Endangered Birds Got the Beach



Most of us normal, average people would like to have a beach of our own where we can lie down and savor the sun all day. What will make it better than somebody else buying it for you and allowing you to use the beach for free? Apparently, you have to be an endangered species first before you can get someone to buy you a whole stretch of beach to lay egg on.

Meet the Maleo birds, these endangered birds got their own stretch of Indonesian beach to their name, complete with bodyguards to protect their eggs from human scavengers and hungry poachers. Maleo birds are considered endangered since they are very rare. These endangered species are also a native of Indonesia; unfortunately, their eggs have become a popular delicacy around the Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia. This situation had brought down the number of live Maleo birds threatening to extinct them.

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Tasmanian Devils Threatened by Contagious Facial Cancer



The population of the Tasmanian Devil, one of the most famous tourism icons of Australia, is not only valued for shaping the natural landscape but also for acting as a natural buffer in establishing the fox population in Tasmania. That is why the news of a rare kind of facial cancer spreading across this species is an incessant cause of concern for ecologists, naturalists, tourists, and also the Australian government.

Reported first in 1996, the Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) spread quite rapidly among the Tasmanian Devils, mainly in the eastern parts of Tasmania. The overall prevalence of the condition was reported from 64 places in the state, in end 2008, over 60% of the state’s total area. In high-density populations of the species, there is more than 90% of mortality rate, with most of the affected animals dying in 6 to 18 months after contracting the disease. For the ecologists and conservationists, this situation is no less than an emergency.

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Living Power: Renewable Power Generation from Animals and Humans



Generating electricity from biomass is stepping to the forefront of commercial power generation and Netherlands’ chicken-manure power plant, which started working around September 2008, stands as the largest biomass power plant in the world – supplying renewable electricity to nearly 90 thousand households. And yet more fascinating is the pursuit of developing renewable power projects that are modeled on the generation of electricity from the body of living organisms. The technologies are still in their infancy but whatever results have been obtained, thus far, are no less than amazing.

Of all the animals, studied for producing electricity in or on their bodies, none has come so stunning to the scientists as the electric eel. With its thousands of electrocytes (electricity-producing body cells), a large electric eel can generate an electric potential of about 600 volts – enough to stun a horse. Yale University researchers, in collaboration with nanotechnology engineers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), are working on developing artificial cells that would generate renewable power for medical implants and charging other small devices. The findings of these researchers, as published in Nature Nanotechnology (October 2008), show that the artificial cells modeled on electric eels’ electrocytes can be improved to produce up to 40% more electrical energy in a single pulse as compared to an eel’s natural electrocyte.

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Clean Coal Technologies



When it comes to coal and environment, the issue is more of availability and affordability, and that is what keeps coal from being stricken out of the energy sources list in our times. Generally considered as a big threat to the environment, coal is known to release large quantities of carbon dioxide in the air, adding to the problem of greenhouse effect (global warming), when it is converted to electric power. But coal power generation also gives out other harmful emanations like oxides of sulfur and nitrogen.

Still, coal is, so far, the cheapest solution for the problem of generating electric power on a large scale. In the US alone, it currently accounts for over half of the total amount of electric power generation. Wind power, on the other hand, is less than one per cent of the total power generated in the US. In developing countries, replacing coal with alternative sources of power is, at this time, next to impossible due to technological and cost issues. For environmental friendly approaches to power generation, there is hardly any other choice than focusing on clean coal technology.

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Leonardo Di Caprio and his Eco Green Lifestyle



Leonardo Di Caprio is one of Tinseltown’s most sought after actors.  He has come a long way indeed from his fresh faced days as “Jack” in Titanic.  Today Di Caprio is not only an Oscar nominated actor but also an outspoken environmentalist.

To show the world his commitment to sustainable and eco friendly living, he has purchased an eco friendly apartment in New York’s Riverhouse complex.  He has also traded in is hybrid Toyota Prius for a Tesla Roadster, his first sports car.

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