Simon

Greener, Better, Faster, Stronger? The (new) Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior sails again! "Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, launched a new ship that it hopes will play a big role in its future campaigns. The Rainbow Warrior III carries the name of another vessel that was bombed and sunk by the French secret service in 1985 after it attempted to disrupt France's nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Built to rigorous specifications for safety and environmental friendliness, the new vessel is almost 60m long, can hit 14 knots using sailpower, makes its own water, and can stay at sea for months."

Only around 20% of all the corn grown in America now goes to feed humans. The majority of the corn produced is being turned into ethanol fuel, TreeHugger reports. And one smaller part of the corn production also goes to feed our ever expanding meat industry. Global Hunger Index says that America's use of biofuels plays a big role in creating famine's and increasing food prices around the world. "US policies encouraging corn ethanol production, such as subsidies and mandates, ensure more corn is grown for fuel rather than food – especially when oil prices are high. "What this means is that every policy on biofuels will create an increase in volatility, will create an increase in price and that will be translated to all the other countries," Torero said. Torero warned that projected growth in US biofuel production over the next decade would put even more pressure on global corn prices."

WSJ reports that (if the article is gone, check out this copy over at Current): "The Obama administration said Monday it was moving forward with oil-drilling leases off the coast of Alaska issued by the Bush administration in 2008, a victory for oil companies in the battle over Arctic Ocean drilling." Those are nearly 500 leases for oil drilling in a fragile environment. Greenpeace warns that similar catastrophes that happened to the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf last year could happen. But that: "The likelihood of a blowout is higher. And oil spill "clean-up" in this harsh, remote environment is impossible. The nearest Coast Guard station is a thousand miles away." And last month Obama decided to stop new and harder pollution regulations. "Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress says that President Obama's decision to hold off on new, tougher smog regulations are further proof he's "winging it" on environmental policy. This is worse than what the Bush administration wanted to do on air pollution,” Romm says." And don't forget the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that Obama and his administration haven't tried to stop. What was that about "change" and "hope" that Obama talked about before? Has he forgotten about it or does he now show his true intentions and political stance on environmental and climate issues? What do you think?

AJE has a new upbeat TV series where they "explore the solutions to today's environmental challenges". I haven't yet seen the first episode but it sounds interesting and promising. Check it out and let me know what you think! http://english.aljaz...mmes/earthrise/

So now and then I hear stories about the Moving Planet event that took place a couple of days ago. But I keep wondering if the event really got noticed by people who are not already involved in the climate movement? Did it make any difference except creating some sort of feel-good atmosphere for other like-minded people? Did the media cover the event in any big form? No, unfortunately I really doubt it made any impact at all on "ordinary people" or politicians. But maybe I am just being too pessimistic. Or what do you think?

The Independet reports that the incoming red-green Danish government will cut off the £1m a year state funding that goes to Bjørn Lomborg and his Copenhagen Consensus center. Bjørn Lomborg is one of the world's most high-profile climate change skeptic. "Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and bête noire of climate change activists around the world, has been told that the incoming Danish government will cut off his £1m a year funding. Mr Lomborg, whose 2001 book suggested the planet should adapt to global warming rather than wasting resources trying to prevent it, has made his name by accusing scientists and others of exaggerating the extent and effects of climate change." Ya, it's not easy being a libertarian climate skeptic these days... It's worth noting that if the Danish people wouldn't have voted out the former liberal-conservative government, Bjørn Lomborg probably would have received increased state funding. The extreme far-right political party Dansk Folkeparti (which was a support party to the fragile liberal-conservative government since 2001) demanded already in 2009 (around the same time as COP15 was taking place) that Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus center should receive millions in new funds - a decision pretty much solely based on ideology reasons.

Organic farming has many positive effects, such as increased biodiversity. Studies in this area has shown that organic farming reduce yields by about 10%. Other studies claim that organic farming increases yields in regions with tropical climate. But in this study organic farming seems to have the advantage, in every category, over more traditional forms of agriculture. I haven't had time to take a closer look at the study yet so I am still a bit skeptical to the results. But it sure sounds promising. Fast facts from the study: Organic yields match conventional yields. Organic outperforms conventional in years of drought. Organic farming systems build rather than deplete soil organic matter, making it a more sustainable system. Organic farming uses 45% less energy and is more efficient. Conventional systems produce 40% more greenhouse gases. Organic farming systems are more profitable than conventional. You can read the study here.

I will! But I doubt we will hear anything new on this the coming weeks. It will take a while before other scientists and institutions have had time to properly test this.

Thank you, I appreciate that. But really, most of the blame is on me. I haven't had the time to properly advertise the forum (on green blog etc) nor have I been able to fully participate in the community. And if not even the admin is active - then why should the rest of the community? Hopefully I'll manage to sort out my life a bit better during the coming days. And even though I probably won't be able to be as active on the main Green Blog I will try to put this community higher on my priority list.

Yes, I completely agree with both of you. I guess most of the blame is on me. I haven't been able to participate in this community (or green blog) as much as I would like. At the moment I am desperately looking for some kind of apartment so most of my stuff are packed down. I also have university studies that take most of my time. It also doesn't help one bit that I have to travel by train around 6 hours every day to get to the university and back "home" (because I haven't found my own apartment closer to the university yet...). So basically, my life is kind of upside down at the moment... *edit: I moved this thread to a more fitting forum category. ;)

Welcome to the forums Rioson! I don't know anything about how to make games. But I would love to hear more about your environmental games.

Noise pollution could be a problem too: "Setting up temporary recording stations in 20 different locations, technicians say that there's virtually no place left in America that's untouched by ambient human noise - and that this may be stressful to wildlife." Read more about the research here: http://www.npr.org/2...rees-and-planes

Naomi Klein speaks out against the efforts to re-brand Canadian oil sands, which in my opinion is one of the most extreme examples of greenwashing. AJE has covered these re-branding efforts: http://english.aljaz...1015735414.html "Controversy is stirring as a campaign launches to rebrand oil sands exploitation as "supporting democracy"."

This is huge! So far nothing has ever contradicted Einstein's theory of relativity. But if these results are confirmed and verified they will mark an important moment in science and shake up the entire world of modern physics. It would mean that scientists have been working with flawed views of physics for generations. We would basically have to re-examine all of our knowledge on how the universe works. "An international team of scientists say they have recorded neutrino particles traveling at faster than the speed of light. [...] if confirmed, could overturn Einstein's theory of relativity and fundamental rules of physics." http://www.aljazeera...3317431339.html

Happy birthday Greenpeace on your 40th anniversary! "Forty years ago today a small band of activists who had hired a fishing boat in Vancouver set sail for a small island off the coast of Alaska. Their aim was to halt a planned underground nuclear test by the Nixon administration, and although the attempt to prevent the explosion was thwarted by the US coastguard, something else was detonated as the crew of pacifist ecologists captured the imagination of people across the world and Greenpeace was born." Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, writes on the Guardian about successful Greenpeace campaigns in the past but also, and more importantly, how these 40 years have been a preparation for climate change, "the greatest environmental challenge we humans have yet faced, the one that will define success or failure for our movement.": http://www.guardian....-years-activism

Gotta catch all em votes!

Yes, unfortunately that seems to be the case. The other day James Hansen was arrested while protesting against the pipeline. He had some pretty hard words about Obama: "If Obama chooses the dirty needle it will confirm that the president was just green-washing all along." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-29/nasa-s-hansen-arrested-outside-white-house-at-pipeline-protest.html

Yeah I think you can be correct that a 17" would weigh too much. Hmm about those specs. I don't need anything impressive really, but a large hard drive is a must. I don't care about any graphics and stuff as I will only use the computer to browse the internet and write documents.

The bug that has caused problems with the profile comments and status updates has now been fixed.

Our community now has a brand new default skin! Please post any feedback you might have on this new default skin here in this topic. In this new skin update I've move around a few things. As you can see the frontpage has received a big overhaul. The profile sidebar block is gone and instead you can find the user profile options in a menu in the header. Hopefully this will make it much easier to browse the different parts of this community. I've also fixed that annoying profile comments bug. So now you can finally post status messages on your own profile page and comments on other members profiles. Of course, if you don't like the new skin you can always switch to our other skin which is called Overlay Green.

The food crisis is a result of increased biofuel production around the world, writes Timothy Searchinger: "Our primary obligation is to feed the hungry. Biofuels are undermining our ability to do so. Governments can stop the recurring pattern of food crises by backing off their demands for ever more biofuels." It's also worth noting that not all biofuels are the same. As has been previously mentioned here in this topic there are certain kinds of biofuels, such as algae, that can be harvested from otherwise non-farmable land.

Tomorrow my Political Science studies at the university will continue after the summer break. Unfortunately I am having difficulties finding an apartment. So I will have to travel to the university by train every day there is a lecture. That means I will have to spend 5-6 hours every day just sitting in a train going back and fourth my hometown and the university city. Sometimes you just hate the fact that Sweden hasn't invested in their railway system in ages... Oh well that's another story. All this means that I will need a laptop so I can work while I wait for the train and when I sit on the train so I can make the most of the time. Does anyone here have any good advice on which kind of laptop I should get? I need it to be fairly cheap (I am a poor student after all!), the batteries should last long and it shouldn't be heavy or clumsy. I think a anything below a 14" screen is too small. And I am afraid a 17" screen would be too big.

AJE has a good article about the Keystone XL pipeline that will supply the US with "dirty Canadian tar sands oil". It's definitely worth a read if you are not so versed with the pipeline and the environmental protests Barack Obama is facing over the proposed pipeline expansion. Read it: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/08/201182519415657837.html "The regulatory authorities are looking at the short term interests of the oil industry, not our long term interests," he said. "We need to be considering our air and water as national interests."