Simon

Animals can be released back into the wild again. There are countless of reintroduction programs that does just this. Of course I understand that some animals might not be able to be released. But that doesn't mean we should continue to lock them inside. Also what does Google Earth and Hollywood have to do with this? I find circuses that travel around with animals just as, or even more, despicable than zoos. Luckily more and more circuses, over here at least, are moving away from shows that involve animals and instead chooses to focus on clowns and other forms of performance.

Hmmm maybe. Let's give it a few more days to allow more people to vote and/or voice their opinion. :)

Welcome to the forums Sugarhill! Hopefully you will have a great time here. :)

Huh, what!? I agree. We don't have a population problem. But we do have a consumption problem.

The only threat I can see is that the anger against the austerity measures and the failing conservative and neoliberal policies will make people turn towards the extreme right and their hateful ideology. In Greece the far-right made huge gains in the recent election. And these were not your ordinary islamophobic racists in suits and combed hair. No these were actual nazis! But hopefully solidarity and knowledge will win over hate and ignorance.

The only question is when will people dare to take the first steps towards breaking the damaging two-party system that, to be honest, has a massive, almost unbreakable, foundation in America. Most people who would form and support a true and new labour party in the US are located on the left, and those people vote democrat today. So if a new party is to be formed the Democratic party must first die, or at least lose a lot of its current support. And no matter how conflicted and crazy the right-wingers are they are good at one thing: sticking together for a common goal. That would mean that during this transition the Republicans would most likely gain more power. And I guess this is what holding most people off, otherwise the Greens in the US would already be a major player in the national politics. But then again everything is possible. And I don't think that its just people on the left that wants to break away from the two-party system. The internal fighting within the Republican party between the more traditional republicans, the neocons, and the religious fringe could easily escalate. I could easily imagine that the Tea Party movement, for example, could spring lose from the Republicans and form their own party. People should stop to assume or even hope that the Democrats will ever take ordinary people's wishes and needs in consideration. The democratic party is just a lesser evil than the Republicans. At the moment the political system in the US boils down to a choice between the plague or cholera. It will probably be a painful transition, but it's a transition that is very much needed.

That's a great video. Good job! Alternative transportation options are much healthier, less stressful, cheaper, and in most cases will take you much faster to your destination than a car would. By the way, at around the 3:03 mark in the video I thought the girl on the bike would fall and hurt herself. But she managed that situation like a pro. ;)

I really dislike zoos. The animals should be able to wander around freely in their natural habitat instead of being locked inside a small confined area while being stressed from all the zoo visitors. Before they could have played an important educational role for people. But today they just feel so outdated. We don't need zoos anymore to educate people and children about animals. A nature documentary/film/photo works just as good today imo.

Why? If a woman decides to do an abortion I highly doubt it'll affect you personally.

So what kind of approach should they take? <_<

The other day I purchased a new keyboard for my computer. This new keyboard is a wireless solar powered keyboard (K750) from Logitech. It doesn't run on batteries, instead the keyboard has two solar panels on the top of it. Despite this, or maybe because of this, it's still very light and sleek. I haven't packed it up yet but I will sure to let you all know how it works and performs.

I understand what you mean about not wanting to own a car. To maintain a car today is just too expensive and involves too much hassle. Just getting a driver's license requires a small fortune! So if you're lucky to live in a bigger city with decent public transportation options I don't really see a point in owning a car.

I am not sure how you would get people to change their behavior if they/we didn't scare them. Climate change is scary and people should realize the real dangers of not doing anything.

Ah yes. From the term 'global warming' one could think that the only effect we would see will be a warmer climate. But different regions around the world will see different effects. Global warming will not mean that we will get a nicer climate up here in northern Scandinavia. Global warming means a changing climate and more extreme weather. That's why the term 'climate change' is better. Regions that already see much rain will generally receive a wetter climate and dry regions will see an even hotter climate as global warming progresses. For example, Bangladesh is expected to see more rainfall as well as rising sea levels. Southern Europe that is already pretty warm will see increased temperatures and deadly heatwaves. We might even see more snow in some regions!

Yes I agree with you on that. And that's one of the reasons why I am only allowing upvotes, or likes, at the moment. This community is still so new and small that we shouldn't make anyone leave because of some potential downvoting/bad reputation. Because of the small size the real troublemakers can be taken care of more swiftly and effectively by moderators. It is already possible to report specific posts. It won't remove the post in question at once, but it will notify a moderator that will take action if the post is deemed to break any of the community rules. The positive thing with a downvote button is that it could be used against potential climate change deniers that spread lies and misinformation on the forum. But at the moment I haven't seen anything like that around here. And the Like-button can help stop unnecessary posts. If person A writes an interesting post that person B enjoys and agree with, it would be much better if person B just clicked the like-button instead of making a short "I agree!!!" post.

What kind of bike do you have? Unless it's some sort of Sport/Hybrid, Mountainbike, racer or what-not I think it would be easier to just go to the local bike shop. :)

Yeah but it's the durable and unbreakable features that make them so sinister. If not recycled it'll take thousands of years for those plastic containers to break down naturally in the environment or in a landfill. Plastic bags alone, can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment. And in the meantime they will pose a serious and deadly risk for wildlife.

In elections last year the conservatives in Denmark lost their slim majority to a coalition of social democrats, greens and liberals. And more recently conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy lost his job to François Hollande from the French Socialist Party. And it doesn't look good for other conservative parties around Europe. Prime Minister, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, and his a coalition with the Liberal Democrats is losing support among voters in the UK. Also falling heavily in the polls is the right-wing coalition that currently governs Sweden. It is also looking rather bleak for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union party. And then we have Greece that is moving closer and closer towards a new election; an election in which Syriza, the "hard left", is expected to gain the most from. Soon the political landscape in Europe might look completely different from what it does today. These surely are exciting times!

We have been used to see NASA's 64-megapixel "Blue Marble" photos of the Earth. But now a Russian weather satellite has taken a 121-megapixel image of our fragile Earth, making it the most detailed photo yet. The satellite is stationed on a fixed located over 35000 kilometers above the Indian Ocean and takes a full image of Earth every 30 minutes. The resolution is one kilometer per pixel. The photo (as seen above and in the video below) portrays our Earth a bit differently from what we are used to. The rust color that dominates the photo is not desert; it's actually vegetation from forests. The vegetation has been turned into this orange colour because the camera on the weather satellite combines data from three visible and one infrared wavelengths of light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hdyRh60R-Q