Unbelievable…

Rare geographical conditions generate a massive lightning storm most days of the year. This amazing phenomenon occurs at the mouth of the Catatumbo river at Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Believe it or not, this storm is the world’s principal regenerator of the earth’s ozone layer.

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader had taken the time to answer questions submitted by YouTube users, and he also addresses some environmental issues (at 2:50 min).

In the past he was known as the greenest of all presidential candidates to date. This time, however, both Obama and McCain signal a surprising commitment to environmental issues.

Environmental Architecture is a field that’s becoming more and more prevalent around the world. As our planet population constantly expands while available space is only getting more sparse, bold solutions are in dire need.

One such futuristic solution comes from New York-based architect Phu Hoang. His architecture firm is aiming to tackle the issue of the receding water level at the Dead Sea. This famous salt lake is the world’s lowest point, and is situated between Israel and Jordan in the Middle East. This hot region isn’t blessed with lots of fresh water, and Hoang’s suggestion explains how the Dead Sea offers the opportunity to desalinate fresh water, made available for both Israel and Jordan, while luring tourists from around the world.

They key to his plan lies in the fact that the receding water levels reveal new land patches that aren’t claimed by any country, and can thus be referred to as “No Man’s Land”. He proposes to construct artificial archipelago in this No Man’s Land, which will transform the humid air into drinkable water.

Have you heard of any other futuristic designs? Feel free to let us know about them.

We all know that oil isn’t endless. When all of it is dug up, we’ll be in a serious trouble — unless we develop reasonable sources of alternative energy. However, experts predict that we still have several decades before reaching “the point of no oil”.

This estimation is confronted, or rather supplemented, by the Peak Oil Theory.

In short, peak oil theory claims that disaster will strike much sooner than we think. See, oil isn’t going to disappear one day all of a sudden. One day not too far away, oil reserves will start dwindling, and in fact it is from this turning point that things will start to get really bad — many many years before the earth completely dries out.

Our global economic system is very fragile. You only need to look around and see what’s happening now when oil prices rise steadily, without there being any shortage of oil. In response, food prices soar, riots break in Southeast Asia and in Central Africa, and the inflation is running wild. Now imagine what might happen when we do reach that peak: First of all, prices will jump up like never before. Secondly, oil-producing countries will have to place increasingly-smaller quotas on oil excavation in order to stretch their oil fields’ viability for as many years as possible. This will cause oil shortages around the world.

One estimation for when we’ll be reaching the peak point talks about 2010.

Palm Oil Industry threatens the Rain Forests

Right now palm oil is the second, behind soybean, most produced oil in world. It is estimated that within the next five years, palm oil will surpass soybean oil to become the leading vegetable oil produced.

Because of this huge demand, thousands of acres of rainforest are being cut down every year to make way for new plantations. As a result, hundreds of animals are loosing their habit including the endangered Sumatran Tiger, Asian Elephant, Sumatran Rhinoceros and both the Sumatra and Borneo Orangutan.

Hi-Tech companies take aim at Eco-Tech

Intel and International Business Machines have joined the parade of technology companies making alternative-energy plays, announcing Monday separate efforts to put their manufacturing smarts to work cranking out solar cells.

Solar cells, which convert light to electricity, have long relied on silicon, the same material upon which companies such as IBM and Intel build computer chips.

Carbon Emissions are on the rise

It had been known, but disputed, for a year that China was the new king of carbon, having pumped more of the heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere annually than the United States. Now, with a new analysis from the Netherlands, the rise of China’s polluting power has been confirmed.

The Discovery Channel has taken upon itself to collect all the facts about Global Warming. I think it’s a great initiative, and I recommend checking it out…

It has been published that the European Union is considering to require by law Car Ads to warn consumers of the harm carbon emissions cause the planet. It’s a very progressive stance, and one that should radically change the public atmosphere in Europe if accepted.

Seeing this policy put into action might take several months or even several years, but we at Natural Buy have decided to take on the challenge, and we would like to try and phrase the actual warnings that might eventually find their way onto major billboard ads.

Let’s start with the basic version: “Research indicates that petrol-driven automobiles damage the ozone layer“.

If we desire to be a bit more creative, we can try one of the following: “Driving this vehicle will be useless when the Ice Caps melt” or “This machine harms the future of your children“.

In case you have other neat ideas, feel free to Email ‘em to us, and we shall post the best ones.

Picture by California State University at San Bernardino

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has a very progressive environmental policy. He strongly pushes forward the idea of renewable fuels, such as Cellulosic Ethanol. He’s also proposing a Cap Plan on carbon emissions, similar to Hillary’s proposal. Finally, he hopes to curb down 80% of the emissions by 2050 — a very ambitious objective.

Here, check out for yourself:

Something tells me he’s even more green-friendly than our own Kiki?!

Whoever wins the next American presidency will have to face daunting environmental issues. Now, all along the campaign trail, candidates throw promises in the air. But when the time comes, will he or she deliver?

One thing we could do to pressure the next US president to live up to his word — whatever that word may be — is to spread these promises to as many people as possible. Knowledge is power, and promises given to millions of people ain’t the same as promises given to a small group of people in a certain setting.

In short, my aim here is to make the candidates’ environmental policies as publicly known as possible, in order to make this issue a valid deciding factor when facing the ballot.

Today I’ll start with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has just won the primary at Puerto Rico by a landslide margin. This is what she had to say a few months ago in New Hampshire:

If you want to look into her stance on the issue even further, you may be interested in reading Hillary Clinton’s Official Environmental Policy.