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Green Homes Get Rated on Energy Use

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 08 March 2011 in Green Design

More new homes now will come with energy labels that estimate monthly energy bills, allowing buyers a different way of shopping for homes. The energy labels have been compared to the miles-per-gallon ratings available for cars, which give insight into a car’s fuel efficiency. Likewise, more ...

Gas Prices Go Up, is a Solution in Sight?

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 08 March 2011 in Fossil Fuels

AS THE PRICE OF OIL roars above $100 per barrel and gasoline nears $4 per gallon, a cry for solutions understandably goes up. Higher gas prices amount to a regressive tax increase on the American consumer, with all that implies for the ability of the U.S. and global economies to sustain thei...

The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro?

Posted by plantitfilm on Monday, 07 March 2011 in Climate Change

The first piece of that research, which looked only at the month of July, found that deforestation is changing weather patterns around the mountain but not (at least in July) at the peak, according to Dr. Udaysankar Nair, a research scientist in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center. ...

Hydraulic Fracturing: Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Posted by peter.gephart@gmail.com on Wednesday, 02 March 2011 in Clean Water

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” is a common process used in the extraction of natural gas. This process is necessary to make the wells profitable by increasing yields. However, there is much controversy surrounding the process, which industry experts claim is safe. Oil and gas companies, along w...

China's take on current the Issues with climate talks

Posted by ep-admin on Monday, 28 February 2011 in Sustainable Development

China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, wants rich nations to vow bigger cuts to emissions as part of a new international deal on fighting global warming, Beijing's top climate negotiator said on Tuesday. The negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said he expects "arduous" wrangling about that and oth...

Proposed shark fin ban stirs the pot

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 in Food

State lawmakers on Monday proposed to outlaw the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins that are used in traditional soup, saying it will help protect the fish from extinction, but opponents called it an attack on Chinese culture. Democratic Assemblymen Paul Fong of Sunnyval...

Earth Protect Welcomes Peter Gephart, MAS, As Post-Graduate Associate

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 in General Environment

Peter holds a Master of Applied Science in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver and has an interest in alternative energy and energy efficiency. He is also interested in policy development to bring more alternative energy into the energy mix and develop programs to...

CellPhones Effect And The Human Brain

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 in Human Health

The electromagnetic radiation emitted by a cellular phone's antenna appears to activate nearby regions of the brain to unusually high levels, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. that is likely to spark new concerns about the health effects of wireless ...

A Call for a Coal-Free Future in Washington

Posted by plantitfilm on Monday, 21 February 2011 in Fossil Fuels

On Tuesday of last week more than 500 Washington citizens came together at the state capitol to push for legislative priorities selected by twenty-five leading environmental groups. Washington faces many challenges this year, from protecting waterways from oil pollution to defending environmen...

Youth activists testify at a hearing on the Coal Free Future bill

Find Sustainable Seafood with Seafood Watch

Posted by ep-admin on Saturday, 19 February 2011 in Fishing

Many people eat food without thinking much about it, aside from its taste and its nutritional/caloric value. But there are also people who care about more than that, such as where their food came from and how the animal/creature was captured and killed. Unfortunately, that information isn’t generall...

Image courtesy of Flickr user timpearcelosgatos

New Fishing Hook Can Save Tens of Thousands of Endangered Turtles in the Coral Triangle

Posted by ep-admin on Monday, 14 February 2011 in Fishing

Thousands of endangered marine turtles could be saved in the Coral Triangle region if the fishing industry started using innovative and responsible fishing gear, a WWF analysis shows. Towards the Adoption of Circle Hooks to Reduce Fisheries Bycatch in the Coral Triangle Region makes a strong case f...

EPA's New Proposal for Four Corners Power Plant Cuts More NOx Emissions

Posted by ep-admin on Monday, 14 February 2011 in Air Quality

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a supplemental proposal to reduce emissions from the Four Corners Power Plant. The new proposal will reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from approximately 45,000 tons per year to 5,800 tons per year, 3,200 tons less than EPA’s initial pro...

Coastline of Namibia is Now Designated a National Park

Posted by ep-admin on Saturday, 12 February 2011 in Agriculture

The Namib-Skeleton Coast National Park covers 26.6 million acres, making it larger than Portugal. It stretches for 976 miles (1,570km), from the Kunene River, at the northern border with Angola, to the Orange River, on the border with South Africa, and is expected to be promoted as a unified de...

Clean Air Act Under Attack by your Government

Posted by ep-admin on Wednesday, 09 February 2011 in Air Quality

Congressional Republicans are vowing to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using the Clean Air Act to control pollution that contributes to global warming, underscoring the threat with a proposed deep cut to the agency's budget. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chair of a House subco...

Day of Direct Action Against Extraction: April 20th

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 08 February 2011 in Oil Spill

Take Action for the Earth and our Communities April 20.1 year anniversary of the BP Oil Spill The BP oil spill was unfortunately just one of an endless string of disasters born of an economic system that must endlessly consume the Earth’s resources.Extraction is the act of taking without givi...

Dirtying the Clean Air Act

Posted by davebishop on Tuesday, 08 February 2011 in Air Quality

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Feb. 6: Conservatives have been attacking the Clean Air Act since its passage in 1970, continually claiming that federal efforts to fight air pollution would wreak economic ruin. As congressional Republicans prepare to...

Is Al Gore is right about snow and climate change?

Posted by ep-admin on Thursday, 03 February 2011 in Climate Change

Even if Americans were more knowledgeable about the science of climate change, they’d have difficulty understanding the connection between a winter of extreme weather and a warming planet. A giant cold front has much of the country locked down under bitter cold and brought Chicago the most s...

Extreme Winter Killed Global Warming?

Posted by ep-admin on Wednesday, 02 February 2011 in Climate Change

The extremely cold and snowy winter of 2010-2011 may be challenging the core case of global warming. The earth is warming, the greenhouse gases are rising, and the oceans are rising… Right? This is a long-lasting debate that stirs extreme emotion from both sides of the political ...

Brazil beats US in climate change awareness

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 01 February 2011 in Climate Change

[RIO DE JANEIRO] Almost 80 per cent of Brazilians think global warming is caused by human activities, a survey has found, compared with less than half of Americans and around 70 per cent of Britons according to similar recent surveys. Around 90 per cent of Brazilians believe that global w...

Arctic Waters Warmer Than 2,000 Years

Posted by ep-admin on Monday, 31 January 2011 in Climate Change

Water flowing from the North Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean is warmer today than at any time in the past 2,000 years, a new study shows. The waters of the Fram Strait, which runs between Greenland and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, have warmed roughly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 1...

A research vessel moving through the Fram Strait northeast of Svalbard.