LittleYellowFrog

Business Week points to a new book by Giles Slade entitled “Made to Break”.

The book is about the planned obsolecense of many of today’s consumer goods and what we (as producers or consumers) might do to break this cycle and get away from the throwaway society.

Sounds like it might make an interesting read.

I had read about this a while ago but had forgotten that I’d seen it until I came across it again this week and was dismayed by it once more.

Came across what? Why, the story of the ongoing – destruction of the Appalachian mountains of course.

Destruction? Why? Why, to mine coal of course. These folks are literally blowing up mountains to get at the coal. The debris that remains fills up the valleys.

Watch the video at the above site. That such beautiful landscapes are being destroyed for their coal alone is a crying shame.

The Telegraph reports that most Britons believe climate change is happening and agree that something should be done about it – however, their preference is, perhaps naturally, for taxes which will not affect them personally.

Is climate change for real or are we getting carried away with ever-increasing bad news? New Scientist looks at both sides of the (often politically-motivated) debate.

ScienceDaily reports that atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels are now at their highest levels since records began (379.1ppm in 2005). The article says that there has been a 35.4% rise in CO2 levels since the 1700’s.

The WMO report itself can be found here

If you missed the Solar Power 2006 conference held in San Jose in between 16th and 19th of October don’t worry - you can catch video versions of all the presentations online at this TV Worldwide page.

A number of the speakers presentations are also available from the same place.