Australian scientists have discovered that whale poo is not only helping ocean plant life to flourish, but also increasing the ocean's ability to absorb CO2.

Because whales' diets are made up largely of iron-rich krill (small crustaceans), their droppings are a great fertilizer for marine plants, helping them to grow like weeds (or algae).

The research suggests that if whale numbers grow, their droppings could help marine plant life flourish, thereby improving the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide blamed for global warming.

Iron is a vital element in the production of marine plants, known as algae, which suck up carbon dioxide as they grow, although it is a scarce element in the "anaemic" Southern Ocean, said chemical oceanographer Andrew Bowie.

"One-third of the world's oceans are low in trace element iron," the researcher at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre told AFP.

Bowie said whales consumed several tonnes of krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, each day and this found its way back into the ocean via emissions from the giant mammals.

He said while the researchers were pretty confident that whale poo would contain iron, they were surprised at the high concentration, about 10 million times that of Antarctic seawater.

This weekend, one of the leisure things I did was watch the movie Avatar. While I enjoyed the special effects and the basic story line, it was clear to me that there was a message.

The message was not as simple as implying we are all connected. There was another message. In the end of the movie (spoiler alert) it is implied that the local deity has combined forces of all living creatures to stop the invasion of man. The message I get from that, just my interpretation, is that nature will eventually strike back.

Using this same train of thought, the recent volcanic eruption in the real world could be considered nature fighting back. Or we could consider it luck that the effect of the eruption will be a short global cooling and thereby give humanity some extra time to change our habits.

It is amazing to me that a movie with such a strong environmental theme could reach such popularity given the many messages rolled in. I am actually comforted that it is received this way because it means there is hope for us to do the right things.

Now, on another note, there is a company that wants to put solar panels on the roof of the white house - gratis. This is a clear publicity stunt, but I like it and I think it sets a good example for us all.

There were so many articles on blogs yesterday, I didn't feel I could add anything. However, today I want to share that everyday should be Earth Day.

As we move through our day, if we all just make an ounce of effort to pick up an extra piece of stray trash, or turn off an extra light, our habits will have a powerful impact.

Here are some other things you might want to do:

- Join the national call to action on comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation

- Support the Safe Chemical Act

- Volunteer locally

- Use organizations like www.freecycle.com or www.craigslist.com

As we approach Earth Day, this subject has popped up again.

I have written about this in the past and it has been posted on many green blogs and news sites, I just want to summarize again.

Weather events are not climate; climate is the accumulation of weather events over an extended period of time. So a cold summer day doesn't prove global warming is false any more than a heat wave in winter proves it's true.

That said, the effects scientists predict from global warming are sometimes counterintuitive. While snow is associated with winter, warmer winter temperatures can result in more snow, since warmer air can hold more moisture. One of the most well-documented predictions about global warming is that it will result in more intense storms, in any season, but may leave longer droughts between those storms.

And again, the long term chart:

This article is a re-post from renewableenergyworld.com.

- Negawatts are the watts saved from not being used. Not only are they the cheapest source of New Energy but investing in them saves $2-to-$3 dollars for every dollar that is spent, savings that can be invested in New Energy megawatts.

One small problem: As reported in Energy Efficiency Services Sector: Workforce Education and Training Needs from researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), there aren’t nearly enough people trained in doing Energy Efficiency to get the job done.

That small problem, however, presents an enormous opportunity. Thanks in part to a new awareness of savings opportunities and in part to funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, Energy Efficiency began growing last year and is expected to continue expanding in the U.S. over the next 10 years as fast as the nation can deploy training and education programs for the Energy Efficiency services sector (EESS) workforce. -

To find out more about the EESS, download the PDF by clicking the related link below.