Free Republic

Tony Walsh has, as others do, some doubts about whether Second Life is sustainable as a business. But he also poses another question that I hadn't come across before: "Is Second Life sustainable ecologically?" He quotes Philip Rosedale, the head of Linden Lab, the company behind the virtual world: "We're running at full power all the time, so we consume an enormous amount of electrical power in co-location facilities [where they house their 4,000 server computers] ... We're running out of power for the square feet of rack space that we've got machines in. We can't for example use [blade]...

To cancel out the CO2 of a return flight to India, it will take one poor villager three years of pumping water by foot. So is carbon offsetting the best way to ease your conscience?

Feeling guilty about the amount of deadly greenhouse gases you emit by driving that big SUV or using your air conditioner during the summer? Well, don't count on an easy fix. While celebrities like Al Gore and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burnish their green credentials by buying so-called carbon offsets that fund projects like wind farms to make up for their energy excesses, environmental advocates nationwide criticize the effectiveness of the programs. Their concern: The carbon offset market, which is largely unregulated, lacks the standards or the oversight needed to make sure that the projects consumers send money to are actually...

Carbon offset cash-in questioned 10:00 13 May 2007 NewScientist.com news service Some firms are making a killing from schemes designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, while doing little or nothing in return. The market in carbon offsets, which allows companies to invest in renewable energy as a way of mitigating their own greenhouse gas emissions - almost doubled in 2006 to $5 billion, the World Bank said on 2 May. According to a recent report in the London-based Financial Times, some of that money is going to oil companies that are simply pumping CO2 into oilfields to extract more oil....

Where can I go to purchase offsets?

Gore claims that he makes carbonoffset for his $30,000 carbon footprint.

With no immediate solution in sight to immigration issues, demonstrators are calling for a boycott to underscore the economic power of immigrants. Millions of people, including those in the U.S. illegally, are expected to skip work and boycott businesses nationwide on Monday. However, some are hoping a simple e-mail message will slow that boycott's momentum. Millions of Americans log on to their computers to check their e-mails every single day, and some people are taking advantage of the current era of cyberspace technology to voice their opinions on immigration reform by forwarding mass e-mails. “To all the real Americans, you...

There was a time when there was a purpose to our politics. In 1995, the GOP came to Washington promising to reduce the size of the federal government. Those of us who were Conservatives saw an opportunity for a better country. With the shackles of big government removed, economic opportunity would increase. Educational choice would become a reality as schools would reform around the choice of parents, not the demands of bureaucrats. The Federal government would contract and freedom would increase as the importance of the tenth Amendment was recognized. Something funny happened on the way to getting America's freedom...

NFL planting trees in Detroit to offset Super Bowl emissions The Associated Press DETROIT — The National Football League says it plans to plant acres of trees in metropolitan Detroit to offset carbon emissions caused by traffic generated by next year's Super Bowl. NFL environmental director Jack Groh says he will visit Detroit this spring to meet with the host committee, foresters and community groups about the tree planting. It will be similar to what the NFL sponsored at this year's Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. "We have talked with the host committee and they're very excited about the possibility...

WASHINGTON – Less than a year after losing a bitter fight to tighten "buy American" requirements on purchases of military equipment, Rep. Duncan Hunter and his allies have launched a new attack against activities they see as a threat to national security and defense industry jobs. But like last year, Hunter, R-El Cajon, is facing opposition from the Bush administration, Senate Republicans and leading defense industry officials who argue that the House Armed Services Committee chairman's approach would hurt the companies he wants to help and weaken national defense. Hunter's target this year is "offsets," a factor in nearly every...

Warsaw. (Interfax-Europe) - US-based defense contractor Lockheed Martin signed state-owned Polish ship builder Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa (SSN) to build four ships by 2008 as part of an offset deal concerning Poland's purchase of American F-16 fighter jets, the shipyard said in a statement Thursday. In the first stage of the project, SSN is to build two container ships, valued at a total of USD 80 mln, which are to be delivered in 2007. SSN and Lockheed are also beginning work on the second stage of the project, which includes the construction of two other ships in 2007 and 2008. "The...