Archive for February, 2008Electronic devices would start charging themselves as soon as their owner walks into their home or office LIVINGSTON, Mont. (February 21, 2008) – Wolves in the Northern Rockies will lose protection under the Endangered Species Act under a new plan announced today by the Bush administration. The plan to “delist” the wolves threatens to reverse one of America’s most successful wildlife recovery efforts and puts the species back at risk of extinction, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Global warming sceptics are pointing to recent record cold temperatures in parts of North America and Asia and the return of Arctic Sea ice to suggest fears about climate change may be overblown.
If you’re one of the many, many thousands of people involved in the opposition to Heathrow expansion, you may want to give yourself a pat on the back. The day after the ‘consultation’ closed, there’s news that we’re getting the message through to ‘the highest levels of Labour’. In one of two Heathrow stories in today’s Evening Standard, the paper’s chief political correspondent wrote: Ministers are under increasing pressure to rethink plans for Heathrow expansion after 18,000 people lodged objections to the plans. The scale of the protest is understood to have taken the government by surprise and is causing concern at the highest levels of Labour at the political fall-out if plans for a third runway are given the go-ahead.
One MP told the evening Standard there had been a "wobble" within the Department of Transport about BAA’s proposals. "They are realising this could cost them votes," he said. In an attempt to limit the damage, the DfT refused to publish any of the submissions to the consultation, which ended yesterday. Critics claim this is because they are embarrassed that the majority of the responses are opposed to expansion. The DfT has said it is unlikely to make public the submissions until a final decision is made this summer. The outcome is at odds with other major consultations such as the Ofcom inquiry into children’s television advertising which provided a running log on a website of responses. Justine Greening, Conservative MP for Putney, said: "So far, given the ministers lack of interest in engaging with the public, the indicators are they will overrule the wishes of thousands of respondents to the consultation." A spokesperson for the DfT said: "The DfT has gone to real effort to encourage as many people as possible to participate in this consultation by holding public exhibitions. We look forward to seeing the responses."
Anyone who couldn’t get into the Westminster rally on Monday because so many people turned up will know the feeling: the roar of opposition’s growing fast, and we’re making ourselves heard. Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Energy Saving Day was a flop, its organiser admitted last night after the National Grid confirmed that across Britain energy use went up by just over one per cent. A barren, treeless island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard may prove to be the last, best hope of agriculture in warmer, more fertile parts of the world. The first batch of 100 million of the most important agricultural seeds were placed into the doomsday repository there today. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is buried deep within a frozen mountainside near the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen that perpetually cools it to –18 degrees Celsius (–0.4 degree Fahrenheit) with or without permafrost. Built to withstand all foreseeable disasters, including a recent earthquake that was the biggest in Norwegian history, it has room to protect at least 4.5 million samples (2.25 billion seeds) in its three man-made caverns. The remains of plants processed for human purposes molder in landfills across the world. Whether waste paper or raked leaves, the plant remnants still contain cellulose, a sugar in greenery that bonds with the chemical compound lignin to furnish a plant’s structure. Microbes living in the landfills break down this cellulose into methane, which slowly seeps to the surface and into the atmosphere, where it is a potent greenhouse gas. BlueFire Ethanol, Inc., in Irvine, Calif., would rather harvest that energy for use as cellulosic ethanol fuel. Yes, it involves Jason, President Lyndon Johnson and even Irish scientist John Tyndall. A NASA-backed institute awards 12 preliminary grants in an attempt to turn science fiction into fact |
