A new apartment complex in Germany is intentionally growing an algae farm on its facade, in order to power the building. The hope to use the green slime to produce the building’s heat, as well as cool the building. It’s a new definition of "green!"

Will we see more green buildings in the future? In the April 25th edition of the New York Times, David Wallis quotes the building’s publicist, Rainer Muller, as saying, "Using algae as an in-house energy source might sound futuristic now, but probably will be established in 10 years."

The algae are farmed on adjustable louvers which cover the building’s surface and are fed liquid nutrients and CO2.
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I am sitting here stunned. I have just found out that the climate is changing much faster than scientists used to think. The extraordinary process of sudden climate change is not somewhere down the road. It is staring us right in the face. What is worse, we are absolutely unprepared. A large minority of the public actually believes the loopy idea that nothing is wrong with the climate. This silliness goes on, despite the warnings of science and the very visible–and violent– deterioration of the weather. Last summer was one of the warmest on record. This winter, the northern hemisphere– especially Siberia and Mongolia–have experienced terrifying cold, almost record-breaking cold.
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The world’s weather is deteriorating much more rapidly than Art Bell and I ever dreamed possible when we were writing the Coming Global Superstorm. At the same time, the media and the government continue to take a wait-and-see posture. Worse, at a time when our world and our country are going to need imaginative and effective leadership, the only people who have any chance at gaining the U.S. Presidency are far from dynamic and will crumble under the pressure that the next few years are going to bring.
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A massive forest fire is burning the West Kalimantan province of Indonesian Borneo. The fire, outside the provincial capital of Palankaraya, was started during a land-clearing operation. The fire has become huge, and a vast cloud of haze is spreading across the region, causing health problems and complicating air operations in surrounding countries. This firestorm threatens to become as devastating as the storms that erupted in 1998, covering the whole region in a pall of smoke.
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