China is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency.

Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil produces more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than any human activity, accounting for at least one quarter of all global emissions. CO2 emissions from electricity and heat have increased as coal has been the fastest growing energy source since 2000, reports the International Energy Agency. 

The energy policy of China is a policy decided on by the Central Government with regard to energy and energy resources. The country is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency.^[1][2][3] However, China's per capita emissions are still far behind some of the developed countries. In addition, China is also the world's leading renewable energy producer.^[4]

Emissions by Country

In 2008, the top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters were China, the United States, the European Union, India, the Russian Federation, Japan, and Canada. These data include CO2emissions from fossil fuel combustion, as well as cement manufacturing and gas flaring. Together, these sources represent a large proportion of total global CO2 emissions.

Emissions and sinks related to changes in land use are not included in these estimates. However, changes in land use can be important - global estimates indicate that deforestation can account for 5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions, or about 16% of emissions from fossil fuel sources. Tropical deforestation in Africa, Asia, and South America are thought to be the largest contributors to emissions from land-use change globally. [3] In areas such as the United States and Europe, changes in land use associated with human activities have the net effect of absorbing CO2, partially offsetting the emissions from deforestation in other regions.

'Cosmos' Recap: What Lead Poisoning and Earth's Age Have in Common + Lead Poisoning and Rome

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" explored the life of Clair Patterson, a geochemist who pinpointed Earth's age for the first time and also uncovered a secret: Lead contamination is a major and potentially deadly problem. The newest episode of "Cosmos," called "The Clean Room," takes viewers on a tour of Patterson's work and the industry that fought him as he tried to learn more about lead and its harmful effects.

After much time and effort, Patterson's scientific work with lead paid off, leading to a ban on lead in products like gasoline, canned goods and paint in the United States.

Eventually, after years of research, Patterson was able to say that the Earth was born about 4.5 billion years ago.

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" is a reboot of the astronomer Carl Sagan's beloved "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage."

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox. It will be rebroadcast with extra material on the National Geographic Channel on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Check local listings. To catch up on "Cosmos," you can watch the previously aired episodes for free via Hulu.

http://www.space.com/25579-cosmos-recap-earth-age-lead-poisoning.html

A 1983 article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Jerome Nriagu, a geochemist, reopened a debate that had been dormant for almost two decades. There, and in a book published later that year, he argued that "lead poisoning contributed to the decline of the Roman empire." Yet, a review by Scarborough, a pharmacist and classicist, criticized the book as being "so full of false evidence, miscitations, typographical errors, and a blatant flippancy regarding primary sources that the reader cannot trust the basic arguments." Scarborough concluded that, although ancient authorities were aware of lead poisoning, it was not endemic in the Roman empire nor caused its fall. Waldron, a specialist in both occupational medicine and archaeology, also chastised the author for not using primary sources and being uncritical of the material he did use, concluding that "The decline of the Roman Empire is a phenomenon of great complexity and it is simplistic to ascribe it to a single cause."

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html

If you don't pass this on you are a Chicken...read to the end!

Sam was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young'pullets,' and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.

Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

Sam's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

To Sam's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Sam was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Brisbane City Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Vote carefully in the next election, you can't always hear the bells.

If you don’t send this on, you’re chicken.

Brampton couple reunited with $50M lottery ticket lost at church

A Brampton couple endured a roller-coaster ride of emotions when a lottery ticket worth $50 million went missing only to be found and returned by a person at their church.

A Brampton couple endured a roller-coaster ride of emotions when a lottery ticket worth $50 million went missing only to be found and returned by a person at their church.

Hakeem Nosiru won the Jan. 17 Lotto Max draw and was one day away from claiming the money when the ticket, which he duct-taped to the inside his wife’s purse for safekeeping, was missing after they attended church.

That sparked a frantic search of their Brampton home, with garbage bins being upended and their contents picked through piece by piece, an effort that left Nosiru and his wife empty handed and feeling “miserable.”

But that despair turned to joy after a fellow member of the congregation discovered the ticket and reunited it with them on April 1 — saying “April fools” — a return made possible because Nosiru signed the ticket with their address.

But the saga wasn’t over yet, as Nosiru gave the ticket to Ontario Provincial Police, who were investigating the matter for Ontario Lottery and Gaming to ensure there were no further snags.

Everything checked out and Nosiru and his wife Abiola were beaming for the cameras at the OLG prize centre Monday, telling reporters they were planning on travelling the world and helping out their family.

Abiola Nosiru said that when she realized her husband’s winning ticket had disappeared from her purse “I had a fly in my stomach and I couldn’t sleep for days. I couldn’t eat. I was devastated.”

“We just wanted to see the reality. And the reality is right here now,” she said, fighting back tears.

She wasn’t sure what they’ll do for the woman who ended the ticket’s exodus, but told her “I just want to say thank you.”

Ontario Are Hydro prices really so high? Damn Yes!

Are Hydro prices really so high? Letter May 25

Yes, Hydro prices are very high! Rob Graham’s letter conveniently leaves out a few facts about hydro rates.

In March, 1999, when Ontario Hydro and municipal utilities were turned from non-profit commissions into forprofit corporations and the Tories brought in hydro deregulation, the price was 4.3 cents a kWh. The top rate is now 12.9 cents, a 300-per-cent increase. During that time, inflation ran at about 30 per cent, so the price of electricity rose at 10 times the rate of inflation.

Also, this isn’t the real price of hydro. We have a deregulated electricity market (designed by Enron and their friends) now called the Independent Electricity System Operator. The market rate during the cold snap in March was 24.9 cents. The reason why most people are unaware of this market is because the price remains hidden with the Ontario Energy Board truing up rates twice a year. You guessed it, upward.

Also, $1.5 billion is now taken out of Ontario’s economy in private power profits every year. Before deregulation those profits were returned to businesses and citizens in the form of lower and stable rates under at-cost, nonprofit, public power.

We pay double what they pay in Manitoba and Quebec. The price of electricity in Ontario is only going to go way, way up. Why? Because of Hydro deregulation and privatization. Are Hydro rates really so high? Damn right they are!

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/06/02/the_other_side_of_hydro_prices.html

Ontario Elections voters have the legal right under section 53 of the Elections Act to decline their ballot (i.e. vote “none of the above”) and have it counted separately from a spoiled ballot.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Democracy Watch asked Elections Ontario — by threat of court action — to advertise the fact that voters have the legal right under section 53 of the Elections Act to decline their ballot (i.e. vote “none of the above”) and have it counted separately from a spoiled ballot.

[Section] 53. An elector who has received a ballot and returns it to the deputy returning officer declining to vote, forfeits the right to vote and the deputy returning officer shall immediately write the word “declined” upon the back of the ballot and preserve it to be returned to the returning officer and shall cause an entry to be made in the poll record that the elector declined to vote.
R.S.O. 1990, c. E.6, s. 53.”

In an interview with Yahoo Canada News, Democracy Watch's Duff Conacher said that if Elections Ontario did advertise that option — as part of their outreach materials — voter turnout would indeed increase.

"There are some people who don't support any party that has a candidate in their riding or do not support any of the parties' platforms," he said.

"They may go and spoil their ballot but when you spoil your ballot nobody knows whether you're stupid or you're doing it intentionally. And that's why you have a right to decline your ballot...so you can go and vote none of the above."

[ More Ontario election coverage: First attack ads largely miss the mark: expert ]

In the future, Conacher would like to see new regulations so that ballots actually have a line that explicitly says "None of the Above" and space for voters to explain their reason for selecting that option.

"I think a lot of them would say 'don't like the voting system' or 'can't be held accountable for broken promises,'" Conacher said.

"Why not track that if you really want to know why people aren't voting for any one party?"

For their part, Elections Ontario says that their online guide and a poster of voters rights — which will be placed at every polling location — include "mentions" about the right to decline. They also note, however, that increasing voter turnout isn't necessarily just their responsibility.

"Political parties, candidates, interest groups, media and the voters themselves all have a role to play in increasing participation in our provincial elections," Andrew Willis, a communications coordinator for Elections Ontario, said in an email to Yahoo.

"We are a non-partisan agency and as such, our role is not to get individuals to vote. Rather, we facilitate the vote – and, if one chooses, the right not to vote."

What do you think? Would a 'none of the above' option entice more Ontarians -- and more Canadians -- to vote in elections?

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/ontario-voters-vote-count-choice-none-above-162236628.html

(Photo courtesy the Canadian Press)