The earth clock is a real time global vital stats counter that has some interesting (and pretty scary) stats such as amount of oil remaining, co2 emissions and a range of other information. Well worth a visit for putting things into perspective.

Green resolutions for the upcoming year, beginning on October 15, 2007: Blog Action Day

1) Unplug unused appliances
2) Install a solar hot water heater
3) Compost kitchen scraps
4) Grow more vegetables and fruit

Shutdownday.org challenges people to shut their computers down for one day on Saturday 24th of March 2007. Can you go 24 hours without your computer? The site so far has had over 20,000 people registering with an “I can” vote. If it has been a while since you’ve spent a day without your computer maybe this challenge is for you.

There is an article on CNN about vinyl lunchboxes. A study has found that one in five lunchboxes contain unacceptable amounts of lead. As you may already know lead exposure in children can lead to learning disabilities, behavioral problems, stunted or slowed growth amongst other things. There are already a fair few sources of lead in our environment but at least luckily this is one source of lead that is easily avoided by using a different type of lunch box (perhaps one made of cloth?)

via Parenthacks

There is a pretty sobering doumentary here about a phenomenon called global dimming. It’s caused by the pollution particles sent into the air lessening the amount of the sun’s energy that is reaching us. Basically it has slowed down the effects of global warming. While this may sound like a good thing it naturally isn’t, in the sense that it has caused a great deal of problems (such as the drought in Africa) and perhaps has made us feel as if global warming’s effects are further into the future then they really are.
You can watch the documentary here.

Beware of two things, one is that it is 50 minutes long so you need some spare time. The second warning is that there is a rather gruesome scene within the first two minutes so listen to the documentary with your eyes closed for the first few minutes if you don’t want to see it.

Sanyo in Japan has announced the world’s first washing machine which not only offers a waterless air wash to replace having to send clothes to the dry cleaners but it also recycles water when you are using it’s water cycle. The super washing machine also dries clothes and kills bacteria.

With ‘AQUA’, which is the world’s first*1 washer/dryer to utilize ozone, which enables ‘reduction of water’ and ‘recycling of water’, SANYO has broken away from conventional thinking and is offering a completely new cleaning technology.

Aqua via The Sietch Blog

This article on Celsias reports on the weird weather patterns seen all over the world in 2006 including the three days of winter (with snow) in the middle of summer in Melbourne last month. The author concludes with:

As the heat is turned up, the social and economic knock-on effects of these weather extremes will bring extreme reactions from the societies most effected by them. Rather than the century of peace people hoped for, expect a very rough ride.

Carbon dioxide emissions, the biggest cause of global warming, are now rising at more than 2 percent a year. The longer measures to reduce carbon emissions are postponed the more drastic those measures will need to be.

With 2007 predicted to be our hottest year yet there are grave fears for the polar bear who live only in the Arctic and whos habitat is dissappearing at a rate of a million square miles a year with much shorter cold seasons.

Polar bears are likely to be given extra protection under US law as a ‘threatened’ species, however the best protection these animals (and many others) can have is from all of us reducing our carbon emissions.

Next time you leave a light burning unnecessarily, think about the polar bears. The next time you buy a product, look at its energy efficiency and think about the polar bears. And next time a politician isn’t crystal clear that the planet has a problem that needs fixing, vote with your paw.

Source Greenpeace