On:

Several years ago, we asked the question, are SUVs evil? We’re used to these huge vehicles in the US, and the high price of gas means we’re seeing fewer of them, but they’re fairly new in the UK. Doctors there say that the people who drive them are putting themselves, as well as other people, at risk.

SUV drivers take more risks, because they feel safer, surrounded by all the metal. While they ARE safer than a small car in a collision, they are much more dangerous when it comes to rollovers, the type of accident for which air bags offer no protection.
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According to a recent study, recent hurricane seasons, triggered by global warming, did a lot more than spread misery and financial woe in Florida and New Orleans. When four hurricanes crossed the state of Florida in 2005, the huge rainfall of rainfall that accompanied them may have caused a fish-killing “red tide,” due to runoff from farms. Red Tides are caused by nitrogen-rich fertilizers washing from farm fields into lakes and the ocean. The nitrogen spurs high algae growth, blocking sunlight and causing fish to smother.
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If an asteroid threatens to come our way, one way to destroy or deflect it would be to fire another asteroid at it, kind of like hitting one ball with another on an outer space pool table.

We would find a relatively small asteroid?around 100 feet in diameter?and send a robot to land on it and nudge it, until it became captured by earth’s gravity. Once that happened, we could keep it there, safely circling the earth, until needed. Then, when we saw a large asteroid heading our way, destined for an major impact with the earth, we could send a robot back to the small one and “fire” it at the incoming rock, which would then break into pieces that would rain down harmlessly onto the earth.
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UPDATE – We don’t know how to make it rain, but we change the weather all the time without meaning to. If you complain that it always rains on the weekend, you’re right: pollution, caused by car exhaust from commuters and factories, throws tiny particles into the air, which increase cloud formation during the week. Then it finally rains?on the weekend. But some places NEED more rain, like Phoenix. It turns out that rain has increased amost 15% there since the recent population explosion has caused an increase in things like lawns, swimming pools and golf courses.
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