PUBLIC MARKS from multilinko with tag environment

"It appears that sails could return to the ocean's freighters soon. Newsweek is reporting on a technology to assist with cross-ocean travel. From the article: 'SkySails' system consists of an enormous towing kite and navigation software that can map the best route between two points for maximum wind efficiency. In development for more than four years, the system costs from roughly $380,000 to $3.2 million, depending on the size of the ship it's pulling. SkySails claims it will save one third of fuel costs.'"

Renewable energy is plentiful energy. Burning fossil fuels is a filthy habit, and the supply won't last forever. Fortunately, a growing number of renewable alternatives promise clean, inexhaustible power: wind turbines, solar arrays, wave-power flotillas, small hydroelectric generators, geothermal systems, even bioengineered algae that turn waste into hydrogen. The challenge is to scale up these technologies to deliver power in industrial quantities - exactly the kind of challenge brilliant businesspeople love. Efficiency creates value. The number one US industrial product is waste. Waste is worse than stupid; it's costly, which is why we're seeing businesspeople in every sector getting a jump on the competition by consuming less water, power, and materials. What's true for industry is true at home, too: Think well-insulated houses full of natural light, cars that sip instead of guzzle, appliances that pay for themselves in energy savings. Cities beat suburbs. Manhattanites use less energy than most people in North America. Sprawl eats land and snarls traffic. Building homes close together is a more efficient use of space and infrastructure. It also encourages walking, promotes public transit, and fosters community. Quality is wealth. More is not better. Better is better. You don't need a bigger house; you need a different floor plan. You don't need more stuff; you need stuff you'll actually use. Ecofriendly designs and nontoxic materials already exist, and there's plenty of room for innovation. You may pay more for things like long-lasting, energy-efficient LED lightbulbs, but they'll save real money over the long term.

A scientist with Environment Canada was ordered not to launch his global warming-themed novel Thursday at the same time the Conservative government was quietly axing a number of Kyoto programs.

Canada has experienced its warmest winter since modern record-keeping began, with average temperatures 3.9 degrees above normal and all regions of the country basking in abnormal mildness, according to preliminary figures compiled by Environment Canada. The biggest departure from typical winter weather was in the area where Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories converge. Temperatures there were a staggering eight degrees warmer than normal. But other notable warm spots included the entire Prairie region, where temperatures were five to seven degrees above average, and southern British Columbia. In addition, temperatures were so warm in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed that the Great Lakes were ice-free in the middle of the winter.

BBC News is reporting that while many are calling for nuclear power, new nuclear plants are not the answer to combating climate changes or the wavering energy concerns for the UK. From the article: "The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) report says doubling nuclear capacity would make only a small impact on reducing carbon emissions by 2035. The body, which advises the government on the environment, says this must be set against the potential risks.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Conference for the World Council of Churches condemned the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday for "raining down terror" on helpless Iraqis, and criticized Washington's policies on the environment and poverty. "We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," the Conference said in an emotional letter released during the World Council of Churches Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The World Council of Churches represents Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and other Christian churches in more than 100 countries. The statement from the U.S. group accused the Bush administration of "raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors," saying the United States "has done much in these years to endanger the human family." It said the U.S. government turned a deaf ear to the voice of the church in the country and in the world, using God's name instead "in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous."

It's the fabled Gulf Stream. Traveled by whalers and sailors for centuries but never accurately charted until it aroused the curiosity of none other than Benjamin Franklin, the current has emerged in the last decade as a focal point for scientists studying global climate change. The concerns about the state of the ocean today run so deep that an unprecedented international effort is underway from the Straits of Florida to Greenland to track changes in the North Atlantic. And the Gulf Stream is a narrow but critical piece of the larger system: It moves warm surface water from the tropics toward the North Pole and pumps cold water back toward the equator in a deep-sea current -- a mechanism scientists have come to call the North Atlantic ``conveyor belt.'' Scientists believe if the Gulf Stream were to slow or take a more southerly route, the change could disrupt the system and the world's weather. Over time -- how much time is a key uncertainty in the theory -- the North Atlantic could cool, turning Europe and eastern North America colder as the rest of the world heated up.

The ocean current that gives western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini ice age. The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream. The slow-down, which has long been predicted as a possible consequence of global warming, will give renewed urgency to intergovernmental talks in Montreal, Canada, this week on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Ontario's government awarded C$2 billion ($1.7 billion) in contracts to build wind and hydro power projects on Monday in an effort to have 10 percent of electricity in Canada's biggest market generated by renewable sources. Ontario Energy Minister Donna Cansfield said she had granted awards for eight wind facilities and one hydroelectric development, which will supply a total of 975 megawatts, enough to power more than 250,000 homes. The awards come in response to a request for proposals for 1,000 MW, issued in April 2004.

The pair dubbed their idea the 100 Mile Diet and vowed, for one year, to eat only foods grown within a 100-mile (160-kilometre) radius of their Kitsilano home. And to hold themselves to it, they decided to go public with their experiment. The couple, both professional writers, have turned their dietary experience into a diary published by The Tyee, a B.C. on-line magazine at http://www.thetyee.ca, and their experiences have turned into an Internet phenomenon of sorts.

America has embraced air conditioning with a vengeance. If it's like a warm soup outside, the inside of cinemas and trains and stores is chilled to the point of discomfort. Air conditioning in America seems like a necessity.

The Chinese ... have commissioned McDonough's company to create an environmentally sustainable village as a pilot project for the more ambitious idea of sustainable cities. McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart have also written a book on the subject, Cradle to Cradle, previously reviewed here on Slashdot.

Balancing Act provides an overview of the Australian economy using a set of ten environmental, social, and financial indicators. The environmental indicators are water use, land disturbance, greenhouse emissions and energy use; the social indicators are employment, government revenue and income; and the financial indicators are operating surplus (or profits), exports and imports.