. With small island nations in peril, these days President Gayoom evokes the vision of a United Nations where “name plates are gone; seats are empty.” He does not speak alone: this fall, some 50 countries, including a number of small island nations along with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union, are planning to put a resolution before the U.N. General Assembly requesting that the U.N. Security Council address “the threat posed by climate change to international peace and security.” As Ambassador Stuart Beck of Palau has asked, “Would any nation facing an invading army not do the same?”

Why is expanded offshore drilling not the lasting solution to the U.S.’s energy problems? Besides many of the other valid reasons (decades to get to market, potential environmental devastation, oil as a global commodity), Satish Nagarajaiah offers another one:

Billions and billions of dollars in potential storm-related losses.

A civil and mechanical engineering professor at Rice University, Nagarajaiah recently analyzed the impacts on offshore drilling of the powerful 2005 hurricanes, Katrina (which made landfall three years ago today) and Rita. The storms, both of which reached maximum Category 5 strength (winds of up to 175 mph) though weakened before landfall, made their presence felt to some 3,000 offshore platforms and 22,000 miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Each year researchers at North Carolina State University predict the oncoming hurricane season. With summer just around the corner for the Northern Hemisphere, their latest report is out, and it’s billing an active year for the Atlantic.

However, thankfully for those coastal cities on the Atlantic, the number of storms making landfall will stick close to the average.

Who could have thought that times of war could bring us such fashionable accessories? With a little crafty ingenuity, Trina and Andy, the couple behind Amsterdam's Katrina Kaye, have transformed gas mask bags into chic urban accessories.

"The concept started as a sideline for Trina in England when working as a graphic designer. She started recycling wool and making gorgeous throws for a shop in our local village. The concept

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Green Hub Concept by Shelter ArchitectureGreen design at its finest is not only sustainable, but low-cost, beautiful, useful, and maybe even life-saving. Combining urban renewal, social action, and green architecture is the Clean Hub.

This portable, self-powered water and sanitation station has many sustainable features, including a composting toilet, rainwater collection and filtration system, and solar panels that, along with a battery, provide all the

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