Originally Published on www.redgreenandblue.org Aug 13, 2009.

In a recent Zogby telephone poll conducted to gauge public opinion on the the Waxman-Markey climate bill, the results showed that a majority of Americans are finally behind climate legislation. The Waxman-Markey climate bill sets out to limit greenhouse gases in the US in order to combat climate change. The bill was just narrowly passed in congress last June by a vote of 219-212.

In the recent past, Americans have shown no interest in changing policy to limit greenhouse gasses, yet shockingly the results of this latest poll show that a whopping 71% of Americans support this bill. The poll also showed that Americans of every age, income group, and political affiliation support the bill much more than previously thought. An enormous win for those of us who want to see reduction in greenhouse gasses.

As predicted the poll results ran higher in the direction of Democrats, but for the first time Republicans and Independents seem to be on board.

Here is a run down on what the poll found:

Favorable View of the Bill:

• Democrats – 89%
• Independents – 73%
• Republicans – 45%

Climate Bill and Employment:

• 68% believe the bill would stimulate job growth.
• 51% believed promoting clean energy and fighting global warming would promote job growth.
• 17% believed the bill would have no effect on jobs.
• 29% believed that the bill would have a negative impact on employment.

As you may know the bill was delayed in the Senate until September. The poll showed:

Climate Bill and the Senate:

• 54% think the Senate should act now.
• 41% feel they should wait.

Support for your Congressperson:

• 47% said they would view their congressperson more favorably if they voted for a climate bill.
• 21% said it would make no difference.
• 29% said they would view their congressperson more negatively if they voted for a climate bill.

All and all, it seems that finally most Americans are looking to take action to stop climate change. This is a good sign for all of us who want to see a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions here and around the world.

Source: www.zogby.com

Image Credit: woodleywonderworks on Flickr

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Gliese 581 d. Such a catchy name eh? You probably have never heard of it. It is 20 light years away, but in late April 2009 new observations by the original discovery team concluded that the planet is within the habitable zone where liquid water, and therefore, life, could exist.

Some of you may have heard of SETI. SETI or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, conducts legitimate science research, searching for extraterrestrial life by looking for some signature of its technology. For years people have been sending radio waves into space on the off chance that there will be a response. Beatles songs, TV shows, radio broadcasts have all been shot into space. Now an Australian website is letting you text into space.

www.hellofromearth.net/ is allowing users from August 12 until August 24, to submit 160 character messages that will be broadcast out to Gliese 581 d. But, don’t expect aliens to be drunk texting you anytime soon. Your SMS will take 20 years to reach Gliese 581 d.

Many users are sending messages of warning how we have destroyed our earth, others are sending messages of hope. Whatever crazy thing you want to send out there, this does raise awareness for science and astronomy. Which I believe is a good thing. Now, I just have to think of a good pick up line for a green woman. No literally green.

Source: www.hellofromearth.net

Image Source: Daniel Hohler

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Scientists out of the University of Utah have created a new substance, heralded as a molecular condom, which blocks HIV from entering the vaginal tissue. HIV infection is a huge problem in Africa, and other impoverished areas, mostly because of a taboo or unavailability of condoms. The gel is meant to give woman a way to protect themselves from infection without any approval of their partner.

“This is important – particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where, in some age groups, as many as 60 percent of women already are infected with HIV. In these places, women often are not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom.” – Patrick Kiser, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah

The gel is inserted vaginally, and when it comes into contact with semen it hardens, creating a mesh around the semen and the human immunodeficiency virus. Kiser says the gel should block other viruses and sperm, thus could work as a contraceptive and possibly prevent infection by herpes viruses and human papillomavirus (HPV), a major cause of cervical cancer.

To be more effective against HIV, anti-HIV drugs can be added to the gel, giving the gel a double barrier against HIV infection. The gel also works by blocking movement of immune system cells that try to combat infectious agents but instead get hijacked by the AIDS virus.

The gel is just in the testing phase right now. The gel will be tested thoroughly before it is put out on the market. The researchers are currently working on testing the HIV-prevention ability of other polymers, testing the safety of the new gel on vaginal cells, and studying how well the new gel blocks the transport of HIV into samples of human vaginal and penile tissue from hysterectomies and circumcisions. If proven effective, this gel will be able to go a long way in the war against AIDS.

Source: Science Daily

Image Credit: Daniel Hohler

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We have all been waiting for this day. Finally, shark repellent has arrived to the world… except this shark repellent is not used to save humans from sharks. No this shark repellent was made to save sharks from humans. With good reason, while only about 4 people die of unprovoked shark attacks each year, humans kill an estimated 73 million sharks each year. You do the math and tell me who is the biggest threat to whom?

Many sharks are inadvertently killed in fishing equipment used for tuna, swordfish, and other commercial fish. This is called bycatch. These unwanted sharks are often thrown back into the ocean dead, dying, or injured.

Sharks hunt by using electrically conductive sensory organs on their nose, known as ampullae of Lorenzini. Ampullae of Lorenzini detect the beating heart of their prey. A new shark repellent device has been created to stop shark bycatch that uses the sharks electrical detection senses.

A half-dollar-sized metal alloy clamped onto fishing gear protects sharks by creating a mild electrical current. The alloy sends out an electrical current 6-8 times the amount the shark is expecting in a prey’s heartbeat. It is the equivalent of shining a bright light into your eyes.

This type of shark repellent unfortunately wont work for high speed predators like the great white shark, but for slow moving and solitary sharks it has been shown to reduce bycatch 64%. Fishermen might want to adopt this technology to keep sharks from breaking equipment, and taking up space on their line that was meant for fish they want to catch.

No word on if the spray form will be available for superheroes. I’ll keep you updated.

Source: Discovery News

Image Credit: Daniel Hohler

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if you missed Green iPhone Apps Reviewed Part 1: Free Apps, you can see it here. After my first batch of reviews on the free green iPhone apps, I have gotten some great suggestions on green apps. If you have any you you would like to see reviewed, you can comment here, head over to my website www.danielhohler.com, or twitter me @danielhohler. I am not a hard man to find. I have already gotten a whole new batch that people would like to hear about, so it looks like by popular demand there will be green iPhone apps part 3, so stay tuned here on planetsave.com.

iPhone apps are sweeping the nation. For those of us who own iPhones, we know just how useful a good app can be. The problem is that there are so many apps floating around, finding a really good app is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. However, don’t fret. I am here to pick up all of those straws of hay and tell you if indeed they are hay, or maybe just maybe, a needle. Or with less metaphor, I’ll try them and tell you if they are any good.

Part 2: Paid Apps

GreenSpot by Martian Technology

Price: $1.99 (There is a free add supported version)

iTunes Rating: 1/5

The Skinny: Daily place for news, views, and podcasts on Sustainability Living.

My Review: GreenSpot is a news aggregator, but unlike mission zero, this doesn’t search the bloggisphere. It searches for green news on mainstream news sources like AP, NY Times, and USA Today. It also aggregates green podcasts, which is a nice feature if you like podcasts. I don’t know why the iTunes rating is so low, I assume earlier versions were buggy, or maybe it’s because there is a free version as well. Since there is a free version, I don’t think this one is worth the $1.99, unless you just really hate advertisements.

My Rating: 2.5/5

iGreen by LucidOne Communications

Price: $0.99

iTunes Rating: 3/5

The Skinny: Keep up to date with all the latest green tech.

My Review: Go Green is basically just an RSS reader pre-installed with green tech blogs. It has a nice layout and is simple to use, but if you know how to use an RSS reader (of which there are many free ones on the iPhone) this one won’t do much for you. Only buy this one if you have no idea what I just said, or are just far too lazy to type in your own RSS feeds. It is only a buck.

My Rating: 2.5/5

Park Explorer by Sam Vanderhyden

Price: $0.99

iTunes Rating: 2/5

The Skinny: Enables you to explore parks and green spaces around you.

My Review: Good idea, good layout, good functions… bad park listings. This app has a lot of potential, it allows you to find parks in your area, tells you where the park is, the available activities at the park, when the park is open, and the park website. All of which I like a lot. However, when I checked my area only 1 major park came up. There are at least 10 parks of various sizes that are closer to me than the one it came up with. Still, if you are in an unfamiliar area and are hard up to go exploring. Give it a try. It’s only a buck. I hope the database get’s updated soon, then I can give it a higher rating.

My Rating: 3/5

Geocaching by Groundspeak inc.

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5

Price: $9.99

The Skinny: Geocaching is a global treasure hunting game where participants locate hidden containers, called geocaches, and share their experience online.

My Review: I’m usually pretty thrifty with my cash, hey I’m a student, but this is the very first app I actually paid money for. The verdict: I heart geocaching. If you follow me on twitter (shameless plug: www.twitter.com/danielhohler)  you will see my geocaches pop up on occasion. You don’t have to have this app, and I am sure there are old geocaching veterans out there saying: “damn kids and their iPhone apps, in my day we geocached with a paper map and a compass,” but this app makes the experience so much easier. You can find caches around you, navigate to them, see the geocache log books, and get hints to the location. Some of you might wonder why this is green, and my answer is, I have just hiked through parks, up montains, and through rivers I would have never have experienced without geocaching. The fun of the game is great motivation to go out, see the world, and adventure. My only nitpick is I wish the app used the built in compass from the iPhone 3GS, still a minor complaint that can be circumvented by using the option to view on google maps.

My Rating: 4.75/5

Remember. Stay tuned on planetsave.com for more iPhone app reviews.

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When I was doing research on Catalina Island, there was a wanted poster hanging in the dive locker. Although, this wanted poster was not for any bank robber or bandit. This was a wanted poster for kelp. Undaria pinnatifida, an invasive species from Asia that has hitched a ride on boat’s hulls and ballast water. Also known as wakame, you may know that name as an ingredient in many Asian dishes or miso soup.

Wakame has become a large problem from New Zealand to Monterey Bay. It is an aggressive and costly intruder that takes over a habitat at the expensive of the native species. Since its discovery in San Francisco Bay, 140 lbs of the kelp have been removed from the San Francisco Marina alone. Wakame’s destructive nature has earned it a spot on the 100 of the Worlds Worst Invasive Species list.

“It’s just like gardening, you can pull out all the weeds you want, but there will always be that little dandelion seed that will sprout and recolonize” – Steve Lonhart, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Every year, marine invasive species cost the United States $9 billion dollars to control. Wakame is destructive to native kelp, marinas and the undersides of boats, and damages mariculture like oyster farming. The problem of invasive species hurts our wallets besides our environment, but money to fight invasive species is hard to come by. Especially in places like California, a state that has just announced record budget cuts.

“When there is a big wildfire, no one stops and asks, ‘Who is going to pay for this?’ They just fight the fire, We don’t have that kind of automatic response with invasive species.” – Lars Anderson, a lead scientist with the United States Agriculture Department

To control this killer kelp, nonprofit groups and state and federal agencies have been pooling resources and volunteers, donning scuba and snorkeling equipment. Volunteers have been pulling the kelp out by hand and filling up black plastic trash bags.

Invasive species are a huge problem for the environment that most people don’t know about. People look and they see a plant or animal and they assume it should just be there. I encourage everyone to take the time and get to know the native species in your area. If you are going to plant a garden, plant species native to your area. If you are going to travel long distances, try your best to make sure you have no stowaways. We want to keep the wide variety of amazing plants and animals, located in many different habitats, alive and healthy.

-Source: The New York Times

-Image Credit: s0uto on Flickr

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For years and years, humans considered themselves the one and only makers of tools. Homo sapien literally means “wise man” because we were so intelligent that it was us humans, and us humans alone, who could even have the brain capacity to create a tool. It was considered the key feature of the genus Homo.

Well, that was until people actually decided to carefully look at other animal’s social behavior. It was not until the mid to late 1900’s that people realized “oops us humans are not the only ones to use tools.” Primatologists discovered chimpanzees creating tools for fishing termites out of their mounds, and stones for crushing nuts from their hard shell. Other researchers discovered that gorillas make beds from foliage, as well as sponges out of chewed up leaves.

These revelations eroded away our human arrogance just a tad. But surely, tools are the domain of only the highest order of primates. Well, no. We soon saw other lower order primates, and even non-primates use tools.  Sea otters use rock tools to smash open shells many times a day.

Now medical tools? Maybe we humans need to find a new name?

It was recently observed that spider monkeys are chewing up a special kind of plant and using it as a scratcher. The spider monkeys chew up the tip and rub it on themselves. Scientists believe by modifying the scratcher tip, the monkeys could be providing “more relief and comfort during scratching.” The chewing alteration could “also be related to the chemical properties of the plant to alleviate the itch.” For some time it has been believed that primates use plants for medicinal purposes, but mostly by ingestion.

Oh yeah, spider monkeys, no opposable thumbs either. Not too shabby.

Source: Discovery News

Image Credit: Hypergurl – Tanya Ann on Flickr

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Dominance Cues Leading to Sex Change in Blue-Banded Gobies (Lythrypnus dalli)

By Daniel Hohler
May 4, 2007

ABSTRACT:
Blue-banded gobies (Lythrypnus dalli) are small hermaphroditic fish found in a large range in the pacific. L. dalli exhibits intermediate hermaphroditism because it displays large sexual dimorphism and usually only changes sex once during a lifetime, as well as maintaining both male and female gonadal tissue at the same time. This study looked at cues that lead to establishing dominance in females. Dominance is important because sex change in L. dalli is based on the social hierarchy. In the wild if a male leaves the social group a female ascends to the top of the hierarchy and changes sex. The cues that were looked at in this study were visual cue and chemical cues. 34 gobies were collected and 32 females and 2 males were used in this study. Morphological traits of papillae ratio, length, dorsal fin length, and weight were recorded and used as the starting point. Two tanks were set up for each treatment each treatment tank containing 2 females. In the visual treatment the two tanks were placed next to each other so the fish could respond to visual stimuli. In the chemical treatment the tanks were placed out of visual sight but the water flow was connected so the fish can respond to any chemical cues in the water. Two controls were used as well. One control without a male and four females in the same tank to test sex change without restriction, and one with a male and four females to test for changes in morphology without sex change occurring. Each treatment was run for 14 days to see if females could establish and maintain dominance using just visual or chemical cues. Behaviors of displacement, solicitation, bites, and % time in nesting tube were recorded during the 14 day period to see if the fish displayed dominant behaviors. At the end of 14 days the morphological traits were found again to determine if sex change occurred. Sex change occurred in all the treatments and control without males. From the fact that only one female changed sex in each visual treatment it can be concluded that females can establish and maintain dominance through only visual cues. An increase in papillae ratio, dorsal fin, and weight were found for sex changed fish. The increase in papillae ratio and dorsal fin length were found to be statistically significant with p-values less than 0.05. The behavioral observations were then looked at for the sex changed individuals and compared to the non-sex changed individuals. It was found that the sex changed individual showed a greater amount of displacements than a non-sex changed individual in the visual treatment. It was also found that sex changed individuals in the visual treatment spent a greater amount of time in the nesting tube. So females were able to establish and maintain dominance through visual cues only. The results of the chemical cue were inconclusive as in one treatment only one female changed sex and in the other treatment one female in each tank changed sex. The result that L. dalli can establish dominance and change sex through only visual cues  shows that the mechanisms the social hierarchy are more complex than originally thought, and has implications in the complex sexual selection model in hermaphrodites.

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Peace Out -Daniel.

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The “green movement” is gaining some steam in the general public, and hey I am all for it.  As long as it doesn’t become a fad that fades away into a footnote like slap bracelets and Crocks. The Apple iPhone is the hottest smart phone going today, and with over 65,000 applications in the iTunes App Store and counting, the usefulness of this pocket device goes up all the time. This can only mean that there will be green apps on the iPhone, and of course there will be some clunkers. With all these apps floating around there must be some gems as well. I’ll give some apps a try and tell you what I think, so you, my loyal reader, doesn’t have to.

(Part 2: Paid Apps, will be coming soon, so check back at PlanetSave.com)

Free Apps - Nothing better than paying nothing.

GoodGuide by GoodGuide

iTunes Rating: 2.5/5

The Skinny: GoodGuide helps you find safe, healthy, and green products while you are shopping at the store.

My Review: GoodGuide is a nice little app that rates grocery items from food, to soap, to household cleaners on 4 different categories: Health/Nutrition, Environmental, Social, and Overall rating. GoodGuide also gives nutritional value for food products. Another nice feature for vegans, vegetarians, or those who want to avoid red dye #36, is a list of ingredients. The ingredients list is color coded to tell you all of the concerning items.

I don’t think I personally would walk around with GoodGuide as I shopped at the store. It could turn a trip to the store into an all day excursion. However, if there is an item I’m curious about I would look it up using GoodGuide. It also checks Amazon.com for price comparison. It is also nice for those of you who just want to eat healthy. I would check this one out, and hey it’s free.

My Rating: 4/5

Mission Zero by Interface, Inc.

iTunes Rating: 3/5

The Skinny: Mission Zero Sustainability News is a companion application for MissionZero.org

My Review: Mission Zero is an environmental news aggregation service and voting system ala Digg. There are numerous categories where news stories are submitted, voted on, and commented on. I like the idea of Mission Zero, but the one problem is the user base seems to be a bit anemic. The votes seem to range from 0-5. I hope more people jump on to Mission Zero and make this app more useful.

My Rating: 3/5

Go Green by Webworks and Applications

iTunes Rating: 3/5

The Skinny: You get a new green tip each time you visit the app.

My Review: Go Green is a simple application. You open the app and it pops up with a new green tip. It has a nice little gimmick, where the more you open it, the more grandiose your green title becomes. This one isn’t bad, but the novelty is sure to run down quickly. Still, I would check it out. You are bound to run into a tip that you can use.

My Rating: 3/5

Piqqo Projects by Piqqo

iTunes Rating: 3/5

The Skinny: An online service for presenting carbon reduction projects.

My Review: Piqqo Projects is an app I’m torn about. It is a good idea, and it is implemented nicely. They show different carbon reducing projects, they explain the project, have youtube videos on the project, and nice looking photos from the project. It is a great looking package. However, there are only 5 different projects, and they are only located in Mexico, Hungary, and Ecuador. I would like to see some projects from various locations. Hopefully this app will expand because I see the potential.

My Rating: 3/5

iLocavore by Oh My Brain, Inc.

iTunes Rating: 2/5

The Skinny: A tool for “locavores” shop local, buy local.

My Review: iLocavore is a decent enough idea. Environmentalists are into the whole buying local thing, as it reduces your carbon footprint dramatically. Unfortunately, when I searched my area (a relatively large city) no results came up. Looking at the iTunes reviews, it seems to be a common problem. Looks like iLocavore needs to expand it’s database before this becomes truly useful. We shall wait and see.

My Rating: 2/5

Carbon Tracker by Clear Standards, Inc. and Carbon Calc by Carbon Harmony

iTunes Rating: 2.5/5 for both

The Skinny: Outlines your Carbon Footprint

My Review: I put these two apps together because they do basically the same thing. The one difference is Carbon Tracker tracks your monthly carbon footprint against goals you set, where Carbon Calc allows you to compare against the average Carbon Footprint in the US, Europe, and the World. This is a matter of personal preference. Carbon Calc has a few more features, such as offsetting your carbon, but if you want to keep on tracking yourself monthly pick Carbon Tracker. If you are into tracking your carbon footprint often, check these out, otherwise it is a one look and done.

My Rating: 3/5 for both

Have more green iPhone apps you would like me to check out? Comment here or tweet me @danielhohler on www.twitter.com and I will check them out for review.

Originally Published: http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/07/31/green-iphone-apps-reviewed/

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