Last month when American Airlines flew its pampered pentad of passengers from Chicago to London, the carbon footprint left by burning 22,000 gallons of fuel during a virtually empty flight more resembled a carbon foot in Mother Nature's ass.
Environmentalists flew, presumably fossil fuel-free, through the roof. Defenders of the industry loudly countered by pointing out the harsh pragmatics of airline scheduling. Others, sensing opportunity, derided the likes of Al Gore and similar activists for hypocritically jet-setting across the globe to deliver messages of environmental responsibility.
American Airlines, which lost about $60,000 on the much-maligned voyage, won’t have to worry about such fiascos starting at the end of this month. On March 30, the Open Skies agreement takes effect, allowing any US and EU airline to make transatlantic flights between all destinations on both sides of the pond. London’s Heathrow airport will be opened for full competition from foreign carriers with an expected monthly increase of 524 flights to the States as well as 5,853 new trips throughout Europe. Until mankind builds the first trans-oceanic bike path, we’re going to have untold millions more tons of CO2 floating around the friendly skies.
Everyone knows chipmunks need their sleep — otherwise they get ornery and attack you in local parks. Oh, and they're also more likely to die.
Global warming, it seems, has shortened the hibernation period for animals like bears, marmots and chipmunks like Mr. Cutie Pants over there. But it leads to more than animals just getting crankier: They wake up earlier thinking it's spring, but the food sources often haven't caught up, and the animals starve. So much for the early-bird-gets-the-worm theory; it's more like "the early bird gets the shaft."
Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological lab have checked up on marmot hibernation behavior since the 1970s, and because temperatures have risen by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit in recent times, they've seen the marmots awaken from their dens about a month earlier.
Because of the temperature change, some animals don't hibernate at all. Brown bears in Spain skipped out on hibernation as did chipmunks in the U.S., and while the bears didn't take much of a population hit, many early-rising chipmunks starved or got chomped by predators.
Villagers in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains have practiced "glacier growing" for centuries, according to local legend. Historically, snowmelt often hasn't provided enough water for crops or humans in the dry, high-altitude regions, so growing glaciers became crucial to survival. How did they do it? By combining "male" and "female" glaciers to grow the glaciers larger.
Before you laugh at what sounds like old-world witchcraft, consider this: Researcher Ingvar Tveiten from the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences seems to support the locals' methods of glacier farming. While only a few villages still have glacier-growing elders, if Tveiten can refine and disseminate these techniques for glacier growing, it could go a long way to alleviating problems caused by population growth and glacier retreat in the poverty-plagued mountains of Central Asia.
So how does it work? Local tradition believes that there are two types of glaciers: "male" glaciers are covered in soil or stones and move hardly if at all, while "female" glaciers are whiter, grow faster and yield more water. Tradition also dictates that in order to grow a glacier, you need equal amounts of both types of glaciers — just like the birds and the bees, only colder.
China won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics after overcoming political worries, environmental concerns and a knockdown-drag-out fight with Paris. China declared of Paris that "certain urban areas leave something to be desired when it comes to cleanliness. In particular, errant dogs and rabid dogs are increasingly numerous." Claude Bebear, the head of the Paris Olympic bid committee, shot back with "dogs are dogs...they do the same thing everywhere... It's just that there are no dogs in China - because they eat them." BURN!
So after that flame war, there's no way in hell China's going to let a little thing like water ruin the opening-day festivities: They've had some success in preventing light rain, as we've previously reported.
But at the same time that China is attempting to stop H2O from falling from the sky, they've also constructed a groundbreaking structure inspired by water bubbles (pictured above). The Beijing National Aquatics Center, or Water Cube, as it's affectionately called, is covered in 100,000 square meters of iridescent, Teflon-like plastic called ETFE. ETFE is only 0.08 of an inch think, but it can hold up to 300 times its weight. The Water Cube is said to mimic nature's way of filling space most efficiently — with bubbles — while also absorbing solar heat to warm the building and the pool. It's said to be one of the most sustainable buildings in the increasingly environmentally-aware China, who want to look good for the world come August.
Most people have gone through 5-17 cell phones in the relatively short span of the gadget's ubiquity. But what happens to your crap-ass Chocolate when you trade up for an iPhone? If you're like most people, it usually sits in a drawer, gets tossed in the trash, or awaits use as a convenient projectile weapon.
But here's what could happen to your old cell phone:
Independent, Austin-based inventor Mike Brickley set out to create an engine that connects the pistons to each other and the crankshaft in a more efficient manner. He claims that the friction reduction gained by his design improves fuel efficiency by 15-20 percent and reduces CO2 emissions by 15-20 percent. Overall engine friction is reduced by as much as 35 percent. With this loss in friction, Brickley says his engine turns "energy normally lost in heat into useful work. With petroleum prices increasing and global warming on the rise, there is an urgent need for us to provide a more efficient, less polluting internal combustion engine."
I don't know: To my eyes, I see plenty of friction and heat going on, if you know what I mean. But perhaps I'm just deeply perverted...yes, yes I am.
It's rare that you see evolution in action — the only time I've seen it happen is when I evolved larger muscles to fend off all the ladies who find me immensely attractive. What, are you calling me a liar? Fair enough.
Typically, the largest tusks belong on the largest elephants, who use those gigantor tusks to intimidate other males and become successful with females. But with the largest animals getting killed for their tusks, the little guy gets a better chance with the ladies, and thusly his offspring have smaller and smaller tusks.
One of the most critical questions of global warming: how fast will sea levels rise? It’s a question the experts are eager to find answer for, as the rate at which some glaciers are melting away into the ocean has already doubled, far out pacing former estimates.
These videos animate one scary potential effect of climate change -- rising sea levels.
Lonnie Johnson is a nuclear engineer who's worked as Acting Chief of the Space Nuclear Power Safety Section at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Senior Systems Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and formed the energy research firms Excellatron Solid State and Johnson Electro-Mechanical Systems. But his most important contribution to society thus far is the Super Soaker, an all-purpose weapon for watery destruction, in any season. I bet life and limb on my Super Soaker many a summer, and along with a fannypack full of water balloons, it helped me survive the Great Water War in the jungles of Spring, TX back in '87.
A new xenith in audio slideshows: Photographer Chang W. Lee and cellist Zoe Keating have collaborated to produce a work of art from, of all things, the overwhelming industrial pollution engulfing China.
I've always had it in for UPS -- they've trashed my packages and wriggled out of paying me insurance more times than I care to count. So what if it was "contraband;" I still expect them to get it to the Thai smuggling ring on time and in one piece.
But I may have to rethink my position: Efficiency experts at UPS have virtually eliminated left-hand turns from all their drivers' routes. It sounds coo-coo bananas, but the practice has cut 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, thereby saving three million gallons of gas and reducing their CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons. UPS used a "package flow" software program to optimize left-hand turn usage. Turns out all that sitting in the left lane, idling the engine and waiting to turn adds up when you factor in a fleet of 95,000 trucks.
In order to sustain the national chav population's insatiable desire for fish n' chips, Britain plans to petition the EU and demand the right to catch more cod, a notoriously embattled plonker of a species that already seems destined for the bin.
Wanker environmentalists are naturally less than chuffed.
Rising gas prices are biting everyone in the ass — I initially tried to save costs by diluting my gas with chocolate milk, but my well-tested hypothesis (if: chocolate milk makes me happy, then: chocolate milk makes cars happy) didn't work out so well in the real world.
Luckily, Slate's Brendan I. Koerner explains in his column "The Green Lantern" how a diligent stick-shift driver can improve gas mileage and reduce their carbon footprint by as much as 15 percent. These techniques are collectively called hypermiling, a term which I plan to now sprinkle liberally throughout my cocktail-party conversations because it sounds ultra-cool.
Everyone knows chipmunks need their sleep — otherwise they get ornery and attack you in local parks. Oh, and they're also more likely to die.
Villagers in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains have practiced "glacier growing" for centuries, according to local legend. Historically, snowmelt often hasn't provided enough water for crops or humans in the dry, high-altitude regions, so growing glaciers became crucial to survival. How did they do it? By combining "male" and "female" glaciers to grow the glaciers larger.
China won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics after overcoming political worries, environmental concerns and a 
I've always had it in for UPS -- they've trashed my packages and wriggled out of paying me insurance more times than I care to count. So what if it was "contraband;" I still expect them to get it to the Thai smuggling ring on time and in one piece.
In order to sustain the national 
Rising gas prices are biting everyone in the ass — I initially tried to save costs by diluting my gas with chocolate milk, but my well-tested hypothesis (if: chocolate milk makes me happy, then: chocolate milk makes cars happy) didn't work out so well in the real world.
