RobsHouse.net

Some images of seal hunting. More information.

On the one hand, it is good to see development of energy sources that don't require burning coal:

The world’s first deep-water device to generate electricity from the tides on a commercial scale is due to start operating within weeks.

A seagoing crane barge has lowered the 1,000-tonne double turbine into place and an operation to fix it to the seabed with 12 metre (40 ft) pins begins today.

On the other hand, one wonders if these turbines will be a threat to sea life in the same way that wind turbines are a threat to birds? The article doesn't mention this aspect. Furthermore, this will be hard to monitor. Who, out in the middle of the ocean, will report the number of whales or tuna that get killed? Perhaps the turbines will spin slowly enough to not be a threat.

There's more bad news for the climate. Carbon emissions in 2007 rose 3% over the year before. Scholars are now saying that simply capping emissions won't be enough to avert disaster, especially at a time when China is bringing an average of one large coal burning power plant online every week.

Architect and environmentalist Colin Oglesbay (Colin is my cousin) shows off his latest renovation project on Blueprint for Green. The house is going to feature a solar garage that will charge the car that drives Colin and his wife Erin to work, a "living" wall that is comprised of living biomass (chia wall, says Colin), special thermal and recycled building materials, and a big slab of black concrete to store solar energy. You have to click episode 12, segment 2 to see Colin, and it's unclear how long episode 12 will be on the front page [1], but it is really exciting to see the great initiatives that are happening to find sustainable ways of living. You rock, Colin!

What you are about to read may make you cry. It may leave you feeling sick. Hopefully, it will also make you mad as hell, because it should. My friend Rimone pointed out this article from Rolling Stone on her blog, and it is something that every thinking and voting American should read. It is long, and it pulls no punches. You should continue to the very end, though, as some of the most incriminating and disgusting facts are to be found there. For example: