Ecosystem Argument Against Fossil Fuel - More than About Birds

Politico offered a very good and compelling reason for why we need to quit our addition to oil. The focus of the post is on the environment.  However, it's more than just about birds, crabs, and baby turtles.  

We do owe it to the future generations to make sure the planet is not in a worse shape than we took reign of the from those who came before us but more importantly, it's the sustainability of the future we need to concerned about as well.  After all, the future generation will need to contend with 7 to 8 billion humans on this planet, 1.5 billion more than when we first started with in our current generation.  

If we are to discuss oil and the ecosystem, it has to be more than just the environment.  It's also about security, the global climate, and the amount of resources we are using up. The issues of conservation and recycling should be part of he discussion and equation of to any solutions we device.

Naturally, efforts are being made, both small and large - public policies such as trading greenhouse gas and promotion of renewable energy to individuals trading in their SUVs for zero-emission vehicles.  We also have to face the question of the tipping point and whether we are passed that. But regardless of whether we are or not, mitigating our current impact on the whole ecosystem, which includes political and natural, is paramount.

A lot of dates I'm reading about green efforts are twenty to forty years away (2030-2050) - target dates by NGOs and governments to curve greenhouse gas to levels back to those in the 90s or requiring a certain amount of our energy come from renewable sources. Still, there is much we can do today.

More at Politico.

Aerogenerator: MegaWind Turbine Capable of 10MW & Counting

Apparently, there is a great competition among various groups vying for the title of the biggest, most efficient, and powerful wind turbines and a new design from a British team based on a spinning leaf can be a challenger to the Americans and other EU teams. More importantly, it will be operational in 2014 (according to The Guardian).

Mobile Causing Bee Extinction?

I want to caution that we need no jump to conclusions and this appears to be a preliminary step in this direction as far as trying to figure out why the bees are dying and whether radiation emitted from mobile devices is a cause and may have a wider impact on the ecosystem.

After three months of study, the proponents of the study, Panjab University of India has found a disruptive link between the collapse of bee colonies and radiological emissions from mobile devices. Queens impacted by the radiation laid less eggs while while less honey is made.

Furthermore, worker bees stopped returning to the hive, either their innate navigation system is disrupted by cell signals or for the same reason that radiation affected the queen and the hive, the worker bees refused to return.

More studies need to be conducted given that not all hives are observed to be affected by cell signals.

I think we need to more study in this area just as I am not entirely sure that mobile radiation doesn't have an impact on humans. I also think the climate change as well as increase use of pesticides and other non-farm chemical leakage into the environment.

More At The Independent Nature and Yahoo News and Telegraph.