American Buddhist Net

WASHINGTON — While astronomers scour the skies for signs of life in outer space, biologists are exploring an enormous living world buried below the surface of the Earth.

Scientists estimate that nearly half the living material on our planet is hidden in or beneath the ocean or in rocks, soil, tree roots, mines, oil wells, lakes and aquifers on the continents.

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WASHINGTON -- Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth's oceans, particularly off the United States' Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say.

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"A Massive, Toxicological Experiment with Our Children"

By STEVEN HIGGS

One of the nation's leading voices on children's environmental health has called for focused and expanded research into the cause-effect relation between industrial chemicals and autism.

"Long and tragic experience that began with studies of lead and methylmercury has documented that toxic chemicals can damage the developing human brain to produce a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders," Dr. Philip Landrigan from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine wrote in a Jan. 16, 2010, article in the medical journal Current Opinion in Pediatrics.

Today's children, he noted, "are at risk of exposure to 3,000 synthetic chemicals produced in quantities of more than 1 million pounds per year, termed high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals. HPV chemicals are found in a wide array of consumer goods, cosmetics, medications, motor fuels and building materials."

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I agree with everything Landrigan says, except his use of the word "experiment." That was and is no experiment. It's greed--careless, sloppy, abusive, ignorant, selfish greed. ABN

After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’ Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help push Obama’s wind energy proposals.

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No possible natural phenomenon could have caused the huge rise in temperatures experienced in last half-century

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...The pollutant enters the environment almost wholly as atmospheric emissions from industrial processes, primarily the burning of coal for electricity.

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Beijing - China plans to use cloud seeding to bring much-needed rain to five south-western regions hit by their worst drought in nearly 60 years, state media said Thursday. The China Meteorological Administration said weather bureaus in the five regions were preparing to use 2,116 shells of silver iodide to seed clouds in an operation budgeted at 2 million yuan (294,000 dollars), the official China Daily reported.

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We have previously seen Buddhist monks build an entire temple using a million trashed beer bottles and here we have something similar, but on a much larger scale, six times larger that size to be precise. Built by Tito Ingenieri, a recycling enthusiast from a city called Quilmes has spent the last 19 years in building a house from over 6 million beer bottles.

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PHILOMATH, Ore. — Organic farmers fear this year's spring breezes will be carrying pollen from genetically altered sugar beets, which they say could render their crops worthless, and they hope to persuade a federal judge this week to halt the plantings nationwide.

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For immediate release (Stockholm/Oslo) China is preparing for the Arctic being navigable during summer months. An ice-free Arctic would provide China shorter shipping routes, possible access to natural resources and the incentive for closer cooperation with Arctic nations, especially the Nordic countries. But it also raises the possibility of new international tensions, according to a new SIPRI study launched in Oslo today.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal— Dawa Steven Sherpa is only 25 but has already climbed Mt. Everest twice. The last time he was on top of the Earth’s highest point, he picked up a small stone for President Barack Obama.

The stone was given to Nepal’s prime minister, who gave it to Obama at the United Nations in September to symbolize the growing problem of global warming, which threatens the world’s highest mountain range—the Himalayas.

“Everest is changing,” said Dawa Steven, as he is called. “A few years ago, the summit was a large icy area where 50 people might fit. Now only 20 can be there—the cornice [of snow] is slowly breaking off and more rock is exposed. It may be global warming.”

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Some Chinese pandas have started eating animal bones instead of their traditional diet of bamboo, state-run China Central Television has said.

The bizarre change in the endangered creatures' diet is thought to be due to the large-scale cutting down of bamboo forests in China.

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One of the most common weed killers in the world, atrazine, causes chemical castration in frogs and could be contributing to a worldwide decline in amphibian populations, a study published Monday showed.

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March 1 (Bloomberg) -- The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.

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Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.

As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

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The tsunami unleashed by a massive 8.8 magnitude quake off Chile has killed five people and left 11 others missing on the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.

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No reports of serious damage after magnitude-6.9 temblor

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tsunami was generated on Saturday that could cause damage along the coasts of all the Hawaiian islands, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

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Police in Italy finds that the large oil spill in the Lambro river, now heading for the river Po, was an act of sabotage. While the search for a suspect is on, authorities are trying to contain the damage.

The spill was detected Tuesday morning around 4 AM after someone broke into an abandoned deposit owned by ex-refinery Lombardi Petroli near Monza. According to France 24, the saboteur opened the faucets, yet according to the website Life in Italy, investigators found that someone had punctured the oil tank on purpose.

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When inter-Korean tension heightened due to the killing of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier at Mount Kumgang in 2008, the restoration center for endangered species on Mount Jiri was at a loss.

The center is working to save the Asiatic black bear, an animal native to the Korean Peninsula. North Korea is the only place to import the rare species, so the center has keen interest in inter-Korean ties.

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NUSA DUA - MOUNTAINS of discarded computers and mobile phones could soon pose serious threats to public health and the environment in developing countries without swift action, the UN said on Monday.

'Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years,' the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report. 'And unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health.'

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A rapid acceleration may have begun in levels of a gas far more harmful than CO2

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Environmentalists believe that Taiwanese Buddhists are upsetting the eco-system with their good intentions.

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This same argument goes on year after year, but nothing changes. It is a disgrace that Taiwanese Buddhists are still defending this ignorant practice which causes so much more harm than good. ABN

Lao authorities have admitted that Laos is facing increasing negative impacts from mining industry, especially on the environment, due to failure by the companies or investors to abide by the regulations and agreements they signed with the Lao government.

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I moved to Mongolia from Seattle last June to work as a community youth development volunteer with the US Peace Corps. This is the coldest winter I have ever experienced.

I know it is an especially cold day when I can see frost forming on my hood, my feet ache from the cold ice underneath them.

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Recent research suggests there are more tigers left in the wild than there are great white sharks

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Report for the UN into the activities of the world's 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment

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Don't just celebrate the Year of the Tiger. Act to save this iconic species, whose numbers have plunged in the wild. Tiger experts have warned that the big cat will be extinct across 13 range countries if nothing is done to stop its hunting, loss of habitat and deprivation of prey.

In Malaysia, only some 500 Malayan tigers are believed to roam our forests - down from 3,000 some 50 years ago. For the species to rebound to a sustainable level, tiger conservationists calculated that we have to double the existing tiger population in 10 years.

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