(Via: New Scientist by Kelly Young)
August 10 2006
The world’s second largest ice cap may be melting three times faster than indicated by previous measurements, according to newly released gravity data collected by satellites.
The Greenland Ice Sheet shrank at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometres per year from April 2002 to November 2005, a team from the University of Texas at Austin, US, found. In the last 18 months of the measurements, ice melting has appeared to accelerate, particularly in southeastern Greenland.
“This is a good study which confirms that indeed the Greenland ice sheet is losing a large amount of mass and that the mass loss is increasing with time,” says Eric Rignot, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US, who led a separate study that reached a similar conclusion earlier in 2006 (See Greenland’s glaciers are speeding to the ocean). His team used satellites to measure the velocity of glacier movement and calculate net ice loss.
Yet another technique, which uses a laser to measure the altitude of the surface, determined that the ice sheet was losing about 80 cubic kilometres of ice annually between 1997 and 2003. The newer measurements suggest the ice loss is three times that.
Filed Under G Living
by Steve Boyan, PhD
The Union of Concerned Scientists says there are two things people can do to most help the environment. The first is to drive a fuel-efficient automobile (that means, not an SUV or a truck) and live near where we work. The second is to not eat beef. I’m going to go one step farther than UCS: I suggest that you refuse to eat any animal or animal product produced on a factory farm. And I’m going to tell you why.
In 1990, when I first read that 10 people could be fed with the grain that you would feed a cow that would be turned into food for one person, I was impressed. But I was not moved. The reason: If 10 people would be fed because I gave up meat, I’d give it up. But, I thought, if I give up meat, it won’t have that impact: it probably won’t have any impact on anything at all, except me.
I was wrong. If I had known that for every pound of beef I did not eat, I would save anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of water, I would have been moved. It’s a good idea to save water; we are depleting our underground aquifers faster than we are replenishing them. The largest one, the Ogallala, which covers a vast part of the country from the Midwest to the mountain states, is being depleted by 13 trillion gallons a year. It is going to run out. Northwest Texas is already dry. They can’t get any water from their wells. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
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(via: HSUS)
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Annie Judah and Jay McCarroll |
Fur-free fashion designer Jay McCarroll, winner and star of the fashion-based reality show Project Runway, has partnered with HSUS’s Fur-Free Campaign to debut the designer’s spring collection at New York Fashion Week in September. The joint project and others to be announced later this year will focus the spotlight on compassionate fashion
McCarroll will also act as a judge for this fall’s Cool vs. Cruel fashion design contest, which encourages fashion design students to learn about the suffering and death (video: extremely graphic images) that go into producing the 50 million-plus animal pelts that enter the garment trade each year.”I’m thrilled to work with The HSUS because I care about animals and love making great clothes that don’t cause animals to suffer,” McCarroll said. “With so many fun and fashionable alternatives, there’s no reason to use fur. As a designer, I know that compassion is in fashion, and the animals need their fur more than I do.”
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Photos: Danielle Rubi
Two new organic cotton pieces for fall from Stewart + Brown. Above, the Long Sleeve Open Polo featuring a deep neck line. A little longer than your traditional polo with a slightly deeper neckline. Below, the Scoop Neck Thermal Tee, a cozy and sassy piece that can easily be worn with sweats at home or for a casual night out.
Both piece are 100% organic cotton and made in California. Stewart + Brown has super high quality garments you’ll wash and wear over and over again. Well-made, comfy, sassy, and organic.
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Global Warming and Carbon Dioxide
The environmental community rightly recognizes global warming as one of the gravest threats to the planet. Global temperatures are already higher than theyve ever been in at least the past millennium, and the increase is accelerating even faster than scientists had predicted. The expected consequences include coastal flooding, increases in extreme weather, spreading disease, and mass extinctions.
Unfortunately, the environmental community has focused its efforts almost exclusively on abating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Domestic legislative efforts concentrate on raising fuel economy standards, capping CO2 emissions from power plants, and investing in alternative energy sources. Recommendations to consumers also focus on CO2: buy fuel-efficient cars and appliances, and minimize their use. ,
This is a serious miscalculation. Data published by Dr. James Hansen and others show that CO2 emissions are not the main cause of observed atmospheric warming. Though this may sound like the work of global warming skeptics, it isnt: Hansen is Director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies who has been called œa grandfather of the global warming theory. He is a longtime supporter of action against global warming, cited by Al Gore and often quoted by environmental organizations, who has argued against skeptics for subverting the scientific process. His results are generally accepted by global warming experts, including bigwigs like Dr. James McCarthy, co-chair of the International Panel on Climate Changes Working Group II. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
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There’s much to love about these tops designed by eco-friendly Twice Shy: artsy yet sophisticated color combinations, offbeat graphics and 95%-100% organic. The Woods Asymmetrical Batwing Knit is beautifully abstract and (dare I say) poetic enough to wear for work or play.
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We were able to speak with Debbie Brosenne at G-living recently and learn about her green fashion designs. Debbie’s past designs include the Alligator Half Sweater and very popular Rebuilt Levi Mini. She’s gone to a whole new level this time. Her newest hit is the Dynasty Dress to the left.
Taking her scissors to froofy old 1980′s dresses, Debbie keeps the good (fabulous colors, off the wall patterns, and long-lasting polyester) and ditches the hideous (shoulder pads, tapered sleeves, you get the point).
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By Boise Thomas
Now I am getting upset. A great man once said, Human beings cannot correct problems he creates, for if he could see he was about to cause a problem, he would stop if before it needed the solution.? Or something like that. The point is, we are doing things that are seemingly irreversible. Most of us know what we have done to our air with the advent of the automobile and the petroleum fueled engine. It was created to get rid of the problem called, the streets smell like horse dung.? Thus it was deemed the horseless carriage and horsepower is still the way we measure an autos speed. What has me go off on this topic today??? In reading the ocean reports published in the Los Angeles Times (July 30-Aug 4, 2006) I am informed, upset and educated. Not my favorite mix but the news is alarming.
Filed Under G Living, Nature / Non Human Stories
It just wouldn’t be a season of summer sales without Summer Bowen, fellow G Fashion blogger and founder/owner of eco-style boutique BTC Elements. If you’re looking for those of-the-moment boho-chic tiered skirts this is where you should look. But here are some other fab finds:
I love this Hula Happiness ruffled skirt. Made from a gorgeous vintage Hawaiian muumuu, this piece will transition beautifully into the fall. Very Anthropologie. On sale for $72.00.
Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
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Sarma’s new section in GreenChefs is almost ready and will be launched soon with a bunch of mouth watering recipes from her restaurant, Pure Food and Wine in New York. If you are in NY and haven’t yet gone to Pure to try this amazing food, you need to. I can’t praise the food, atmosphere and service there enough. It is the best raw restaurant I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot of them.
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Military Waste in Our Drinking Water
By Sunaura Taylor and Astra Taylor
From AlterNet via Truthout – Friday 04 August 2006
In 1982 our family was living on the southside of Tucson, Ariz., in a primarily working class and Latino neighborhood not far from the airport. That year Sunaura was born with a congenital birth defect known as arthrogryposis, a condition that severely impedes muscle growth and requires her to use an electric wheelchair. On nearby blocks, women were giving birth to babies with physical disabilities and neighbors were dying of cancer at worrisome rates. Over time, we learned that our groundwater was contaminated.
Most of us are vaguely aware that war devastates the environment abroad. The Vietnamese Red Cross counts 150,000 children whose birth defects were caused by their parents’ exposure to Agent Orange. Cancer rates in Iraq are soaring as a result of depleted uranium left from the Gulf War. But what about closer to home?
(picture – Depleted Uranium’ (2003). Oil painting by Sunaura Taylor. You can see more of Sunuara’s work at sunnytaylor.org.)
Today the U.S. military generates over one-third of our nation’s toxic waste, which it disposes of very poorly. The military is one of the most widespread violators of environmental laws. People made ill by this toxic waste are, in effect, victims of war. But they are rarely acknowledged as such.On Sept. 11, 2001, we were living together in New York City. In the months following the attack on the World Trade Center, the media and government routinely informed a fearful citizenry of the importance of clean drinking water. Terrorists, they warned, might contaminate public sources with arsenic. We were instructed to purchase Evian along with our duct tape. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
Filed Under Green Report / Media
This is segment 2 from week 4 on G Living Live. Our own Green Chef Vanessa Sherwoood, visit’s the G Living Studio and teaches Boise how to make a beautiful raw super rich, smooth chocolate non dairy ice cream. And she does it without ice cream maker. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
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