Legalize hemp agriculture and save the planet.

Crossing the street is sometimes an intensive experience of passive smoking!

Natural phenomena never ceases to amaze me!

I came across this article about a mysterious fireball falling down in the Middle East, a week after a similarly-looking meteor(?) was spotted in Los Angeles.

How freaky is that?

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.

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.

From Natural News:

(NaturalNews) A non-psychoactive chemical that occurs naturally in the marijuana plant may prevent breast cancer from spreading, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Researchers found that a chemical called cannabidiol (CBD) affects the activity of a gene known as Id-1 in patients with hormone-independent breast cancer.

Because CBD occurs in only very small quantities in the cannabis plant, the researchers do not recommend smoking marijuana as a cancer treatment. To be effective, CBD will either have to be artificially synthesized or extracted and concentrated.

The chemical’s major advantage, according to the researchers, is its apparent non-toxicity.

From the Ethics in Action community:

80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.

The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.

In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs.

Hemp, or cannabis, or marijuana was outlawed in 1937 because it threatened the nation-less corporate interests of - William Randolph Hearst ­ and - DuPont. They had to get rid of the competition. - Hearst’s yellow journalism newspaper chain wrote scathing stories about “marijuana” - a word he made up - because he knew no one would believe them about hemp, which George Washington himself grew hemp.

Although this hierarchy is very simple, it’s important to keep it in mind when moving from place to place. When talking about the ultimate “green car”, there’s nothing better and healthier than bicycles!

Learn more at Transportation Alternatives.

Picture taken from Environmental Transportation Options