Sometimes having an Endangered Species Act isn’t enough. In an ideal world, after going through a rigorous assessment and listing process, a species would be genuinely protected. What does protection entail? Well, it should include necessary life cycle factors like habitat, food, predators, and so on. Often, given the likelihood of past habitat degradation, protection might also mean remediation and other conservation measures.

The problem is that preserving habitat and ecosystem conditions can mean making inconvenient choices. Accessible areas might be closed. Activities could be curtailed. Other species would take precedence over human needs. It can be a hard position to sell, that conservation is worth all the change.

And then there is the reverse situation, when people take precedence over plants and animals. Let’s admit it, this is the more common scenario. Around the world, growing human populations are placing more pressure on their environment, from changing the vegetation to using resources like water. And then there is subsistence hunting, where impoverished people kill animals to provide food for families. It is hard to argue with basic survival needs.

California’s juniper trees have several claims to fame. The Western or Sierra juniper, Juniperus occidentalis, is through parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. It is spread by seed through animal dispersal. Some trees have been dated at up to 2,000 years old.

The current administration cites concerns about tree density and the risks of wildfire and disease. It is the culmination of years of planning by the Bush administration. Back in 2005, nearly a billion dollars was for similar schemes across US federal forests. Wooded areas near homes and underbrush were the major targets in the initial proposal.

I can't see all the brainiacs at Google working on this one, but even if the tech behemoth invests some effort on the green challenge, it's a welcome sign. And Google has been listening. It's a long leap from bits and bytes to the environment but Google is not shying away. Google Inc is now using its deep pockets to fund green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.

This Wednesday, Google took a proactive initiative to wean the United States off burning coal and oil for power by 2030, and cut oil use for cars by 40 percent. The bill might add up to trillions of dollars, but Google believes it's a sound investment for the future.

Chief Executive Eric Schmidt drew some parallels between the current financial crisis and its cost with the energy crisis.

"There is an equivalent scale problem in energy."

Google's energy plan envisages stricter building codes, a commitment to wind and solar tax credits that have lapsed in the past, and a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or tax.

There has been an ongoing discussion concerning the safety of plastic bottles that contain water and even ones that are used to feed babies. The issue is with the toxic chemical, Bisphenol A (BPA). This chemical prevents plastic bottles from breaking so that they stay sturdy. However, a study by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine showed that BPA breaks down at a rate 55 times faster when filled with boiling water as opposed to room temperature water. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not expressed concern in the past, the National Toxicology Program has expressed some concern with regard to children and babies.

BPA can be released if your plastic bottle becomes heated in some way. For example, if you leave your water in the car and it’s exposed to the sun, the temperature in the car can rise very quickly and increase the water’s temperature as well. It can also be released if the bottle is washed and scrubbed repeatedly in a dishwasher or sink.

The toxic chemical is known to disrupt the hormones in animals and affect the hormone system. Newborn babies are potentially more at risk for experiencing issues from BPA since their bodies are in the process of development. Reproductive problems and cancer in adults has been noted as possible long-term effects from BPA.

Until more research is done on the effects of BPA, avoid these types of plastics for now. An alternative is Ecogen, which is available at Big Green Smile. This plastic is less toxic than the BPA-containing plastics, and it is also biodegradable and produced from renewable resources. There are a variety of containers available for your home as well as other eco-friendly products.

With regard to plastic bottles, start drinking tap water so you can reduce your need for plastic water bottles all together. If you have a newborn, try to breast feed them as much as you can or use Wee-Go’s glass baby bottles so you don’t have to resort to the toxic bottles. For now, it’s uncertain as to what level BPA becomes unsafe, but it’s better to avoid it than to take the risk.

In the past, some unusual objects have helped us understand ocean currents. One American oceanographer, , has followed the paths taken by thousands of drifting bathtub toys. In the 1990s, Floatee toys were lost from a container ship in the mid-Pacific and followed large surface currents known as gyres. Nike running , plastic and other debris have also provided information about water movements.

Most of these objects have been serendipitous, accidentally spilled but then used to investigate patterns. However, a new study has borrowed the same technique - with rubber duckies. A researcher from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has released 90 yellow rubber ducks into the ice of Jacobshavn Glacier. Hopefully, the ducks’ movements will shed some light on glacial melting.

The global financial crisis may cripple more 'victims' other than the banks and lending institutions. The financial meltdown is creating numerous little Catch-22 situations around the world. The first one could be an international pact sponsored by the U.N to combat the environment threat. The U.N. Climate Panel had advocated against human use of fossil fuels and had said that continued use would bring more floods, heat waves, droughts and rising seas. It had succeeded in highlighting the costs of neglecting the environment at the altar of development. Many governments had also come around to a shared view. Now, a proposed global treaty to combat global warming looks in peril as the United States gets embroiled in its own version of Hurricane 'Wall Street'. Copenhagen in December 2009 is looking ever more distant.

Political comments have come in from a lot of quarters. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said that the market difficulties would make it harder to agree a climate deal, while U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said last week he may be forced to scale back his planned investments in energy. Early fears suggest that the world could jettison the environment for more 'immediate' concerns.

Do you stop at a coffee shop on your way to work? Maybe you get a to-go cup at a drive thru. Regardless of your method for getting coffee, you are probably consuming and disposing of a large amount of paper cups. According to a study by Good Earth Coffee, 67% of people at a coffee shop admitted to throwing their paper cups in the garbage. While you might be getting your energy for the day in a handy portable cup, you are only adding to the trash in landfills.

Purchasing a cup of coffee on your way to work is convenient, but if you add up all of the times you buy coffee, you might realize that you can potentially save $500 to $1,000 a year depending on what kind and how much coffee you buy. A simple solution to prevent this unnecessary waste and out of pocket expense is to brew your coffee at home. Many coffee makers come with timers, which can be set so your coffee starts brewing before you wake up. Then all that is left to do is pour the coffee in a tall thermos, and you can probably drink a few cups of coffee instead of just one. You can also go a step further by purchasing organic coffee beans that are packaged in eco-friendly containers.

If you choose to continue purchasing coffee on your way to work, make an attempt to recycle your paper cup so that it doesn’t end up in a landfill. However, some paper cups are coated in a plastic that is not recyclable so check with the coffee shop and make sure the cups can be recycled.

The next time you decide to buy and not brew your coffee, also keep in mind that it takes approximately 20 years for a paper cup to decompose in a landfill. Make an effort to reduce your coffee purchases and see the difference that it makes in your wallet when you decide to brew coffee at home. Brewing at home can preserve the environment and save you money every year.

The last thing anyone wants to see is slime pouring out of the tap. But increasingly this happens when the water is turned on. Algae is clogging freshwater intakes and presenting serious problems. On the west coast of Canada - known for its abundant water resources - there have been a number of cases reported over the past few years.

Algae are tiny aquatic plants, ranging from microscopic to massive colonies. Since they are photosynthetic, algae need sunlight, keeping them to surface waters. There are thousands of species, including green and blue-green algae as well as diatoms and flagellates.

The most recent examples are communities in northern around Cluculz and Tachik Lakes. Unfortunately, the culprits are cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green , that may contain neurotoxins or hepatotoxins - making it particularly important to avoid drinking affected water. Luckily, decomposing algae also stink, making it a little harder to mistakenly swallow. Boiling the water doesn’t . Animal poisonings have been attributed to lethal doses of these organisms.

It is named for a shallow dwelling sea snake and appears just as serpentine at a length of 140 meters. It is the latest innovation to tap nature's power for our own. Pelamis is the world's first commercial wave power project set up off the Portuguese coast. The Scottish engineering company, Pelamis Wave Power Limited is the brains behind the devices, technically called the Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC).

The idea is simple in itself...the machine uses the motion of the waves on the ocean surface to create power. It is a series of semi submerged cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The motion of these sections due to the waves in turn churns the hydraulic rams which pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.

The Internet is easily the greatest information resource humanity has ever had at its disposal. Social networking sites like Facebook have brought together old friends like nothing else before it, Google allows us to find anything we need in seconds and Wikipedia has single handily made the encyclopedia obsolete. The Internet is also helping the environment through the many websites that offer to help the environment in exchange for a click, like FreeRice.com, or a credit card payment, like Trees for the Future.

is a great website that is helping to clean up the air we breathe through their commitment to plant 400 trees for every $40 that is sent to them. My wife and I have already done this as part of , and it is something everyone should do if they have the money.