What we could have had for the price of the Iraq War - Now estimated at a final cost of $3 Trillion (conservatively):

• Forget drilling in Alaska, forget ethanol, forget hybrids. As long as we’re spending, let’s go straight to hydrogen. It is estimated to cost $500,000,000 to build the infrastructure.
• Design, build, and upgrade all US highways, roads, and streets needed for the next 50 years. Price: $950,000,000,000.00
• Completely eliminate world hunger along with the diseases associated with hunger and poverty for 365 days. Price: $195,000,000,000.00
• teach every man, woman and child on the planet to read. Considering the fact that nations like Somalia and Sierra Leone have adult literacy rates of only about 35%, that is money well spent. Price: $5,000,000,000.00
• Pay for 1 year of college for 20 million people Price: $400,000,000,000.00
• Advanced technology can save trillions of dollars lost in the transmission of electrical power. Think megawatt transistor switches, superconductor conduits, not to mention the gains from replacing worn out infrastructure. And JOBS Price: $100,000,000.00
• From ArsTechnica EDUCAUSE calls for the construction of a national fiber network that would reach every home and business, with the $100 billion cost split equally between the federal government, the states, and a private- or public-sector entity that would actually build and maintain the network. Because fiber networks can increase speeds simply by carrying more wavelengths at once, the report notes that such an investment in infrastructure might “provide adequate broadband connectivity for several decades.” Price: $100,000,000,000.00
• Provide an integrated national High Speed Rail system, using Alstom’s proven technology (which currently holds the world record for the fastest train at over 550kph (340+mph). This system would connect all of America’s major cities together with high-speed electric trains, powered at least partially by sustainable wind and solar energy facilities located in or near the Right Of Way. Price: $300,000,000,000.00
• Everyone secretly knows that switching to solar is a really, really good idea, though businesses invested in dirty coal, cancerous nuclear or other unclean options are unlikely to say it out loud. But how do we pay for the $420 billion overhaul of the nation’s energy infrastructure? Well, we could have picked up the tab easily if we didn’t spend $3 Trillion on this war. Price: $420,000,000,000.00

And there are many more.

Breathing Earth. Real-time tracker of carbon dioxide emissions in countries all over world; also births/deaths, constantly updating real-time tracking while you’re on the site.

Real Time “Map” of CO2 Emissions All Over World

ESA Provides Hi-Res Worrying Maps of Space Debris

Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.

Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).

Interesting pictures showing just how cluttered it’s getting up there.   And it’s all gonna be pulled back down by gravity eventually.