Energy and Environmental sites

Craving iced drinks now that temperatures are rising? You don't have to make a special trip to a restaurant or coffee shop to get popular summertime beverages.

It's easier than you think to make your own Frappuccinos, Slurpees, and Jamba Juice-like smoothies at home. Of course, you won't be able to create exact replicas of these trademarked specialties. But we've found recipes for some pretty satisfying alternatives that taste delicious and are much easier on your wallet.

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PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. – An effort to save thousands of sea turtle hatchlings from dying in the oily Gulf of Mexico will begin in the coming weeks in a desperate attempt to keep an entire generation of threatened species from vanishing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will coordinate the plan, which calls for collecting about 70,000 turtle eggs in up to 800 nests buried in the sand across Florida Panhandle and Alabama beaches.

It's never been done on such a massive scale. But doing nothing, experts say, could lead to unprecedented deaths. There are fears the turtles would be coated in oil and poisoned by crude-soaked food.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will accept offers from a dozen countries and international agencies to help contain and clean up the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said on Tuesday.

"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

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LONDON (AFP) – Britain's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 8.6 percent in 2009, but this was largely because of the recession and levels will likely rise as economic growth returns, a study said Wednesday.

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Hurricane Alex disrupted the BP oil spill clean-up effort in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday as the storm gathered strength and was expected to make landfall.

US President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Texas as Alex strengthened into the first Atlantic hurricane of the season late Tuesday.

Alex was far from the epicenter of the clean-up operation off the Louisiana coast, but churned up waves and strong winds that forced the suspension of oil skimming and booming operations off the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

Two vessels continued to capture oil gushing from an undersea well 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Louisiana, where the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded ten weeks ago sparking the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Waves at the site were up to seven feet (two meters) high, a Coast Guard spokesman told AFP.

Coupled with winds of up to 22 knots it made it too rough for crews to deploy a third vessel, the Helix Producer, that was set to nearly double the capacity of BP's containment system.

The current containment system is capturing nearly 25,000 of the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude spewing out of the ruptured well every day.

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GRAND ISLE, La. – Rough seas generated by Hurricane Alex pushed more oil from the massive spill onto Gulf coast beaches as cleanup vessels were sidelined by the far-away storm's ripple effects.

The hurricane was churning coastal waters across the oil-affected region on the Gulf of Mexico. Waves as high as 6 feet and winds over 25 mph were forecast through Thursday just off shore from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – From a legal perspective, BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout and the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez are in many respects night and day.

"The Gulf is seen to be a systemic breakdown," said Zygmunt Plater, a professor at Boston College Law School and former chairman of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission's legal task force after the Valdez disaster. "It's not just one guy who had some drinks."

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BANGKOK (AFP) – Environmental campaigners on Wednesday urged Thailand to shelve its nuclear power proposals, warning that the cost of the project could be much greater than expected.

Greenpeace said the government's provisional plans to build five nuclear plants could face "huge cost overruns" and pressed authorities to instead focus on renewable energy.

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On Louisiana's Bay Baptiste, whitecaps were visible in the distance as the outer bands of Alex began to move into the region. Several marshes were only partially boom-protected, with oil coating the bottom of reeds as crabs covered in crude scurried on nearby marsh islands.

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Hurricane Alex churned westward through the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday, far from oil spill cleanup efforts but on a collision course with Mexico and the southern Texas coastline.

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"El Nino" (EI Nino) used in meteorology originated in Peru and Ecuador. Coast of Peru and Ecuador in the year from Christmas until the second year in March, will occur along the sea water temperature seasonal phenomenon, in March after the disappearance of warm water temperature is gradually cooling. Local call this phenomenon "El Niño" in Spanish meaning "El Nino", which means the birth of the boy at Christmas. This phenomenon has a history of thousands of years, but started from the early 19th century documented. Now call "El Nino" is an index of sea water on warming phenomenon occurred westward expansion of the equatorial eastern Pacific sea surface temperature increase of the phenomenon.

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Even in cold winter, protected or other greenhouse greenhouses, very warm house, suitable for plant growth. This is because the greenhouses covered by the glass or plastic film to allow sunlight into the greenhouse heated indoor air, while preventing distribution of hot air out, so that indoor temperature is higher than the outside world.

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Since 1995, the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department announced that day and hour the next day's air pollution index forecast. Air pollution index method is the determination of air pollutants nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitric oxide and respirable suspended particulates and under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance in place to protect the health of the air were compared. Calculate the five kinds of air pollutants in their air pollution index, and then select the highest value as the hours of the air pollution index. Air Pollution Index forecast the air pollution phenomenon in prior to the public, especially to people sensitive to air pollution, advice, take appropriate preventive measures.

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Macao Meteorological reference to the World Health Organization, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Protection Administration of China, established air quality standards, air quality forecasts to the public release issued by the appropriate advice. Air Quality Index is based on 24-hour automated observation station observation data, will be the day the air RSP, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone concentrations measured values and their impact on the human body to convert the pollutants Vice pollution index values, and then select the day of the pollution index of the maximum deputy, as the day of the air pollution index station. Each sample taken at least 18 hours before day, we can calculate the Deputy pollution index.

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Water pollution from human activities mainly caused by pollutants, which include industrial pollution, agricultural pollution and pollution of three parts of life.

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Inorganic water contaminants, including inorganic anions, metals and their compounds. Inorganic anions, including:

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