In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual energy savings of at least 660 trillion BTUs, which equals the amount of energy used in 6 million households annually. In 2005, recycling is conservatively projected to save 900 trillion BTUs, equal to the annual energy use of 9 million households.

What effects do waste prevention and recycling have on global warming?

What materials are most commonly recycled in the United States through collection programs? US recycling rates for commonly recycled consumer goods in 2006 are listed below: Newspapers: 87.9% Corrugated Cardboard Boxes: 72.0% Steel Cans: 62.9% Yard Trimmings: 62.0% Aluminum Beer and Soft Drink Cans: 45.1% Magazines: 40.5% Tires: 34.9% Plastic HDPE Milk and Water Bottles: 31.0% Plastic Soft Drink Bottles: 30.9% Glass Containers: 25.3% EPA's annually updated report, Municipal Solid Waste in the US: 2006 Facts and Figures, describes the national MSW stream based on data collected since 1960. The historical perspective provided is useful for establishing trends in the types of MSW generated and the ways in which it is managed.

In addition to having high global warming potentials, SF6 and PFCs have extremely long atmospheric lifetimes, resulting in their essentially irreversible accumulation in the atmosphere once emitted (see below).

The definition of a GWP for a particular greenhouse gas is the ratio of heat trapped by one unit mass of the greenhouse gas to that of one unit mass of CO2 over a specified time period.

While the most current estimates for GWPs are listed in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (TAR), EPA analyses use the 100-year GWPs listed in the IPCC's Second Assessment Report (SAR) to be consistent with the international standards under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (IPCC, 1996

In 2005, the weighted average combined fuel economy of cars and light trucks combined was 19.7 miles per gallon (FHWA 2006).

The average vehicle miles traveled in 2005 was 11,856 miles per year.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA brings you a day-long broadcast from the largest teach-in in US history, from the campus of San Francisco State University.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA continues its day-long broadcast from the campus of San Francisco State University. Focus the Nation is the largest teach-in in US history.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA continues its day-long broadcast from the campus of San Francisco State University. Focus the Nation is the largest teach-in in US history

The state of California is implementing an even more restrictive standard in 2004, allowing only 0.006 grams per kilometer [0.01 grams per mile] of particulate emissions.

Even if the California standard were introduced worldwide, says Jacobson, diesel cars may still warm the climate more than gasoline cars over 13 to 54 years.

Jacobson says that new particle traps being introduced by some European automobile manufacturers in their diesel cars appear to reduce black carbon emissions to 0.003 grams per kilometer [0.005 grams per mile], even below the California standard.

a decade-long partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Designing a Customized Greenhouse Gas Calculation Tool

The GHG Protocol provides the accounting framework for nearly every GHG standard and program in the world - from the International Standards Organization to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to the California Climate Registry - as well as hundreds of GHG inventories prepared by individual companies.

Despite the US government’s opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, California, New York and New Jersey embraced carbon trading Tuesday as they joined European governments, Canadian provinces, and New Zealand to launch a forum known as the International Carbon Action Partnership.

Many plants have been the source for medicine that cures disease. Take the rosy periwinkle, which is native to Madigascar. Before its properties were discovered, only 10 percent of children with leukemia lived. But from the plant, scientists created a compound that helped increase the survival rate. "With the compound, the rate has now gone up to 95 percent,” Raven says. “Who knows what else is out there in nature's pharmacy.”

"We will have 10 percent of the world’s seeds by 2010 and we would like to go on and have a quarter of the world’s species by 2020,” says Paul Smith, director of the Millennium Seed Bank Project.

One in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 are used for food, especially in developing countries.

Landfilling, the most common waste management practice, results in the release of methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials. Methane is 21 times more potent a GHG than carbon dioxide. However, landfill methane is also a source of energy, and some landfills capture and use it for energy. In addition, many materials in landfills do not decompose fully, and the carbon that remains is sequestered in the landfill and not released into the atmosphere.

The image above illustrates the four main stages of product life-cycles, all of which provide opportunities for GHG emissions and/or offsets. These stages are: raw material acquisition, manufacturing, recycling, and waste management.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.                                                                                                                         --Frederick Douglass 1857

on September 4th, give up food for a day, And Send a powerful message on global warming.

Register for the fast>> Find a faster near you>> ESSAY: No Time for Activism as Usual>>

Last day to apply: June 11, 2007

The successful candidate will have the solid quantitative and software skills needed to manage and conduct Ecological Footprint assessment projects, such as the Footprint of business operations, and to develop Footprint modeling applications, such as calculators, for both stand-alone and web-based platforms

The 12 tipping points are: 1. Amazon Rainforest 2. North Atlantic Current 3. Greenland Ice Sheet 4. Ozone Hole 5. Antarctic Circumpolar Current 6. Sahara Desert 7. Tibetan Plateau 8. Asian Monsoon 9. Methane Clathrates 10. Salinity Valves 11. El Nino 12. West Antarctic Ice Sheet

A 2005 study by Anthony Leiserowitz, published in Risk Analysis, found that while most Americans are moderately concerned about global warming, the majority—68 percent—believe the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature. Only 13 percent perceive any real risk to themselves, their families, or their communities. As Leiserowitz points out, this perception is critical, since Americans constitute only 5 percent of the global population yet produce nearly 25 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions.

12 ASTEROIDS AND EVOLVING INTO WISDOM IN 2004, JOHN SCHELLNHUBER, distinguished science adviser at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, identified 12 global-warming tipping points, any one of which, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden, catastrophic changes across the planet. Odds are you've never heard of most of these tipping points, even though your entire genetic legacy—your children, your grandchildren, and beyond—may survive or not depending on their status.

Also, every gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel burned releases about 22 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2), the major pollutant causing global warming.

The Second City's green-roofs program is second to none, with more than 2.5 million square feet devoted to providing cooling and insulating cover.

CHICAGO population 2,862,244

The first major city to tackle global warming, Portland creates less greenhouse gases than it did 15 years ago, while saving $2 million annually on city energy bills--and attracting new business with its efficiency expertise.

What is happening here is a vision that many in rural America see as their salvation: high-performance moonshine from amber fields of grain, and a “grass station” in every town. It may be a chimera. It may drain precious water from the arid plains and produce less energy that it uses. But it has the undeniable power of an idea in ascendancy.

The vision of a decentralized ethanol industry is taking shape, albeit an industry aided by tax breaks and government mandates. There are now 113 American ethanol plants and an additional 77 under construction, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, the industry trade group. Most of them are right in the middle of the Farm Belt, in counties that have been losing people since the Depression.

Archer Daniels Midland, once the dominant force, is less of a player, controlling about 22 percent of the market. But roughly 40 percent of the new biorefineries are locally owned, representing the sweat and capital of farmers, retired schoolteachers and small-town bankers.

Call it the networked environment. Picture tiny - we're talking small as a dime - wireless sensors lining lake beds and ocean floors, buried in the ground, and floating in the sky. All the time they are sniffing the air, water, and soil for pollutants and detecting changes in temperature and pressure.

The payoff: real-time data on a variety of phenomena that affect the economy and society - climate change, hurricanes, air and water pollution.