Natural gas, AKA methane, is really bad for the planet, and since it occurs some places “naturally” we need to find these new sources to stop them emitting. A classic example of “natural” methane production is a garbage dump in which the organic compounds mix together and release natural gas,
Continue readingTag: NASA
Things Are Good: NASA’s All Electric Airplane Looks Neat
NASA loves researching and their newest aviation project is no exception. The X-57 plane is an all-electric propeller driven design to test and demonstrate that such a plane can exist. They also went a step further by testing new engines and arrangement of them on the wing to try and
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Sad End Of The Mars Rover Opportunity
Ever since I was I was a boy, I have been fascinated with robots, and today I have quite a collection of battery operated ones.Little and not so little ones that roll all over the house, amuse my friends and scare their dogs.But there are no robots that fascinate me
Continue readingThings Are Good: NASA Designs Plane Modifications to Save Fuel
A seemingly simple change to airplane design can make a huge difference in fuel efficiency: add another engine. Yes, as counterintuitive as it sounds, NASA has figured out that by adding an engine to the rear of the plane the airflow of the plane itself can provide more thrust. Airplanes
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Sad End of a Great Space Adventure
Early this morning, about 1.2 billion kilometres away from Earth, an amazing 20-year voyage came to a sudden end.When the Cassini spacecraft crashed into Saturn.And I must admit that when it did, I found myself moved beyond belief.Read more »
Continue readingThings Are Good: These Plants Clean Your Household Air According to NASA
A few years ago we looked at a TED talk on how to grow fresh air inside. The information was based largely on NASA’s research done in the 1980s called Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement, which looked into which plants are best for cleaning interior working spaces.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: If We Could Be as Smart as Frogs
I regularly tell students about our likely future. It’s often met with skepticism, so I provide lots of citations from the IPCC and NASA. Then I sometimes get a lecture on being so doom and gloom. Denial is our go-to defence against reality. But for whose benefit? It’s just for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Before the Flood
First of all, I love that this Leo DiCaprio film, directed by Fisher Stevens, is free to watch everywhere on the National Geographic Channel. (Or was free – I’m not sure how long it will last. I can’t seem to embed the film at all.) Without ads, it’s 90 minutes,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Indicators: Attention Must Be Paid
If it started to get cloudy out, and I told a friend, “You might want to bring an umbrella,” I might hear, “Good idea, thanks!” for saving him the discomfort of walking unprotected in the pouring rain later that night.
But if it’s starting to get all…
Continue readingThings Are Good: Help NASA Find Asteroids
Everyday we face an existential threat to our planet from outer space! Asteroids can hit the planet at any moment and ruin our days. To help us prepare for such an event NASA (and other space agencies) are searching for and tracking asteroids. By knowing where they are we can
Continue reading350 or bust: NASA video shows a year of CO2 pollution
A ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe. Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Running on Empty
It’s not gasoline either. We’re not that lucky. We’re fast running out of something that eclipses fossil fuel in significance – groundwater. Underground water has been propping up the Green Revolution for decades. In our quest for ever more food we’ve been tapping into our aquifers, pumping for all we’re
Continue reading350 or bust: Climate Change: Look At The Big Picture Or Nothing
For this TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, climatologist and climate modeler Gavin Schmidt from NASA’s Goddard Institute For Space Sciences discusses climate modeling. You can’t understand climate change in pieces, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt. It’s the whole, or it’s nothing. In this illuminating talk, he explains how he studies
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Civilization, Capitalism, Consumption – Why stop the Orgy?
I’m glad I’ll be dead when humanity’s collective shit hits the fan. I used to get all wrapped up in debates about Capitalism and the slow motion Seppuku we’re committing. I was genuinely flummoxed when my arguments were characterized as hopelessly naive and that my positions were unfounded vis-a-vis economic
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Coming Soon, Your Eyes on the World
Astronaut Chris Hadfield reconnected countless millions of people to the wonders of space. His space station performance of the David Bowie classic “Space Oddity” has racked up more than 17-million hits on YouTube since its release two months ago. Now two Vancouver brothers have come up with a venture to
Continue reading350 or bust: A Fork In the Road
“Transition to a post-fossil fuel world of clean energies will not occur as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy. Fossil fuels are cheap only because they are subsidized and do not pay their costs to society. Air and water pollution from fossil fuel extraction and use have high
Continue readingWalking Turcot Yards: Mars Rover Self Portrait
The next step is probably self consciousness. “NASA has snapped its most amazing self-portrait yet of the Curiosity rover on Mars, showing the robot posing with its ultimate destination: a huge Martian mountain. The new view of Curiosity on Mars is actually a mosaic of dozens of high-definition color photos
Continue readingLeDaro: NASA: World won’t end on December 21, 2012
So take a long breath, exhale and relax and keep shopping for Christmas and look forward to 2013.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Black Day in July for Greenland Ice Sheet
How hot is it this year? Maybe the breaking of thousands of temperature records across the USA so far this year didn't get your attention. Perhaps you have yet to be presented with the scary facts in Bill McKibben's latest article about Climate Change's New Math. Well if you missed those cheery bits
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Sands Fact Check: New API Front Group
shutterstock_48011344.jpg How do you sell a rotten bag of goods? Rule number one of effective propaganda: repackage it into something seemingly less grotesque. In that spirit, the Houston Chronicle recently reported the American Petroleum Institute (API) has created yet another front group, this one to promote tar sands crude, one of the dirtiest sources of fuel in the world, as a
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