Rare Conservation Links

"Eating outside of your home generally requires three things: food, food containers, and food utensils. For the majority of Americans, oil is involved in all three of these components. Food, especially processed food, requires tremendous amounts of oil to grow, process, and transport it. The plastic food containers we use are made from oil. Likewise, the great majority of our disposable forks, spoons, and knives are made from petroleum-based plastics."

"If climate-change researchers sound alarmist, it's only because they're alarmed."

"US Climate Envoy Todd Stern downplays hopes for a binding legal treaty in 2010. Instead, look for "strong progress be made" and "pragmatic steps" to be taken this year."

"US Climate Envoy Todd Stern downplays hopes for a binding legal treaty in 2010. Instead, look for "strong progress be made" and "pragmatic steps" to be taken this year."

E-Waste is a huge problem. Maybe this will help set up some standards with the disposal of E-Waste.

Views on how the fight over climate certainty has distracted from the reality of a building risk.

VP for smart grid technology Abrey Braz of Con Edison in New York explains his company's test pilot program in Queens, linking homes to a test smart grid. Utilities are working on building out the smart grid, with help from Obama stimulus money.

"The Pentagon released (1 February 2010), its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for 2010 [PDF] , stating that crafting a strategic approach to climate and energy are a priority. The QDR states, "Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment. Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked.""

"Few places are as well suited for large-scale solar projects as California's Mojave Desert. But as mainstream environmental organizations push plans to turn the desert into a center for renewable energy, some green groups - concerned about spoiling this iconic Western landscape - are standing up to oppose them."

"The Indonesian government has announced plans to sell tigers as pets for £67,000 a pair in what it claims is a move to protect the critically endangered species."

Photo via DC Streets Blog The Obama administration formally made its pledge to reduce emissions in the United States 17% below 2005 by 2020 levels yesterday. This is in accordance to the pledge he put forth at the Copenhagen.

Conservationists called the 13-nation agreement an important step in protecting the wild cats, whose numbers have plummeted in recent decades as human encroachment has eliminated more than nine-tenths of their habitat. Experts say there are fewer than 3,500 wild tigers today, compared to an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. Hailing the agreement, Michael Baltzer, head of the WWF Tiger Initiative, said "There never has been a high-level government commitment to take forward tiger conservation."

"Some companies will pay you money for that old cellphone or iPod."

A frightened, shivering dog was rescued after floating 75 miles (120 kilometers) on an ice floe down Poland's Vistula River and into the Baltic Sea, officials said Thursday.

"The 2000-2009 decade was the warmest on record, easily surpassing the previous hottest decade - the 1990s - U.S. government researchers report."

"Today, Target became the first major US retailer to stop selling farmed salmon products! Salmon consumption in the United States is a huge market for retailers. Aquaculture (farming fish) is often called the future of the seafood industry, but some types of aquaculture - such as conventional open-net salmon farming - can cause tremendous damage to the environment. Parasite infestations, concentrated fish waste, the uncontrolled spread of genetic material, and the unsustainable use of wild fish to feed farmed animals all pose significant threats to the sanctity of our marine ecosystems."

"Tigers in the Greater Mekong region are facing extinction, their numbers down more than 70 percent in slightly more than a decade due to poachers and habitat destruction."

"In an interview, Bill Gates tells CNET's Ina Fried that the poor need a carbon-neutral energy source even more than the rich, as they are feeling the brunt of high energy prices and the effects of climate change."

"Great news coming out of Beijing: The horrific air pollution there has inspired the local government to implement a slew of great reforms and initiatives to get people out of their cars, and onto their bikes. Biking in China is back!"