A real life Jurassic Park?

Here is the plant that has been brought "back to life"

Silene stenophylla, a plant that has been extinct for over 30,000 years has just been brought back into existence by Russian scientists. A frozen fruit of this plant was found in a squirrels burrow pre-ice age! Growth hormones revived its tissue and made it able to be a living plant. Some think that Global warming may help scientists find more of these burrows in the Siberian permafrost leading to other plants being discovered and re-created. This raises questions about what will be re-created next? To quote Stanislav Gubin, "If we are lucky, we can find some frozen squirrel tissue, and this path could lead us all the way to mammoth".

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/real-life-jurassic-park-30-000-old-plant-233300326.html

Earthquake prediction.

The earthquake last year in Japan shocked everyone in Japan and left everyone unprepared. 15,000 people ended up dead. Scientists believe that an earthquake of the same 9 magnitude will happen in North America in the near future. They have been monitoring a fault that has seemed to be quiet for a while now. But it has actually been losing more and more layers which is what will cause the earthquake. Scientists are not sure when this will happen but they are seeing more and more changes with the fault. The only think we can do is wait and keep ourselves updated on the new news on the moving rock. I think it is scary to think about but if we keep ourselves informed, we will be able to be prepared for it.




http://discovermagazine.com/2012/extreme-earth/01-big-one-earthquake-could-devastate-pacific-northwest

4 Ideas to Make America's Energy Supply Safer and More Efficient - David Bell

      A group of experts have thought of four ideas that are going to make America's energy supply safer and cleaner. Transporting is the cause of 27 percent of carbon emissions in America. Scientists say that electric vehicle sales should grow causing carbon emissions to reduce at a fairly high rate. Also, scientists are suggesting downsizing nuclear power plants and make them even more safe and cheap. Another idea is to extract frozen gas from permafrost or from the ocean floor and power new turbines. Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fossil fuels and the U.S. has about 284 trillion cubic feet of it. The last idea is powering cars with pond scum. Algae is a very efficient source of biofuel and some species contain up to 60 percent oil. All of these ideas could be used to help us sustain our earth and live healthier lives.  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8395173318787760504#editor/target=post;postID=2288324167903560032

New Solar Panels

Many new installments of solar panels have been built in the U.S. due companies forming more resourceful and cheaper ways to build these costly but energy saving devices. Companies last year found new ways to make to build panels cheaper as well as being granted more funds to keep them growing in quantity. The picture above shows a larger scale installment in California just last year in 2011. The number of large-scale installations grew from 2 in 2009 to 28 in 2012. These panels take in light from the sun and generate it into electicity. If we keep finding better ways to install these, they will be coming to most states in the near future.



http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/new-solar-panels-blossomed-despite-a-tough-year-for-the-industry/?scp=2&sq=environment&st=cse

Exelon Merger: Final Hurdle

Exelon passed its final hurdle with a approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  They had a  $7.9 billion dollar merger with Baltimore-based Constellation Energy that granted them the chance to divest three of Constellation's powers plants totaling 2,648 megawatts.  The two companies have also agreed to sell 500 megawatts of base load energy in a contract that lasts until 2015.  The CEO of the company will leave a combined company operating an energy fleet that is 87% low emission generation that includes nuclear, hydroelectric, wind solar and natural gas energy. While the U.S. Environmental protection agency provides a tougher stance against hazardous air pollutants and mercury emissions the new company could have an advantage because most of its fleets either are non-emitting or outfitted with the necessary environmental controls.

Trees Blocking Billboards

Charlotte's largest billboard company is wanting to remove trees that are blocking their adverstisments. Adams Outdoor Advertising has submitted 21 applications to remove these trees. On March 1, a law went into effect that gives companies more leeway to clear vegetation that obscures roadside signs. In some cases only a small hand full of trees need removal. However, in other cases as many as 92 trees need to be cut down. Many enviromentalists want these trees to stay. Some feel that the billboard itself should be moved, not the trees. Adams Advertising argues that companies pay them to post billboards to advertise their product. The trees that may be chopped down will make billboards more noticeable and seen by tens of thousands of motorists each day. They are simply trying to do their job. The city has a 30-day window to comment on the applications, which will be reviewed by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/13/3093148/charlotte-company-files-first.html#storylink=cpy

Air pollution may increase stroke, heart attack risk

A recent study shows that people who are around high quality pollutant air can increase the possibility of a stroke, and in a large-scale population increase the chance of a heart attack. It is stated that 20% of the polluted air that was breathed by people could have been reduced based on an individuals' environment, something an individual could have prevented. Possible solutions could be to move to a lower air-quality environment, or to not remain in high air quality environments for a long duration. Barriers to the provided solution is that people can't control where they live, and are not aware of the high air quality environment they are in. I believe that this should be studied further to find more solutions to prevent more strokes from happening. I think the solutions are unreasonable because people cannot control the amount of polluted air that they breath.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/health/air-pollution-stroke-heart-attack-risk/index.html?iref=storysearch