THE GREEN PLANET BLOG - Our World and Environment...

All about conservation, ecology, the environment, climate change, global warming, earth- watch, and new technologies etc.

Monday, May 19, 2008

US scientists sign petition rejecting "global warming"...




More than 31,000 scientists across the United States, including more than 9,000 Ph.D.s in fields including atmospheric science, climatology, Earth science, environment and dozens of other specialties, have signed a petition rejecting "global warming," the assumption that the human production of greenhouse gases is damaging Earth's climate.

"There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate," the petition states. "Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

The Petition Project actually was launched nearly 10 years ago, when the first few thousand signatures were assembled. Then between 1999 and 2007, the list of signatures grew gradually without any special effort or campaign.

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Sloth - slow-moving animals living in Central and South American rainforests









The Sloth:


Rainforest Animals:

Sloths are extremely slow-moving mammals found in the rainforest canopies of Central and South America. There are two species of sloths:two-toed and three-toed. Most sloths are about the size of a small dog and they have short, flat flat heads. Their hair is grayish brown but, at times they look grey-green in color because they move so slowly that tiny camouflaging algae grow all over their coats.
Some sloths stay in the same tree for years.

Their huge hooked claws and long arms allow them to spend most of their time hanging upside-down from trees. Since they have a slow metabolism, they need very little food. They feed on fruit, leaves, buds, and young twigs. Sloths also sleep upside-down for up to 18 hours at a time. Mothers also give birth to babies upside-down. Babies cling to their mothers until they are able to take care of themselves. Sloths are nocturnal and sleep curled up with their head placed between the arms and the feet drawn close together. This disguises them as part of a tree so that its enemies like the jaguar do not see them. Sloths rarely climb down from the trees and can live for up to 30 years.

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