What Makes People Tick?

Tuesday the 22nd of April 2014. Otherwise known as "today". Facebook and Google tell me that today is Earth Day . Google even created a very nice Doodle to mark the occasion. Maybe it´s just me, but this particular Doodle reminds me a bit of drawings by artist Marjolein Bastin that I simply adore! To honour Earth Day, one of my favourite Facebook pages posted an image that - as happens from time to time ;-) - got me thinking. It seems to me that I fucking love science has a very good point! Photo source: I fucking love science on Facebook "Imagine If Trees Gave Off  Wifi Signals, We Would  Be Planting So Many Trees  And We'd Probably Save  The Planet Too. Too Bad They  Only Produce The  Oxygen We  Breathe." 

The necessity of renewable energy sources Interesting article and blog about wind power and the necessity of renewable energy sources. Global warming and climate change are real, they are not fantastical stories thought up by sensation-seeking scientists. Humans and out use and abuse of our planet are the cause. Be part of the solution! For The Wind blog @ Wordpress Enjoy this read and don't forget to check back often for new content!

According to a 22 July 2013 CNN article written by Daisy Carrington, seawater and solar power are helping to grow crops in the desert in Qatar. The first ever Sahara Forest Project launched in November 2012. According to the project's CEO Joakim Hague: "Our starting point was to take what we have enough of -- seawater, heat -- and use it to produce what we need more of -- water, energy and a sustainable production of food." CNN : Seawater and solar power grow crops in the desert

Found this quote in March, wrote a draft post for it yet didn´t end up actually writing anything more. It´s from the article "It´s time for a nuclear energy time-out" by Alice Slater, published 23.03.11. See the link below the post for the source. Let this chaos be a wake-up call for a time-out on new nuclear energy construction projects. This includes the 62 reactors around the world now under construction and the additional 158 slated to go forward. And like the massive mobilization gathering strength in Japan, with emergency workers coming from all over the world to help rescue and recover the tens of thousands of people trapped in their villages, let us make a massive global effort to put a solar panel on every roof, a geothermal pump in every building, windmills on every windswept plain, and tidal energy pumps in our rivers and seas to harness the clean safe energy of our Mother Earth. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/23-4

Japan's Chaos is a Wake-up Call Read an interesting piece of writing today by Alice Slater that I wanted to share. It´s a piece I agree with, expressing worries I´ve had too in the wake of the triple-whammy disaster that hit Japan earlier this month. They were hit not only by a huge earthquake and the following tsunami, they also suffered a nuclear disaster in the aftermath of the earthquake. The article starts with the following paragraph: Sometimes chaos comes along as a wake-up call to humanity. Japan's double-whammy earthquake-tsunami is overwhelmingly tragic. Being at the mercy of the total chaotic effect of the elements--able to be wiped out by a wave of water from the sea--is an insult to the arrogance of modern humanity that thinks it can insulate and protect itself with technological know-how from the calamities visited upon our earth by Mother Nature. Mother Nature and her calamities are things we can´t do anything against. We can build our buildings to earthqua...

Global Warming. Climate Change. Greenhouse Gases. Terms we hear on an almost daily basis and should be familiar with. A quick explanation follow below. Please note that these are, as stated below the quotations, NOT MY OWN WORDS and I am merely copy/pasting small sections of text while giving credit where it's due. Scientists have spent decades figuring out what is causing global warming. They've looked at the natural cycles and events that are known to influence climate. But the amount and pattern of warming that's been measured can't be explained by these factors alone. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. To bring all this information together, the United Nations formed a group of scientists called the International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. The IPCC meets every few years to review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming. Eac...

Hydropower. A word that I hear more and more on the news yet covers a concept that baffles me slightly. Hydro = water (from the Greek) and power, well that's self-explanatory. So power from or through water. I'm guessing this works in a similar way to a watermill which is powered by a water wheel however that's as far as my knowledge goes. Thankfully I've got internet access! "Hydropower is electricity generated using the energy of moving water. Rain or melted snow, usually originating in hills and mountains, create streams and rivers that eventually run to the ocean. The energy of that moving water can be substantial, as anyone who has been whitewater rafting knows. This energy has been exploited for centuries. Farmers since the ancient Greeks have used water wheels to grind wheat into flour. Placed in a river, a water wheel picks up flowing water in buckets located around the wheel. The kinetic energy of the flowing river turns the wheel and is converted int...