Treasure

Last few days i have been digging through this treasure trove of environmental reporting. Its a collection of essays written by Dana Meadows over a period of almost two decades. What has impressed me about this collection is the extraordinary clarity and simplicity with which the author presented seemingly complex issues. No hyperbole. No doomsdaying. Just plain facts, and choices we can make in dealing with those facts. Its difficult to find such a comprehensive treatment of environmental issues, taking cues from perspectives far and wide — science, technology, economic policy, public perception, politics, ethics .. what have you. Oh, by the way, its pretty entertaining too. The writings are from 80’s and 90’s, but i found them to be extremely relevant even now. Please, go read the stuff. E-mail me, dear reader, if you don’t come out a tad wiser

King coal

(Image source)

These photographs from Ohio valley environmental coalition, are MUST see for any electricity consumer:

Mountaintop removal coal mining photographs

Mountaintop removal fact sheet

Not to mention, the amount of energy needed to transport the mined coal to power plants, and the co2 that’s emitted when coal is burnt !

“clean coal” ? Is there a better oxymoron ?

Pale blue dot

These spectacular images are from cassini spacecraft as it looked towards its old home while its orbiting the Saturn. (courtesy: Earth observatory, NASA)

The stunning saturn rings are real images. NASA explains: “This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist’s creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006. Scientists created the color in the image by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared, and clear-filter images and then adjusting the final image to resemble natural color.”