Migration of animals and plants is changing all over the world. Migration lets animals and plants pursue the best food sources and allows them to survive the harsh changing seasons. In some cases migrating species are moving farther and to higher, cooler areas. They are looking for sustainable food sources and are traveling further to obtain it. Most noticeable are populations of butterflies, birds, frogs, and certain species of plants. It’s simple, they must move or become extinct. Yet, the latest research shows that migration is dwindling in Yellowstone due to climate change. This has been seen in the herds of Elk.

A recent study has found that the lush grasslands in Yellowstone have shrunk by 40 percent. Rising temperatures and drought has played a large role in the change of the grasslands. In contrast, satellite images prove that the lower elevations are showing a greening of vegetation. Yellowstone’s herds of Elk need these lower grasslands to survive.

New data has found that about one third of the Elk herds migrate and the remaining elk stay. The remaining Elk have a more stable food source than those who do migrate. The migrating Elks herd reproduction is down 70 percent. Most blame the shortage of food. In contrast, 90 percent of the Elk who remain reproduce. It seems that some of the Elk have changed their migration patterns to stay where there is a stronger source of food.

The migrating Elk also seem to fall victim to predators considerably more than the non-migrating herd. Yellowstone has seen a slight increase in the numbers of grizzly bears and wolves whose diet consist of Elk. The wolves have been reintroduced recently and they are having an impact on the elk herds. Wolves are not only eating the calves like in the past, but the wolves are dinning on large male Elks. Researchers believe that with the hot, dry years and less grasslands, the male elk are not able to bulk up. So they become weak due to less food, their strenuous mating season, and intense weather which makes them vulnerable to the wolves. While the opposite appears to happen with the non-migrating elk.

Many scientists believe that migration is adaption. Plants and animals move, or in the case of the Elk herds of Yellowstone, stay to survive and learn to adapt. Changing migration patterns are important to the environment and our ecosystem. A single change on one species effects so many other plant and animals species, like the wolf and grizzly populations in Yellowstone. Only humans can do the research and make the necessary changes. Unfortunately, other plants and animals are forced to adapt to their environments due to global warming and climate change.

Along with capturing rainwater, the water from the sinks, showers, and bathrooms will be treated, filtered, and re-used on the property for things like plant irrigation. The home’s lighting will include compact fluorescent lights and LED lighting to reduce the amount of electricity needed for lighting the house. Holland estimates an energy savings close to 80% for lighting.

Heating and cooling will be managed by ground source heat exchangers. This process, also know as geothermal, will supply cool water from about 250 feet underground via a closed loop water system. In the summer, cool water will circulate through the flooring of the home, and in the winter when the underground water is warmer compared to surface water and air temperature, the system will supply warmer water for heating. The house will also make use of a solar system and windows that allow sunlight to warm the house.

Other features of the house include recycled steel and FSC certified woods, or wood that has been harvested from sustainable forests. Holland also has no plans to stain or paint the interior or exterior wood which also leads to lower carbon emissions and a more Earth friendly approach since most paints and stains are water based and require transportation to deliver them from the manufacturers, stores, and then to the home site.

While the house will still have an energy source from the local power company, the home’s 21 Kilowatt Solar system will make the house completely energy independent. During most of the year, the solar system will actually be supplying power back to the local grid. During periods of rainfall or cloudiness, the home may use some energy from the grid, but the overall net result is a negative net use, meaning the property supplies more energy than it uses throughout the year. In most states, the energy company will provide energy credits for the power supplied; meaning at some point the home owner may actually receive a check for the energy provided and will most likely never receive an amount due bill from the energy company.

It is important to note that the features used in building this home range from a little more expensive to a lot more expensive. While federal and state tax credits and rebates are available for many of these green upgrades, in most cases, it is incumbent upon the home owner to initially fund the green additions. Another hurdle is that many green homes cost more to build but do not currently appraise at higher values than say a similar house in the same neighborhood. While there has been movement to appraise green homes differently to account for the added green features, in most cases the buyer has to make up the difference in the amount of the house purchase or build price versus what the banks will provide for the mortgage loan which is based on the appraisal.

Studies have shown that higher levels of CO2 and warmer temperatures play a role in plants blooming earlier and producing more pollen. With more allergens being produced earlier, the longer an allergy season lasts. The longer an allergy season lasts the stronger it impacts our health and our economy.

Current estimates show that spring arrives 10 to 14 days earlier than it did just 20 years ago. Pollen counts are rising and pollination is starting earlier and lasting longer. Research suggests that certain species that are highly allergenic could replace other species that don’t cause many allergies because the right conditions are occurring and allowing them to overgrow. Ragweed is a good example of this and the latest research shows that Ragweed plants at today’s CO2 levels are producing twice as much pollen. They are more potent as well. Some are concerned that we will see even more increases causing higher levels yet.

Asthmatic’s are at high risk due to the heavy allergens and increased air pollution. It is estimated that allergies and asthma cost the United States 33 billion dollars annually. Scientists think these numbers will increase.

Also on the rise is fungal growth. With the increase in moisture due to Global Warming which creates more intense rainstorms we can expect more mold. Exposure to mold and fungi is a huge trigger for those who suffer from both allergies and asthma. Many studies have proven that mold can cause severe harm to humans especially in elders and the young. In fact mold just doesn’t impact humans. In 2006 an infectious fungus killed an entire population of frogs. These skin infections due to global warming are a major threat to many amphibian species all over the world.

Climate change is altering how we live, breath, and sneeze. It is dramatically effecting those who live in the animal and plant world as well. So if you are hoping that your allergies and asthma wont be as bad next season ….think again. Global Warming is bound to make your symptoms worse! We will be sneezing and wheezing…. Oh My!

Another important aspect of the site will be educating consumers in regards to products and services they purchase and information about companies they are purchasing from. Mr. Browning explains the reasoning behind making this part of the site: “There are large companies literally spending millions of dollars annually on sustainability programs and projects, yet their average consumer has no idea. Since consumers have become more responsible, their brand loyalty has become more important. Consumers want to do business with companies that are doing their part and we want to let the public know who those companies are.” GlobalWarming.com will serve as a location that visitors can learn more about climate change and there will be plenty of ideas on how visitors can learn more about their own consuming habits and what they can do to change their carbon footprint. With plans to get involved with schools and community projects, the team at GlobalWarming.com hopes to develop a non-profit organization to help fund initiatives that have a lasting impact on its visitors and communities. With site visitors from over 150 different counties every month, their long term goals are for international awareness, involvement, and education.

Studying the populations of various lizards around the globe, Sinervo and his team concluded that the regions where spring temperatures have risen the most since the 1970s are the exact spots where the decline in lizards has occurred. As spring temperatures rise, the lizards being cold blooded and thus having the need to regulate their core temperature will spend more time seeking shelter or shade as apposed to looking for food or reproducing. When female lizards lack the nourishment needed to successfully breed, the resulting decline in populations occur.

The study predicts that a 20% extinction rate for lizards worldwide by 2080 is entirely feasible. So who cares if the world has a few less lizards? It’s not like we all have a pet lizard that we now must protect from slight temperature increases. Well, there are reasons we should care. Birds and other animals rely on lizards as a food source, if the lizard populations decrease, what impact will this have on certain bird populations? Since the lizard’s primary diet consist of various types of insects, what impact will fewer lizards have on insect populations? Changing one digit in a series of calculations provides a different outcome, the good news is, you can always go back, find the error, and correct it. Unfortunately, in nature, extinction is final. There are no “do-overs”.

In Order to affect such coal carbon energy conservation five steps are required:

1. We would need to build super critical coal fired electrical plants that have emissions 15% lower than our current plants and 40% lower than the oldest coal fired plants being replaced.

2. Develop CO2 storage facilities on the order of the Slieper project in the Atlantic North Sea.

3. Create further Carbon Capture Storage experiments.

4. Develop coal to gas technologies with inherent CCS. CO2 as a byproduct of coal to gas conversion is easily captured for storage.

5. Retrofit all of the world’s Coal Fired Energy Plants with CCS technologies.

There is a very famous quote from World War II used by one General McAuliffe when surrounded by enemy forces and told to surrender. His reply perfectly suits our thoughts regarding Peabody Energy’s CEO’s suggestions for saving the world by burning more coal and stashing the resultant CO2 under every cold body of water on Earth…. Nuts!

Suggestions like these are why Bill Gates insists we look forward to new, as yet nonexistent technologies. Revamping obsolete and proven to pollute energy production methods is Nuts, that, being a familiar euphemism for insane.

The second thrust of the Cancun conference may well be to heal derision that resulted in Copenhagen as a result of industrially developed nations unilaterally deciding the fate of developing nations. There exists from certain closed door bargaining sessions a good deal of distrust. This distrust extends to the point where most smaller nations do not believe the worlds wealthier countries will follow through to meet emissions reduction targets.

Indeed most developing nations have come on board to the belief that the world’s financial super powers have in mind a plan to use control of carbon emissions as a means to control their economic status. The European Union has stated firmly that their plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by year 2020. This falls so short of needed goals as to be comical.

But bear in mind that in those times there was very little counterforce to the idea of Bans on pesticides and a Green Jobs Corp for young adults.
These ideas hardly flew in the face of industrial and totalitarian countries such as China proposing huge carbon emissions cut backs while expanding their carbon footprint ten-fold in ten years. The issue at hand today for Earth Day is the correlation of carbon emissions with energy savings. The largest polluting force on the Earth is the combined energy use of the world’s population of electricity.
With this in mind US President Barack Obama suggests that as an Earth Day and beyond means of protection of long term health we take a few steps such as turning off lights not in use, recycling, using public transportation and conserving tap water.

What marks the Nissan Leaf as superior to other electric powered vehicles is the use of a lithium ion battery. Most hybrids rely on cheaper, heavier Nickel-metal hydride batteries. As anyone who has a mobile phone will tell you, lithium batteries are the only way to go. The Leaf will need just 480 pounds of batteries to move itself around the town. These particular lithium batteries are lighter and jacketed differently than most to counter cooling problems, for when current flows from anything, including from a battery to a electric car motor molecular friction creates heat. The true advance of the leaf is its superior lithium ion battery heat dissipation. Nissan is banking much of their future on electric cars. They continue to work on lithium battery improvement as a way to improve vehicle range to double the current 100 miles by 2020. It does seem they have underestimated progress by means of technology. In 2000 a mobile phone battery allowed the user to talk for around an hour and twenty minutes. Ten years later talk time on a full blown data streaming color display mobile is around 5 hours. Ten years is a long time in the world of technology. By 2020 we will have moved beyond lithium ion. Where to? We are glad you asked…

But if you really want a flash light that can live ever ready in the glove box of your car for years, try a lithium ion powered LED flashlight. LEDs barely trickle power from the batteries and lithium ion’s store huge volumes of potential current. String enough of these little mobile phone batteries together and you can power a car. (Like the Nissan Leaf) But even these powerful little wonders have weight and heat release issues.

Even the most efficient battery type creates electricity by means of a chemical reaction. This is designed to happen when demand is placed on the negative and positive poles of the battery. Also lithium is a heavy metal. It is all well and good to talk about how we will no longer dump harmful ingredients into the air by using electric cars, but if we instead load the landfills with billions of tiny little batteries we have hardly made a giant leap for mankind.
Enter a different type of battery. This is a battery that is not a battery at all. It is a capacitor. Capacitors store electricity. They do this because the air space between a positive and negative pole will perpetually hold a charge. And in a reversal of logic that only science can provide the closer those two charged plates can be without touching the more current can be stored. So if we could just get these two poles separated be a few atoms in width we would have a D sized flashlight cell that could drive a car from Seattle to Miami.

Still, the concept and working model of the ultra or hyper capacitor is being developed. Some people in Texas claim to have a working auto sized battery/capacitor package ready to launch. The unit from a company named eestor is rumoured to be a marvelous piece of fantasy. Scientists have debunked every piece of information eestor has released. A dipolar capacitance can only hold so much juice unless it is created on a sub molecular level. As soon as someone comes up with a combination of chemistry and physics that allow for multi pole function the cap/bat will exist and energy storage will change forever. This is coming. Give it twenty years. Sadly it is likely eestor is more a good idea than a working model. But one idea leads to another and we believe the people at eestor are honestly trying to build the thing.

For want of a chemical formula the physical theory could not be enacted.
For want of a working model mass production of a lighter battery/capacitor never occurred.
For want of a long range battery the Nissan Leaf failed.
For want of a Leaf we continued to pollute the air.