Simon
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Our server did not crash because I posted this entry. Yay!
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Green Blog has been around for years. In fact, we’ve been red and green since early 2007. That’s nearly seven years now. For me, it feels like 2007 was just the other day. Time really does go by fast when you’re having fun. But, if you’re been with us since the launch back in 2007, you know the road has been bumpy – to say the least. The site has undergone several large re-designs, usually one every year. And along the way Green Blog have switched focus – from being a green news aggregator, to a blog that mainly covered environmentally friendly webhosts, energy efficient server technologies and solutions to the Green Blog of today that covers a wide range of environmental topics. And now, Green Blog is about to switch focus again. Today we unveil the new Green Blog website. The new Green Blog has a large focus on you, our reader. Green Blog is no longer just a blog – it’s a community. You will, of course, still get the latest environment news on our frontpage from authors around the world. But now, on the new Green Blog you can also discuss topics that are important to you in our environment forums and create your very own green blog. Registration is free and you can sign up in seconds with your Google, Twitter or Facebook account. If you register now, you will gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. To be honest, I can’t really understand why you are still browsing Green Blog as a regular guest reader… All this might sounds breathtakingly amazing. But it was not an easy decision to make this move. To be able to create the new Green Blog we had to move to a completely new publishing system. You can think of it in terms of moving to a new house, which is located in another country with a different language and culture. We used the very popular blogging platform Wordpress to run the old Green Blog. There is a reason for why Wordpress is number one on the web – it’s a great blogging tool! Unfortunately it isn’t that great when you also want to run a community. And in recent months, as you might have noticed, we haven’t updated Green Blog with new articles. I’ll be honest. At times it has been very quiet here. In part that is due to real life getting in the way. But more, the lack of updates can be blamed on severe technical difficulties with Wordpress. For the past months we have been unable to properly manage Green Blog. Every time we tried to publish a new article the website have crashed. It didn’t matter how long – or short – it was. Once we pressed on that publish button our server came crashing down. A lot of time have been spent on pinpointing the cause of this error. We have tried to completely overhaul our website in a fruitless attempt to reduce server load. We have switched to new webhosts, upgraded to faster and faster servers. All this made some progress – but far from enough. That is when we decided to move away from Wordpress and instead use the IPS Community Suite - the system which our new Green Blog runs on. Those server errors we experienced on Wordpress made the decision even more pressing – and easer to make. The transition to our new Green Blog isn’t finished yet – a lot of work remains. For example, most of our links are now broken. And hundreds upon hundreds of our articles need to be properly updated to the new system. But despite all this, I still think it was the right decision to make all these new and drastic changes to Green Blog. This new publishing system will allow us to take Green Blog to the next level, so to speak. Change is good, but it can also be difficult. So please, have patience while we transition to this new system (you can ). And while you wait, why not sign up for a free Green Blog account!?
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Please let us know about any bugs and/or errors you might encounter on the new Green Blog website here. Known bugs so far: Problem accessing Green Blog from mobile devices. Fixed! Unable to access our Gallery from mobile devices. Fixed! Not possible to use the IP.Board Mobile skin while browsing on a desktop web browser. Fixed! Frontpage looks weird on mobile devices. No fix yet...
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When you go shopping groceries, do you choose organic products over more conventional ones?
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Welcome to the forums Carlotta Hill
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Welcome to the forums tougashawn
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Who are the Front Runners in the Race for Alternative Energy?
Simon commented on Blake Meredith's blog entry in The Alternative Energy Race
This is a good and educational blog post Meredith. I'll feature it on the community frontpage! -
Tetsuro Tsutsui, engineer and expert of industrial tanks, said this about the recent leaks: "I must say these are not accidents. There must be a systematic problem in the way things are run over there. [...] We must say on-site management is extremely poor." Kayoko Nakamura, radiologist and a Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner: "As far as TEPCO people on our contaminated water and sea monitoring panels are concerned, they seem to lack even the most basic knowledge about radiation." It's comments like these, from experts in their field, that make me worry about nuclear safety. After all, Japan is supposed to be the text-book example of proper and good nuclear safety. Well, they have been offered and received international help. French nuclear companies have been helping out since early 2011. American drones helped monitor the situation from above shortly after the nuclear accident. French and American robots have also helped to monitor the surrounding areas underwater and get access to areas deemed too dangerous for humans. Teams from IAEA have also helped advise TEPCO and the Japanese government. And just the other day, a team of experts from IAEA met Japanese government officials as part of a mission to check on progress in the cleanup at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
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Welcome to the forums alexbagato
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Welcome to the forums unurleriaftet
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Welcome to the forums oewi
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Welcome to the forums Needlilesop
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Welcome to the forums oceatadditarl
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Welcome to the forums hisaannoura
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Welcome to the forums zerGroryGam
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Welcome to the forums Maydayzoodism
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Welcome to the forums Spoconysync
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I think the OPCW are worthy winners of the Nobel peace prize and I don't see anything wrong with them getting the award in light of the ongoing war in Syria. The OPCW has worked hard for years to eliminate chemical weapons around the world and the Syrian war just underlines the importance of an organization such as the OPCW. Sure, they might not be as well-known as other potential candidates for the prize, but it's not a popularity contest. "During World War One, chemical weapons were used to a considerable degree. The Geneva Convention of 1925 prohibited the use, but not the production or storage, of chemical weapons. During World War Two, chemical means were employed in Hitler’s mass exterminations. Chemical weapons have subsequently been put to use on numerous occasions by both states and terrorists. In 1992-93 a convention was drawn up prohibiting also the production and storage of such weapons. It came into force in 1997. Since then the OPCW has, through inspections, destruction and by other means, sought the implementation of the convention. 189 states have acceded to the convention to date." Malala is a brave young woman. There is no question about that. But according to Alfred Nobel, the award is to be given to someone who promotes the reduction of standing military forces OR promotes peace between nations. Malala has done neither so far.
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If I recall it correctly, all the internet armchair experts promised that the Fukushima nuclear accident was nothing to worry about, that it was no big problem and that it could easily be fixed... The Japanese government should have sidestepped TEPCO, who seem unable to even perform the easiest tasks correctly, and called for international support from the very beginning of the crisis.
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The mainstream media has failed to cover the US government shutdown
Simon posted a blog entry in Simon Says
Al Jazeera America has published a good opinion piece by Dan Froomkin in which he discusses the failure of mainstream media to report on the shutdown of the US government. Froomkin argues that his fellow colleges have misled the public on the true cause of the shutdown and that US mainstream media has failed to hold the responsible parties accountable. "...journalists have been suckered into embracing "balance" and "neutrality" at all costs, and the consequences of their choice in an era of political extremism will only get worse and worse." I believe Froomkin is right when he argues that this is a failure for journalism and democracy. But it’s not just about the recent shutdown of the US government. The same reasoning can be applied to the climate change crisis, where the media keeps portraying it as a debate – even though the deniers have nothing but lies and misinformation to back up their claims with. Froomkin’s reasoning here can also be applied to the failure of Western media, in general, to combat the dangerous development of extreme right-wing parties in Europe. With that said, I do think that Froomkin puts too much blame and responsibilities on the individual journalist. After all, a journalist can only do so much. At the end of the day it’s the corporations that run today’s global news organizations that sets the agenda and decides how and which stories get reported (check out: The mass media and our environment). -
I've seen this photo being shared plenty lately. It says: "In America, lobbyists are constantly trying to convince us that alternative energy just isn't a viable option. Meanwhile, in Germany, they have permanently shut down 8 of their 17 nuclear power plants. The rest of them will be shut down by 2022... Where do you think they are getting their electricity from?" Yes, following the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Germany is indeed in the process of shutting down their nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, Germany still gets the majority of their power from fossil fuel sources. But their share of renewables are increasing. Nuclear proponents are critical of this move and says that Germany now has to import electricity from France Czech Republic, which generate it in nuclear plants. They also blame last year's increase of CO2 emissions in Germany on the closure of the nuclear plants - because less nuclear plants means more coal plants. Every European country import and export electricity to the common European energy market, Germany is no exception. When it comes to Germany, the country actually exported more electricity to neighbouring countries than it imported last year. So despite the closure of several nuclear plants the German energy surplus quadrupled last year. Blaming the 1,5% increase in CO2 emissions in 2012 on nuclear plants being shut down is a bit dishonest. I mean, coal and other fossil fuel plants just don't magically appear, they take years to plan and build. In fact, 60% of the lost nuclear capacity in Germany was replaced by renewable energy. It's also worth noting that CO2 emissions fell with 2% in 2011 - despite the closure of nuclear plants - and the country remains on track for its 35% emissions cut by 2020. In 2010 the renewable energy sector in Germany directly employed more than 370 000 people. That number has continued to increase in recent years. It has also played a part in helping Germany stay rather unaffected by the recent economic crisis. I'd say Germany did the right thing when they decided to decommission their nuclear plants. What do you think?
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Welcome to the new green blog community! Not everything works and looks the way it should. It's still very much a work in progress.
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Hello and welcome to the forums! Do you wan't me to change your display name? :)
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I am cross-posting this from my Google+ profile. Lately I've seen a lot of posts about the Syrian conflict from people in my circles here on G+. Many of them are critical of the war. Not the two-year long civil war in the country. No, instead they are against the potential involvement of US-forces and what they see will be another costly Iraqi-style war in the Middle East. But Syria is not comparable to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. First of all, it's not a war. It's a limited military intervention with the goal to stop, or at least deter, a dictator from killing his own people with chemical weapons. The intervention in Syria is more in line with the military interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq (1990-2003), and more recently in Libya. Furthermore, the United States is the major economic and military super power in the world today. And that comes with certain responsibilities and moral obligations to act against international and human rights violations - just like the crimes done by the Syrian regime. I think it's selfish and dangerously isolationistic to say that the world's richest country cannot afford to intervene and stop a genocide. I believe that an intervention is necessary. The use of chemical weapons is a dangerous escalation of the conflict and shouldn't be downplayed. But even without that, the more than 100 000 dead, the millions of refugees and the threat to the security of neighboring countries is more than enough to justify some kind of intervention in Syria by the outside world. Also, many people seem to hold the notion that the UN investigation will prove who is responsible for the gas attack. But the UN investigation will not be able to determine who is responsible, it can only show if a chemical attack has taken place. But considering the evidence we've seen so far it’s silly to claim that chemical weapons haven't been used by the regime in Syria. Heck, even the Syrian regime acknowledges the fact that chemical weapons have been used in the conflict. The difference is that they blame it on the rebels. But let's say it's the rebels who are responsible for the gas attack, which despite their gains against government forces seems highly unlikely, then that would be an even worse scenario. Because it would mean that the Syrian regime and military have completely lost control of the country's chemical stockpiles and that dangerous chemical weapons could be spread to other hot spots around the world, sold to terrorists, black market arms dealers and so on. If that were the case, the response from the international community would have to be on an even larger scale and much more powerful, i.e. boots on the ground and a potential occupation of Syria to find, secure and destroy the stockpiles of chemical weapons. Just like with Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq and Libya, a military intervention was necessary to end the killings. In most of these cases the intervention happened with the support of the UN and the full backing of the international community. The only reason why we haven't seen an UN-approved intervention in Syria yet is because Russia and China are effectively blocking it. Many people seem content with this. But when did China and Russia with their dreadful democracy and human rights records become our moral compass? Considering all this, I believe that a limited military intervention by the US, and possibly also France and Turkey, is the morally right thing to do.
