Well, it depends who you ask. Some experts believe uranium sources will last another several billion years while other believe it is set to expire in a few hundred years. Now that’s a vast difference! So if we take the median answer, well then we still have a few thousand years to discover renewable energy. But as much as people criticize government policies (we’ll get to that in a minute), and commercialization of the industry, this sector of the market continues to grow.

credit Arizona State University Parking Lot cut 7% in Arizona’s energy bill

Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week.

That’s because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada.

Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate.

By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for slaughter to the emissions released by manure, they are getting a clearer idea of the true costs of food.

The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit.

Even though beef only accounts for 30 percent of meat consumption in the developed world it’s responsible for 78 percent of the emissions, Pelletier said Sunday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That’s because a single kilogram of beef produces 16 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent emissions: four times higher than pork and more than ten times as much as a kilogram of poultry, Pelletier said.

If people were to simply switch from beef to chicken, emissions would be cut by 70 percent, Pelletier said.

Another part of the problem is people are eating far more meat than they need to.

“Meat once was a luxury in our diet,” Pelletier said. “We used to eat it once a week. Now we eat it every day.”

If meat consumption in the developed world was cut from the current level of about 90 kilograms a year to the recommended level of 53 kilograms a year, livestock related emissions would fall by 44 percent.

“Given the projected doubling of (global) meat production by 2050, we’re going to have to cut our emissions by half just to maintain current levels,” Pelletier said.

“Technical improvements are not going to get us there.”

That’s why changing the kinds of food people eat is so important, said Chris Weber, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

Food is the third largest contributor to the average US household’s carbon footprint after driving and utilities, and in Europe – where people drive less and have smaller homes – it has an even greater impact.

“Food is of particular importance to a consumer’s impact because it’s a daily choice that is, at least in theory, easy to change,” Weber said.

“You make your choice every day about what to eat, but once you have a house and a car you’re locked into that for a while.”

The average US household contributes about five tons of carbon dioxide a year by driving and about 3.5 tons of equivalent emissions with what they eat, he said.

“Switching to no red meat and no dairy products is the equivalent of (cutting out) 8,100 miles driven in a car … that gets 25 miles to the gallon,” Weber said in an interview following the symposium.

Buying local meat and produce will not have nearly the same effect, he cautioned.

That’s because only five percent of the emissions related to food come from transporting food to market.

“You can have a much bigger impact by shifting just one day a week from meat and dairy to anything else than going local every day of the year,” Weber said.

For more information on how to eat a low carbon diet, visit www.eatlowcarbon.org.

The astonishingly well-preserved remains of the primate-like animal could prove to be the so-called ‘missing link’ which would help prove Darwin’s theory of evolution.

But Ida is just one of thousands of fossils recovered from the Messel pit. It is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, about 20 miles south-east of Frankfurt. Bituminous shale was mined there, but because of its plethora of fossils, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.

Yet it is the richest fossil site in the world for understanding the early development of mammals – and therefore ultimately man himself.

‘Ida’: The discovery of the fossil could prove Darwin’s theory of evolution

Anonymous: The Messel shale pit was declared a World Heritage Site in 1995. Ida was discovered there in 1983 and held by a private collector before being sold this year for $1million

A small bird found at Messel near Darmstadt, shows how well its feathers and body tissues have been preserved

Although mammals only make up two per cent of the total finds, 45 species have been uncovered in the pit.

They include animals resembling primates, horses, marsupial possums, tapirs, rodents, bats and hedgehogs. There are also 43 species of birds, 31 species of reptiles and more than 10,000 fossil fishes.

The pit reveals a snapshot of the Eocene Epoch 48million years ago.

This was a time when mammals became firmly established as the rulers of the land, invaded the seas as whales and took to the air as bats. During the period North America, Europe and Asia were in continuous land contact.

Many of the pit’s fossils are exceptionally well preserved. Usually only  fragments of bones are found but Messel has yielded up full skeletons and the outlines of entire bodies as well as feathers, hair and even stomach contents.

Hyrachyus minimus is an extinct grazing mammal. It was a 5ft long beast suspected to be the ancestor of modern tapirs and rhinoceroses

A paleontologist shows off a fossillised fish embedded in a piece of slate

The fossil Amia kehreri from Messel measures 8.9″ long. Fins and vertebra can be seen

The ancient lake basin is currently 180 feet deep but the oil shale bed extends some up to 380 feet deeper.

It would once have been surrounded by lush sub-tropical forests supporting an incredible diversity of life. The Messel lake bed was probably a centre point for drainage from nearby rivers.

Oil shale would have formed over a long period from mud and dead vegetation the lake bed. The lake bottom had low oxygen levels and was little disturbed by currents, so it was ideal for preserving fossils.

Scientists believe Messel was once in a tectonically active region with sub-surface shifts releasing deadly gases that killed organisms in and around the lake. This would account why there are so many non-aquatic fossils among the remains.

Animals like this giant beetle fell into the lake which existed at Messel about 48 million years ago, sank to the bottom and settled in soft mud that was eventually to become a bed of slate

Well-preserved: An extinct species of horse discovered in the pit.

A Diplocynodon darwini, an extinct alligator, was completely removed from the oil shale and resin mix for display

Unfortunately many of the precious remains were lost during 1884 and 1971 when the site was actively mined for the oil inside the bituminous shale. The first fossil of a crocodile was discovered in 1875 but formal excavation did not begin until 1919.

It was not until 1966 that systematic excavations were carried out and the remains preserved by a ‘transfer’ technique, with resin applied to the removed fossils. But after 1971 hundreds of amateur fossil-hunters – many not properly equipped – were allowed to dig at random on the site.

Over the next two decades a number of precious fossils, including the impressive Ida, were removed by private collectors. In the early 1990s the pit narrowly escaped being turned into a landfill site.

Thankfully the area was eventually declared a natural world heritage site in 1995 and an amnesty on previously collected fossils was put into effect to get privately owned collections back into public ownership and available to science.

Digs by Darmstadt University are ongoing and experts hope the Messel pit still has plenty more fossil treasures to yield up.

Allognathosuchus, an extinct ancestor of alligators and crocodiles. It had stout jaws and bulbous teeth probably for crushing molluscs

The Masillamys beegeri was an early rodent with a 20cm long body and 20cm long tail. The short legs suggest a springy form of movement. Four rodents have been unearthed

A bat from the Eocene Era which was a crucial period in the early development of mammals

These archaeologists have a lot more than just an elementary education.  You can always continue your education online

The Chilean Sea Bass, also known as the Patagonian Toothfish, is a pretty popular fish at the nicer restaurants. However, it’s also one that is not only overfished, but also caught using damaging fishing practices like longlining – which kills sea birds – and bottom trawling – which damages delicate habitat. Plus, the high mercury content is a turn off. So while you might find some recipes that you’d love to try out that call for this fish, substitute it for something like Pacific Halibut or Striped Bass instead.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responding to a petition from environmentalists, said Wednesday that it will launch an in-depth review of the American pika and submit findings by Feb. 1, 2010.

The agency acknowledged that there’s “substantial information” indicating that climate change may threaten the pikas’ habitat and range.

“The service knows that climate change is real. It is the biggest conservation challenge of our time,” said Diane Katzenberger, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Denver.

The pika — a furry, big-eared relative of the rabbit — dwells mostly in high, rocky mountain slopes in 10 Western states.

It is well-suited for alpine conditions, with dense fur, slow reproductivity and a thermal regulation system that doesn’t do well in the heat. Even brief exposure to temperatures of 78 degrees or warmer can cause death.

As the West warms, scientists say some pikas have tried to move upslope to find cooler refuges but have run out of room.

Any steps taken to protect the pika could also help other species affected by climate change, said Greg Loarie, an attorney with Oakland, Calif.-based Earthjustice who has worked on pika lawsuits pressing for protections.

“The pika is the fire alarm and this is our opportunity to come to grips with global warming and prevent an extinction crisis,” Loarie said.

Extending federal protections to the pika primarily because of climate change would likely lead to larger policy discussions about how best to mitigate those effects. Environmentalists say the pika listing should be part of a sweeping movement to curb emissions that most climate scientists say is contributing to global warming.

Katzenberger said Fish and Wildlife is in the midst of developing a five-year plan on how it will deal with climate change.

The Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species in 2008, the first to be protected because of the threats of global warming. Officials quickly completed regulations, though, to ensure the listing couldn’t be used to block projects that contribute to global warming. That decision is now being challenged in court.

The pika lives in parts of California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

A study in 2003 found six of 25 previously known pika populations in the Great Basin had disappeared, primarily because of the effects of warming temperatures.

Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that petitioned to have the pika protected, said subsequent studies indicate other populations in the Great Basin have disappeared. Formal results of those follow-up studies have not been published.