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Space Debris

Reema — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:50:17 +0000

Although most people consider our home to be just the globe, as we expand our reaches and advance space exploration, we are able to go much farther and encompass much more. With this comes wonderful new opportunities, but not without consequences. Space debris/pollution is quickly becoming an issue today, and in the future it may [...]

Infrastructure Development

Nakul — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:49:11 +0000

Not long ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal referring to U.S and China working together to rebuild Afghanistan. It was a really interesting article that engineers form Chinese state-owned company were rebuilding roads from aid money “$50 million contract funded by Italian aid money to grade and pave 33 miles of [...]

Climate Change: Seeking Consensus between Developing and Developed Countries

Rafadi Hakim — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:19:57 +0000

Global consensus between developed and developing nations regarding climate change has always been difficult to achieve. Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, criticized the recent agreement of G8 leaders to cut emissions by 80% by 2050 for not being sufficiently effective. According to the BBC News Report, Mr Ban, who cited 2020 as the ideal [...]

Dead Zones

mary — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00:45 +0000

Coastal dead zones are areas in the marine environment that are too depleted of oxygen to support life. Although there are natural cycles of oxygen depletion in major water basins around the world, the seasonal cycle of water warming and nutrient movement from rivers and lakes is being aggravated by human actions. Human pollution [...]

“Persepolis” sheds light on life in Iran

Reema — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:31:40 +0000

Iran has been the subject of countless news stories more in the past year than perhaps any other nation, and with good reason. The nation has an extremely complicated and diverse history that is sometimes not easy to understand regardless of any research or reading one may do. In the past, I personally had found [...]

US gives poor environmental performance among G8

Aurelia — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:43:52 +0000

Recently, the WWF-Allianz SE G8 Global Climate Scorecard report was released, showing how the members of G8 ranked in cutting CO2 emissions and introducing clean energy. Basically, the report showed their progress in “going green”. The United States was second to last. And if this ranking wasn’t bad enough, it’s actually a step up from before. This ranking [...]

Sea Grass Ecosystem as Threatened as Tropical Rainforests

mary — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:56:25 +0000

According to the National Academy of Sciences, 70% of all marine life is somehow dependent on sea grass beds for their existence. They provide a habitat and food for various forms of endangered marine life and absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide. Sea grass beds reduce the wave energy that reaches coastlines, increases [...]

I Won’t Back Down: Climate Change Activism and Waxman-Markey

Guay — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:39:31 +0000

Environmental groups and key democratic senators have been waging a grueling battle against industry lobbyists and a determined republican opposition to pass landmark legislation that would regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This would be a first for this country and is, by all accounts, dangerously close to the deadline set by [...]

Where does my trash go?

Megumi — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:39:18 +0000

When is the last time you were at a landfill? For some people, seeing piles of trash is part of their everyday lives. For me and many of my neighbors in Northern Virginia, landfills are “educational” places that we would only go to for a field trip. While we may be physically separated from these [...]

Remembering Neda Agha-Soltan

Jerry Barney — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:38:59 +0000

Neda Agha-Soltan and her singing instructor got out of their hot car for a breath of fresh air not far from the anti-government protests they had ventured out to attend. A shot, and she fell. “It burned me,” she said before she died seconds later. Watch the video taken with a cell phone. It is shockingly [...]