Global Warming Issues

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials issued an air pollution advisory that the levels of ozone pollution at the Park are have reached a level that poses a threat to the health of Park visitors and are expected to remain high throughout the day and tomorrow as well they advise that visitors may wish to refrain from strenuous outdoor activities while this condition is in effect for the remainder of today and tonight. People with respiratory problems, especially, should limit their outdoor activity.

Read more…

Hahnville football coach Lou Valdin now believes the grass is greener on the other side.

When Valdin sank his coaching shoes into the synthetic turf of the Superdome during the 2003 5A state championship game, the natural surface at Hahnville’s stadium didn’t look so appealing..

“When we saw the way that turf was and that you could use grass shoes on it, we began thinking about what it would be like to have it” at Hahnville, Valdin said.

Read more…

Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state.

The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running.

Read more…

Gray wolves in the greater Yellowstone area of the northern Rocky Mountains, which would have been fair game for hunters in three states as a result of a federal government decision in March, were again put under the protections of the Endangered Species Act by a judge in Montana on Friday.

Read more…

Working aboard research vessels in the Atlantic, scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels.

They found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms. This allows them to use organic or ‘recycled’ material from dead or decaying plants when nutrients such as phosphorous – an essential component of DNA – in the ocean are low.

Read more…

Vehicle costs are high, and the U.S. currently lacks the infrastructure to produce and widely distribute hydrogen to consumers. These obstacles could be overcome, however, with continued support for research and development and firm commitments from the automotive industry and the federal government, concluded the committee that wrote the report.

Light-duty vehicles, such as cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks, are responsible for 44 percent of the oil used in the United States and over 20 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted. Concerns over climate change, oil imports, and recent spikes in gasoline prices have spurred interest in the development of alternative fuels. In 2003, President Bush announced a $1.2 billion initiative to encourage development of hydrogen production technology and fuel cell vehicles, which are powered through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen and emit only water and heat as exhaust.

Read more…

Etobicoke and Oakville should be considered as possible sites for a new gas-fired power plant, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion says, arguing her municipality has shouldered its fair share of the burden of supplying electricity in the province.

“I think everybody should be (considered) because Mississauga already has one. If you’re going to spread it around then Etobicoke and Oakville should take their share,” she said yesterday.

Read more…

“It certainly caused an extinction of several species in the marine environment,” said University of Alberta Earth and Atmospheric Science researcher Steven Turgeon. “It wasn’t as big as what killed off the dinosaurs, but it was what we call an extreme event in the Earth’s history, something that doesn’t happen very often.”

U of A scientists Turgeon and Robert Creaser say the lava fountains that erupted altered the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.

Read more…