Clipmarks | JICWyllie's clips

Butterflies fight losing battle with climate change

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:40:37 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Butterflies are declining because they have become trapped in small pockets of countryside, unable to escape the effects of climate change,

the break-up of suitable butterfly habitats by urban spread and agriculture is driving the "staggering" declines.

Britain has seen some of the greatest losses of butterfly diversity in Europe.

This is because the heavy fragmentation of their habitats means they have too far to fly before reaching another suitable area of countryside.

Speaking before the conference, Dr Wilson warned that butterflies could be an early indicator of the fate in store for other insects, animals and plants as the climate warms. British temperatures have risen by between 1C and 1.5C since the 1970s.

Tags: environment, insects, i-climate change, i-extinction, i-risks, i-increase

Dutch sabotage agent recalled from Iran over “impending” US attack - report

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:58:41 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Two indicators of an attack in the last couple of days ... Will it be before or after Christmas with George WS doing the dirty work for his successor.

Clip Source: www.debka.com

A Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas, known for his good intelligence contacts, in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The AIVD operation aimed to infiltrate and sabotage the weapons [and nuclear] industry in the Islamic Republic.

According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] was expected to make a decision within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft, used to avoid risking the lives of air crews and warplanes.

necessary in Israel’s case to hold its air fleet and flight crews ready to defend the country against reprisal from Iran’s allies. Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah have stockpiled thousands of rockets for this purpose.

Tags: politics, i-policy, i-war, i-attack, i-forecast

Per capita US military energy consumption

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:32:50 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: energybulletin.net

We all know that energy consumption per capita in the U.S. is amongst the highest in the world. To be precise, per capita energy consumption in the U.S. is 337 million Btu per year per resident. How much is the DoD’s? Well, 25 per cent more than the U.S. average, or 422 million Btu per person.

The DoD energy consumption and oil consumption per capita follows more or less the same path? Why? Because oil accounts for 78% of the DoD energy consumption. That simple.

I wrote it here million times and I repeat again, if the DoD wants to reduce its energy consumption it has to concentrate on oil consumption by tactical vehicles and stop wasting money for the gadget projects,

How much is then the US military oil consumption per capita compared to the US oil consumption per capita? Remember that per capita oil consumption in the US is verrryy high. In 2007, it was 25 barrels (per year) per person. How about the U.S. military? Only 59 barrels per DoD employee

Tags: energy, oil, i-demand, i-defense

China's Cars, Accelerating A Global Demand for Fuel

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:19:06 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: The only hope is that the Chinese will learn faster than Americans and Europeans did, that big cars are inappropriate status symbols.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

"In China, size matters," says Zhang, the 44-year-old founder of a media and graphic design company. "People want to have a car that shows off their status in society. No one wants to buy small."

Zhang grasps the wheels of his Hummer, called "hanma" or "fierce horse" in Chinese, and hits the accelerator.

Car ownership in China is exploding, and it's not only cars but also sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks and other gas-guzzling rides. Elsewhere in the world, the popularity of these vehicles has tumbled as the cost of oil has soared. But in China, the number of SUVs sold rose 43 percent in May compared with the previous year, and full-size sedans were up 15 percent. Indeed, China's demand for gas is much of the reason for the dramatic run-up in global oil prices.

China alone accounts for about 40 percent of the world's recent increase in demand for oil, burning through twice as much now as it did a decade ago.

Tags: energy, oil, i-demand, i-increase, i-accelleration, i-record

Climate pain ahead for folk in the 'kidney stone belt'

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:51:47 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

Kidney stones will strike up to 2.25 million more Americans per year by 2050 because of temperature increases, research suggests.

"We're certain that climate change will continue and increase, and we're equally certain that increased temperatures will lead to increased kidney stone formation," says Tom Brikowski, a hydrologist at the University of Texas, Dallas.

The team hasn't yet crunched the numbers for the rest of the world, but Asians and Eastern Europeans, in particular, could be in for a painful future, Brikowski says.

"This may be an underestimate based on what we know," says Paul Epstein, of the Harvard Medical School. Brikowski's projections are "based on mean annual temperature, and we know that the extremes, Iike heat waves, could play an even more severe role."

Tags: environment, i-climate change, i-health, i-consequences

OPEC 2.0

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:06:01 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

AMERICANS today spend almost as much on bandwidth — the capacity to move information — as we do on energy. A family of four likely spends several hundred dollars a month on cellphones, cable television and Internet connections, which is about what we spend on gas and heating oil.

Like energy, bandwidth is an essential economic input.

A future possibility is to buy your own fiber, the way you might buy a solar panel for your home.

The solution is to relax the overregulation of the airwaves and allow use of the wasted spaces. Anyone, so long as he or she complies with a few basic rules to avoid interference, could try to build a better Wi-Fi and become a broadband billionaire. These wireless entrepreneurs could one day liberate us from wires, cables and rising prices.

Americans are as addicted to bandwidth as they are to oil. The first step is facing the problem.

Tags: technology, internet, i-bandwidth, i-prices, i-policy, i-deregulation

Suicide Spreads as One Solution to the Debt Crisis

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:24:54 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to debt. James Scurlock's brilliant documentary, Maxed Out, features the families of two college students who killed themselves after being overwhelmed by credit card debt.

India may be the trend-setter here, with an estimated 150,000 debt-ridden farmers succumbing to suicide since 1997. With guns in short supply in rural India, the desperate farmers have taken to drinking the pesticides meant for their crops.

The alternative is to value yourself more than any amount of money and turn the guns, metaphorically speaking, in the other direction.

I know it's so 1930s, but may I suggest a march on Wall Street?

Tags: economy, consumers, i-debt, i-crisis, i-suicide

Given a Shovel, Digging Deeper Into Debt

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:34:52 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Just two generations ago, America was a nation of mostly thrifty people living within their means, even setting money aside for unforeseen expenses.

Today, Americans carry $2.56 trillion in consumer debt, up 22 percent since 2000 alone, according to the Federal Reserve Board. The average household’s credit card debt is $8,565, up almost 15 percent from 2000.

College debt has more than doubled since 1995. The average student emerges from college carrying $20,000 in educational debt.

As a result, the percentage of disposable income that consumers must set aside to service their debt — a figure that includes monthly credit card payments, car loans, mortgage interest and principal — has risen to 14.5 percent from 11 percent just 15 years ago.

By contrast, the nation’s savings rate, which exceeded 8 percent of disposable income in 1968, stood at 0.4 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year

Tags: economy, financial markets, consumers, i-debt, i-crisis

Europe told to expect doubled gas price

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:24:45 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

The price of natural gas in continental Europe is to double in the space of a year as a result of the rise in oil prices, according to a leading consultancy.

Such an increase would put a further squeeze on hard-pressed European consumers and businesses, and add to the upward pressure on inflation in the eurozone, which has been estimated at 4 per cent in June.

According to Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera), a US-based consultancy, the rise in the oil price from about $70 a barrel a year ago to about $145 today will result in the gas price rising from about $350 per thousand cubic metres at the start of the year to about $730 by April 2009.

“As the eurozone’s exports slowed, people thought it would be compensated for by a consumer spending spree. But what’s happened has been a sharp rise in inflation that has hurt consumers’ spending power, hit their confidence and limited their spending,” said Howard Archer of Global Insight, another consultancy.

Tags: energy, natural gas, i-prices, i-increase, i-record, i-forecast

Human consumption: Flying in the face of logic

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:31:23 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

When Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, there were 3.5 billion people on Earth; there are now 6.7 billion. "The connections are so obvious it's appalling that they're not made," he says. "Each person we add now disproportionately impacts on the environment and life-support systems of the planet."

Ehrlich says: "We have grown in number to the point where our presence is perceptibly disabling the planet like a disease." No longer is it clear that technology, so often cited as means of maintaining growth, isn't ecologically counterproductive and fostering a population bubble that must sooner or later burst.

The charm and the curse of the population debate is that one must inevitably return to the subject of fruit flies. When a female finds a pile of rotting bananas, she lays her eggs and the population explodes. When the bananas are used up, the population crashes. Some females find another pile of fruit, and the process starts over. "Our problem is we only have one pile of bananas,"

Tags: environment, i-overpopulation, i-extinction

More Homeowners Consider Taking in Boarders

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:16:21 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Emerging trend.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

When Barbara Terry fell behind on her mortgage payments earlier this year, she did the previously unthinkable. Through a local housing organization, she and her daughter, Imani, 9, rented part of their single-family house to a stranger.

With residential mortgage foreclosures still on the rise, more homeowners nationwide are considering Miss Terry’s choice: whether to take in a boarder to keep their homes. Modest but growing numbers are turning to agencies nationwide like the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center Homesharing Program in Baltimore, which screen boarders to find appropriate matches and relieve some of the fear of strangers.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Like other home-sharing agencies, St. Ambrose conducts background checks on both parties, screening out people with criminal records or histories of drug or alcohol abuse, or those who cannot afford to be stable homeowners or renters. A 10-point questionnaire sorts candidates’ feelings about pets, smoking, overnight guests and other points of compatibility.

Tags: economy, consumers, housing, i-renting, i-increase

Biggest jump in dole claimants for 15 years

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:45:59 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The number of people on unemployment benefit saw its biggest jump in more than 15 years during June, official figures showed today.

In a fresh sign of economic gloom, those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance rose by 15,500 to 840,100, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This was the biggest monthly rise since December 1992 and the fifth consecutive rise in the claimant count, the ONS said.

May's figures showing a 9,000 rise were also revised sharply higher, giving a total of 14,300 new claimants during the month.

today's statistics have yet to fully reflect growing numbers of redundancies as the UK economy slows.

he number of job vacancies fell in the three months to June as the slowdown hit home. Vacancies stood at 655,100, down 32,200 on the previous quarter.

Tags: economy, consumers, i-unemployment, i-increase, i-record

Contaminated US site faces catastrophic nuclear leak

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:03:52 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: Conditions at Hanford were deemed to be dangerous nearly 10 years ago!

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

ONE of "the most contaminated places on Earth" will only get dirtier if the US government doesn't get its act together - clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.

More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.

There are now "serious questions about the tanks' long-term viability," says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticises the US Department of Energy for delaying an $8 billion programme to empty the tanks and treat the waste.

The DoE's plan, however, is "faith-based", says Robert Alvarez, an authority on Hanford at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. "The risk of catastrophic tank failure will sharply increase as each year goes by,"

Tags: energy, nuclear, i-costs, i-risks, i-increase

Oil Demand Will Grow, Despite Prices, Report Says

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:24:04 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

World demand for oil should continue to climb, despite the doubling of oil prices and weakening economic growth, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency.

the small decline in oil demand in the industrialized countries will be more than offset by an estimated increase in demand of 3.7 percent a year from 2008 to 2013

“The report is only further confirmation of the inability of global supply to catch up with rising demands,” said Chris Ruppel, an energy analyst at Execution, an institutional brokerage firm. “After five years of record increases in oil prices, producers are still unable to sufficiently expand output. It means we are in for rough times.”

“Blaming speculation is an easy solution which avoids taking the necessary steps to improve supply-side access and investment or to implement measures to improve energy efficiency,” the report said.

Tags: energy, oil, i-demand, i-supply, i-increase, i-forecast

Is a Big Hunk of Steak Worth Almost 2,000 Gallons of Water?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:22:08 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: It takes a lot of oil and electricity to pump that water around and that is becoming much more expensive, while clean water is becoming scarce.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Quite similar in concept to the carbon footprint, our water footprints are defined as "the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation," by Waterfootprint.org. People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The numbers are staggering.

In the US, our water footprint is

660,430 U.S. gallons per person per year. Compare that to 700 cubic meters per year per capita (184,920 gallons) in China and 1150 cubic meters per year per capita (303,798 gallons) in Japan.

it takes about 1,916 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef,

Tags: environment, water, i-demand, i-record, food, i-cost