Solar power is widely recognized as being the next crucial step in the chain of technological energy advancement, and Solar Sphere is proud to stand on the leading edge of this renewable and potent resource, selling a range of solar panels and accessory kits to help clients get started saving money and taking advantage of the sun’s natural power.

One stumbling block for many people who are interested in any type of solar panel is the price. The up-front cost of a whole-home solution can be substantial, although these costs are quickly recouped as free power starts flowing in. A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that the prices of solar panels for homes have dropped by 43 percent in the last dozen years, and Scientific American has postulated that solar power will reach grid parity with other sources of power within the next nine years; possibly sooner if the price of fossil-fuel generated electricity begins to rise.

Solar Sphere is proud to sell a range of high quality solar panels that can both start your journey to be fossil-fuel free or complete a home’s solar conversion. As production methods and energy transfer technology has improved, these panels have both been decreasing in their cost to produce and increasing in efficiency, leading to both lower overall costs and better financing options for those who are looking to make the jump and start enjoying the abundant energy the sun can provide.

Global warming has become a popular topic of discussion and, for many, a critical matter that is determining the future of the earth and those living here. Many factors are responsible for the creation of global warming, both natural and man-made, with the main culprit generally believed to be an excess of greenhouse gases being released into the environment. Chief among these gases is carbon dioxide, or CO2.

The largest contributor of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels, including petroleum, coal and natural gas. While much is being done to increase the efficiency of automobiles and to curtail the noxious output of industrial processes, each and every person has the means to personally lower the production of carbon dioxide by decreasing the size of their ‘carbon footprint’ by making their home more efficient and environmentally friendly.

There are a variety of ways a person can effectively reduce energy consumption in his home. While it may initially require some time and monetary investment to do these things, the good news is that almost every action taken will end up saving the homeowner money in the long run. As a bonus, many of these energy-wasting fixes will also make the home a more comfortable space in which to live.

Here’s a partial list of things that can be easily accomplished in an effort to make one’s home more energy efficient:

• Replace incandescent light bulbs with florescent alternatives
• Install skylights
• Turn off the TV and other appliances when not in use
• Replace oil or gas-fired furnaces and air-conditioning systems with a high-efficiency heat-pump or geo-thermal system
• Insulate doors, windows and other sources of heat loss

There are many other energy-saving tactics homeowners can pursue. The Internet is a great resource for uncovering these.

The Los Alamitos High School School board in Los Alamitos, California has unanimously voted that all science teachers must make a presentation to the school board concerning their plans to teach the subject of global warming. The intent is to ensure that the subject is presented in a politically correct manner. It is considered to be more important than presenting the subject based on scientific facts.

Assistant Superintendent Sherry Kropp stated that a subject that has more than one view is believed to be controversial. The fact that some people do not believe that global warming exists, even though scientific evidence proves otherwise, makes it an issue that needs to be presented in a politically correct manner. This is what prompted the change in district policy.

Some members argued that the scientific organizations promote the idea of global warming in order to receive more grant money from the government. This is the first time teachers have had to prove that a subject is politically balanced before presenting it to the classroom.

Jeffery Barke led the effort saying that leaving the subject in the hands of the teachers means that they will present the subject in an unbalanced manner based upon facts presented by climate scientists. He said that children need to be presented with the facts from both the sides of the issue. This allows them to decide for themselves if they believe in global warming.

Some parents are concerned that presentation of a politically correct subject and not a class based on scientific facts will harm their child’s chances of entering college with the advanced science grades that are required for admission. The University of California came down hard on another school district for watering down their biology program stating it would not meet the prerequisites for admission.

With the status of the earth today, it appears that a serious cure for global warming is urgently needed. Global warming is getting more intense. In order to lessen and delay the effects of global warming, the concept of Green Building came to life.

The Green Building Index is a tool created to assess structures based on their overall environmental impact. It uses six criteria to assess a building’s impact on the environment. The Energy Efficiency category evaluates a building’s overall energy consumption. Buildings with a high energy efficiency rating have reduced energy consumption.

The next category is Indoor Environment Quality. This focuses on the structure’s quality of ventilation and promotes the use of materials made of low volatile organic compounds. This category also includes temperature, thermal comfort and humidity. The third criterion is that of Sustainable Site Planning and Management which focuses on the area where the structure is built, public transportation accessibility, landscaping, storm water and construction management.

Buildings must also meet the Materials and Resources criterion that focuses on efficiency in the waste management and recycling system. The fifth criterion, Water Efficiency, is assessed as to whether the structure has efficient water devices and recycling systems as well as rainwater harvesting. The last criterion is Innovation. This gives attention to how innovative a structure’s overall design is in accordance with the requirements of Green Buildings.

All six criteria have to be met by newly built structures. Many countries around the world have already begun using the Green Building Index in order to lift a bit of the load that the earth is currently facing. The Green Building Index has already been recognized as the most reliable green rating tool for structures to help save the environment and the living things in it.

Global warming means more, and hotter, heat waves which means more heat strokes and heat-related illness. The very young and very old are more likely to suffer the effects. Heat waves during the last decade killed more Americans than natural disasters combined including floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and tsunamis. The death toll will increase with more severe heat waves. Malnutrition, floods, malaria and diarrhea all affect new areas due to climate change.

Air pollution becomes worse as heat increases leading to more ozone smog and pollutants. The number of people with respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease will increase. Asthma cases among children and older people will increase. Ground-level ozone represents a serious threat in cities across the US. Because of the shift in climate, diseases that threatened tropical areas now threaten places never before confronted with menaces like mosquitoes carrying malaria.

Crop production is affected by global warming. Droughts in new areas, coupled with too much rain and floods in others, can kill crops while also increasing the number of pests that attack crops. Food prices rising as a result of climate change create more competition for resources promoting regional instability and instability within nations. Water will be highly sought after. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as many as 250 million additional people in Africa will have no drinking water due to climate change and drought.

More fires and more severe fires are yet another effect of global warming. Rising sea levels wipe away land and make coastlines more likely to be flooded and hit by storm surges. Millions are displaced each year by increased transmission of deadly diseases also accompanying the tragedies. Hundreds of thousands of deaths occur annually due to the effects of global warming and climate change, according to the World Health Organization.

When considering the issue of global warming, Americans are in denial. Although there are new, alarming studies released nearly every week about rising temperatures, disrupted animal behaviors or possible coastline loss, they receive little attention or are ignored. While there is not a single, concrete reason for this attitude, there are several issues that make global warming murky territory in the public conscience.

Political Concerns Taking Precedence

After our grandparents survived a world war, our uncles served in Vietnam and our cousins and siblings have been fighting in the Middle East for the past 10 years, the prospect of it being a few degrees hotter next year pales by comparison. Many of those who grew up during the Cold War are sometimes more attuned to the threat of other humans than an ecological crisis.

Financial Panic is Distracting

The American economy has been in a slump for several years. Whether it’s called a recession, a down-turn or a depression, the fact remains that many Americans are facing record job losses, rising prices and fears about financial security. Compared to being homeless or standing in line at a food bank, worrying about global warming falls farther down the priority list.

Feelings of Helplessness

The Americans who are aware of global warming have no idea what to do about it. While some argue that recycling is good, others argue that the extra pick-ups and trucks create more greenhouse gas than they save. Everyone is encouraged to drive less, but many households are already scrimping to afford fuel that is flirting constantly with a four-dollar-a-gallon price tag. Feeling helpless leads to inaction.

Americans are in denial about global warming due to many factors, including financial concerns and fears about continued military disputes. Our feelings of helplessness also stop many from taking action.

Global warming is attributed to the rapid rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth’s atmosphere. The amount of carbon dioxide has increased 40 percent annually in the last few years and a great deal since the 1800s. The rising CO2 levels create a greenhouse effect that traps heat inside the atmosphere causing global temperatures to increase. While temperatures have increased, forecasts vary regarding how much they will in the future and what changes will occur. All forecasts agree changes will be significant.

Biodiversity is changing as a result of global warming with many species and plants being lost while other animals and plants move to different geographical zones. Loss of farmland resulting in loss of crops will cause more instances of famine and unstable geopolitical areas. Some nations will lose land to rising ocean water levels caused by melting icebergs. Other areas will experience droughts and lack of potable water. The two leading scientific organizations in the world, the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. and the Royal Society of the U.K., have emphasized the urgency of the global warming climate change problem, each group issuing detailed reports on the changes.

Global warming has altered weather patterns already with more, and longer, heat waves along with prolonged flooding, major tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Worldwide, the death toll has increased from larger areas home to malaria-infected mosquitoes, pests, malnutrition and other effects of changing environments. Diseases once affecting tropical areas have moved to other areas as have animal migrations and habitats. Once unheard of in the U.S., Lyme disease, West Nile Virus and Hantavirus now strike. Polar bears and many other species are nearing extinction due to loss of ice pack and habitat. Devastating wildfires, rising sea levels sweeping away inhabited land and farmland represent future challenges.

Global warming is a serious problem which threatens the way of life of everyone on our planet.

Human industrial activity requires huge amounts of energy. Up until now, this energy has been provided by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

Fossil fuels were formed through the sedimentation of dead plant matter over thousands of years. As plants grow, they take carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and store it as carbon in their stems, leaves and trunks. In the process of storing carbon, oxygen is released. Over millions of years, plants have gradually changed the earth’s atmosphere, lowering the amount of carbon dioxide and increasing the amount of oxygen to make it habitable for both animals and humans.

However, when fossils fuels are burned, the efforts of millions of years by green plants are instantly reversed, releasing the captured carbon back into the atmosphere.

Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has a warming effect on the planet. CO2 molecules absorb infra-red radiation (heat) and reflect it back down toward the earth’s surface. Global warming is sometimes known as the greenhouse effect because the CO2 in the atmosphere acts like the glass roof of a greenhouse, letting sunlight in and preventing reflected heat energy from escaping. If this continues, the planet will gradually get hotter and hotter with devastating consequences for all its inhabitants.

Planting trees can help to slow down or even reverse this process as they are ‘carbon sinks’. The CO2 which was released by the burning of fossil fuels is taken back out of the atmosphere and put back into storage inside the tree. Big trees are better for this purpose than other plants due to their thick woody trunks which hold huge amounts of carbon.

Global warming has been having an impact on the entire planet in the form of hurricanes in the Atlantic and tsunamis in the Pacific. The Pacific Rim has become more active with increasing volcanic eruptions and seismic events. Geologists are warning that as the polar ice caps and glaciers melt seismic activity will increase in places that do not normally have such occurrences.

The extreme pressure on the earth created by the polar ice caps and their accompanying glaciers is being released at a rapid rate. Ice is extremely heavy and weighs about one ton per cubic meter. Geologic events in the form of volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and the undersea earthquakes that trigger tsunamis increase as the pressure is reduced by melting ice.

In an interview with the Canadian press, Patrick Wu, a geologist with the University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, explained that the weight of the polar ice caps create an extreme amount of pressure upon the earth which suppresses geologic events. The release of that pressure is being felt across Canada in the form of increased earthquakes that will only continue. He used the analogy of adding extreme pressure to a basketball. When the pressure is released the ball will bounce back to its original shape. This is basically what is happening to the earth which is increasing the number of undersea landslides in Antarctica.

Bill McGuire, a geologist with University College, London, UK, explains in an article published in New Science Magazine that the melting ice caps are causing changes to the sea floor. Underwater landslides, which are the result of the release of pressure from melting glaciers, are causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other seismic events. While this has happened throughout the history of the earth, the frequency has increased with global warming.

Global warming has created an increasing number of seismic events across the planet triggering alarming warnings from geologists and climate scientists around the world. However, the fact that the surface temperature of the earth has not increased has made some people skeptical about global warming. This has confused the experts as well.

A joint study between the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia was based on computer models to simulate points to locate the missing heat. The results of the study indicate that oceans deeper than 1,000 feet (or 300 meters) have been absorbing the excess heat. These oceans may well hold the heat for as long as a decade before releasing it back into the atmosphere. Shallower oceans of less than 1000 feet, however, have warmed by 60% less than the deeper oceans during the non-hiatus periods.

In a report released in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of Climatic Change, Gerald Meehl of NCAR and lead author, says global warming will go through hiatus periods lasting approximately 10 years. However, the oceans will not hold the heat much longer than that and will release it into the atmosphere.

The 2000′s have been the warmest decade in the history of the planet; however, satellite measurements have noted a discrepancy between the amount of sunshine going into the atmosphere and the amount of radiation the earth is releasing. The implication is that the radiation has to be building somewhere on the planet.

In 2010, Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo of NCAR published their findings in the journal Science. Even though the heat is buried deep in the ocean, it still exists and cannot be ignored. We will still have to deal with it at some point in the future.