One day before the Nobel Peace Prize award announcement, a British High Court judge ruled that Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” contained nine errors. The film has received many criticisms both positive and negative. Since the documentary came out however, there has been a significant increase of awareness in global warming that did not exist before the movie came out. Al Gore has helped create a social awareness in millions if not billions of people. The issue of global warming is not something new but Al Gore is simply educating people about it. No matter how hard people try to do good, there will always be other people trying to find fault. Yes, Al Gore probably lives in a really big house and flys a private jet every so often and he is contributing to some carbon emission but what about the tons of carbon emission that have been saved due to the impact and awareness that his film has created? Then on the other hand, many people want him to run for President as well. Just let the man do his job in saving the planet. Below are the nine alleged errors highlighted by High Court Judge Michael Burton.

1.) The sea level will rise up to 20 feet because of the melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland in the near future. (This “Armageddon scenario” would only take place over thousands of years, the judge wrote.)

2.) Some low-lying Pacific islands have been so inundated with water that their citizens have all had to evacuate to New Zealand. (”There is no evidence of any such evacuation having yet happened.”)

3.) Global warming will shut down the “ocean conveyor,” by which the Gulf Stream moves across the North Atlantic to Western Europe. (According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “it is very unlikely that the Ocean Conveyor will shut down in the future…”)

4.) There is a direct coincidence between the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the rise in temperature over the last 650,000 years. (”Although there is general scientific agreement that there is a connection, the two graphs do not establish what Mr. Gore asserts.”)

5.) The disappearance of the snows on Mount Kilimanjaro is expressly attributable to global warming. (”However, it is common ground that, the scientific consensus is that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mount. Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.”)

6.) The drying up of Lake Chad is a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming. (”It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution” and may be more likely the effect of population increase, overgrazing and regional climate variability.)

7.) Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans is because of global warming. (”It is common ground that there is insufficient evidence to show that.”)

8.) Polar bears are drowning because they have to swim long distances to find ice. (”The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one, which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm.”)

9.) Coral reefs all over the world are bleaching because of global warming and other factors. (”Separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as overfishing and pollution, was difficult.”)

Via ABCNews 

Greenpeace has a Green Electronics Guide that ranks mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practices on being Green and sustainable. The ranking is based on public information that is available on how well the companies eliminate harmful chemicals and the responsibility of recycling the products discarded by consumers. Nokia ranks first while Dell and Lenovo are tied for second. Apple jumped from being last in the previous edition to 10th place with its recent announcements of its environmental goals.

The guide gets updated and released every quarter so that companies can move up towards a greener ranking. Companies can also move down and receive penalty points from the overall score if Greenpeace finds a company lying, practicing double standards, or any other corporate misconducts. For example, Sony and LGE dropped to the bottom of the list for corporate double standards on Producer Responsibility(IPR) for products discarded by consumers. Sony is a founding member of the European Recycling Platform which supports IPR but in the US, Sony has been opposing IPR and has been lobbying for US consumers to pay an Advanced Recycling Fee. LGE’s global website states that the company believes that the producer should be responsible for financing the waste management of its own brand products when they are discarded, but in the US, LGE is part of a Coalition that oppposes IPR and lobbys for US consumers to pay an Advanced Recycling Fee as well.

The guide is mainly aimed for companies to clean up the life cycles of their products and the waste that their products generate but does not rank anything on labour standards or energy use. By releasing the guide every quarter, it will make companies very aware of their own standards and practices and will make them strive to improve their efforts.

Official Guide to Greener Electronics June 2007

via GreenerComputing

Generation Exe has just been featured on Red Orbit’s blog of the day. Red Orbit is a website specifically for news in the field of space, science, health, and technology. They cover news around the world and often have coverage of the environment in the Science section as well as in the Technology section.

http://www.redorbit.com/community/blogs_of_the_day/

Summer Rayne Oakes is a model/social ecofashion entrepreneur who is often referred to as the “The Eco-Model.” Her work has been featured on TV, Media, and publications such as CNN, Fox News, Vogue, Elle, and more. Oakes continues to spread the word on sustainability to individuals through her modeling, speaking, and publications. In 2005, she founded SRO, a consulting firm for companies and organizations to achieve success in sustainable business. Oakes is not just your typical beauty who is using her looks to promote sustainability. She also has the brains and background to prove it as a  Cornell University graduate in Environmental Science and Entomology as well as being a Morris K. Udall Scholar and National Wildlife Federation Fellow. You can find a great blog along with plenty of photos and press publications on her website.

http://www.summerrayne.net/

Ethisphere Magazine recognized the world’s most ethical companies of 2007. The winners promote ethical leadership and business practices.  More than 5000 companies across 30 industries were considered and were based on these four main definitions: good, smart, business, and profit. The list can be found here.

http://www.ethisphere.com/Ethisphere_Magazine_0207/WME-2007-Q2