Green Options

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Aerogel is almost a product out of science fiction.

Nicknamed “frozen smoke,” aerogel is extremely lightweight material, with a density only 3 times that of air. Only a small fraction of a volume of aerogel is the material itself. Most of the volume is filled with air. This makes aerogel an excellent insulator. (Aerogel provides nearly 40 times the insulation of fiberglass insulation.)

Aerogel can withstand great pressures and is also an excellent sound insulator. Aerogels can also be used to absorb airborne pollutants and have been used to clean up oil spills. NASA also used a section of aerogel as part of its Stardust probe to collect samples of material from the tail of a comet.

Aerogel is available for some high-performance applications, but due to its high cost, it has not been widely used. However, new research from a Malaysian scientist offers the potential to drastically reduce the cost of producing aerogel, and could lead to new possibilities for its use as a building and insulation material.

NASA scientist James Hansen, the man who first told Congress the planet was warming 20 years ago, declared the bottom line for our planet is 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our current level: 383 parts per million! “The evidence indicates we’ve aimed too high - that the safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 is no more than 350 ppm.”

Source: truthout.org

Myth: Global temperature data is inaccurate and/or too sparse to be able to establish a meaningful average temperature over the entire planet. Therefore, any claims of global warming are unfounded.

Fact: NASA has collected and acquired massive amounts of temperature data from various sources, including land-based, meteorological stations, sea surface temperature measurements from ships, and measurements taken from satellites. This data encompasses the entire planet, and is run through a

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Following in step with Boeing's prophecy for future aviation biofuels, the Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded a $1.1 million contract to Shell Oil to produce synfuel for the U.S. Air Force and one NASA facility. The contract, signed on June 6th, requires Shell to produce and ship 315,000 gallons of synfuel through August 1-31, 2007.

What, you might ask, is 'synfuel'? As

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