Simon

Today PC World unveiled, via its Advent brand, a new eco-friendly computer called Advent Eco PC. The Advent Eco PC is made from 75% recycled plastics, comes with electronic manuals, uses 25 watts when idling and is said to save you £35 (about $65) a year on energy. The computers specs are surely enough for the average computer user: 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo T5250 CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, and Vista Home Premium. But, the Advent Eco PC is almost one year late, it should have been released last Christmas. And this is a disadvantage for the computer. The design and specs are not as "mind-blowing" as they are on Dell's new eco-friendly computer. To be fair, the computer looks like an ugly wifi router, and it's a bit more expensive than similar green computers. But if you want to have an eco-friendly computer that will save you money on your energy bill the Advent Eco PC is a good option for you to consider. The Advent Eco PC starts at £599.99 (about $1100).

A new preliminary report from NASA confirms our worries. The sea ice at the Arctic is disappearing. NASA reports that the Arctic sea ice has reached a second all-time low "since the dawn of the satellite era". Previous record low for September was in 2005. NASA says that this year' loss of sea ice "further reinforces the strong negative trend in summer sea ice extent observed during the past 30 years". In the past sea ice has covered about 60% of the Arctic. But this winter the sea ice covered less than 30%. "In March, when the Arctic reached its annual maximum sea ice coverage during the winter, scientists from NASA and the data center reported that thick, older sea ice was continuing to decline. According to NASA-processed satellite microwave data, this perennial ice used to cover 50-60 percent of the Arctic, but this winter it covered less than 30 percent. Perennial sea ice is the long-lived layer of ice that remains even when the surrounding short-lived seasonal sea ice melts to its minimum extent during the summer." The image shows that the daily Arctic sea ice extent for September 12, 2008, was 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). The orange line shows the 1979 to 2000 average extent for that day. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. A high-resolution image can be found here.

Here are 14 applications and groups for Facebook, a social networking website, which will easily help you to save our environment and climate. If you know about any others please let us know by making a comment. Plant trees: iChapters will plant one tree for every person that joins their Facebook page. Their goal is to plant 100,000 trees. For every ten people who joins TreeNation's group they'll plant one tree. Hotspex will plant one tree with your proverbial 'name' on it if you join their group. If you add this application to your Facebook account Outreach International will plant one tree. Earthkeepers Facebook application allows you to plant virtual trees and share seeds with your friends. Each tree grown to adulthood will be planted in the real world to fight deforestation, desertification, and drought. For every 50 people who joins EcoTopia's group they will plant one tree. You can plant a sponsored tree for free, or buy a tree for $1, if you add PlantYourTree.com's application to your Facebook account. Plant-trees.org's application is similar and allows you to buy a tree for $1. Reduce your carbon footprint: With this application from Big Green Switch you can put yours and your Facebook friends' eco-credentials to the test by issuing and completing challenges to reduce your carbon footprints. The Climate Pledge application allows you to "pledge" any number of actions to reduce your contribution to global warming. Then you can invite your friends to do the same, and watch as your total reductions (your pledges, plus all of your recruits) add up. With the MakeMeSustainable Facebook application you can see your impact on a larger scale by tracking both the actions you take to reduce your carbon footprint and your ability to mobilize your community and friends. Other: Help re-green Greensburg! This Facebook application will donate $1 towards replanting the trees in Greensburg if you add it to your account. The We Campaign application lets you earn points from actions you take. For every 10 points you earn a donor will give $1 to help halt global warming. For every 25 people that join this group £1 will be donated to help solve climate change through C&C. Yatrips application makes it easy for you to share rides to the places you want and need to go with your friends and to make new friends, while directly helping to reduce climate change.

Last week the verdict came in the case against the six Greenpeace activists - Ben Stewart, Will Rose, Kevin Drake, Tim Hewke, Huw Williams and Emily Hall - who in October last year performed a protest against the Kingsnorth coal plant in the UK. The six Greenpeace activists tried to shut down the coal plant and paint 'GORDON BIN IT' down the side of the coal plant's chimney. For this they were accused of criminally causing £30,000 ($53,000) worth of damage. But last week the UK Crown Court jury acquitted all six activists which Greenpeace says resulted in a "landmark global warming trial". The jury "found their actions justified when considering the damage to property caused around the world by CO2 emissions from the plant". "The activists admitted trying to shut down the station by occupying the smokestack and painting the world "Gordon" down the chimney, but argued that they were legally justified because they were trying to prevent climate change causing greater damage to property around the world. It was the first case where preventing property damage caused by climate change has been used as part of a "lawful excuse" defence in court. It is now expected to be used widely by environment groups." The accused had helped from, for example, the prominent climate and NASA scientist James Hansen who said that "the 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted daily by Kingsnorth could be responsible for the extinction of up to 400 species" and that humanity was in "grave peril". After the verdict Greenpeace announced that: "This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement. It stands as an example to governments everywhere and an inspiration to people world-wide that they can and should take a stand against coal fired power stations in defence of the climate!" Emily Hall, Greenpeace's communications director and one of the six acquitted, said that "it's time the prime minister stepped in and embraced a clean energy future for Britain." Commentators say the verdict will "embarrass the government and strengthen the anti-coal movement".

The image below shows why offshore drilling won't help to lower energy or gas prices in USA. The data comes from the US Energy Information Administration. The EIA doesn't expect any oil production from offshore drilling until around the year 2017. And that it won’t reach peak production until around 2030, and then it would only produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day (marked in yellow below). "This would supply a meager 1.2% of total US annual oil consumption (just 0.6% of total US energy consumption)". And architecture2030.org, which the chart comes from, concludes that "the offshore oil would be sold back to the US at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a "drop in the bucket", it would be expensive, which translates to "no relief at the pump"." More oil consumption charts: - A Picture is Worth… Gasoline Consumption Per Day

Al Gore and the We Campaign is fighting big oil and their "drill, drill" message with a new TV ad. The new TV ad will be aired on national cable TV, and if they raise enough money they will also air it on 60 Minutes and 20/20 this coming week. "I've been deeply frustrated. I suspect a lot of you have been too. We're facing such huge challenges and all you hear through the media are demagogic chants like "drill, drill, drill." Skyrocketing energy prices. The climate crisis. Unraveling financial markets. Wars that just happen to be in places with a lot of oil. These are all just different faces of exactly the same thing. As I've said in the past, we're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. And every bit of that has to change. We all know what we have to do. Ask anybody on the street and they'll tell you. We need to "Repower America" -- invest in ourselves, here at home, with clean, economical energy technologies that we know work. And be the global leader as these technologies take off around the world. And ask anyone, and they'll also tell you why it isn't happening: the oil and coal lobbies -- and the politicians who do their bidding." Learn about Al Gore's clean renewable energy challenge for USA and why offshore drilling is not the answer to high gas prices. Update: Cathy Zoi, from the We Campaign, just sent out this email: Wow! I just got an update on the number of donations we received from Al Gore's email. I couldn't believe it. Just in the first 6 hours, folks gave more than $150,000 to get our Repower America ad on the air. With your help, we can support a national CNN buy for the next week, too. Will you chip in to keep it on the air? If you want to contribute to the TV ad click here.

In this months issue of the environment magazine Plenty they have listed the top 20 people, 20 businesses, and 10 ideas that will "change our world". "There are game-changers and then there are world-changers. From Internet giants working to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, to a sea captain monitoring the ocean’s plastic waste, to the growth of intentional communities (they’re not just for hippies anymore)—welcome to Plenty’s second annual list honoring (in no particular order) 20 dynamic individuals and 20 pioneering companies that are bettering the planet, plus 10 innovative ideas that will revolutionize how we live." Head over to their site or purchase their latest issue to get bios and explanations on, what they call, the Plenty 20. Here they are, the Plenty 20 people: Al Gore Andrew Revkin Charles Moore David de Rothschild Fred Krupp Frederick Kirschenmann Heidi Cullen James Hansen Joe Lovett Kathleen Sebelius Kevin Wall Lester Brown Maude Barlow Michael Pollan Mindy Lubber Nicholas Negroponte Peter Diamandis Van Jones Vinod Khosla William McDonough & Michael Braungart And here are the Plenty 20 businesses: A123 System Applied Materials Arup Bon Appétit Management Company Coskata Environmental Working Group Forest Stewardship Council Google Home Depot Iberdrola IBM Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Nike Patagonia Pizza Fusion RecycleBank Swiss Re TransFair USA What do you think? Have Plenty chosen the right people? And can a business really be green?