Word: planetful
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...symbol was simple--a few straight lines inside a circle. But like a Chinese character, its form was suggestive. The straight lines hinted at the human body. The circle brought to mind Planet Earth. (It also looked a bit like the Mercedes-Benz logo, which has led to some confusion over the years.) Importantly, anybody could draw...
...Amazon was the chic eco-cause of the 1990s, revered as an incomparable storehouse of biodiversity. It's been overshadowed lately by global warming, but the Amazon rain forest happens also to be an incomparable storehouse of carbon, the very carbon that heats up the planet when it's released into the atmosphere. Brazil now ranks fourth in the world in carbon emissions, and most of its emissions come from deforestation. Carter is not a man who gets easily spooked--he led a reconnaissance unit in Desert Storm, and I watched him grab a small anaconda with his bare hands...
...several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline...
...lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy, one of the richest and most influential green groups in the U.S., Sanjayan fights for biodiversity. The concept is the backbone of the environmental movement, a recognition that the unimaginable variety of wildlife is an essential part of what makes our planet special, and worthy of protection for its own sake. But Sanjayan is worried that the conservation movement to which he has dedicated his life may be overlooking another kind of diversity: racial diversity. An American of South Asian descent (like many people from his native Sri Lanka, he generally uses one name...
...Coincidentally enough, two days ago, on the same day that Arthur C. Clarke passed away, scientists announced the first discovery of organic molecules (methane) and water in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system. The presence of these molecules increases our chances of finding other planets that have conditions that could support life as we know it. Although it is a shame that Arthur C. Clarke died before hearing this news, somehow it seems like he knew it long before...