As a part of the national action plan on climate change the Indian government has obligated the power utilities to buy 5 percent of their grid purchase from renewable energy sources from 2009-10 onwards. The power companies are required to achieve this minimum standard by 2009-10 after which it will be increased by one percent every year for ten years.

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Most of the new California electric car start-ups were started by the auto-design equivalent of fashionistas - auto afficionados who love cars for gorgeous design, the thrill of the torque and the 0-60 in whatever seconds. So they build electric cars able to attain speeds that only those of us who can afford speeding tickets could ever afford to drive at.

So it is ironic that Miles; the one electric car startup started by someone with some exposure to actual fashionistas - Miles Rubin had been a Ralph Lauren executive - for a long time didn’t even bother with fancy mockups of ...

ExtremeCraft.com has a contest going but, as they say in the infomercials:Time is limited! Act now!

From the Web site:

We are seeking submissions for 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse, an upcoming book by Garth Johnson of ExtremeCraft.com, which will feature 21st Century craft and design, all made with recycled, upcycled, repurposed and reused items. We are looking for the best examples of paper and book arts, jewelry, clothing, home and personal accessories, furniture, art, and miscellanea for possible publication. We invite designers, artists, visionaries and crafters of all stripes to submit their work.

To submit ideas ...

A team of UK scientists have discovered a natural process that could delay, or even end, the threat of global warming.

The researchers, aboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance, have found that melting icebergs off the coast of Antarctica are releasing millions of tiny particles of iron into the southern Ocean, helping to create huge ‘blooms’ of algae that absorb carbon emissions. The algae then sinks to the icy depths, effectively removing CO2 from the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

According to lead researcher, Prof. Rob Raiswell of Leeds University, “The Earth itself seems to want to save us ...

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting severe bleaching for parts of the Coral Sea, near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle, causing immense damage to an important global marine environment over the next few months.

“This forecast bleaching episode will be caused by increased water temperatures and is the kind of event we can expect on a regular basis if average global temperatures rise above 2 degrees.” - Richard Leck, Climate Change Strategy Leader for WWF’s Coral Triangle Program.

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Toddlers in the UK could be screened for speech problems because many are so addicted to TV and video games that they fail to learn basic communication skills.

According to an article in the Telegraph, “barely a 10th of children in some areas can repeat even one nursery rhyme and, in extreme cases, some do not even know their own name.”

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Alcohol isn’t necessarily unhealthy for you, unless you overdo it. But you went ahead and had that extra drink (and maybe another as well) at the party last night, and now you’re hurting. Hangovers can be hell. Here’s a few tips to get you back on the road to recovery.

Prevention:

Curing a hangover really starts with prevention, so if you know you’ll be hoisting a few drinks in the evening (strictly socially, of course), prepare yourself. Drink lots of water during the day and eat a good meal before the first drink. Try to put ...

I’m in love with Baby Blend Tees!

The images are super cool and only organic cotton is used.  The shirts and onesies are packaged in unbleached coffee bags, which are easily then reused at the coop for organic coffee.

The bag lists the ingredients, “one unbleached organic cotton t-shirt roasted with love, laughter and comfort”.  Thus, Baby Blend Tees are T-Shirts for the Daily Grind!

My fave shirt is the Beach Cruiser; I’d wear it if it came in my size!  Of course, the tee or onesie is made from 100% organic cotton and printed with water based ...

After postponing the flight for about a month, Air New Zealand has become the first airline to test a 50/50 blend of second generation jatropha biodiesel and standard A1 jet fuel in a Boeing 747-400 passenger jet. The company has hailed the test as a milestone for commercial aviation.

The flight lasted two hours and ran one of the plane’s Rolls-Royce engines on the jatropha biodiesel blend. Air New Zealand has previously stated that they want to become the world’s most sustainable airline and hopes that by 2013, 10% of its flights will be powered by biofuel ...

A South Carolina Parks Department has bought three electric cars as a way to lighten their impact on nature preserves.

Custom Solar Array

Two of the vehicles charge by plugging into the wall. The third has been specially retrofitted with a solar array over its flatbed, freeing it from the grid and allowing it to charge while in the field. The vehicles, which all have small flatbeds, will be replacing ATVs and trucks for hauling maintenance and landscaping materials. The Mecklenburg County Department of Park and Recreation bought the three GEM vehicles (Global Electric Motorcars - a Chrysler company) with help ...

The Bush administration has taken steps to open the Californian coast to oil exploration and drilling in as few as three years. The move could potentially tap more than 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to power the U.S. for 17 months.

The proposal has been greeted with horror in environmental circles, wary of the threat of oil spills, air pollution and increased shipping traffic in an area rich with migrating whales, millions of seabirds, sea otters, fish and crab feeding grounds. According to Richard Charter, a lobbyist for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, “You couldn’t design ...

I’m hesitant to call anything used in combat environmentally friendly, but Lockheed Martin’s proposed body armor equipped with an energy unit is nothing if not interesting. According to the company’s patent application, the armor will feature an “electrical energy storage unit” developed by stealth start-up EEStor.

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Food prices are predicted to rise again next year, the economy is tanking, and businesses are looking at layoffs of some employees. With a recession looming, many families are struggling financially, tightening up their budgets and cutting back on unnecessary expenses. That doesn’t have to mean eating low-quality food. Families can still eat well and buy organic and natural foods, even in a recession, but it takes some new skills. Some of these skills aren’t so obvious, so I put together my top ten tips to help your budget, with a focus on grocery shopping. Even if you ...

The National Space Society has submitted a policy paper (pdf) to the Obama-Biden transition team concluding that Space-Based Solar Power is more technically executable than ever before and urging federal investment that would be necessary to capture large amounts of electricity from space

This wouldn’t be the first time the federal government has delved into Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP or SSP). NASA and DOE have collectively spent eighty million dollars over the last three decades in sporadic efforts studying the viability of collecting solar energy in space—where the solar resource is far more intense—and beaming it to ...

Many bloggers and webmasters are wont to check their stats so often it borders on behavior that could be classified as obsessive-compulsive. Fortunately, that is how the folks behind the scenes at the New Orleans-based activist group, Levees.org learned that the harassing comments being left at their blog were coming from computers registered to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Well, maybe they weren’t OC about checking their stats, but after this incident, I’m guessing they might be.

Levees.org is a watchdog activist group that is pushing for an independent analysis of the “failure of ...

In keeping with the rest of the media at this time of the year, I came up with a Top 10 list for 2008. But… to be a little different, I made it a Top 12 list. (You know, 12 days of Christmas and all…)

In 2008, parents and children were hit with a number of warnings for toxic products and toxic lifestyle, and we got a couple of wake-up calls from both the environmental and health sectors. There were a number of studies released this year with disturbing conclusions, so read up and make sure you’re making the ...

Friday’s auction of public land oil and gas leases by BLM Utah was thrown into chaos by local activist Tim DeChristopher, who bid the prices up on parcels of land he has no intention of paying for.

“I thought I could be effective by making bids, driving up prices for others and winning some bids myself.” -DeChristopher

Bidding was halted for a time, and now buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids. Kent Hoffman, deputy state director, BLM Utah, said, “He’s tainted the entire auction.”

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Need help cutting down on your transportation costs? Want to get fit at the same time?

Lower your fossil fuel use and up your fitness by transporting the kids and the groceries with the Zigo Leader! Use it as a standalone bike, a stroller, a jogger, or a cargo bike.

Zigo’s design enables you to quickly (in 30 seconds) change from a one-person bike to the ChildPod stroller or Jogger, or just attach the ChildPod to the front and ride away, kids and all.

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