Americans eat more fish than ever. We now gobble up more than two million tons of seafood a year compared to just half a million at the dawn of the 20th century. Not only are there more of us, we’re also eating more fish–globally.  

That’s led to a global collapse of many fisheries , such as cod in the North Atlantic. To help forestall this ecological catastrophe a variety of sustainable-seafood certification schemes have emerged. And the Monterey Bay Aquarium released its first seafood wallet card in 2000.  

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William is really hoping that he can regain his slimline figure with help and support from his new family. It will take time and patience to carry on the good work already started by the rescue in helping him to lose weight, but the rewards will be a loyal, loving, affectionate friend who will be eternally grateful for having a second chance at a proper doggie life

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Where there are fishery boats docking after a day’s catch, there are usually seabirds hovering in hopes of lifting scraps. Discards from fisheries supplement the diets of these flying scavengers, but it is less clear how commercial fishing affects the foraging behavior of birds when they are out at sea and out of sight. [More]

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A group of scientists from both the public and private arenas has announced that they’ve successfully engineered a microbe that contains all the bits required to turn raw plant matter directly into diesel without any refinement or intermediary steps required.
The microbe is a modified strain of E. coli (that’s right, the same type of bugger [...]

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A group of scientists from both the public and private arenas has announced that they’ve successfully engineered a microbe that contains all the bits required to turn raw plant matter directly into diesel without any refinement or intermediary steps required.

The microbe is a modified strain of E. coli (that’s right, the same type of bugger that’s responsible for some nasty gut infections) that has been enhanced to produce tailor-made diesel molecules, alcohols and waxes directly from hemicellulose—one of the main components of plants. Not only can the microbial products be used for fuel, but the team is also setting their sights on directly producing environmentally-friendly—and industrially-necessary—surfactants, solvents and lubricants.

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Dear EarthTalk: What’s better for the local ecology, sewers or septic tanks? –T. H., Darien, Conn.

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With a theoretical storage capacity more than 10 times higher than today’s best lithium-ion batteries, it’s no wonder lithium-air batteries are being touted as one of the types of batteries that could make electric cars truly mainstream.
Now, as part of a US Department of Energy program to provide large amounts of supercomputer time to advance [...]

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With a theoretical storage capacity more than 10 times higher than today’s best lithium-ion batteries, it’s no wonder lithium-air batteries are being touted as one of the types of batteries that could make electric cars truly mainstream.

Now, as part of a US Department of Energy program to provide large amounts of supercomputer time to advance cutting edge, real world research, IBM scientists are partnering with government scientists from both Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories to model and develop the materials needed to make lithium-air batteries a reality.

The award provides up to 24 million hours of computer time on two of the world’s fastest supercomputers–which, you guessed it, are housed at the two national labs. To give you some perspective, this only represents about 1.5% of the total time available on both computers, but considering how many other scientists use these computers, the fact that one project got 1.5% of the total time is pretty amazing.

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The United States Postal service is the second largest civilian employer in the country, after Wal-Mart. Over 650,000 are employed by the USPS, which utilizes some 260,000 vehicles. While 43,000 of these vehicles run on E85 fuel, they still manage to get an average of just 9 mpg. Pretty terrible gas mileage, and E85 made [...]

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The United States Postal service is the second largest civilian employer in the country, after Wal-Mart. Over 650,000 are employed by the USPS, which utilizes some 260,000 vehicles. While 43,000 of these vehicles run on E85 fuel, they still manage to get an average of just 9 mpg. Pretty terrible gas mileage, and E85 made with today’s methods isn’t all that much better when it comes to carbon emissions anyway.

Perhaps that is why the government is considering granting the USPS $2 billion to electrify 20,000 delivery vehicles. And if there is any government agency that could benefit from electric vehicles, it is definitely the USPS.

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It has been awhile since we talked about hydrogen cars. In fact, auto manufacturers the world over seem to have pushed hydrogen vehicles to the side of their plate (next to the spinach and garbanzo beans). There are of course exceptions, such as Mazda and Mercedes, but electric cars are all the rage right now, [...]

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It has been awhile since we talked about hydrogen cars. In fact, auto manufacturers the world over seem to have pushed hydrogen vehicles to the side of their plate (next to the spinach and garbanzo beans). There are of course exceptions, such as Mazda and Mercedes, but electric cars are all the rage right now, and hydrogen arguably has more infrastructure issues to overcome. The biggest issue; where does one get hydrogen?

A Connecticut company called SunHydro wants to deploy 11 solar-powered hydrogen fueling stations (SunHydro, get it?) along the East Coast, creating the area’s first hydrogen highway.

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Art | Craft | Food | Games | Green | Home | Kids | Life …
By: fungus amungus

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Copenhagen–Even under this city’s low, leaden skies, at least one thing remained clear as leaders from 193 countries gathered to negotiate climate agreements: one ton of carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S. has the same effect as one ton emitted in India or anywhere else. That simple truism is part of a huge body of data pointing to humanity’s effect on climate, and for most negotiators, the weight of that evidence seems to have crushed any doubt they may have felt in the wake of the 1,000-plus e-mails and computer code stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

The theft made headlines as “Climategate” in November, and many private correspondences among scientists became public. Climate contrarians and politicians, including Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, have claimed that the messages show that climate science was far from settled, that “tricks” were used and that researchers hid unfavorable data.

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Imagine a world with levitating cars, MRIs the size of laptops, and wide scale efficient energy distribution. These might not be pipe dreams if scientists can capitalize on a finding in the journal Nature . [More]

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Beautiful Bella is having a wonderful time in her new home. She’s got a new brother to play with and doting people to cater to her every whim. Fantastic – just the sort of life our Oldies deserve.

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Parker is a beautiful Lurcher/Labrador cross who hopes to find her loving forever home very soon. She is a quiet and loyal girl who gets along well with other dogs and cats. She also loves to play with her ball! She is a little afraid of moving cars and busy roads, so she would prefer a quiet home possibly out in the country.

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