Until now. This is the first time that China has hinted at the possibility of it cutting its carbon emissions. While most of us probably won’t be around to see if China even makes good with its promise, it’s still nice to see that at least, China was willing to put a timeframe for reform.

The plastic companies are fighting back though. Calling the new city resolution as something that violates the law, the companies are now trying to get the courts to allow the bag back to the grocery without having to be slapped with a 20 cent tax.

There are roughly 180 000 bicyclists that weave through the busy streets of Gotham City everyday and while the number of 2 000 casualties seem pretty high – it’s still lower than the 4 000 that the year 2000 saw when there were less than 100 000 riders.

With the riders being more conscious of safety and with motorist being more aware of the presence of bikers, we could hopefully expect the number of casulaties to even go down further.

When one thinks about green energy, Africa is not exactly one of the first places that people think about. All of this will soon change.

In 2012, Kenya may very well ascend to the higher echelons as one of the greenest countries in the world in terms of using clean energy. Benefited by some of the world’s best wind velocities, the Sub-Saharan nation facing the Indian Ocean is set to have at least 365 wind turbines running within the next three to four years. When completed, the turbines on the northern part of the country at Lake Turkana will generate energy equal to 25% of the country’s current energy requirement.

The project is being funded by the African Development Bank (ADB). Kenya is by no means the first country in Africa to try and go green. Ethiopia has likewise tried to harness the power of the cross-continental winds by putting up a wind farm that currently supplies 15% of the nation’s energy requirement.

Chalk up one more reason why we should fight climate change.

According to experts and officials in Minnesota, the state has been seeing a lot more ticks compared to the past years. These ticks commonly attach themselves onto game such as deer and occasionaly, to humans.

These ticks have been known to cause Lyme disease. If left untreated, this illness can cause an assortment of permanent damage to a person’s nervous system and heart.

The proliferation of these ticks have been blamed on how the changing temperatures have tipped the ecological behavior of the little animal to expand its territory.This shows that the issue of climate change is not just something about the weather – it’s literally about everything in our daily lives including our very health.

green modular house

While a lot of people have been trying to make their cars run on cleaner fuel and with some people actually trying to make their houses less energy-dependent, there hasn’t been much chatter on how houses could be built on a more eco-friendly way.

Aside from hooking up houses to solar cells and trying to generate your own power, you may also use green materials that makes your house more energy efficient. There are recently developed materials such as Icynene that could be used as insulating material for walls. Studies show that using this material can reduce the cost of heating and cooling a house up to 50%.

Lighting is one of the things that need the most energy in a house. The modular houses that are designed to be green nowadays come in such a way that natural light can be easily used instead of electric light during the day. This makes it very Earth-friendly – not to mention economical.

While the technology is not exactly there yet, they have been able to produce compost material that could eventually be used to produced biodiesel. With the right amount of research and investment, you may just end up filling up your car with the same thing you drink every morning.

For decades now, scientists have known that the cattle industry is responsible for a big amount of the world’s total of carbon emissions. The animals themselves can produce over a hundred gallons of methane gas through belching or flatulence. With the global population set to increase and with meat production only expected to exponentially rise, the world is looking at a spike in carbon emissions from cows.

One farm in Vermont is trying to change that. By using cow wastes, the farm has been able to produce fuel that was able to run their generators. The wastes were kept in an anaerobic vat for three weeks to fully digest the raw material with the help of bacteria.

The Clear Standards Carbon Footprint Tracker (an application that you can download for free using the iPhone) makes the computation part a lot easier. Just input the amount of driving and flying you’ve done for the day and it will keep you posted on how close you are to your carbon footprint goal for the year. If you’re not keen on looking at your car’s mileage, you may even use the GPS to let the phone calculate your distance traveled for you.

Aside from giving you the address of the recycling facility, the application can also give you directions on how to get there the quickest. You may also call them directly through your iPhone through the search results.