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Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize, Will He Run in ‘08?

Al Gore’s supporters are making a last-ditch bid to convince him to make another run for the presidency. Will he change his mind now that he’s won the Nobel Peace Prize?

In a full-page New York Times ad on Oct. 10, a group of grassroots Democrats, called DraftGore.com, published an open letter to Gore pleading with him to enter the race.

“You say you have fallen out of love with politics, and you have every reason to feel that way,” the letter read. “But we know you have not fallen out of love with your country. And your country needs you now — as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save.”

Across the country, local draft-Gore groups have sprung up, preparing for signature drives to put Gore on the ballot in Democratic primaries, even as the clock on registration deadlines ticks down.

Some Gore backers hope that Gore might change his mind and enter the race after Oct. 12, the scheduled date for announcing the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he is a nominee because of his work on global warming.

The urgency that these rank-and-file Democrats feel about a Gore candidacy derives, in part, from the inadequacies of the current crop of presidential hopefuls who are seen as lacking the foresight, the experience or the gravitas that Gore offers.

Front-runner Hillary Clinton may have reinvented herself as an Iraq War critic for the Democratic primaries, but she was a staunch supporter of the war from 2002 to 2005, even aligning herself with Sen. John McCain’s advocacy for a military escalation.

In a Dec. 8, 2003, article, New York Times columnist William Safire dubbed Sen. Clinton “a congenital hawk” whose mantra on Iraq was “failure is not an option.”

It was not until George W. Bush’s approval ratings went into freefall in late 2005 — and Sen. Clinton was eyeing the Democratic presidential nomination — that she began repositioning herself as a war opponent.

By contrast, Gore was one of the few politicians of national stature who vocally opposed a preemptive war against Iraq amid the war fever of the time. In a speech in San Francisco on Sept. 23, 2002, he described the dangers of the Bush Doctrine’s muscular unilateralism and the harm that could result from charging into Iraq.

Read more at Alternet.org

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2007 10 12 Animals and Nature
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Miracle British Gizmo Halves Heating Bills

Amazing British invention creates MORE energy than you put into it – and could soon be warming your home

It sounds too good to be true – not to mention the fact that it violates almost every known law of physics. But British scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device that seems to ‘create’ energy from virtually nothing.

Their so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution towards cutting carbon emissions.

Even the makers of the device are at a loss to explain exactly how it works – but sceptical independent scientists carried out their own tests and discovered that the 12in x 2in tube really does produce far more heat energy than the electrical energy put in.

The device seems to break the fundamental physical law that energy cannot be created from nothing – but researchers believe it taps into a previously unrecognised source of energy, stored at a sub-atomic level within the hydrogen atoms in water.

The system – developed by scientists at a firm called Ecowatts in a nondescript laboratory on an industrial estate at Lancing, West Sussex – involves passing an electrical current through a mixture of water, potassium carbonate (otherwise known as potash) and a secret liquid catalyst, based on chrome.

This creates a reaction that releases an incredible amount of energy compared to that put in. If the reaction takes place in a unit surrounded by water, the liquid heats up, which could form the basis for a household heating system.

If the technology can be developed on a domestic scale, it means consumers will need much less energy for heating and hot water – creating smaller bills and fewer greenhouse gases.

Jim Lyons, of the University of York, independently evaluated the system. He said: ‘Let’s be honest, people are generally pretty sceptical about this kind of thing. Our team was happy to take on the evaluation, even if to prove it didn’t work.

‘But this is a very efficient replacement for the traditional immersion heater. We have examined this interesting technology and when we got the rig operating, we were getting 150 to 200 per cent more energy out than we put in, without trying too hard.

People are sceptical – but somehow it works

‘We are still not clear about the science involved here, because the physics and chemistry are very different-to everything that has gone before. Our challenge now is to study the science and how it works.’

The device has taken ten years of painstaking work by a small team at Ecowatts’ tiny red-brick laboratory, and bosses predict a household version of their device will be ready to go on sale within the next 18 months.

The project, which has cost the company £1.4million, has the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry, which is keen to help poorer families without traditional central heating or who cannot afford rocketing fuel bills.

Ecowatts says the device will cost between £1,500 and £2,000, in line with the price of traditional systems.

The development of the groundbreaking technology results from a chance meeting between Ecowatts chairman Chris Davies, his wife Jane and an Irish inventor, Christopher Eccles, while the couple were on holiday near Shannon in 1998.

After the inventor showed the couple his laboratory experiments, Mrs Davies, immediately signed a £20,000 cheque on the bonnet of her car and handed it over to Mr Eccles.

He later became chief scientist of Ecowatts’ parent company Gardner Watts, but has since left after ‘falling out’ with the company, according to insiders. Sadly, Mrs Davies died three years ago, so she will be unable to share in the success of her husband’s development of the idea.

Mr Davies, now 75, of Dedham, Essex, was unavailable for comment last night.

But Ecowatts chief executive Paul Calver said: ‘When Jane Davies whipped out her cheque book, it turned out to be a very good investment indeed.

‘She and Chris were always interested in ecology and now it looks as if our heat exchanger system is ready to go on sale soon. We’re producing a device in the next nine months to heat radiators.

‘Most British homes rely on gas, and the Government has admitted there is a problem getting a substitute. Our device will help solve that.’

Sustainable energy expert Professor Saffa Riffat, of Nottingham University, has also led a team investigating the system.

He said: ‘The concept is very interesting and it could be a major breakthrough, but more tests are required. We will be doing further checks.’

Via Mail On Sunday

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2007 09 15 Cool Science
Technology and Gizmos
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Heroic 9/11 Rescue Dog Jake Dies Of Cancer

A black Labrador that burrowed through smoking debris after Sept. 11 and flooded rubble after Hurricane Katrina in search of survivors has died after developing cancer.

Owner Mary Flood had 12-year-old Jake put to sleep Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. Flood said Jake had been in pain, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn.

No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he hadn’t been exposed to the toxic air at the World Trade Center, but cancer in dogs Jake’s age is common.

Some owners of rescue dogs who worked at ground zero claim their animals have died because of their work there. But scientists who have spent years studying the health of Sept. 11 search-and-rescue dogs have found no sign of major illness in the animals.

Many human ground zero workers have complained of health problems they attribute to their time at the site: the largest study conducted of about 20,000 ground zero workers reported last year that 70 percent of patients suffer respiratory disease years after the cleanup.

The city earlier this year added to its Sept. 11 death toll a woman who died in 2002 of lung disease, five months after she was caught in the dust cloud of the collapsing twin towers.

The results of an autopsy on Jake’s body will be part of a medical study on the Sept. 11 dogs that was started by the University of Pennsylvania more than 5 years ago.

Flood adopted Jake as a 10-month-old puppy. He had been abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

“But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog,” said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, a federal search-and-rescue team that looked for human remains at ground zero.

Anguished New Yorkers honored the dogs.

On the evening of the team’s arrival in New York, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was treated to a free steak dinner under a table.

Flood eventually trained Jake to become one of fewer than 200 U.S. government-certified rescue dogs — an animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes and avalanches.

After Katrina, Flood and Jake drove from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched for survivors in flooded homes.

In recent years, Jake helped train younger dogs across the country. He showed them how to track scents, even in the snow, and how to look up if the scent was in a tree.

He also did therapy work with children at a Utah camp for burn victims and at senior homes and hospitals.

“He was a great morale booster wherever he went,” Flood said. “He was always ready to work, eager to play — and a master at helping himself to any unattended food items.”

She said Jake’s ashes would be scattered “in places that were important to him,” such as his Utah training grounds and the rivers and hills near his home where he swam and roamed.

Via Associated Press

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2007 07 27 True Health Comments (0)

What Happens If There’s No More Honey Bees?

Have you noticed a lack of bees this spring. If so, you aren’t alone. Honey bees seem to be disappearing altogether. Kinda weird.

Entomologists are working to determine if it’s due to pesticides, environmental or disease-related factors. The degeneration is widespread enough to warrant its own nomenclature – colony collapse disorder – by the U.S. National Bee Colony Loss Survey.

HONEY BEE DISAPPEARANCE NO LAUGHING MATTER

Have you noticed a lack of bees this spring. If so, you aren’t alone. Honey bees seem to be disappearing altogether. Kinda weird.

May Berenbaum. An Entomology professor and department head at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recently wrote an Op-Ed article in the New York Times about the collapse of honey bee populations. She wrote, “What makes the situation particularly critical is the fact that the demand for pollination services – not honey, per se, but pollination services – is exploding.”

Honeybees don’t just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80% of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being “stuck with grains and water,” said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA’s bee and pollination program.

“This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” Hackett said.

Marty Russell writes in the Daily Journal (Mississippi):

“No one seems to know what’s happening to all the bees and why they’re all disappearing but the consequences are scary. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating almost all of our fruits, vegetables and flowers which means that, after we all die of starvation, we can’t even send flowers to the funeral.

Maryann Frazier, M. S., Honey Bee Extension Specialist, Dept. of Etymology, Penn State University, College Park, Pennsylvania in a recent interview stated:

“I’ve had several people in Washington, D. C., in the last several months telling me that honey bees are a canary for the human race. The canary is what was used in mines to see whether there was oxygen, or not enough oxygen, for the miners.

If the canary fell over, why it was time to get out. And Penn State has already found it looks like the immune system has been broken down on these honey bees. So, if the immune system is broken down and this stuff is going into our food supply, how much does it take to take out humans?

You know, I hate to be pessimistic about the situation, but it just doesn’t appear good.”

Later in the interview She continues:

“First of all, a third of the food supply in the United States – and actually the world – a third of the food supply is directly related to the honey bee: fruits, vegetables, nuts, just a lot of stuff that we eat, that we’re accustomed to have every day, the honey bee is directly responsible for it.

And then, there is probably another 30% of what we consume that honey bees are indirectly responsible for. Take the milk we drink. The cows have to have hay. They’ve got to eat clover and alfalfa to produce milk.

And if you go back and listen to what (Albert) Einstein told us – he said if the honey bees disappeared off the face of the Earth, within four years, all life would be gone.

Even the wildlife depends on plants pollinated by the honey bees for berries and so on. So, it’s not just humans not being able to get apples and carrots. We’re talking about a real big, serious problem!”

By the way, the bees aren’t just disappearing from the USA. Similar reports have come in from around the globe.

Our Sex Hormones and Toxic Chemicals

Our Reproductive Health And Chemical Exposure:

A review of the evidence for links between declines in human reproductive health and our exposure to hazardous chemicals

There is a growing body of evidence which indicates a disturbing rise in the incidence of disorders of the human reproductive system. For example:

* sperm counts have declined dramatically over the past 50 years in many countries
* testicular cancer has increased significantly
* infertility may now affect 15-20% of couples in industrialised countries compared to 7-8%
in the early 1960s
* girls are reaching puberty at an earlier age in some parts of the world
* the incidence of endometriosis in women is high in some countries
* the number of boys born compared to the number of girls has shown declines in several
regions, with marked changes in some areas.

The exact causes of the increase in reproductive problems are presently unknown. However, in parallel with the increase there has been a rise in the manufacture and use of many chemicals. It has been estimated that every year around 100,000 different types of chemicals are produced and used around the world.

The use of chemicals has led to the inevitable contamination of the environment and consequently, also to human exposure. Many chemicals have been found to contaminate human tissues and even the developing foetus in the womb is exposed to a multitude of chemicals which pollute the human body.

Although not proven beyond doubt, there is increasing evidence of a possible link between the
synonymous rise of reproductive health problems and the rise of our exposure to many chemicals. The presence of many man-made chemicals at current environmental levels may already be negatively impacting the reproductive health of wildlife and humans.

The grounds for such a hypothesis draw on a number of lines of evidence, including laboratory studies on effects of chemicals in animals, direct measurements of chemical exposure in humans (including presence of chemicals in body tissues) and the findings of correlations between level of exposure to chemicals and incidence of certain disorders.

Laboratory studies have shown beyond any doubt that certain chemicals are capable of causing
reproductive disorders in animals. Of particular concern in this regard are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other pervasive hazardous chemicals which are known to be toxic to reproductive health and/or disrupt the hormone (endocrine) system.

While some of these chemicals, especially the internationally-recognised POPs, have been banned or severely restricted, other reproductive toxicants and chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (endocrine disruptors) remain in use by industry and, in many cases, may still be found as ingredients or additives in a variety of household products.

Among the known chemicals of particular concern with regard to human reproductive health are those listed in table 1.

Many of the reproductive disorders which have been increasing in incidence are thought to originate in the developing stages of the foetus’s life in the womb.The nursing young may also be
vulnerable. It is therefore of great concern to know that some of the chemicals listed above are able to cross the placenta and also contaminate breast milk.

For example, alkylphenols, brominated flame retardants, artificial musks, phthalates and bisphenol A have been found to contaminate blood taken from the umbilical cord. Furthermore, two studies of phthalates in human babies have found evidence that these chemicals are associated with hormone disruption although further studies are needed to confirm the findings.

Classically, toxicology has focused heavily on lethal effects on test animals of high doses administered over short periods of time. Invariably, however, sublethal effects (i.e. adverse effects other than death) of acute exposure, as well as both lethal and sub-lethal effects of longer-term (chronic) exposure, are found to occur at doses well below the so-called LD50 (the dose found to be lethal to 50% of the animals exposed in any one test).

While we may never be certain that there are chemical causes behind the increasing trends of
reproductive health problems, the evidence to date cannot be ignored.

The most responsible way forward is to take precautionary action on these chemicals of concern.We urgently need laws that protect us from continued exposure to such chemicals.

Fragile: New Greenpeace report reveals the impact of toxic chemicals on reproductive health

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2006 12 24 Culture Shock
Sexual Health
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Governator Arnie Is Now A Rainbow Warrior

SACRAMENTO – Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the type of guy you would necessarily associate with tree-hugging. When he bought a Hummer in the early 1990s, it kicked off a nationwide craze for the gas-guzzling behemoths.

His lighter-fluid-dowsed action flicks and protein-packed chest bespoke more of American excess than environmentalism, more violence than vegan.

But as governor of California, Schwarzenegger has engaged in a savvy makeover, befitting a Hollywood star. He retooled one of his four Hummers to run on alternative fuels and is quickly fashioning himself into one of the most aggressively pro-environment governors in a state known for leading the nation on the issue.

This year he signed the nation’s first environmental law of its kind, committing the state to lowering its greenhouse gas production to 1990 levels by 2020 and setting up an international program that provides manufacturers with incentives to lower carbon emissions, which is supposed to begin by 2012. He has vowed to fight any attempt to drill for oil off California’s coast.

And now Schwarzenegger, a Republican, wants to use his star power to turn global warming into an issue in the 2008 presidential election.

By John Pomfret. Via Boston Globe

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2006 12 24 Politics Comments (0)