Archive for the ‘The America’s’ Category

Not all diet plans are nutritious and safe. U.S. News rankings rate each diet’s healthiness

There are some very successful diets on the market - but weight lost doesn’t always equal health gained. That new diet that took inches off your waistline could be harming your health if it locks out or severely restricts entire food groups, like carbs, or relies on supplements with little scientific backing, or clamps down on calories to an extreme.

“People are so desperate to lose weight that it’s really weight loss at any cost,” says Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and author of The Real You Diet. And when that desperation sets in, says Fernstrom, “normal thinking goes out the window.” Who cares if the forbidden-foods list is longer than War and Peace? Pounds are coming off. You’re happy. But your body might not be. Read the rest of this entry »

Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth’s heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of “missing energy” in the planet’s system.

Where was it going? Or, they wondered, was something wrong with the way researchers tracked energy as it was absorbed from the sun and emitted back into space?

An international team of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, led by Norman Loeb of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and including Graeme Stephens of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., set out to investigate the mystery. Read the rest of this entry »

The prime minister has no choice – his commitment to the green economy will be judged by his attendance at the Earth Summit
By James Murry (Business Green)

If you were to ask most people whether they would like an all-expenses-paid trip to Rio de Janeiro, expressly designed to demonstrate that they were a nice guy or gal who cared about the planet, it would probably not take them too long to start packing their sunglasses. Sadly, life is not that simple when you are prime minister.

The debate over whether or not David Cameron should attend the Rio Earth +20 Summit continues to rumble on, presenting a potential political land mine for Number 10 that is only going to become more prominent as we get closer the global conference’s kick-off on 20 June. Read the rest of this entry »

Tactical speech to pre- empt GOP

Last night President Obama gave his final State of the Union address before the elections. He used a good part of it to try to pre-empt attacks on his energy and environmental agenda from the Republicans.

But Obama in a tactical play chose to co-opt the Republicans’ pro-oil and natural gas position rather than defend his own green agenda, as environmental groups had hoped. Read the rest of this entry »

Threatened surge in coal emissions

With countries abandoning nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster there is likely to be a massive increase in coal use that could have devastating consequences for the fight against climate change.

That was the stark message delivered today at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), who warned that those countries now committed to phasing out nuclear power are likely to see greenhouse gas emissions rise in the short to medium term Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s natural resources minister accuses a pipeline’s opponents of colluding with ‘radicals’ and ‘jet-setting celebrities’

Just4the planet reported on the Canadian natives peoples (First Nations) opposition to the extensive tar sands extraction on their tribal lands in Alberta

The tar sands have been described as the most destructive industrial project on the planet. An area larger than England is being excavated by the industry. The Athabasca river delta, once a pristine boreal forest with clean rivers and lakes, has become a devastated ecosystem of deforestation, open pit mines and toxic tailings ponds. Fish in nearby waters regularly exhibit tumours and birds landing on contaminated tailings ponds die. In neighbouring First Nations communities, where local people have hunted and fished for many years, abnormally high rates of cancer and immune system diseases are now being found

Yesterday however -the Canadian government let loose an extraordinary rant against opponents of a controversial project to pump tar sands crude to Pacific Coast ports on Monday, accusing campaigners of colluding with foreign “radicals” and “jet-setting celebrities” to hijack the government. Read the rest of this entry »

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich all tout anti-environmental credentials ahead of crucial New Hampshire primary

By the end of the year the USA will be deciding who will occupy the White House come 2013. This will have a crucial affect on the direction of US environmental and climate change policy.

Just4theplanet has been critical of the GOP in the past. Indeed one wonders whether they should replace their elephant logo – to an osterich – with it’s head buried in the sand.
True to form – the first week of campaigning of election year saw a series of interventions where Republican nominees and their supporters reiterated their opposition to a raft of climate change and environmental policies, underscoring how green issues are likely to emerge as one of the major dividing lines during the presidential campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Study says rapidly thinning sea ice in north Atlantic has ravaged seal numbers, making annual commercial seal hunt superfluous

Just4theplanet and j4tp ambassador Stevie Riks have often spoke out against the disgusting practice of seal pup culling. The cause against this most inhumane of activities has also been highlighted by many well known personalities – including Merseysides favourite son – Sir Paul McCartney. A new study now reveals that these beautiful animals face even more danger from melting ice – making culling an even worse crime than it already is.

And so Canada has faced fresh calls to shut down its commercial seal hunt on Thursday, following new evidence that death rates among seal pups had dramatically increased due to thinning winter sea ice. Read the rest of this entry »