Posted in February 2009

Fancy A Go At Being President?

Source: hazel eyes
Friday 27th February 2009, 4:04pm

The BBC have got a most excellent game that lets you become president for about 100 years and decide policy at national, regional, local and household level. Not as easy as it sounds......

Climate Change Game Goals

The game can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/. As I said in the introduction, you get to decide policy at every level and attend climate change conferences with leaders around the world.

The game tells you what effect your policies have on money, energy, food, water and emissions levels and you have to try and keep the populace happy or you get voted out.

The BBC created the game to help “give an understanding of some of the causes of climate change, particularly those related to carbon dioxide emissions”.

Understandably, the game portrays a simplyfied representation of what would happen, not exactly scientifically correct, but it is a game after all.

Its quite a playable game, if a bit tough on the brain cells towards the latter stages. 100 years is a long time to be President and it does get tricky, especially if you are keeping to the emission goals.

Anyhoo, enjoy!

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Midnight Oil To Reform For Australian Disaster Relief

Source: hazel eyes
Wednesday 25th February 2009, 2:42pm

The 80's Aussie rockers, probably best known for "Beds are Burning" are reforming for a gig to raise money for the disaster relief efforts after the wildfires.

Paul Garrett, frontman of the Oils turned to politics when the band broke up in 2002. He was elected to parliament in 2004 and became environment minister when Labor won office in 2007.

Midnight Oil will appear alongside Kings of Leon at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 14. Another concert, featuring Coldplay, will be staged at the Sydney Cricket Ground on the same day.

The band last reformed in 2005 to raise money for the Indian Ocean Tsunami, dubbed "WaveAid"

Disaster Relief For Victoria

"I have hardly sung a note since the Oils last played at WaveAid but this event is so unique and important that it will be terrific to now catch up with my mates and put on a performance that gives all those people affected by the terrible events what they dearly need," he said.

Organisers hope to raise at least four million dollars (1.8M pounds) for the Red Cross bushfire appeal, which has so far raised 194 million for victims of the disaster.

The Red Cross says the money will be used to provide immediate payments to support those bereaved, seriously injured or left homeless in the disaster, as well as longer-term rebuilding projects.

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CO2 Satellite Crashes

Source: hazel eyes
Tuesday 24th February 2009, 4:27pm

A US satellite crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after failing to reach orbit.

The satellite launched successfully from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Taurus XL rocket at 0951 GMT, but a clamshell-like fairing that protects the satellite during its ascent failed to separate properly minutes after liftoff, causing a fatal error.

The rocket landed just short of Antartica in the ocean.

The mission of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide, a contributing factor in global warming, and study how the distribution of the gas changes over time.

It was NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, though not the first in orbit: on January 23 Japan launched the world's first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. Its satellite is collecting data from 56,000 locations around the world.

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San Francisco Goes Electric Car Friendly

Source: hazel eyes
Friday 20th February 2009, 12:51pm

San Francisco has unveiled EV (electric car) charging stations outside city hall among vows from its mayor that it will be leading the way in steering the US away from patrol powered vehicles.

Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to make San Francisco the EV capital of the United States. The stations also have the ability to monitor the amount of petrol saved and greenhouse gas emissions saved for each vehicle. Full marks to SF for doing its bit to combat global warming.

SF is the first city to feature charging stations capable of supporting the city's fleets of electric cars. The charging stations are part of a two year plan designed to demonstrate the feasibility of using electric vehicles in cities. The system even send text messages to drivers warning when a car is running low on charge, or when a parked vehicle has finished charging.

Greenhouse gases are thought to be a contributing factor to global warming, a symptom of climate change. Electric vehicle trials are due to take place in some cities in the UK this year, but they are so far, not an ideal solution, mainly due to their short range.

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Donations Flood In For Australian Relief Effort

Source: hazel eyes
Friday 13th February 2009, 12:54pm

Donations from around the globe have been promised to help with the relief and clean up after the bush fires and flooding.

International Donations For Australia

The Australian government has reportedly been inundated with good wishes and donations, and offers of help from around the world after the Victorian wild fires.

Most recently, the Indonesian government has donated one million dollars to help with the rebuilding of schools in the affected areas. Australia had previously funded the building of schools in Indonesia and thought that a reciprocal offer would be most appropriate.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is proud of Australia's record in aiding other countries in need and said Australia's spirits have been lifted by the offers of help from around the world.

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare says he hopes his government's decision to donate $US1.3 million to the Australian government for disaster relief will strenghten the bond between the two countries.

The money is to be divided equally between the state of Queensland which has been devastated by floods after tropical Cyclone Ellie hit earlier this month and bush-fire ravaged Victoria.

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Disaster Relief Plan For Aussies

Source: hazel eyes
Monday 9th February 2009, 4:58pm

Victims of the Australian wild-fires may soon benefit from emergency financial help from the government.

Disaster Relief Plan Unveiled

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised financial assistance and promised the Auatralian Defence Force would assist in the recovery efforts after invoking the Commonwealth disaster response plan at the weekend.

He visited some of the worst-hit areas north of Melbourne yesterday with the Victorian Premier, John Brumby.

"This loss of life, the numbers of injured, the horrific injuries - our thoughts and our prayers go out to each and every one of them as they now try and deal with this tragedy and recover from the damage which has occurred," Mr Rudd said.

He announced $10 million in federal and Victorian government funds to help victims and emergency workers.

Australia's Fragile Climate

Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth is thought to be at the most risk from climate change. A study by the country's blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.

It is expected to get worse as global warming increases.

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Stranded Exeter Drivers Rescued In Blizzard

Source: hazel eyes
Friday 6th February 2009, 12:56pm

A sudden snow blizzard stranded 200 drivers on Haldon Hill last night, just south of Exeter.

The snow has returned with vengeance last night stranding hundreds of motorists in their cars.

The weather moved in so quickly that nothing could have been done to prevent it. Some motorists stayed in their cars for several hours waiting for the police to get to them using a fleet of 4x4s, whilst others opted to walk home through the snow drifts.

As well as police, Dartmoor Rescue Teams from Plymouth and Ashburton were scrambled plus civilians with 4x4's. The Army was also called out to aid dozens of drivers also stranded near Tavistock. Rescue teams checked in on people which had opted to stay in their cars overnight.

Rescue centres were set up at Exeter Race course, Chudleigh village hall whilst others booked into hotels.

Indications of Climate Change and Global Warming?

There has been consensus throughout the scientific community that global warming is real, dangerous, and caused by humans. Although the details of what may happen in the future are sketchy at best, the feeling is that it is a bad thing.

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UK Refinery Jobs Secured

Source: hazel eyes
Wednesday 4th February 2009, 4:44pm

It looks like the Lindsey Oil Refinery strike is resolved with 50% of jobs being promised to UK workers.

Unions Secure UK Jobs

Strikers who walked out over the allocation of overseas jobs have been advised to return to work after unions were offered 50% of jobs to UK workers.

Staff at the North Lincolnshire plant are to meet officials and vote on the proposal on Thursday morning, but they will be advised by stewards to go back to work.

Tony Ryan, from the strike committee, told hundreds of protesters at Total's Lindsey site that they had been given 102 new jobs for a minimum of nine weeks. However, there are a couple of issues still to be worked out.

Italian Jobs Safe Too

It is understood that no Italian jobs will be lost with the new contract, but just over half of the new jobs, 102 in total will be offered to UK workers for at least the nine week duration of the contract.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "We are pleased that our grievances are beginning to be recognised. There is still some way to go but at least people are beginning to understand what we have been saying."

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