New York City’s Empire State building is one of America’s and the world’s most famous man made landmarks. Excavation of the building site started in 1930 and official construction of the building started on St Patrick’s Day in the same year. The construction crew consisted of many immigrants and members of the Mohawk tribe from Montreal. Fast forward eighty years and the Empire State Building is going green, Sustainably Speaking: Buildings, a Better Future
* The renovations are estimated to cost $20 million.
* The annual savings from greening the building will be about $4.4 million. So about five years to recover the costs in energy savings.
* It is thought energy use will be cut by 38%. Comparable to taking 22,000 cars off the road.
Why Antarctic ice is growing despite global warming
Satellite data shows that sea ice has shrunk west of the Antarctic Peninsula and grown in the Ross Sea. Because the increase in sea ice extent has been greater than the reduction around the Antarctic peninsula the net effect is that since the ozone hole appeared 30 years ago, Antarctic ice has grown.
It is still expected that greenhouse gases will continue to contribute to a net loss of Antarctic ice over the next fifty years. The Larsen ice shelf in West Antarctica is precipitously close to breaking off. One or two years of cooling in one region do not make for a trend.
Lightest exoplanet is discovered
Situated in the constellation Libra, it is only about twice as massive as the Earth, whereas most other exoplanets identified have been far bigger.
Scientists think this newly discovered planet is probably too close to its sun to support complex life.
