Halloween is just a day away and while there are bound to be plenty of spooky ghosts and goblins roaming the streets and searching out candy, some seriously scary real-life “monsters” are among us and they’ve been created (or encouraged) by global warming and pollution. Here are five reminders that things could get really scary (peak oil scary even!) if we don’t make an effort to improve things for the environment.

1. Giant Jellyfish

Seas full of enormous toxic jellyfish sound like something out of a bad scary movie, but due to overfishing the scary swarms are a reality in several parts of the world. With their natural predators fished out of commission and global warming linked to increasing jellyfish populations, these giant jellyfish (some of which can be deadly to both fish and humans) are a very valid threat and one that’s worth switching to sustainable seafood to avoid.

2. Two Headed Fish

They’re not quite the deadly sea creatures that were chasing down human meals in the movie Piranha, but two-headed fish and fish larvae are becoming more common and while there are a few things linked to the problem (including genetic mutation) many scientists feel pollution plays a huge role, with now-famous two-headed fish showing up in an Alberta lake near an oil sands operation and schools of two-headed fish larvae appearing in Australian waters near a pesticide-heavy macadamia plant. Click here to read more

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The kings of ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s have been campaigning for the environment all along. Their Lick Global Warming campaign has been around for years. The company buys carbon credits and led a charge to get the EPA to allow for hydro-carbon refrigeration, which doesn’t use ozone-depleting hydro-fluorocarbons and uses 10% less energy. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s introduced the new hyrdrocarbon freezer technology with the help of Greenpeace.

Now, Unilever has bigger and better freezer dreams for Ben & Jerry’s and their other ice cream mega-brand, the UK’s Magnum. The company wants to develop a low-carbon dessert that can be shipped and sold at room temperature and later frozen at home before it’s served. Unilever, which is also responsible for big brands like Dove, Surf and Vaseline, says ice cream is one of the more energy-intensive products because it needs to be frozen during storage and transport. So when looking for ways to be more eco-friendly company-wide, room temperature ice cream stood out.

The challenge? Click here to read more

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Natural trees fight global warming through the process of photosynthesis by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. A manufactured “synthetic tree” probably doesn’t sound like the answer to  preventing climate change, but we’re not talking about your fake Christmas tree or the faux Ficus you bought years ago.

Klaus Lackner, a professor at Columbia University, is developing a prototype for a synthetic tree that catches carbon just like a real tree. Only difference? This one is better: It’s about 1,000 times faster than the real thing. Lackner’s concept doesn’t look as pretty as a tree (see above), but it can capture carbon anytime, anywhere and once it’s trapped inside the chamber, it gets compressed and stored as liquid carbon dioxide. Later, Lackner says that liquid could be used to create fuel for cars or jets or even to enhance vegetable production. Click here to read more

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Climate change affects everyone and now you can see just how quickly you and everyone else are affecting climate change. Last week, Deutsche Bank put up the world’s first real time carbon counter. The seven-story high sign is in the middle of Manhattan across from Madison Square Garden for the masses to see just how many greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the counter, which is powered by 41,000 LED light bulbs. Right now, the number is 3.64 trillion tonnes, which is the highest level of greenhouse gases recorded in 800,000 years. Every second, 800 tonnes are added on.

The sign wasn’t created only to scare each of us into lowering our individual carbon footprints, though. Deutsche Bank hopes that by putting the growing number on display, they’ll spark new public debates on how to stop global warming on a larger scale. The United Nations releases numbers on global warming every five years or so, now you can get a good picture of the damage every second.

If you don’t live in NYC, you can still see the live tally. Click here to read more

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