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| The Future.....Of the Automobile |
…we have to stop talking about how electric cars will save us; it takes too much stuff to make them all, puts out too much upfront carbon, and nobody is going to make enough of them fast enough. All that copper and lithium and nickel and aluminum and steel has to come from somewhere. We have to look at getting people out of cars, at making it easier for people to use e-bikes and cargo bikes, transit and feet.
Sunday's evacuations came after the Sky Fire ignited around noon near Valencia, California, sending smoke into the sky that made the air near the amusement parks unsafe to breathe, according to NBC News. Magic Mountain is the nation's 14th busiest amusement park and averages 9,200 visitors a day.Climate change is making this the new normal for California.
The concept of "pirating icebergs" isn't a new one. But one of the latest cold capers is being floated by Nicholas Sloane, a South African marine-salvager who has experience fighting off armed pirates, rescuing thousands of rockhopper penguins soaked in fuel from a shipwreck and helping to refloat the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany and killed 32 passengers, according to a profile in Bloomberg Businessweek on Sloane and his plans to lasso an iceberg.Cape Town (and the world) is running out of potable water, so this is either and inspired idea or a great opportunity for a pirate.
...changes in the ocean, a warmer Arctic could disrupt ocean circulation and global weather systems, while permafrost will continue to thaw, potentially releasing greenhouse gases currently locked up in frozen soils.
A whole ecosystem, rich in specialist species – many barely studied – is changing before our eyes. The Arctic is a beautiful and harsh place, posing serious logistical challenges for scientific investigation. But even there, on the top of the world, far from centres of human population, our impact is evident.
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Photo: Dragos Dumitrescu
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1. Ocean Plastics Are on the Rise
2. Plastic Pollution Threatens Marine Oxygen Production
3. Global Warming Is Already Putting Fish in Hot Water
4. Marine Heatwaves Act Like Underwater Wildfires
5. Ocean Acidification Makes Life Even Harder for Coral Reefs
Demand for gasoline is flatlining as electric vehicle sales grow and conventional cars become more efficient. But oil is essential for much more than just transportation: It’s broken down into chemicals and plastics used in every aspect of modern life...
...Crude drillers and refiners see that as their safe haven against the fading outlook for fuel, ensuring that they’ll have a piece of a more robust market for their hydrocarbons.Not satisfied with their starring role in climate change, oil companies are now looking to poison the survivors with a plastic waste filled future filled with plastics contaminated water and food. Speaking of food, a new study by the University of Victoria, British Columbia, concludes that we are routinely ingesting massive amounts of plastic particulates.
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| University of Victoria, BC |
Their discovery? 50,000 for adults, 40,000 for children. When inhalation is factored in, the estimate jumps to between 74,000 and 121,000 for adults.
These amounts, as shockingly high as they seem, are probably underestimated. The foods in the studies comprise only 15 percent of a typical American's caloric intake, which suggests the real number is higher.
Experiments show that microplastics damage aquatic creatures, as well as turtles and birds: They block digestive tracts, diminish the urge to eat, and alter feeding behavior, all of which reduce growth and reproductive output. Their stomachs stuffed with plastic, some species starve and die.
In addition to mechanical effects, microplastics have chemical impacts, because free-floating pollutants that wash off the land and into our seas—such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heavy metals—tend to adhere to their surfaces.
