Green News

Alternative Ways That Have Been Around For YEARS

LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) Conversions have been around for a number of years. They allow the use of a cheaper and cleaner fuel compared to petrol. Few manufacturers, such as GM/Vauxhall, have just recently begun to offer this option on a number of their newer models. The LPG-converted Smart – a fairly green car to begin with, even in its conventional fuel form – is one of the leaders in this particular class and certainly a vehicle to consider.

Compressed Natural Gas is even cleaner than Liquefied Petroleum Gas but with fewer than 50 refilling stations around the country, it is unlikely to be a serious contender at the moment.

Electric cars have also been available for some time, though the current versions are considerably more refined than some of their predecessors. Their short range still dictates that they are restricted urban areas, but with zero direct emissions at street level, they make a significant contribution in the effort to reduce pollution in towns and cities all over the world. Since they also rely on electricity regularly demands them to be plugged into the grid to recharge, hence they cannot be deemed as entirely “green”. Never-the-less, the electric G-Wiz – described as the “greenest car available” – with its 40mph top speed and a range of 40 miles, is worth a good look if it meets your transport needs.

Hybrid Cars

Since the selection of hybrids currently in the United Kingdom is slim, they still the most practical option available

Most often hybrids are 20 per/cent higher than similar conventional vehicles, but they do benefit from low road tax and significantly lower CO2 emissions. If the hybrid idea appeals to you, Honda Civic IMA and the Toyota Prius are certainly note-worthy.

Conventional Methods

Things have moved on a long way in the design of conventional vehicles. With mpg and CO2 figures documented at an all time low for all new models, it is very easy to compare any number of different cars and find the greenest of them all. Diesels are probably a good choice in general, especially since bio-diesel seems likely to be more widely available in the future. Many of the current generation of small diesel-engine cars offer impressive fuel economy and low emissions, such as the Citroen C2 1.4 Diesel, which returns 68.9mpg under optimum conditions and releases only 107g of C02 per km when using conventional diesel.

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Chrysler is in The Game!

Daimler-Chrysler announced that U.S. consumers will finally get its tiny Smart car in 2008, but a car dealer in Kirkland that got smart a long time ago already has sold 80 of them since February.

Green Car, one of the largest dealers of Smart cars in the United States, imports them from Europe and has them modified to fit U.S. specifications. The company has sold them to customers in six states, said Service Manager Susan Fahnestock.

Fahnestock stated that her company is “out to reinvent the car dealership the way REI changed the sporting-goods store and Whole Foods remade the supermarket.”

She calls the company she founded with partners Don Fahnestock, her husband; and Greg Rock an "eco-friendly" car dealership, or the "anti-dealer."

Green Car has a showroom and a staff of eight, but no one works on commission. Instead of focusing on selling inventory, they work on matching a customer to the right car, based on driving habits.

"The main mission is to educate consumers about how their vehicle choices are affecting the environment, especially with regard to global warming," Fahnestock said.

The company, which grew out of a Volvo repair shop the Fahnestocks had for 10 years in Kirkland, also sells electric cars and converts gas vehicles to run on alternative fuels like biodiesel. In the future, it plans to add an ethanol fuel station and sell cars that run on ethanol.

The company took a do-it-yourself approach to the market: It didn't find enough family-size cars that run on diesel, so it decided to make their own.

As Always, Keep it Green

Is Everyone For the Earth, or Not?

Here is a post that a person who will remain nameless posted on another board for hybrid cars. It has some information that can be found to be against hybrid cars, but they do have a point, looks can be decieveing; or this person really just doesn't care about the earth.

"Hybrids are not what they would seem to be at first glance, hence, everyone should be encouraged to be very serious when analyzing why they want a hybrid car.


If it's to save money on gas. You would have to drive it at large amounts since the cost difference between a hybrid and a similar aspirated car are so extreme, and would take years to get your money back.

If it's to conserve energy, you should know that, for example, the Prius requires almost 70% more energy to produce than the Echo, as do most hybrids versus their aspirated cousins. In the cradle to cradle method of speaking, the true cost is not the perceived cost, environmentally speaking. Besides that, the Prius gets less than 10% better gas mileage than the Echo (it's closest same-brand cousin), for more than $7k more dollars. Same with the civic, although if I had to buy a hybrid, it would be a civic.

If it's to save the earth, then you should know that the duty cycle on those batteries is expected to be about 6 years, at which point you're looking at a replacement which at that time will be > than the value of the car, as well as now having a couple-hundred-pound series of heavy-metal-and-acid-containing environmental disasters to dispose of.

If you want to be green, you want diesel. More Nox, less Sox, but more importantly *carbon neutral* if you run bio. You'll also see >50Mpg from a non-electric car, a 250k minimum lifetime on the motor, and <$.50 a gallon gas if you make it yourself.

Ethanol or the blended alcohols are your next best bet because again, they are carbon neutral.

Big Business has done a great job tricking the american public into believing that hybrids are a great big special deal...they're not. Really, REALLY look into them before you buy one. Caveat emptor and whatnot. And don't even get me started on tax credits... :)"

One important point of this is the person was right, in the matter of always look into what you are buying in-depth. If you do not then you can be scammed on many things and not just in ways to keep the earth green.

As Always, Keep it Green.

Ontario Announces The Liberal Plan

Monday, Ontario announced the Liberal Plan. The provincial wide plan states that the province aims to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases to 6 percent below the 1990 levels. Its goal is to be achieved by the year 2014; just two years after the Kyoto agreement’s deadline. The future goals of the plan are to achieve 15 percent below the levels found in 1990 by the time 2020 arrives. The final stage is to achieve levels 80 percent below by the year 2050.

Premier Dalton McGuinty stated that in order to accomplish the necessary reductions, the coal plants will be closed and the money put into energy audits and technological advances instead.

Though the plan has long term and devoted people to see these goals accomplished, many environmentalists say Ontario’s plan is not good enough and is too late for it to have any beneficial outcome.

The Progressive Conservative act, commissioned by John Tory, proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a minimal 10 percent lower then the levels found in 1990 before the year 2020 and 60 percent below the 1990 emissions before or at the year 2050. John also proposed that any new and existing government buildings to become more energy efficient and also suggests other ways to implement the use of alternative fuels and eco-friendly energy.

Later in a speech, Dalton McGuinty announced, "We're doing our part to fight climate change in an ambitious and realistic way by shutting down coal plants, promoting energy conservation and investing in infrastructure that helps Ontarians reduce their greenhouse gas emissions," He followed with, "We're going even further by setting tough new targets for the future that will build on all we have achieved ...”

Even though many have dismissed both plans, anything in the direction of reducing greenhouse gases is a step in the right direction and overall wise step in helping preserve our earth.

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The Future Outlook on Emissions and Removal of Greenhouse Gases

Estimates of future emissions and removals depend in part on assumptions about changes in underlying human activities. For example, the demand for fossil fuels such as gasoline and coal is expected to increase greatly with the predicted growth of the U.S. and global economies.

The National Research Council concluded, in assessing current trends, that "emissions of some greenhouse gases are increasing, but others are decreasing. In some cases the decreases are a result of policy decisions, while in other cases the reasons for the decrease are not well understood" (NRC, 2001)

Many, but not all, human sources of greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise in the future. This growth may be reduced by ongoing efforts to increase the use of newer, cleaner technologies and other measures. Additionally, our everyday choices about such things as commuting, housing, electricity use and recycling can influence the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted.

The United States government prepares projections of emissions and removals of all greenhouse gases. The following links provide more detailed information on projections:

• Greenhouse Gas Projections, Chapter 5 of the U.S. Climate Action Report (PDF, 11 pp., 322 KB, About PDF): In Chapter 5 of the Climate Action Report, the U.S. forecasts future emission levels using information developed from models.
• International Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections
• Methane Projections
• Nitrous Oxide Projections
• Fluorinated Gases

Russia's Plan for 2008

Russia plans to start trading its greenhouse emission quotas in 2008. They will start this once they have met all eligibility requirements needed to start with the Kyoto mechanisms, a senior Russian official said on Friday.

The point of the new Kyoto Protocol mechanism, termed “Joint Implementation”, will allow industrialized countries to buy rights to emit greenhouse gases and use them to help stay within their Kyoto emissions caps by the year 2012.

It works by allowing countries that are busting their caps, like Japan, Spain and Italy, to fund projects which can cut emissions in their countries to be well within their limits, like most former communist states. This will allow the countries to count the costs solely.

“I believe we can obtain a status of a country complying with Kyoto protocol requirements in early 2008,” Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Sharonov told foreign investors and bankers, adding a Kyoto monitoring mission would visit Russia in July.

Sharonov said Russia aimed to sell quotas for 300 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent to European Union countries. He said 29 projects had been submitted for review to the Kyoto Protocol secretariat already.

Sharonov estimated the European Union’s demand at 250-350 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2008-2012 while Russia is likely to have spare quotas for 3 billion metric tons despite strong economic growth.

Projects in Russia which could prove lucrative for investors include burning methane, a potent greenhouse gas, or plugging leaky gas pipelines, also cutting methane emissions.

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The Young are getting involved on Ellesmere Island

In April 2008, five young adults are planning to join Will Steger on a 1,200 mile dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island . There they will follow in the footsteps of legendary explorers and visit ice shelves that have collapsed due to global warming and those that are on the brink of collapsing. Crossing fjords, mountain ranges, and sea ice, the Expedition Team will record the impact global warming has had on the northern coast of the third largest and northernmost island in the Canadian Arctic.

The 2008 Ellesmere Island Expedition will inspire to mobilize the next generation of explorers and any eyewitnesses to the effects of global warming. These young adults will travel over northern Ellesmere, an area that has undergone significant warming effects over recent decades. Their goal is to document the effects of climate change on the Island. There is no better time than now: the Ward Ice Shelf experienced a major breakup during the summer of 2002 and the Ayles Ice Shelf calved entirely in August 2005. The Expedition will include the historical perspective of other crossings, including Robert Peary’s in 1906, when the ice shelf was continuous. Using expedition journals and archived photos, the Team will retrace historical routes to examine how the conditions have changed due to global warming. The young adults selected to participate will build their leadership skills and develop a firsthand awareness of what is happening in the Canadian Arctic. They will return to their communities and college campuses where they will work to reduce global warming by sharing their stories from the trail.

World-renowned polar explorer and educator Will Steger is an eyewitness to the on-going catastrophic consequences of global warming. Utilizing the latest in web and communications technologies, students, educators, media and individuals can travel with Steger to the ends of the earth themselves. The expeditions provide an unparalleled platform for educating and motivating people.

As Always, Keep it Green.

A Breakdown of What Your State Can Do For Global Warming

State and local governments play an important role in meeting the national goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012. They are participating in national voluntary programs and initiatives, analyzing the costs and benefits of actions and developing and applying innovative programs and strategies that achieve wide-ranging benefits to businesses, the environment and public health. EPA supports states and communities in these activities by encouraging voluntary approaches and providing technical assistance and tools.

Details on actions by states and efforts by local agencies to address climate change, along with links to relevant EPA voluntary programs that can help states and localities meet their goals. It also provides a directory of tools that can help state and local governments inventory their greenhouse gas emissions, analyze greenhouse gas reduction opportunities and quantify the energy, environmental and economic benefits of lowering greenhouse gases. More information on the role of state and local governments can be found below:

State Actions
States are developing and implementing a range of programs and strategies that are cost-effectively reducing greenhouse gases, improving air quality, enhancing economic development and creating jobs. Learn more about the following steps that states are taking:

• State Action Plans: More than 25 U.S. states have completed, or are working on action plans that identify cost-effective options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or enhancing carbon sequestration. This section of the site includes links to individual state action plans, details on how states develop their action plans and EPA guidance for states.
• State and Regional Climate Actions Table: These tables provide a summary of current state and regional climate initiatives.
• State Action Plans Database: This searchable database contains policy recommendations from the action plans of 21 states. Policies are classified by sector, category and policy.

Local Actions
Local governments across the United States are implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy actions that can have multiple benefits including saving money, creating jobs, promoting sustainable growth and reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution. This section includes suggestions for activities and links to resources that can help local governments reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The Lexus LS 600h L - A Hybrid or Hoax?

If solar panels on Al Gore’s 20-room mansion and Vanity Fair’s 300-page annual green issue make you feel queasy about the eco-chic spin on our sustained environmental and energy crisis, then the Lexus LS 600h L might make you feel downright nauseous.

The Top 10 list of why the Lexus LS 600h L is the most bizarre and misguided hybrid:

1. A hybrid powertrain on a 5-liter V8 engine.
2. 430 horsepower (equivalent of 6-liter V12).
3. City/highway mileage rating in the low 20s.
4. 70-percent cleaner emissions than the “cleanest” of its V8 competitors.
5. Noise and vibration levels are about half of conventional cars. (“This is the kind of vehicle that travels slightly detached from the road, the local environment, and anyone else that doesn’t have a near 7-digit income,” writes Art Vatsky in AutoBlogGreen.)
6. Since you can’t hear anything outside the cabin, the vehicle uses two-cameras and a radar system to detect approaching objects and humans. A third camera mounted on the steering column monitors if the driver’s head is turned to the side. If a car, object, or pedestrian gets too close, the “advanced pre-collision system” alerts the driver with a chime and a flashing light.
7. Each vehicle is hand-sanded twice during the painting process.
8. Lexus aims to sell 1,200 to 2,000 units in the U.S. (Is this profitable for Lexus?)
9. Starts at $104,000. (At this price, you could buy four Priuses, keep one for yourself, and give three away as cute gifts).
10. The Lexus LS600h L is an amazing showcase of Lexus’s creativity and technological sophistication—all applied to vehicle that is completely out-of-step with our times.

If any of our more affluent readers are thinking about the Lexus LS600 L, by all means, have some fun. But don’t kid yourself that you are doing anything to help the world.

Huston We Have Another Problem

NASA has drastically underestimated the severity of Global Warming. They now have stated that in 10 years, the tipping point will be upon us. Even additional "moderate” greenhouse emissions are likely to push Earth past the "tipping points" and result in critically "dangerous consequences for the planet," according to research conducted by NASA and the Columbia University Earth Institute.

Future forecasts, once the earth has been pushed into a critical state will include "increasingly rapid sea-level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones," according to the NASA announcement.

In regards to the new research paper, NASA has stated that they are endorsing a science that places considerable more measures on the urgency for the need on reducing emissions. This will help to avoid "disastrous effects" of global warming. The measures will be boosted to counter the underestimate in the earlier reports from the world's scientists coordinated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The new NASA release emphasizes the danger of "strong amplifying feedbacks" pushing Earth past "dangerous tipping points."

Scientists have been warning for several years that such tipping points are the greatest threat from man-made global warming — and what makes it potentially catastrophic for civilization.

As the tipping points pass, "there is an acceleration, potentially uncontrollable, of emissions of vast natural stores of greenhouse gas," according to Hansen, who reviewed the study for ABC News today.

Hansen explains that dangerous feedback loops are being tracked in various regions of the planet.

Many studies have reported feedback loops already observed in thawing tundra, sea beds and drying forests.

Hansen also points out that dark — and therefore heat-absorbing — forests are now expanding toward the Arctic, replacing lighter-colored areas such as tundra and snow cover.

The study says that "only moderate additional climate forcing (which would mean only moderate additional warming from such emissions) is likely to set in motion the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet" and is dubbed WAIS by polar scientists.

Many scientists say a disintegration of WAIS would mean catastrophically rapid sea-level rise.

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Breaking Announcement on Global Warming

The Larsen B ice shelf, on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, has shattered and separated from the continent as a result of warming.

A recent study led by James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies confirms that, because of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases, Earth is trapping more energy from the sun than it is releasing back into space.

The U.N. International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that global temperatures will rise 2 to 10 degrees by 2100. A "middle of the road" projection is for an average 5-degree increase by the end of the century, says Caspar Amman of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

What the various factions don't necessarily agree on is what to do about it. The heart of the discussion is "really about how to deal with climate change, not whether it's happening," says energy technology expert James Dooley of the Battelle Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Md. "What are my company's options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Are there new business opportunities associated with addressing climate change? Those are the questions many businesses are asking today."

General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt recently announced that his company, which reports $135 billion in annual revenue, will spend $1.5 billion a year to research conservation, pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. Joining him for the announcement were executives from such mainline corporations as American Electric Power, Boeing and Cinergy.

To be sure, many companies — most notably oil industry leader ExxonMobil — still express skepticism about the effects of global warming. And the Bush administration has supported research and voluntary initiatives but has pulled back from a multi-nation pact on environmental constraints.

Power companies want to know what sort of carbon constraints they face — carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas — so they can plan long term and avoid being hit with dramatic emission limits or penalties in the future.

Now that it is fully accepted that the world is in fact “warming”, steps will be taken to make safe our future. This wont be the last we hear of this story and I’ll keep you informed with each post.

As Always, Keep it Green.

Global Warming.. Man Made or A Natural Cycle?

On Feburary 2nd this year, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by a group called, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely" played a role.

The addition of that single word "very" did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a red-carpet moment when former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," was awarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.

The greenhouse effect has been part of the earth's workings since its earliest days. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space. Without the greenhouse effect, the planet would never have warmed enough to allow life to form. But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.

The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches, it said, and the changes now underway will continue for centuries to come.

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G-8 Summit Update. First Day.

Thursday, June 7^th, the leaders of the industrial nations agreed on the efforts needed to combat global warming by president Bush, will be most effective for our world.

Participants in the Group of 8 summit, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, yielded to Bush's insistence that although new talks were necessary to deal with climate change, the summit must not order specific steps and targets to reduce the greenhouse gases widely blamed for rising temperatures. Bush has sought goals rather than mandatory steps.

Merkel entered the summit calling for a plan endorsed by most European leaders, under which participating nations would reduce their emissions by 2050 to half of what they were in 1990.

She came away with a goal — a non-mandated course favored by Bush — of such an emissions reduction, and a decision to "invite" "the major economies" — a category that includes China, India and Brazil — to join them.

"I can live very well with the compromise," Merkel told German television interviewers.

Though the chancellor and British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented the global warming agreement as a strong step forward, many environmentalists were not pleased.

Reinhard Buetikofer, head of Germany's opposition Green Party, said the summit statement was "juggling with words," and added, "To 'consider seriously' halving the emissions by 2050 is a triumph of vagueness and non-commitment."

At the same time, Fred Krupp, who heads the U.S. organization Environmental Defense, praised Bush's acceptance of the summit plan.

Krupp said that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) must promptly take advantage of widespread U.S. business support for a cap-and-trade program, under which polluters that have difficulty reducing emissions to stated levels can buy credits from others who reduce emissions below the limit.

The plan proposed here would replace that United Nations-sponsored agreement, which the U.S. has never ratified — the only G-8 nation not to do so. Global warming was one of the central topics of the 2 1/2 days of formal and social meetings at the summit, whose participants are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

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WINDPOWER 2007 - Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles, California now has the title of world’s largest annual wind energy conference and exhibition. Close to 7,000 exhibitors and professionals are scheduled to attend. The point of these conferences is to keep the world updated on the current events and on goings of the many ways the U.S. and others are keeping the earth green.

WindPower 2007 will discuss the technologies, policies, and international essentials, which allow wind power to be possible.

In addition to specific policy sessions, WINDPOWER 2007 attendees can expect updates on policy developments taking place on Capitol Hill. One these much anticipated and controversial developments affecting the U.S. wind industry is the anti-wind provisions of H.R. 2337.

From to policy updates on bills such as H.R. 2337 to a turbine vendor forum to U.S. project development overviews, WINDPOWER 2007 will include more than 250 speakers and moderators, 175 poster presentations and 50 sessions organized into tracks that—along with policy—include business and legal issues, utility and transmission, global perspectives, radar and sitting updates, and small wind and technical focuses.

As reported in Wind Energy Weekly last month, provisions in the bill would burden the wind power industry with new requirements that have never applied to other energy sectors. Specifically subtitle D of the bill would direct the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to review every existing and planned wind project, a mandate far beyond the agency's resources and capabilities, and criminalize operation of wind energy facilities not formally certified by USFWS. Under the legislation, landowners and farmers with wind turbines on their property would be subject to invasive inspection requirements at any time; landowners and farmers could face one year in jail or a $50,000 penalty for constructing or operating an uncertified wind turbine, regardless of whether it is for personal use or on a commercial scale.

You can find out more at http://www.windpower.com/ . if you wish to find a seat or present an idea, namely in wind power, that convention is the biggest and best to attend.

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Extended Warranty For The Honda Insight Hybrid

Honda has announced a new extended warranty to the owners of the 2000 – 2004 Honda Insight. Many owners have already received letters in the mail, explaining all the details for the new warranty.

Honda has been providing“goodwill” assistance to owners over the past years, due to the IMA (Integrated Motor Assist Battery Module), sometimes failing. Many people have been reimbursed or were able to get the IMA fixed at a discounted price. The IMA is the core of the car’s system and the new warranty now covers it either 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever the owners come to first. The new warranty will also have the owners leave the vehicle for a day so the maintenance can make sure everything is fixed correctly and so they do not get over booked.

It hasn’t been stated on why the IMA has been failing and the letters do not bring to light to that question either. Many have been saying, however, that the hybrid systems simply cannot manage a manual transmission. What happens is when going up a hill, an automatic will not down-shift and it will stay in the fifth gear. This is a lot harder on the hybrid system so many think that is the culprit.

Along with current owners getting reimbursed, Honda is also encouraging people who have previously owned the hybrid to get a hold of Honda and see if they are able to be reimbursed as well.

With this Extended Warranty offering, Honda plans to keep it’s “goodwill” actions going and making it much easier for the owners. This just goes to show that Honda really is looking out for their customers and appreciates the people driving their cars. Honda still does plan on halting the creation of this particular type of model, but they have a trick up their sleeves. A new module, cheaper than the Hybrid Civic, and will be in 2009… but that is a story for another time, folks.

As Always, Keep it Green.

Our Air, Our Water, Our Scientists?!

Scientists have been debating on whether or not; global warming has been increasing the intensity of hurricanes. Some agree that the rise in temperature of the oceans seas and their levels have been a major contribution when it comes to the outcome of a new hurricane. Others say that the intensities from global warming are so minute that it has relatively no effect, or at least that they can tell.

The 2007 hurricane season is beginning and the debate over the climate change in boosting hurricanes devastation is a debate with the scientists who research our waters, clouds, and are working to find out what exactly is going on with out weather.

Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado said the next logical question is, how have sea surface temperatures changed over the last 30 years or so, "and that's where the global warming aspects come in and that's where some of the dispute seems to lie."

He is convinced that global warming is a huge factor when it comes to the intensity of a hurricane.

However, Chris Landsea of the U.S. government's National Hurricane Center in Miami considers global warming to be a minor influence when it comes to hurricanes intensity. Instead he compared it to long-term climate cycles that can last for decades.

When it comes to the relationship between hurricane strength and global warming, "the important question is not, is there an impact, but how much of an impact," Landsea said in a telephone interview. "When you look at all of the studies ... it's a pretty tiny sensitivity."

Landsea said hurricanes get about 2 percent stronger for every rise of 1 degree F (.55C) in the sea surface temperature.

"Consider that we can only estimate winds to the nearest 5 miles an hour here at the hurricane center and when you get to Category 4 or 5, you're really making a guess to the nearest 10 miles an hour," Landsea said. "A 1- or 2-mile an hour change is so tiny you can't even measure it."

Trenberth retorted “that global climate change was a big factor in driving the spike in sea surface warming in 2005, a hurricane season that broke records for its intensity.”

Tropical sea temperatures were up by 1.6 degrees F (.92 degree C) in 2005.

"The key thing about global warming is it doesn't go away," Trenberth said. "It provides a background level (of warming), and the natural fluctuations can be thought of as occurring on top of it."

The matter is not settled. Recent published studies in Nature said “hurricanes over the past 5,000 years appear to have been controlled more by El Nino and an African monsoon than warm local sea surface temperatures.”

The debate is far from over and will continue through the hurricane season it’s self. Hopefully these scientists will figure out if the rise in temperatures do have a significant impact on the intensity of a hurricane, or is it really just smoke and mirrors.

As Always, Keep it Green