[Erin]

Hey all, thought some of you would be interested in this link, http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/

Al Gore is doing his best to wake up America, and here are some ways we can all help. Now if we can get the US and some others to sign the Kyoto Accords.
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[Donna]

Makes me proud to be a member of a two-Prius family! Now, if I could only convince my husband that we need a smaller house with a shingle roof, so we can go solar. The solar panels don't work on tile roofs - tends to break them.

I really got a lot out of that movie and remain astonished at the vitriol of people who don't believe global warming is a reality. They tend to criticize Al Gore as being the problem. Like - if he would shut up it would go away. Or maybe they think that global warming will only affect liberal Democrats.
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[Erin]

Oh Debbie, that's so great. We are hybrid shopping at the moment, and aren't sure which to settle on. Do you like the Prius?
We have tried very hard to reduce our amount of driving. It can be really hard especially when there is that one ingredient you need. It is nine miles to the nearest store, I ask myself, "do I really need it?" It has made my cooking a little more creative.
The thing that makes me absolutely ill is that Long Island does not have recycling. Oh yeah, you can take in your glass bottles but what about all the paper and plastic? In Washington we had a great recycling program that I really miss.
I wish we Americans as a whole would wake up!!!
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[Donna]

We LOVE our Priuses (Prii?)

We bought the 2003 model when my OOOOLLLLLLLDDDDDDD Camry died. Then when the new body type came out, I mentioned casually that I really liked it - and OOPS! Sam bought the second one. He and my son are such GEEKS!

The Prius has PLENTY of room. My son is 6'4" and he fits - front & back. Plus you can put down the rear seats and you have pretty capacious cargo room. We get about 40-45 MPG on average - it's better on trips - 50-52 MPG. But the best thing is the emissions. the 2003 model is SULEV (Super Ultra Low emissions vehicle) and the 2004 is a Partial Zero Emmisions Vehicle. I feel great about that since there is no way I can take public transit to work and I have no one to carpool with. Also - I can go in the carpool lane because I am in a clean air vehicle! Love that!

Good for you for looking at a hybrid! Ben's best friend is buying an Camry hybrid & I hear Toyota is going to offer every vehicle in their fleet as a hybrid at some point. Too bad GM and Chrysler have been so reluctant to go that way.

Keep us posted!
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[Old Bay]

[Erin]

Here are several articles not written by Al Gore that are quite interesting. I find the first peaked my interest quite a bit.

The world is waking up, why are we still being so reckless? When I was in Europe last winter I could see the massive efforts that are being made to combat global warming. I don't care about political convictions here, no one can afford to be reckless.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/features/127index.shtml

http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/house-science-committee-votes.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5394326

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=Global+Warming&edition=i&go.x=0&go.y=9

http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/index.cfm?searchen=google

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/impacts.html
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[happenstance]

The prius and other hybrids are very popular in these parts. It's a good start, but there is so much more to do, so I am so glad the message finally seems to be getting out there.

We do our part as we can. We put in Solar Panels in December of 2004 and in 2005 only had to pay 10 bucks in electricity! This year we are so far in the negative I think we will break even. I also work at home, grow my own veggies and keep my own chickens (yes this all in Oakland), walk and bike as much as I can and try and spread the word. We are hoping to go to a tankless electric hot water heater next year, which will leave us with only 2 gas appliances.
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Maureen in Oakland

Sharing her home with Rimsky the cat, Cody the partner, and 9 happy hens.

:>

[madameshawshank]

Vanity Fair's green issue was interesting...

we have a fine recycling system...bottles paper tins etc are collected each week...plus our supermarkets have big bins for used plastic bags which are recycled into all sorts of things...park benches etc..

'n more and more people are using other than plastic bags for shopping..times are changing thank goodness...
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[Erin]

We just had a new green market open, 'Wild By Nature', just went yesterday very exciting. I was so excited when after spending over $75 I recieved a pretty little canvas shopping bag! Now I need to be better about taking them with, I usually forget half of the time. But I do recycle the plastic bags for home use. I have not found a public place to recycle them here.

P.S. The coffee they serve was just dreadful, but their selection was amazing!
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[madameshawshank]

Erin..the variety of 'green' shopping bags in Oz is amazing..each major supermarket has its own ..plus such a variety of calico, canvas, you name it bags...nice to read your excited post!
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[Erin]

The Smart car is coming! The Smart car is coming!

http://www.smart.com

Does anyone have one of these? Now that I have read they are coming, I may wait and get one. My big concern is that I would be the one Smart car on an island full of Hummers, Land Rovers and other SUV's, how would I fare in an accident?
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[David]

Dick and I have long admired the Smart car, ever since we first saw them in France in 2000! They make so much sense for city living and driving. Half the space and half the gasoline(petrol). Canada started importing them last year, I don't know about the rest of the country but they have caught on here in the Ottawa area very quickly. There is a 2 month waiting list now for the little beasts. For now I'll stick with my trusty Ford Focus, but should I move to the city at some stage, the Smart is the one for me! Now I noticed that the one to be imported into the U.S. is the 4 seater, and I think you might be able to get about safely in one of those in the Hamptons Erin, but the ones being imported here currently are the little 2 seaters and I'd be a bit wary about them being overlooked by a Hummer driver!!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[Lux_Mundi]

Gore is promoting conservation in order to ward off global warming. He says we have to bring back carbon dioxide emissions to what they were in the 1970's. But is this really possible?

Consider China. China is really polluting things up (see below), and it looks like they only just got started. It seems even if people conserved enough in the US (which they probably won't), China would still screw things up. So, is global warming inevitable? What do you think?


China

Did anyone read the Times article entitled, "Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow"? Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

"The increase in global-warming gases from China's coal use will probably exceed that for all industrialized countries combined over the next 25 years, surpassing by five times the reduction in such emissions that the Kyoto Protocol seeks."

"Already, China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. And it has increased coal consumption 14 percent in each of the past two years in the broadest industrialization ever. Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego. To make matters worse, India is right behind China in stepping up its construction of coal-fired power plants — and has a population expected to outstrip China's by 2030."

[gisele]

I normally don't get into discussions on global warming due to the large amounts of misinformation and scaremongering on the subject in the media, particularly the internet. I find it disheartening when people believe everything they read.

Having taken a couple of papers on climatology, I'm extremely wary of any articles I read about global warming. I'm sorry to say, but after reading "the Science" on Al Gore's site...I had to shake my head and laugh. There is nothing to back up those wild statements.

The one that made me laugh the most...Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.

If you want information on global warming, I suggest you look at respected scientific sites or go to the website on the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. The IPCC has reports that put together by/and then are peer reviewed by hundreds of scientists, and not just any old scientists, but climatologists...the ones who actually specialise in climatic changes.

I have found that if people are told that something is written by a scientist or agreed on by a scientist ,they won't question it, not even what the scientist specialises in. You wouldn't go to a gynacologist if you had a chest infection would you?

There are still many arguments and discussions about global warming in the scientific community, there is no uniform agreement on the subject. The media thrives on sensationalism, and there is alot of it on global warming.

Things are happening and people are being reckless. You can do your part for the environment, I certainly try, but please, please make sure you are properly informed.

[End rant]

[gingerpale]

research