There is a debate currently raging in the hunting world: should there be a switch to "green" bullets?  Green bullets are ones that do not use lead, which is proven to be hazardous to humans and the environment.  There are people in the hunting community that say there is no reason not to switch to green bullets, and that the benefits of doing so are great.  There are others that say that it is not worth it, since the lead-free bullets can be more expensive or harder to find. 

There are some bullet manufacturers that are using copper instead of lead, and are seeing an increase in their non-lead ammunition sales.  Big name manufacturers, like Winchester and Remington, are also jumping on the green band wagon and are now producing greener alternatives to lead bullets.

Not only are shooting ranges banning lead bullets from being used, but some states are making it policy to discontinue them.  California is one such state, where they have banned lead bullet use in areas of the state where there is wildlife reserves.  The Condor, an endangered animal, lives in these areas and is known to eat the scrap bullets left behind.  Lead is extremely dangerous and poisonous, and could be contributing to the rising number in death of these animals.

Lead bullets can also poison the meat of the animal shot.  If you hunt with lead bullets and shoot an elk to feed your family, the lead in the bullet can leach, which can make your family sick after eating the meat.

Regardless of how you feel about hunting, everyone can agree that there needs to be less lead being used in products that we come in contact with.  If it is something that is dangerous to the environment, wildlife and ourselves, it needs to be removed.  Lead has been proven over and over to be hazardous, and there needs to be a demand to stop its use.

(Original CNN article)

Even if you haven't been affected by the recent problems in the world-wide economy, it's likely that you know someone who has or have at least heard of the crisis on the news.  So many people are losing their jobs, and it is making it harder to get by day to day.  There is something on the horizon that could help with the growing unemployment, though.  That something is green.

With green products, services and technologies growing and an ever-increasing demand, that brings with it the possibility for more available jobs.  Every solar panel provider that opens to meet the demand needs employees and technicians, every store that opens selling eco-friendly materials needs sales associates.  

There is the expectation that as the demand for green energy and products will bring an influx of new jobs, and that is proving to be true.  There is even government support behind creating green jobs, with $20 billion reserved for greening the economy in the United States as part of President Obama's stimulus package.  There will also be "green training programs" that will receive $500 million from the package, and will ensure that the people who go through the training will benefit financially.  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that if someone makes $20 an hour before the training, they will make twice that afterward.

There are other companies who will be able to re-hire lost employees as they green their business models.  The demand for products that are not sustainable has gone down, causing some businesses to go under and have to lay off workers.  If the same companies begin to sell more energy-efficient products, the demand goes up again, and they can hire back the employees lost.

Going green is starting to become more than just living your life more sustainably.  It is now a way to support your country, a way to support your economy, and a way to support your neighborhood.  When you make the choices to live green, it causes a karmic ripple effect that goes past you and spreads to everyone that gets touched by your choice, from the recently hired sanitary worker who picks up your curbside recycling to the newly trained technician that installs your solar panels.  Being green is proving to more than a trend, and it could be the way to solve a lot of problems.

The latest video from This Is Reality once again dispels the myth that coal is anything but what it really is; dirty and harmful.  This new spot is directed by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen.  The video opens to a woman using an air freshener in her home, and a salesman coming in to tell her that she is not fully harnessing the clean potential.  What she needs is Clean Coal, since it uses the power of the word "clean."

No, it's not really clean, but it says it is.  That must be good enough, right?  No.  As soon as the woman starts spraying it in her house, the air is quickly filled with black, dirty air.  Her husband starts coughing, as do her children who walk into the room.  Well, wait, if it's clean, why are they coughing?

The answer is that clean coal isn't clean, no matter how many times you say it is.  I can say "clean dirt" but you wouldn't be likely to believe me, since dirt in its nature is, well, dirty.  That goes the same for coal.  Why use something that is so completely unclean when there really are clean energy options out there?  That is the debate that This Is Reality want to get started.

Share this video with your friends and family, and get into the conversation.  Don't be as stupid as Big Coal thinks we are, and don't buy into the idea that coal is clean just because they say it is.

Discovery News just broke this story about how chemicals that are frequently found in most households do hold a link to infertility in women.  This study is the first of the subject, and the results are troubling.  Since the study is the first into this topic, further research needs to be done, claims Chunyuan Fei.  Fei is a Ph. D. student in epidemiology at the University of California.  Fei feels that her results are worrisome enough to research the matter more in depth.

The study looked into chemicals that are grouped together called perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs.  PFCs are incredibly potent greenhouse gases, with a greenhouse warming potential (GWP) that is higher than carbon dioxide by staggering amounts.  The production of PFC is regulated as part of the Kyoto Protocol.  PFCs are common in household products, from pesticides to aluminum.  This study in particular looked at perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfleurooctanoate (PFOA).

Previous studies on the matter of PFOA and PFOS have linked it to toxic effects in the liver, immune system, and reproductive system in animals.  Evidence of PFC derivatives, such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid, can be found in blood samples.  Fei's study focused on these effects in people, and found that women with multiple children had lower levels of PFOA and PFOS in their blood, while women with fewer children had a higher amount.

The team collected blood, as well as surveyed, more than 1,200 newly pregnant females who were a part of the Danish National Birth Cohort, a long-term study of health.  All the participating women were pregnant on purpose.  About 30% of the women had tried to conceive for more than six months before becoming pregnant, according to the results.  Half of those women had been trying for longer than a year.

The study separated women into groups depending on their chemicals.  Their research showed that women with higher amounts of PFOS in their blood had a higher likelihood of needing six months or more to become pregnant.  Women with the most PFOA had an even higher likelihood to have problems conceiving.

While PFOS and PFOA are near impossible to avoid, there are things you can do to make sure your house has the least amount of it as possible.  Research PFCs and find out what products have higher amounts than others, and make an active effort to change your purchases.  Refrain from using pesticides in your garden, as those can affect your PFC levels.  Use all natural cleaners in your home, and limit the use of chemicals you spread into the air.

While there are many reasons to live green and cut out greenhouse gases, this could be one of the most important.  Living green is about cleaning up the Earth and giving it to our children in better shape than we inherited it in, but what if we can't have children to give it to because of how we lived?

This week has seen an incredible amount of devastation in Australia.  Not only are many Australian citizens forced to cope with the lost of their homes, but they are also coping with a major loss of life.  What is the cause of all of this?  A bush fire, one that is raging out of control, and global warming may be adding to it.

As of this post, 160 people have died from the bush fire in southern Australia, which has escalated quickly.  The fire spread quickly, leaving some people little to no time to evacuate their homes.  Over 700 houses have been lost, and over 770 square miles burned.

A recent article from Time magazine states that there were early warning signs that a natural disaster was imminent (Time magazine source).  There were warnings that fires in Australia were "certain to increase in intensity and frequency," as stated by the 11th chapter of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  They blame steadily warming weather as the reason for the increase in fire hazards.  The Australian government also reported that by 2020 there could be up to 65% more fire danger, and that there will be another 300% increase by 2050.

So why is Australia hit the hardest by fire?  First of all, it is the driest continent.  It has warmed 0.9° C since 1950, and it is expected to grow if greenhouse gas emissions are left unrestrained.  Also, climate change will be to blame for an increase in heat wave and drought in Australia.

People are quick to state that climate change isn't the sole reason for the fires in Australia, as proof rises that some were set deliberately.  There is no doubt, however, that catastrophic climate change is fueling the fires once they have started.  That is why we need to work so hard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the impact of climate change.  The coincidence that the word "catastrophic" explains both climate change, and this natural disaster in Australia, is not lost on us.  We can work together, as citizens of this planet, to prevent more deadly fires in not just Australia, but in other areas likely to be hit with heat waves and drought.

In July 2007, Quanzhi Ye, a 19-year-old meteorology student at China's Sun Yat-sen University, discovered something amazing.  While observing an image taken days before, Ye finds something that is not a star, but is a comet.  Not only is it a comet that is heading towards Earth, it is also green.

Comet Lulin will soon be visible to the naked eye.  Comet Lulin is green because of the gases that make up its atmosphere, relative to the size of Jupiter.  The comet is emitting cyanogen, a poisonous gas often found in comets, and diatomic carbon from its nucleus.  Both of these gases create a green glow when they are illuminated by the sunlight in space.

If you want to see the green comet yourself, you need to be an early riser.  The comet is visible at 3:00 am, and can be seen 1/3 of the way up from the Southern sky before dawn.  It is expected to be easier to find on February 16th and February 24th.  On the 24th, the comet is supposed to be the closest to Earth than ever before.  It will be a few degrees away from Saturn in the constellation Leo.

The dream of discovering a comet was realized for Quanzhi Ye, who first marveled at Hale-Bopp at age 7.  The fact that dreams can become reality is not lost on us.  Our dream is also green, but of a different nature.  If we can work together, like Ye and the others that made this spotting possible, then we can also make our future more green.

(Original NASA article)

T. Boone Pickens seems an unlikely ally in the fight for sustainable energy changes.  His father was an oil man, and Pickens himself worked for Phillips Petroleum after his graduation from Texas A&M.  He founded Mesa Petroleum, which grew into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world.  All of that aside, Pickens is one of the loudest voices out there campaigning for alternative energy.  He's released an energy policy proposal, called the Pickens Plan, in which he wants to promote the creation and use of alternatives to oil, since oil is limited and unclean.  And Pickens should know.

A recent article by CNET reports on Pickens' cry for a federally funded loan program to finance wind developments on a large-scale.  Pickens, speaking from the Clean-Tech Investor Summit, promoted his Pickens Plan and the need to convert our energy needs, and vehicle needs, to run on cleaner forms.

To get the ball rolling, Pickens put down $2 billion worth of turbines from General Electric, to be delivered in 2011.  He wants the government to follow his lead, creating a wind-bank that would give people who want to develop wind farms a financial boost.  It would take a small part of the $825 million in federal spending from the Obama supported stimulus package, and Pickens argues it would also be cheaper than continuing to spend money on oil.

Pickens is also a supporter of cleaner, natural gas.  He wants vehicles to run on natural gas, and thinks that there cannot be a cut from foreign oil without it.  He has called for an investment of $28 billion to buy 350,000 heavy trucks that can run on natural gas.

To read the CNET article, through CNN, click here.  To read more about the Pickens Plan, click here.

A recent article by Popsci.com brings up a new, alternative energy idea that hasn't been discussed in the same ways as solar, wind and hydrogen.  That is power harvested by humans.  Now, before "soylent green is people" runs through your head, I mean kinetic energy.

Human beings create new energy in large amounts, mostly stored in our body fat, but also in our muscles.  That energy is used and burned in our movements, which is called kinetic energy.  By harvesting kinetic energy from simple actions like walking or running, you could be recharging more than just your body.

Human energy won't get you off the grid, but it will help to make a small difference.  Green Microgym, in Portland, Oregon, has created a stationary bike that will harvest the energy you put out during your workout.  Riding the stationary bike turns a generator, which then helps to power the building.  As the machines are fine-tuned, the amount of energy produced and stored in the generator could increase.

There's also dance floors in the Netherlands that use the same kinetic energy.  The company, called the Sustainable Dance Club, utilizes the piezoelectric effect, where certain materials create an electrical current when they are bent or compressed.  As the people in the club dance on the floor, it is compressed by half an inch, and makes contact with the piezoelectric material that is underneath.  In the future, this floor could power more than the LED lights in the club, and eventually power the whole club itself.