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Research by the University of Gothenburg shows that more than 400 marine zones around the world has such "a great lack of oxygen in soft seabeds that fauna and fish have been harmed." The research made by the Swedish University also shows that the dead soft seabeds have doubled every decade since the 60's. Back in 1995 Rutger Rosenberg, from the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg, and Robert Diaz, from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the USA, carried out research and studies on the world's soft seabeds. Their research then showed 44 zones "that were so afflicted by oxygen deficiency that soft-seabed fauna and fish had been harmed." Now, nearly 13 years after that research the numbers of dead zones have risen to more than 400. These latest findings, which have been presented in the latest issue of the magazine Science, draw the conclusion that this is "the most serious threat to the health of the sea" and that it is and will affect important fishing areas. "There are no other variables of such great ecological significance for coastal marine ecosystems, and which have changed so drastically in such a short time, as the reduced amount of oxygen in the sea. In the periods when the oxygen deficiency has its largest spread in Scandinavia, there can be a deficit of over three million tonnes of soft-seabed fauna, compared to the situation if the soft seabeds had been well oxygenated", says Rutger Rosenberg. The dead zones together are "at least" 245,000 square kilometres big, or equal to the size of Great Britain. The worst places hit are the Baltic Sea in northern Europe, the Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea. Image credit: txd. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution license.

On October 15th the second Blog Action Day will occur. Last year bloggers united for the environment. This year’s topic will be poverty. The new campaign was launched last Friday but already now over 2000 blogs with an audience of over 3500000 people has registered as participators to this year’s event. "It's been almost a year since, with your help, we held the smashingly successful Blog Action Day 2007, and as of a few hours ago, our 2008 campaign has officially begun. This year our theme is "Poverty" and we'll be encouraging bloggers around the world to once again explore this issue on your blogs on October 15th." Green Blog participated in the event last year, and we will of course participate this year also. Because just like Al Gore says, you can't solve climate change without dealing with poverty: "Earlier this year, Bono and I spoke about the intersection between the extreme poverty in the developing world – especially in Africa – and the climate crisis. It is impossible to solve one of these issues without dealing with the other." Other more popular and well-known blogs that will participate includes blogs such as TechCrunch.com, ReadWriteWeb.com, Mashable.com, SmashingMagazine.com, GigaOm.com, Jauhari.net, Problogger.net, CopyBlogger.com, DailyBlogTips.com, ZenHabits.net, Inhabitat.com, VentureBeat.com, Mentalfloss.com, PronetAdvertising.com and TorrentFreak.com. Elena Valenciano, a prominent member of the Spanish Parliament and spokesperson for the Human Rights Committee, will also be taking part in Blog Action Day.

The US Climate Change Science Program was created by the climate change denying Bush administration back in late 2002 "to review the validity of climate-change science before making policy decisions." The science program was criticized by environmentalists for being used so that Bush could continue doing absolutely nothing to curb climate change. But now the Climate Change Science Program has released their results and they clearly show that "human activity was responsible for the rapid warming of the 20th century." "The evidence is pretty convincing that the models give a good simulation of climate," lead author David Bader of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California told reporters last week. He concedes that the report did not examine predictions of future climate change. Nor did it address policy issues, which will be left to the next administration. Via New Scientist

Last week the ice at the North Pole melted at an "unprecedented rate." And that has some scientists worrying that the Arctic could become ice-free during the summers as early as 2013, the Guardian reports. The storms over the Alaska's Beaufort Sea last week brought with them not just bad weather but also streams of hot air into the Arctic. Satellite images that were taken shortly after could show that the ice caps had started to "disintegrate dramatically." And because of that the scientists believes that the melting could exceed last year's record loss of ice. 'It is a neck-and-neck race between 2007 and this year over the issue of ice loss,' said Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado. 'We thought Arctic ice cover might recover after last year's unprecedented melting - and indeed the picture didn't look too bad last month. Cover was significantly below normal, but at least it was up on last year. 'But the Beaufort Sea storms triggered steep ice losses and it now looks as if it will be a very close call indeed whether 2007 or 2008 is the worst year on record for ice cover over the Arctic. We will only find out when the cover reaches its minimum in mid-September.' These huge losses of Arctic sea ice will result in "major meteorological, environmental and ecological" consequences, such as: More and heavier storms being swept into Britain, polar bears and seals losing their habitats, rising sea levels and a further increased in global temperatures.

Olkiluoto, Finland, Monday 28 May 2007 - Activists from Greenpeace block the entrance to the construction site of a new nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto. Photo by: Greenpeace. The construction of a nuclear plant in Olkiluoto, Finland, has so far been pretty miserable. The construction is 2-3 years behind schedule, 70% over the budget, experiencing 1500 construction defects and recently had do deal with a damaging fire. But it's getting worse. Greenpeace today found out from leaked documents that the French construction company Areva is "failing to implement vital safety procedures" that, according to Greenpeace, cannot guarantee the reactors safety. "The documents show that, during the construction of the steel framework in the base of the the world's largest nuclear reactor, welders had no specifications as to how the welding should be properly performed for an entire year and, furthermore, tests to ensure the quality of the welding have not been carried out." "Bouygues, an Areva sub-contractor, has had no qualified welding supervisors at the site for over a year and still does not have any. Staff are given a mere two weeks’ training instead of having the international standard university degree. The company also listed people who had not worked in the role as welding supervisors." "Areva, the Finnish nuclear safety authority STUK, and the country’s electricity generator TVO have all been aware of these problems and yet the necessary vital safeguards have not been implemented. Poor welding could cause or exacerbate a nuclear accident – both the reactor cooling system and the reactor itself are mounted on the steel framework. If this is how the construction has proceeded so far, what can we expect when it comes to the installation of reactor components or electronic safety systems?" Greenpeace demands that the construction of the nuclear plant must be halted and that "those responsible for this misconduct should be held to account." Greenpeace also pointed out that "public safety should always be put before profit and poor procedures."

In 100 months it will be too late to stop climate change. Then we have passed the "tipping point" where climate change will run out of control and leave us powerless to intervene. The message comes from the new campaign One Hundred Months from the New Economic Foundation (NEF), which wants to highlight this dangerous "tipping point." "If you shout "fire" in a crowded theatre, when there is none, you understand that you might be arrested for irresponsible behaviour and breach of the peace. But from today, I smell smoke, I see flames and I think it is time to shout. I don't want you to panic, but I do think it would be a good idea to form an orderly queue to leave the building," says Andrew Simms, policy director and head of the climate change programme at NEF. The New Economic Foundation's plan to stop climate change before December 2016 is pretty downright. They want to stop constructions of "infrastructure that is fossil-fuel-dependent." Such as high-ways, airports and coal power plants, invest in renewable energy and public transportation systems and put a heavy tax on companies that invest money into fossil fuels. 100 months might sound like a short period of time. But unfortunately these calculations are based on old numbers and science from the IPCC. So the time until we reach the "tipping point" might be a lot less than these 100 months. No matter if we only have 100 months left, or 50 months left, or if we have already passed the "tipping point" there is no reason for our current inaction. "Now it is time for the government to lead, and do its best to make sure that neither a bang, nor a whimper ends the show."

According to a newly released report by the IUCN Primate Specialist Group says that "almost 50 percent of the world's primates are in danger of extinction." The report points out that habitat destruction and hunting are the two main threats. "We've raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and the longtime chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group. "Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction." The new analysis reveals that: Over 70% of Asian primates are threatened with extinction, and at least two dozen taxa are Critically Endangered. Virtually all gibbons are threatened with extinction — and one of the rarest subspecies, the Yunnan white-handed gibbon, may already be extinct. All great apes — all gorillas, all chimpanzees, all orangutans, all bonobos — are either Endangered or Critically Endangered. Across all primate taxa, a full 48% are threatened — nearly half of all primates, in harm's way and likely to go extinct in our own lifetime. And just in time for the release of this depressing report the Associated Press reports that President George Bush is "proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants."

Last week South Africa's government unveiled an "ambitious" climate change plan that includes rigorous energy efficiency measures and a carbon tax on CO2 polluting industries. "The world faces a global climate emergency. It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening," environment minister Martinus Van Schalkwyk said in a statement. In 2003 South Africa emitted 446 million tonnes of greenhouse gases "and forecasts growth to a maximum of 550 million tonnes a year by 2025." South Africa wants the greenhouse gas emissions to stop growing "at the latest by 2020 to 2025, stabilise for up to 10 years, and then decline in absolute terms." Van Schalkwyk said that "the aim is to limit global temperature increases to two degrees above pre-industrial levels." Both environment groups and business associations has welcomed the climate change plan saying it’s a major step "towards galvanising rich industrialised nations into addressing climate change." Andre Fourie, chief executive of National Business Initiative, a group advocating sustainable development, said that "the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of mitigating the effects of climate change." Professor Harald Winkler, from the University of Cape Town climate change department, was also happy about the new proposed climate change plan, especially the carbon tax: "Our analysis shows that putting a price on carbon has the single largest impact on emissions. By using the price signal, it sends signals to all actors in the economy, and can shift behaviour." The proposed climate change plan has already been endorsed by the cabinet in South Africa and finance officials are already "investigating ways of implementing the [carbon] tax." But the plan must be approved by the parliament before it gets the final green light.

A newly released report by ForestEthics says that the junk mail in USA alone contributes to global warming as much as seven US states combined, or more than nine million cars, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter. Along with the junk mail report the ForestEthics group stressed the importance of their campaign and petition for a Do Not Mail Registry "to give Americans the choice to stop receiving junk mail." "This report confirms what Americans instinctively know: the scale of junk mail's waste goes against all common sense," says Todd Paglia, Executive Director of ForestEthics. "And the junk mail industry is incapable of policing itself on this matter– we need a Do Not Mail registry to give Americans a choice, and to enforce that choice." The Do Not Mail campaign was launched on March 12 of this year and already now has nearly 60000 signatures. The list contains well-known names such as those of Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, David Crosby and Daryl Hannah. Another and more direct way to reduce junk mail can be by using a service like ProQuo.com. ProQuo is a free, easy-to-use Web site that allows consumers to remove themselves from the most commonly used marketing lists in a matter of minutes.

Edison is a new and free energy-saving PC software from the developers at Verdiem. The software makes it a lot easier for you to control your computers power saving features helping you save electricity and money. Edison doesn't shut down your computer completely; it just puts it in a "suspend mode" which uses much less energy than if the computer would be running normally. You can decide if you want to schedule Edison to shut down the computer screen and hard drive before going into the suspend mode. The software also displays how much electricity, CO2 emissions, and money you have saved. It depends from computer to computer how much energy and money you will save with a tool like this. Verdiem says the average savings is 410 kilowatt hours a year which is equal to $36.50 in savings. "Recent studies predict PC ownership will quadruple to 4 billion and double emissions by 2020 , so implementing PC energy management solutions at home and in the workplace is a vital component of climate protection," said Lorie Wigle, President of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. "Tools like Edison can help consumers control and monitor their PC's energy intake and make a real difference in the way they manage the power consumption of the technology they use." Edison requires Windows XP or Windows Vista and can be downloaded for free here. Another similar program to check out is LocalCooling which has been around for much longer and has the similar features (it can also shut down your computer).

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this summer launched, with the support of EU, a new Mediterranean union with the aim to "tackle issues such as regional unrest, immigration to pollution." The new international body will include 16 non-EU states from around the Mediterranean and all 27 EU member states. The union will focus on dealing with energy, security, counter-terrorism, immigration and trade. The union will include 756 million people from Western Europe to the Jordanian desert. Some say that the Union was launched mainly because Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to "exchange" nuclear power expertise with North African gas reserves. Nicolas Sarkozy on the other hand says the union is supposed "to ensure the region's people could love each other instead of making war." But some people are more positive and hope the union is the first steps towards large scale solar plants in northern Africa with focus of generating green and renewable electricity to Europe. Scientists from the EU are planning for a new supergrid between the different EU member states. This new supergrid will be built using new DC (HVDC) lines which are perfect for transmissions of energy over long distances. The supergrid could allow Denmark and the UK to export wind energy and Iceland to export geothermal energy at times when production exceeds demand to other EU member states. But the supergrids main purpose would be to transmit renewable solar energy from the Saharan desert to Europe. The scientists want to build a series of huge solar farms in the Saharan desert and connect them to the supergrid. Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy says "it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe’s energy needs." According to the scientists the sunlight in Sahara could "generate up to three times the electricity compared with similar panels in northern Europe" because the sunlight in this area is so intense. The supergrid project has been met optimistically by both politicians, like Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, and environment organisations, such as Greenpeace. "Assuming it’s cost-effective, a largescale renewable energy grid is just the kind of innovation we need if we’re going to beat climate change," said Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK's chief scientist. Arnulf Jaeger-Walden believes that the solar energy from the Saharan desert would be cheap and "below what the average consumer is paying:" "The biggest PV system at the moment is installed in Leipzig and the price of the installation is €3.25 per watt. If we could realise that in the Mediterranean, for example in southern Italy, this would correspond to electricity prices in the range of 15 cents per kWh, something below what the average consumer is paying." The project would take many years to complete and huge investments at a total cost of around €450 billion would be needed. But the scientists expect that by 2050 solar energy from the Saharan desert could produce 100 GW. That is more than all the energy sources in the UK combined could ever generate. The project would also help Europe to meet its own climate change commitments to generate 20% of all the energy from renewable energy sources, decrease energy consumption by 20% and reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

The Republican presidential contender John McCain yesterday tried to make fun of Barack Obama at a biker rally with his hard-core voters saying Obama's new energy plan was all about inflating your tires. At the biker rally John McCain said that "my opponent doesn't want to drill. He doesn't want nuclear power. He wants you to inflate your tires." Later in an interview he said that "we are not going to achieve energy independence by inflating our tires." Besides the fact that John McCain is not telling the truth about what Obama said he is also completely wrong about the effectiveness of proper tire inflation. According to the gas-guzzlers at Auto Alliance of BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mercedez Benz, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen: The Department of Energy estimates that 1.2 billion gallons of fuel were wasted in 2005 as a result of driving on under-inflated tires. Fuel efficiency is reduced by 1% for every 3 PSI that tires are under-inflated. Proper tire inflation can save the equivalent of about 1 tank of gas per year. Proper tire inflation also reduces CO2 emissions. Experts estimate that 25% of automobiles are running on tires with lower than recommended pressure, because people don't know how to check their tires or don't realize that tires naturally lose air over time. Later at a political rally in Berea Barack Obama responded to John McCain's attacks: "They're lying about what my energy plan is. They're making fun of a step that every expert says would reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"> And during a town-hall meeting in Indiana today Barack Obama responded even harder: "Senator McCain's energy plan reads like an early Christmas list for oil and gas lobbyists. And it’s no wonder – because many of his top advisors are former oil and gas lobbyists." ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"> You can read all about Barack Obama's "Energy Plan for America" here.

The ATP 8GB EarthDrive claims to be the world’s first eco-friendly USB drive. The EarthDrive is made from bio-recycled plastics and is designed to be fully recyclable at the end of its life. A portion of all sales will be donated to American Forests and towards the planting of trees. "The EarthDrive takes our more than fifteen years of effort, design and quality implementation in the memory marketplace to the next level. Now, more than anytime in the history of our company, we are committed to creating products that take into consideration the environmental impact on our world and our global community." says Michael Plaksin, ATP Vice President of Sales. The USB drive is shock and water proof, has a built in security software, drive partitioning and password protection. It has a capacity of 8GB and costs $47.99.

On this day, 63 years ago, USA dropped the nuclear bomb "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, USA dropped a second nuclear bomb over Nagasaki in Japan. The bombs killed as many as 240 000 people. Thousands more died from injuries or illness attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians. ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"> Hopefully, we will never allow something as horrible like this to happen again.