How to Properly Raise an Aloe Vera Plant

It is very easy to grow aloe vera since you can even cultivate it indoors. By growing it inside of your home, you can enjoy its medicinal gel for the whole year since its growth will not be affected by the changing weather outside. It can also bounce back from neglect that would kill any other plant. It also makes an excellent contrast to other house plants like spider plants and ferns.

Materials Needed In Growing An Aloe Vera Plant

The materials needed are pot with a drain hole, cactus potting mix, a sunny area and marbles or pot pieces.

Steps In Cultivating Aloe Vera

Remember to pick aloe vera that possesses firm and healthy leaves. Repot each plant during spring. They can also develop rapidly during months that have warm weather. Use a loose soil for the plants. A cactus plant potting mixture (which is made of two parts sand and one part potting soil) will do wonders. Do not forget to choose a plant pot with an excellent drainage. Fill it one-third full of pebbles or shards. Fill the pot plant with two-thirds full of potting and place the plant.

You can now cover the aloe vera with soil. Carefully remove any bumps in the soil. Water the plan and place it in a sunny area of your home. Windows in the southern part of your residence receives a lot of sunlight and can provide the warmth that your plant needs. Remember to water your plant during summer only when it gets really dry.

Keep an eye on the soil and wait until the soil begins to draw away from the plant pot's side before you water it. Aloe vera does not need a lot of water during cold months. You can water it once every 2-3 weeks. You can use the leaves of the plant for burns by cutting a portion of the plant to lengthwise. Carefully remove the leaf to reveal the medicinal gel.

Additional Tips

For optimum results, place the plant outdoors for a few times during late summer and spring each year. Carefully introduce it to the environment outside of your home by putting in a shaded spot for a few hours during a good day.

You can increase the plant's time outdoor seven to ten days a week. Remember that if you place the plant during summer outside of your residence, bring it inside before the onset of winter. Do not place the plant in too much water since its roots can easily rot.

Should the plant be unfortunately exposed to cold weather, do not immediately discard it without giving it an opportunity to live. The leaves of the aloe vera may begin to wilt and then die off but if the affected portion is not too big, new leaves will begin to grow from its base. It will be unsightly for quite some time but there is a big chance that it will survive and flourish again.

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Global Warming effects

Green house gases stay can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what we do, global warming is going to have some effect on Earth. Here are the 5 deadliest effects of global warming.

5. Spread of disease As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in some countries thanks to global warming, malaria has not been fully eradicated.

4. Warmer waters and more hurricanes As the temperature of oceans rises, so will the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. We saw in this in 2004 and 2005.

3. Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves Although some areas of Earth will become wetter due to global warming, other areas will suffer serious droughts and heat waves. Africa will receive the worst of it, with more severe droughts also expected in Europe. Water is already a dangerously rare commodity in Africa, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming will exacerbate the conditions and could lead to conflicts and war.

2. Economic consequences Most of the effects of anthropogenic global warming won’t be good. And these effects spell one thing for the countries of the world: economic consequences. Hurricanes cause do billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

1. Polar ice caps melting The ice caps melting is a four-pronged danger.

First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet. Luckily, that’s not going to happen all in one go! But sea levels will rise.

Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English - make it less salty. The desalinization of the gulf current will "screw up" ocean currents, which regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around north-east America and Western Europe. Luckily, that will slow some of the other effects of global warming in that area!

Third, temperature rises and changing landscapes in the artic circle will endanger several species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive.

Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and reflect sunlight, much of which is relected back into space, further cooling Earth. If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the Earth.

So what is the solution? Are we just being negative? Are there any positive effects of global warming? What about all the stupid global warming solutions. We welcome your thoughts.

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Nature's Miracle

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Greater Adjutants

The Greater Adjutant, Leptoptilos dubius is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It formerly bred in southern Asia from Pakistan and India, Sri Lanka east to Borneo, but is now restricted to two separate small breeding populations; in Assam and Cambodia. In winter, this species migrates south to Vietnam, Thailand and Burma.

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Zoo Atlanta partnering with NJ company to bring back popular online panda cam

After three months of darkness, Zoo Atlanta's online panda cam is back.

The zoo announced Tuesday that it is resurrecting its popular online video feed that drew millions of hits from panda fans across the globe. The zoo is partnering with the New Jersey-based Earth Cam after getting rid of its panda cam Dec. 31 because of budget cuts.

Earth Cam has agreed to stream the online video for free in exchange for promotion by the zoo.

The zoo has two panda cubs —
Mei Lan (MAY LAHN) and Xi Lan (SHE LAHN) — born since 2006. Xi Lan, which means "Atlanta's Joy," was born Aug. 31.

The video will air from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday starting Friday.

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