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It is amazing the sorts of things that you can recycle these days. It seems like lots of different packaging s now recyclable, even though it is not always easy to find a local facility for recycling them. However, it is great that more and more things are able to be recycled, I even heard recently about X-Ray Film Recycling which is not only another great new recycling facility but can raise money for radiology reading rooms because there are companies which will buy film from places such as orthopedic pacs. It is great that these things are happening and that we should be able to get hold of lots more recycled products soon, which is fantastic.

It means that we will not be producing so much waste and we will not have so many problems with thinking about how to get rid of our rubbish. Trying to find room for landfill will get harder and harder if we keep consuming more and throwing away a lot more rubbish and so by recycling it we can avoid this problem. It means that as our children grow up, they will not have the problem of being swamped with rubbish and hopefully they will be able to find even better ways of reusing and recycling than we have.

Scientists have described apparently productive ecosystems in two places where life was not known before, under the Antarctic ice sheet, and above concentrated salt lakes beneath the Mediterranean.

The findings were described at a European Science Foundation and COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) ”Frontiers of Science” meeting in Sicily.

In both cases, innumerable tiny microbes are fixing or holding onto quantities of organic carbon large enough to be significant in the global carbon cycle.

Brent Christner of Louisiana State University, in the US, told the conference about the microbes living within and beneath the ice on Antarctica.

In the last decade, scientists have discovered lakes of liquid water underneath the Antarctic ice sheet. So far, only 150 lakes are known, but this number will probably increase when the entire continent has been surveyed.

These lakes occur as a result of geothermal heat trapped by the thick ice, melting it from underneath, and the great pressure from the ice above, which lowers the melting point of water.

The largest subglacial lake, Lake Vostok, lies beneath the coldest place on the planet, where the temperature at the surface often falls below 60 degree Celsius.

Christner has examined microbial life in ice cores from Vostok and many other global locations.

While direct samples of water from subglacial Antarctic lakes have yet to be obtained, the lower 80m or so of the Vostok ice core represents lake water that progressively freezes onto the base as the ice sheet slowly traverses the lake.

“Microbial cell and organic carbon concentrations in this accreted ice are significantly higher than those in the overlying ice, which implies that the subglacial environment is the source,” said Christner.

Beneath the Mediterranean lurks a similar surprise.

Michail Yakimov, of the Institute of the Coastal Marine Environment, Messina, Italy, and his team that studies lakes of concentrated salt solution, known as anoxic hypersaline basins, on the floor of the Mediterranean, has discovered extremely diverse microbial communities on the surfaces of such lakes.

The anoxic basins, so called because they are devoid of oxygen, occur below 3,000 m beneath the surface and are five to ten times more saline than seawater.

Yakimov’’s team has already identified more than ten new lineages of bacteria and ancient bacteria-like organisms, which they have named the Mediterranean Sea Brine Lake Divisions.

There is ample life at the boundary between the concentrated basin and the ordinary seawater.

“Because of the very high density of the brine, it does not mix with seawater, and there is a sharp interface, about 1m thick,” explained Yakimov.

In that layer, microbial diversity is incredibly rich.

The world’s rarest big cat was captured and released unharmed into the wilds by researchers last week. There are only about 40 Far Eastern leopards left in the corner of Siberia they inhabit.

The world’s most endangered big cat was captured in Primorsky Krai along the Russian-Chinese border by scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society and Russia’s Institute of Biology and Soils (IBS).

“We are excited by the capture, and are hopeful that ongoing analysis of biomedical information will confirm that this individual is in good health,” said Alexey Kostyria, senior scientist at IBS and manager for the WCS-IBS project.

“This research is critical for conservation of the Far Eastern leopard, as it will help us to determine the risks posed by inbreeding and what we can do to mitigate them,” added Kostyria.

Their numbers are down to less than 40, inhabiting a strip in the far southeastern corner of the Russian Federation. The team is evaluating the health and potential effects of inbreeding for this tiny population, believed to contain no more than 10-15 females.

The leopardess, nicknamed “Alyona” by the researchers, was in good physical condition, weighing a healthy 39 kg, believed to be between 8-10 years old. The animal has since been released unharmed.

Specialists are continuing to analyse blood samples as well as an electrocardiogram, which will reveal genetic information to assess levels of inbreeding.

Three leopards captured previously (two males and one female) in 2006 and 2007 all exhibited significant heart murmurs, which may reflect genetic disorders, according to a WCS press release.

One of the options scientists are considering is trans-locating leopards from other areas to increase genetic diversity — similar to what happened with Florida panthers when animals from Texas were brought in to supplement the remaining population.

Today, Florida panthers have risen from less than 10 individuals to a population of approximately 100.

Over the last 100 years, Far Eastern leopard numbers have been reduced by poaching combined with habitat loss. However, both camera-trapping and snow-tracking surveys indicate that the population has been stable for the last 30 years, but with a high rate of turnover of individuals.

Being environmentally aware is one thing, and being obsessed with it, is another, say US psychiatrists, who warn that extreme environmental awareness may be creating a generation of “carborexics”.

In a new survey, it was found that seven per cent of Americans come into the category of “dark green”— hard core recyclers and carbon footprint worriers.

However, scientists claim that there is a thin line between these behavioural traits qualifying for eco-leadership or bordering on the obsessive-compulsive.

A report in the New York Times detailed all manner of lifestyles that might be considered carborexic.

Dark green activities in the US include running cars on waste vegetable oil and using one’s lawn as a bathroom to save water.

In fact there are many people who sleep together just to reduce heating bills.

One couple in Seattle actually reuses the same Ziploc bag for a year.

However, such instances have led mental health experts to worry.

“If you can’t have something in your house that isn’t green or organic… if you’re criticising friends because they’re not living up to your standards of green, that’s a problem,” The Telegraph quoted Elizabeth Carl, a psychologist and specialist in obsessive-compulsive disorders, as saying.

According to Dr Jack Hirschowitz, a New York psychiatrist, such behaviour can only be called a disorder if it was undermining everything else in the subject’s life.

David Zucker, a sustainability specialist at Porter Novelli, a PR company which has studied America’s “dark greens”, said they were inordinately influential over other people’s behaviour.

He said that the “deepest dark greens” were “bordering on the fanatic.”

He added: “They’re pushing towards a lifestyle of zero consumption. You know Americans. We take everything to an extreme.”

During this time, the Earth was alternately subjected to the most severe ice age conditions it ever witnessed (with ice present even around the Equator), and then to widespread tropical greenhouse conditions, according to researchers.

“During these ice age events, any parts of the world that weren’t at that time submerged under the ocean would most probably have been barren, icy wastelands — including tourist destinations that are today considered tropical getaways.

“The extreme climates of the Snowball Earth period, together with the sudden and widespread appearance of very primitive multi-cellular lifeforms in a window of tropical climate between the period’s two major ice age events, make this one of the most enigmatic episodes in Earth’s history.

“A key question for scientists today is how these primitive lifeforms not only survived the extremely hostile temperatures of Snowball Earth’s ice age periods, but actually seemed to thrive during the wild fluctuations from ice age to tropical conditions and back to ice age.

“Indeed, it is thought that the extreme climates of this period may actually have provided the real kick-start that nature needed to get the process of evolution underway,” said lead researcher Stephen Gallagher of Geological Society of Australia.

However, according to the researchers, it’s certainly not as extreme as periods of climate change that Earth has experienced in its first five billion years, and it may not be as extreme that Earth will experience “in the five billion years remaining before it”.

Iron meshes as chain-link fences can be handy in preventing predatory cats from entering villages near wildlife parks but buffer zones can be more effective for such cases, according to environmentalists.

Wildlife officials in Madhya Pradesh have decided to use chain-link fencing, a mesh made of iron, within the Bandahvgarh tiger reserve to ’save’ animals particularly big cats from coming in conflict with the villages located on the periphery of the park spread over an area of 448 sq km.

“The long term impact of putting up chain-linking fence needs to be looked into if it is proposed for a longer period as there have been cases of ungulates not being able to save themselves when chased by predators once they are pushed to the fence,” said acclaimed wildlife activist Belinda Wright, who is also the director of Wildlife Protection Society of India.

According to her as the reserve is a high density area with number of tigers increasing, there is a need to develop a buffer zone instead of adopting short-term formula like erecting the fence.

Officials, however, say since the wildlife habitat is very close to the park particularly in Tale region where a tiger and two cubs have been sighted, the fencing would ensure safety of the animals that would not be able to venture into the human habitat and in the process get killed.

There are around 62 villages on the fringes of the park which has at least 38 tigers. It was declared as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in the year 1993.

“At present, big cats are found in those areas where biotic pressure is quiet high,” a park official said.

“Therefore, fencing as a management tool to avoid man- animal conflict is necessary,” the official said, adding the fencing was only about 2 km long around the periphery of the national park.

Therefore, ample space for movement of wildlife is available.

Though rich in tiger population, tremendous grazing pressure exists on the reserve as the villages around it lack any good ground for their cattle.

There have been cases of villagers killing the strayed tigers or poisoning them to prevent them from lifting their livestock and cattle.

Her friends felt she didn’t need it, but Naina Balsaver Ahmad was the celebrity in focus at F bar and Lounge recently. The capital’s glitterati who could be spotted enjoying themselves were Dilip and Devi Cherian, Naresh Trehan, Anil and Cheena Vig, Priya Jain, Aradhana Bhutani, Kamini Singh, Johana, Shefali Talwar and Nikhil Sen with wife Payal.

Divya Gurwara who stuck close to friend Ritu Sharma said, “Naina has been in focus throughout her career, shereally doesn’t need it.” Naina was evidently flattered by the compliments but was missing her friend Illoosh Ahluwalia who could not make it because of her daughter being hospitalised.

“I have been in focus since I was 18 - for my Miss India crown, modelling and then as a designer.” She had arranged for a karoke system at the party for all her music loving friends.

The world should not wait until next year to cobble together a new climate change pact, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.

Ban, addressing diplomats and officials at a ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the U.N. climate panel, said countries negotiating a successor deal to the Kyoto Protocol should aim for a meaningful breakthrough in Poznan, Poland, in December.

Delaying major advances until the end of 2009, when a Copenhagen summit will aim to finalize an accord to tackle rising global temperatures, may be ill-advised, Ban told the event in Geneva.

“We must fight the urge to postpone everything until Copenhagen. Surely we can make concrete progress on some issues,” the U.N. chief said, adding that the Poland meeting should serve as “a very successful bridge” for Copenhagen.

“I would emphasize the need to make the most of the upcoming opportunity in Poznan,” he said. “It is my sincere hope that by the end of this year in Poznan parties to the climate change convention will have achieved a better understanding of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action.”

The Kyoto Protocol binds 37 developed nations to curb emissions of global warming greenhouse gases until 2012. Neither the United States nor China, the top two greenhouse gas emitters, have imposed limits under Kyoto.

Negotiations last week in Ghana, in which countries made commitments to help save tropical forests, were the latest of a series of international meetings meant to culminate in a new accord to counter the effects of climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), formed in 1988, has warned global warming will cause rising seas, big storms, heatwaves and droughts. That U.N. panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore last year.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who has opposed the Kyoto accord, will leave office in January. But the slowing global economy may make it difficult for Washington and others to accept a climate change accord that could add to energy costs.

Ban said it was imperative for the new U.S. government to play a leadership role in climate change for the international community to agree on strong emission cut targets.

“Whoever may be elected as president of the United States, they may be in a better position to address and to lead this process,” the U.N. chief told journalists at the Geneva event.

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You see, paper doesn’t pollute because it is biodegradable , but it takes more energy to make. And plastic will pollute, but it takes less energy to make! I can’t make up my mind! I

Canvas. Buy fabric bags and reuse them and reuse them. You only contribute once to pollution and then you wont anymore. Or make your own. Or buy handmade bags locally. Then you won’t be inflicting at all!

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Many cities in Europe and now some in the US are starting to ban plastic bags because of how harmful they are to the environment. In Europe, you need to bring your own shopping bags to stores. If you look around your grocery store, building supply store, etc, you will see that they offer canvas or tote bags made from recycled materials for sale, usually under $1.00. We use these bags as much as we can when shopping and find they are easier to carry items in and are twice the size of plastic bags.

Plastic bags are an eyesore that litter our cities, are harmful to wildlife and can take years, if not decades to break down in a landfill. It actually cost more money and resources to recycle plastic bags than it does to manufacture them.

More people should use start using canvas or other types of recycled tote bags (supply their own shopping bags) and it would have a huge positive impact on our environment.

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what is an easy way to explain to a kid.
what is a children’s definition

Simply put: Global warming is the increase of the average temperature of the earth, due to green house gasses (exhaust/smoke) trapping heat in the atmosphere.

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Well kids, see it is a little fairy tale that the television people made up that tells us we are meant to change everything we do because of the world warming up. But kids see, what the television people didn’t tell us is that it happens naturally, and we can’t stop it. TV people made up this evil monster called CO2, that apparently is killing the earth because there is too much of it. But you see kids, carbon dioxide comes from the water in the ocean as earth naturally heats up.