Sun, Aug 22, 2010 from Guardian: We've gone into the ecological red At the weekend, Saturday 21 August to be precise, the world as a whole went into "ecological debt".
That means in effect that from now until the end of the year, humanity will be consuming more natural resources and producing more waste than the forests, fields and fisheries of the world can replace and absorb. By doing so, the life-support systems that we all depend on are worn ever thinner. Farms become less productive, fish populations crash and climate regulating forests decline. All become less resilient in the face of extreme weather events.
The date is arrived at by comparing our annual environmental resource budget with our ecological footprint - the rate at which we spend it.
The more we overshoot the available budget, the earlier in the year we start to go into the ecological red. Collectively we started to live beyond our means in the 1980s. Since then the date has crept earlier and earlier in the year. Improved measurement and data bring the latest date forward by a whole month in comparison with last year's date. It now takes about 18 months for the planet to generate what we consume in just 12. ...
I'm not worried -- I invested in ecology default swaps.
Sun, Aug 22, 2010 from National Center for Atmospheric Research: A storm so fierce, a new term is coined A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois on May 8, 2009, was so remarkably fierce that NCAR scientists coined a new term to describe it: super derecho.
A derecho (the Spanish word for "straight") is a long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a bow echo, or line of severe thunderstorms. The word was first used in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888 by Gustavus Hinrichs, who sought to describe a derecho event in Iowa. The May 8 event, however, was no ordinary derecho. The bow echo produced an eye-like structure similar to tropical cyclones. It gained strength as it moved across Kansas in the early morning hours, spinning off 18 tornadoes and packing wind speeds from 70 to 90 miles per hour when it hit Springfield, Missouri. It plowed a path of destruction through the state about 100 miles wide, crossing the Mississippi River with 90 to 100 mph wind gusts before dissipating at Illinois' eastern border. ...
Sun, Aug 22, 2010 from Guardian: Peak oil alarm revealed by secret official talks Speculation that government ministers are far more concerned about a future supply crunch than they have admitted has been fuelled by the revelation that they are canvassing views from industry and the scientific community about "peak oil".
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also refusing to hand over policy documents about "peak oil" - the point at which oil production reaches its maximum and then declines - under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, despite releasing others in which it admits "secrecy around the topic is probably not good".... a letter in response to the FoI request written by DECC officials and dated 31 July 2010 says it can only release some information on what is currently under policy discussion because they are "ongoing" and "high profile" in nature.
The letter adds: "We recognise the public interest arguments in favour of disclosing this information. In particular we recognise that greater transparency makes government more open and accountable and could help provide an insight into peak oil."However any public interest in the disclosure of such information must be balanced with the need to ensure that ministers and advisers can discuss policy in a manner which allows for frank exchanges of views and opinions about important and sensitive issues." ...
Sat, Aug 21, 2010 from Mongabay: Lion populations plummet in Uganda's parks Lion populations across Uganda's park system have declined 40 percent in less than a decade, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
The results, based on the country's first ever carnivore survey, indicate that bushmeat poaching remains a problem in one of Africa's most biodiverse countries. Hunters poach lion prey animals and kill lions as a perceived threat to their livestock.... "If we outlive this iconic African species, we will have to explain what has happened to future generations--that lions had no protection, that these wild animals were unfairly judged, and are no more."
Lion populations across Africa are estimated to have fallen by roughly 80 percent over the past 100 years due to habitat destruction, loss of prey, and direct killing.
WCS found 415 lions remain in Uganda's network of national parks. 132 live in Murchison Falls National Park, the country's largest protected area.
...
With 3D High Def IMAX versions recorded, do we truly need the real thing?
Sat, Aug 21, 2010 from Yale360: Extent of Mangrove Forests Less Than Previous Estimates, Survey Shows The first comprehensive survey of the world's mangrove forests using satellite imagery reveals that the vital ecosystems are 12 percent smaller than earlier estimates and are swiftly disappearing. ... The scientists, reporting their findings in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, estimated that more than half of the world's mangrove forests have disappeared, with a third being lost from 1980 to 2000. Mangrove forests, which grow in tropical and sub-tropical tidal zones, are among the most important ecosystems on the planet, providing habitat for marine life and preventing coastal erosion. But human activity, such as shrimp farming, as well as storms and rising seas, have taken a heavy toll on mangrove forests. The survey showed that 42 percent of mangrove forests are located in Asia, 21 percent in Africa, 15 percent in North and Central America, 12 percent in Oceania, and 11 percent in South America. Only 7 percent of remaining mangrove forests are currently protected by parks and reserves. ...
Let's create womangroves, so they can reproduce faster!
Sat, Aug 21, 2010 from PhysOrg: Solar-powered toothbrush doesn't require toothpaste Researchers have designed a toothbrush that cleans teeth by creating a solar-powered chemical reaction in the mouth, doing away with the need for toothpaste. Dr. Kunio Komiyama, a dentistry professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan, designed the first model of the unconventional toothbrush 15 years ago. Today, Komiyama and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak are seeking recruits to test their newest model, the Soladey-J3X. The toothbrush, which is manufactured by the Shiken company of Japan, will soon be tested by 120 teenagers to see how it compares to a normal toothbrush.
The Soladey-J3X has a solar panel at its base that transmits electrons to the top of the toothbrush through a lead wire. The electrons react with acid in the mouth, creating a chemical reaction that breaks down plaque and kills bacteria. The toothbrush requires no toothpaste, and can operate with about the same amount of light as needed by a solar-powered calculator.
The researchers have already tested the toothbrush in cultures of bacteria that cause periodontal disease, and demonstrated that the brush causes "complete destruction of bacterial cells," Komiyama said.
Last month, the researchers presented their research at the FDI Annual World Dental Conference in Dubai, where their poster won first prize out of 170 entries. ...
Sat, Aug 21, 2010 from Guardian: Rwanda harnesses volcanic gases from depths of Lake Kivu In a world first, the barge is extracting gases that are trapped deep in Lake Kivu's waters like the fizz in a champagne bottle. Methane, the main constituent of natural gas used for household cooking and heating, is then separated out and piped back to the rugged shore where it fires three large generators.
The state-owned Kibuye Power plant is already producing 3.6MW of electricity, more than 4 percent of the country's entire supply. But the success of the pilot project, and the huge unmet demand for power in Rwanda -- only one in 14 homes have access to electricity -- has encouraged local and foreign investors to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to new methane plants along the lakeshore. Within two years, the government hopes to be getting a third of its power from Lake Kivu, and eventually aims to produce so much energy from methane to be able to export it to neighbouring countries.
"Our grandfathers knew there was gas in this lake but now have we proved that it can be exploited," said Alexis Kabuto, the Rwandan engineer who runs the $20m Kibuye project. "It's a cheap, clean resource that could last us 100 years." ...
Isn't that methane supposed to be used to warm the planet?
Fri, Aug 20, 2010 from PhysOrg: Scientists map and confirm BP origin of large, underwater hydrocarbon plume in Gulf Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have detected a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In the study, which appears in the Aug. 19 issue of the journal Science, the researchers measured distinguishing petroleum hydrocarbons in the plume and, using them as an investigative tool, determined that the source of the plume could not have been natural oil seeps but had to have come from the blown out well.
Moreover, they reported that deep-sea microbes were degrading the plume relatively slowly, and that it was possible that the 1.2-mile-wide, 650-foot-high plume had and will persist for some time.... The levels and distributions of the petroleum hydrocarbons show that "the plume is not caused by natural [oil] seeps" in the Gulf of Mexico, Camilli added.... The plume has shown that the oil already "is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected," Camilli said. "Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily biodegraded.
"Well, we didn't find that. We found it was still there."... Reddy said the WHOI team members know the chemical makeup of some of the plume, but not all of it. Gas chromatographic analysis of plume samples confirm the existence of benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and total xylenes—together, called BTEX at concentrations in excess of 50 micrograms per liter. “The plume is not pure oil,” Camilli said. “But there are oil compounds in there.” ...
A "plume" is too pretty. How about we call it a "massive man-made storm of ocean toxicity"?
Fri, Aug 20, 2010 from The Independent: Now Atlantic is found to have huge 'garbage patch' A huge expanse of floating plastic debris has been documented for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean. The size of the affected area rivals the "great Pacific garbage patch" in the world's other great ocean basin, which generated an outcry over the effects of plastic waste on marine wildlife.
The new plastic waste, which was discovered in an area of the Atlantic to the east of Bermuda, consists mostly of fragments no bigger than a few millimetres wide. But their concentrations and the area of the sea that is covered have caused consternation among marine biologists studying the phenomenon.... Kara Lavender Law from the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said the size of the Atlantic "garbage patch" was roughly equal to the one in the Pacific, where circulating currents of the North Pacific Gyre have trapped it over a wide area to the north of the equator.
"The Pacific has received more attention in terms of plastic accumulation but we know less about the Pacific so it's very difficult to compare the Atlantic patch in terms of size. We had a cruise this summer to try to find the eastern extent and in fact we failed to find it," Dr Lavender Law said.... Small fragments of plastic could pose an even greater menace to marine life than the larger fragments that become entangled with animals such as albatrosses and turtles, she said. "We know that smaller pieces of plastic are eaten and it's unclear what happens to that plastic then. But clearly biological organisms were not designed to eat plastic," she said. ...
Fri, Aug 20, 2010 from Bangor Daily News: Gulf of Maine: changing? ... But what would happen if the entire Gulf of Maine ecosystem changed at once?
We may soon find out. Excess carbon dioxide, or CO2, in our atmosphere is causing ocean acidification. The ocean absorbs atmospheric CO2, and when CO2 mixes with seawater, carbonic acid develops. Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere has subsequently increased the acidity of seawater, lowering its pH. And the oceans are expected to become even more acidic over the next 200 years, as CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue to rise. In fact, atmospheric CO2 levels are predicted to nearly double over that time.... [S]helled organisms exhibit different responses to increasingly acidic marine environments. Mollusks such as bay scallops, whelks, periwin-kles, oysters, conchs, quahogs and softshell clams build their shells more slowly as the amount of atmospheric CO2 increases. And in some cases, the shells of these organisms actually begin to dissolve away.... Under high CO2 conditions, quahog shells had fewer ridges, conch shells had smaller knobs and the spines of pencil urchins became truncated. These organisms are thought to have evolved their ridges, knobs and spines for burrowing, stability and motility, respectively. Without them, these animals would be even more vulnerable to predators.... The bottom line is that the net effect of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems will likely be more severe than the sum of the responses of individual species. At the ecosystem level, it is unlikely that the weakening of some species (the mollusks) will be offset by the strengthening of others (the crustacea). ...
That's the "symphony effect": if it sucks for one instrument, it makes every other instrument off key. Wait -- is that right?
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from BusinessGreen: Scientists brew up powerful whisky biofuel Biofuels made from whisky by-products could be available on Scottish roads within a few years after a team of researchers at Edinburgh Napier's Biofuel Research Centre this week filed for a patent for the new fuel.
The team, which is now planning to form a spin-off company to commercialise the fuel, used pot ale waste liquid and spent grains known as draff from Diageo's Glenkinchie Distillery to develop a method of producing butanol.
The researchers said the resulting biobutanol produces 30 per cent more output power than ethanol and can be used by conventional cars without any changes to the engine.
They also predicted that the fuel will have minimal impact on the environment compared to first generation biofuels made from energy crops as it will draw on the 1,600 million litres of pot ale and 187,000 tonnes of draff produced by the Scottish malt whisky industry each year. ...
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from Guardian: Rising temperatures reducing ability of plants to absorb carbon, study warns Rising temperatures in the past decade have reduced the ability of the world's plants to soak up carbon from the atmosphere, scientists said today.
Large-scale droughts have wiped out plants that would have otherwise absorbed an amount of carbon equivalent to Britain's annual man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists measure the amount of atmospheric CO2 absorbed by plants and turned into biomass as a quantity known as the net primary production. NPP increased from 1982 to 1999 as temperatures rose and there was more solar radiation.
But the period from 2000 to 2009 reverses that trend - surprising some scientists.... Reduced plant matter not only reduces the world's natural ability to manage CO2 in the atmosphere but could also lead to problems with growing more crops to feed rising populations or make sustainable biofuels.
"Under a changing climate, severe regional droughts have become more frequent, a trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future," said the researchers. ...
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from Scientific American: Silver Beware: Antimicrobial Nanoparticles in Soil May Harm Plant Life A new study finds that the popular microbicidal silver nanomaterial negatively impacts the growth of plants as well as kills the soil microbes that sustain them.... When it is nanosize--between one and 100 nanometers, which is smaller than many viruses (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter)--silver is even more effective at killing microbes. This antimicrobial potency has prompted manufacturers to include silver nanoparticles in a wide variety of consumer products, such as odor-resistant clothing, hand sanitizers, water treatment systems and even microbe-proof teddy bears.... In order to examine silver nanoparticles' ecosystemic impact the researchers prepared series of outdoor "mesocosms"--intermediate-sized "fields" of plants growing in rubber tubs. They applied 0.2 kilograms of biosolid to each tub, amending the fertilizer with 11 milligrams of silver nanoparticles per tub. This concentration is within the range that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported finding in a recent survey of biosolids from water treatment plants.... The nanoparticles reduced the growth of one of the tested plant species by 22 percent as compared with silver-free biosolid treatment. Similarly, microbial biomass was reduced by 20 percent. Colman presented the findings August 4 at the 95th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. ...
Given the uncertainty, I suggest an uncontrolled experiment on the real environment.
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from London Independent: On the frontline of climate change Irrigated by one of the world's mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields nearly half of Australia's fresh produce. But the basin is ailing, and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent, its main foodbowl could become a global warming ground zero.
The signs are already ominous: in the Riverland, one of the nation's major horticulture areas, dying vines and parched lemon trees attest to critical water shortages. Farmers have had their water allocations slashed during the recent crippling drought; 200 sold up, and many of those who hung on are struggling... At one school, children have reportedly been stealing packed lunches from classmates. ...
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from Climatewire: Pakistan -- a Sad New Benchmark in Climate-Related Disasters Devastating flooding that has swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left millions homeless is likely the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change, U.N. officials and climatologists are now openly saying. Most experts are still cautioning against tying any specific event directly to emissions of greenhouse gases. But scientists at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva say there's no doubt that higher Atlantic Ocean temperatures contributed to the disaster begun late last month.
Atmospheric anomalies that led to the floods are also directly related to the same weather phenomena that a caused the record heat wave in Russia and flooding and mudslides in western China... ...
Better to be "sad" about climate change than terrified.
Thu, Aug 19, 2010 from AolNews: EPA May Give 1st Approval of Nanosilver for Fabrics A Swiss chemical producer may soon be the first company to receive approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use nanosilver to make clothing smell better, stay cleaner and destroy germs.
However, health scientists say the nanoparticles will wash out with the rinse water and could cause unknown environmental and health problems downstream.
The EPA said that it may issue "conditional approval" to HeiQ Materials AG, a producer of nanosized additives, for the use of a nanosilver pesticide as a new active ingredient in fabrics. ...
Me, I like to look good while I'm dying from environmental contamination.
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from Grist: Risk to kids from toxic pesticides may be underestimated, study finds But evidence is building that the way we think about pesticide risk, especially in children, is all wrong. A few years ago, scientists at Emory and the University of Washington showed that when children switched to organic fruits and vegetables, pesticide residue in their bodies (as measured in their urine) dropped significantly within days. But what wasn't clear at the time was the pesticide load in a typical kid's diet, since the scientists in the organic study had themselves established the diet given to the kids.... The researchers analyzed the fruit-and-veg consumption of two groups of kids, one from Washington state and one from Georgia.
They found, as expected, a witch's brew of organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides -- both of which are endocrine disruptors and have suspected neurological effects -- on the fresh fruit and vegetables the study participants ate. Organophosphates, by the way, are the direct descendants of VX and Sarin nerve gases and were recently linked to the development of ADHD in kids.... What this study is telling us is that we're seriously underestimating how much of these dangerous pesticides -- chemicals that can affect kids' growing brains and bodies -- our kids are getting at any one time. For policy makers, the challenge is to create incentives for farmers to move away from poisons as a pest-control strategy. ...
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from Rice, via EnvironmentalResearchWeb: Carbon surprise on Texas river A new study by geochemists at Rice University finds that damming and other human activity has completely obscured the natural carbon dioxide cycle in Texas' longest river, the Brazos.
"The natural factors that influence carbon dioxide cycling in the Brazos are fairly obvious, and we expected the radiocarbon signature of the river to reflect those influences," said study co-author Caroline Masiello, assistant professor of Earth science at Rice. "But it looks like whatever the natural process was in the Brazos, in terms of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide, it has been completely overprinted by human activities." ... Plants take up carbon dioxide from the air via photosynthesis and store it in their leaves and stems. Some of that stored carbon gets buried in the soil and locked away for hundreds or thousands of years. But much is also washed into rivers, where rapid decomposition can quickly return it to the atmosphere. Understanding when and where that plant carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere is essential if policymakers are to plan effective carbon-sequestration strategies.... Scientists currently believe Earth's rivers take up about 1 gigaton of carbon each year and give off about the same amount. But the exact dynamics of the process are largely unknown. For example, the residence time of carbon dioxide - how long it stays in the river - has been studied in fewer than a half a dozen rivers worldwide. If a significant number of those rivers are like the Brazos, scientists may need to adjust the way they think about rivers inhaling and exhaling carbon dioxide. ...
Is that a "known unknown" or an "unknown unknown"?
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from AFP, via PhysOrg: Vestas cuts 2010 forecasts, shares plunge Shares in Vestas slumped on Wednesday after the Danish wind power group cut this year's earnings and sales targets following a second quarter loss. The company, the world leader in the wind turbine industry, a key component in efforts to combat carbon emissions, said 2010 sales would now come in at six billion euros (7.7 billion dollars), rather than seven billion euros.
The operating profit margin would be in a range of five to six percent, down from the 10-11 percent given previously, it said.
The news sent Vestas shares tumbling more than 17 percent in Copenhagen where the broader market was down nearly two percent. ...
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from New York Times: Cape Cod Waterways Face Pollution Crisis Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors. More than 60 ponds and estuaries on the cape and a few elsewhere in the region have been choked by algae and seaweed. The culprit is nitrogen, much of it leaching out of septic system wastewater that runs through sandy soil into the estuaries. Faced with a federal mandate to fix their polluted waterways, Cape Cod towns have spent years creating plans to clean up the wastewater, largely through sewers and clustered septic systems.... The root of the problem lies in the popularity and unchecked growth of Cape Cod over the last 30 years. Towns chose not to install sewers when the government helped subsidize them in the 1960s and '70s, fearing that it would lead to an influx of people. Newcomers arrived anyway and sprawled out, using individual septic systems to get rid of waste.
"We've reached capacity for the watershed," said Lindsey B. Counsell, executive director of Three Bays Preservation, a preservation group in Barnstable. "We're a victim of our own geology." ...
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from Telegraph.co.uk: Mankind is using up global resources faster than ever Think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) look at how much food, fuel and other resources are consumed by humans every year. They then compare it to how much the world can provide without threatening the ability of important ecosystems like oceans and rainforests to recover.
This year the moment we start eating into nature's capital or 'Earth Overshoot Day' will fall on 21st August, a full month earlier than last year, when resources were used up by 23rd September.... He said people in developing countries like China are consuming more meat and demanding cars and other energy-intensive goods. Even with green developments and energy efficiency, rich countries are also consuming more as individuals demand the latest technology, food fad or car.... "The banking crisis taught us the danger of a system that goads us to live beyond our means financially," he said. "A greater danger comes from a consumer culture and economic policy that pushes us to live beyond our means ecologically." ...
You're challenging consumer culture? But what about the economy?
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from Agence France-Press: UN fights to save our planet from deserts Fortaleza, Brazil - The United Nations on Monday launched a campaign to save the planet from deserts that are threatening a third of the planet along with the livelihoods of more than a billion people...Parched land and deserts today are home to one in three people on Earth, or 2.1 billion people, 90 percent of whom are in developing nations. One billion people struggle to find enough food to survive in such inhospitable terrain...Climate change is seen as the main cause of the phenomenon, a view reinforced by droughts and flooding in different areas of unusual intensity. ...
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from Reuters: World 2009 CO2 emissions down 1.3 percent Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2009 fell 1.3 percent to 31.3 billion tonnes in the first year-on-year decline in this decade, German renewable energy institute IWR said on Friday.
The Muenster-based institute, which advises German ministries, cited the global economic crisis and rising investments in renewable energies for the fall in emissions....
China in 2009 was in top position with 7.43 billion tonnes after 6.81 billion in 2008, followed by the U.S. with 5.95 billion (6.37 billion 2008). Russia was in third position, just before India, and followed by Japan.
Global investments in solar and wind power were helped by lower equipment costs as the crisis led to price cuts, IWR said.
But it reiterated its earlier suggestions that, in order to put brakes on the rising fossil fuels usage and to stabilize global CO2, it recommends that global annual spending on renewables be quadrupled to 500 billion euros ($644.2 billion).
Global CO2 emissions are still 37 percent above those in 1990, the basis year for the Kyoto Climate Protocol. ...
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from CNN: Scientists: Toxic organisms, oil found on Gulf floor John Paul says, at first, he couldn't believe his own scientific data showing toxic microscopic marine organisms in the Gulf of Mexico. He repeated the field test. A colleague did his own test. All the results came back the same: toxic.
It was the first time Paul and other University of South Florida scientists had made such a finding since they started investigating the environmental damage from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The preliminary results, the scientists believe, show that oil that has settled on the floor is contaminating small sea organisms.... The researchers found micro-droplets of oil scattered across the ocean floor and they also found those droplets moving up through a part of the Gulf called the DeSoto Canyon, a channel which funnels water and nutrients into the popular commercial and recreational waters along the Florida Gulf Coast.
The scientists say even though it's getting harder to see the oil the Gulf is still not safe.
"This whole concept of submerged oil and the application of dispersants in the subsurface and what are the impacts that it could have, have changed the paradigm of what an oil spill is from a 2-dimensional surface disaster to a 3-dimensional catastrophe," said David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer and one of the lead scientists on the recent USF mission. ...
How can you be making conceptual poetry at a time like this?
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from American for Psychological Science, via EurekAlert: People who cannot escape a system are likely to defend the status quo ...[P]eople who are told that their right to emigrate will be restricted have what could be considered a strange reaction: they respond by defending their country's system.... The researchers interpret that to mean that people who feel trapped in their country are more likely to try to justify the country's system and rationalize away its dissatisfactory elements.
"We focused on policies, but there are a lot of other reasons that make it hard for people to leave. One of these is poverty," says Laurin. "It's a depressing thought that the poor, the very people who are put in the worst position by a particular system, might be the ones that are the most motivated to defend that system." ...
Thank goodness we live in the best of all possible worlds.
You're still reading! Good for you!
You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day!
Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from Yale360: Low-Cost Solar Array Developed for Residential Installation A Seattle-based company says that it has developed an inexpensive do-it-yourself solar power technology that will enable homeowners to install solar panels on their roofs and then connect them to their power supply by simply plugging a cord into a regular electrical outlet. The company, Clarian Power, is touting its Sunfish system -- with prices beginning at $799 -- as a major advance in reducing the high cost of installing home solar power systems, which typically start at $10,000. Clarian says its Sunfish system does not require a dedicated control panel and has built-in circuit protection, and thus does not require an electrician for installation. Users would mount up to five solar panels anywhere on the house, and plug the device into any outlet. The system is Wi-Fi enabled, enabling users to monitor the performance with online software such as the Google PowerMeter. The largest module will be able to generate 150 kilowatt hours per month, company officials say, so it would take five to six modules to produce the roughly 900 kilowatts used by an average American home. ...
Stop right there! I just invested in a new coal-burning plant!
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from Huffington Post: Biggest US Coal Power Expansion In 2 Decades Utilities across the country are building dozens of old-style coal plants that will cement the industry's standing as the largest industrial source of climate-changing gases for years to come.
An Associated Press examination of U.S. Department of Energy records and information provided by utilities and trade groups shows that more than 30 traditional coal plants have been built since 2008 or are under construction.... The expansion, the industry's largest in two decades, represents an acknowledgment that highly touted "clean coal" technology is still a long ways from becoming a reality and underscores a renewed confidence among utilities that proposals to regulate carbon emissions will fail. The Senate last month scrapped the leading bill to curb carbon emissions following opposition from Republicans and coal-state Democrats.
"Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide," said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California-Berkeley. "That may be true, but unless most of the scientists are way off the mark, that's pretty bad public policy." ...
Why the hell would you want to slow down the economic recovery with burdensome carbon regulations?
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from PhysOrg: Massive coral mortality following bleaching in Indonesia The Wildlife Conservation Society today released initial field observations that indicate that a dramatic rise in the surface temperature in Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated coral populations. WCS's Indonesia Program "Rapid Response Unit" of marine biologists was dispatched to investigate coral bleaching reported in May in Aceh-a province of Indonesia-located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The initial survey carried out by the team revealed that over 60 percent of corals were bleached.... Depending on many factors, bleached coral may recover over time or die.
Subsequent monitoring conducted by marine ecologists ... found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months.... According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website, temperatures in the region peaked in late May of 2010, when the temperature reached 34 degrees Celsius--4 degrees Celsius [7 degrees F] higher than long term averages for the area.... "If a similar degree of mortality is apparent at other sites in the Andaman Sea this will be the worst bleaching event ever recorded in the region.... The destruction of these upstream reefs means recovery is likely to take much longer than before". ...
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from Telegraph, via DesdemonaDespair: Ice sheet in Greenland melting at record rate The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a record rate due to global warming, according to a British-led expedition currently taking measurements from the treacherous glaciers.... The finding immediately raises fears about the long term effect on rising sea levels and ultimately 'positive feedbacks' as water absorbs more heat than ice, therefore speeding up the warming effect.... "It is not a freak event and is certainly a manifestation of warming. This year marks yet another record breaking melt year in Greenland; temperatures and melt across the entire ice sheet have exceeded those in 2007 and of historical records."... The new research comes as scientists from Pennsylvania State University warned that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause the entire ice mass of Greenland to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level. ...
Maybe I can get my beachfront property by just stayin' home!
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from Toronto Star: A new issue percolates throughout India: How much to charge for water? Every day that it's open for business, the local Coca-Cola bottling plant in this parched corner of India draws about 200,000 litres of underground water from four wells.
Coke's annual bill for 36 million litres? Zero.
Like many Indian states, Rajasthan doesn't charge for taking water from groundwater reservoirs because free water has been considered a fundamental right in India for decades.
Yet water conservation advocates say that principle needs to be rethought at a time when economic growth and population pressure are expected to double demand over the next 25 years. ...
Zero? Why, that's the price that refreshes Coke's shareholders.
Tue, Aug 17, 2010 from London Guardian: Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050 Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.
But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption. ...
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 from Toronto Globe and Mail: Statscan survey finds BPA present in 91 per cent of Canadians The vast majority of Canadians - more than nine out of 10 - have detectable levels of bisphenol A in their urine, according to the first large-scale survey to track the amount of the estrogen-mimicking chemical in the population.
The results, contained in the Canadian Health Measures Survey conducted by Statistics Canada and released Monday, found that the highest concentration of the chemical, used to make polycarbonate plastic, were in teens aged 12 to 19. Young children aged 6 to 11 also had higher levels than adults aged 40 to 79.
The average level found in the population was 1.16 parts per billion, an exceedingly small amount, but still about a thousand times higher than natural levels of estrogen found in the human body. The survey was conducted nationally from 2007 to 2009. ...
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 from New York Times: Portugal on track for 45 percent renewable energy this year Five years ago, the leaders of this sun-scorched, wind-swept nation made a bet: To reduce Portugal's dependence on imported fossil fuels, they embarked on an array of ambitious renewable energy projects -- primarily harnessing the country's wind and hydropower, but also its sunlight and ocean waves. Today, Lisbon's trendy bars, Porto's factories and the Algarve's glamorous resorts are powered substantially by clean energy. Nearly 45 percent of the electricity in Portugal's grid will come from renewable sources this year, up from 17 percent just five years ago.Land-based wind power -- this year deemed "potentially competitive" with fossil fuels by the International Energy Agency in Paris -- has expanded sevenfold in that time. And Portugal expects in 2011 to become the first country to inaugurate a national network of charging stations for electric cars. ...
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 from Financial Times: Economic Outlook: Toll from wheat price to emerge Will soaring wheat prices feed through into higher inflation? This week's data releases will provide more clarity on the extent to which the sharp rise in global agricultural markets in July has affected prices in the world's food markets - although economists warn that the full effects of higher wholesale prices may not be felt for months.
Rising inflation could put pressure on policymakers to tighten monetary policy sooner. The return of inflationary concerns comes after the price of wheat rose almost 50 per cent in July as Russia, the world's third-largest exporter, suffered its worst drought in more than a century. ...
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 from ApocaDocs: ApocaDocs implements time machine: 'Today, one year ago, two years ago' Travel through time to an earlier, but no less toxic era. Remember back when humans thought weather extremes were random? When we still imagined that oil spills could be controlled? When we were in such a fevered state of hope and change that it seemed we might actually discover a new way of living? The ApocaDocs time machine: just below the search box on the home page. ...
Mon, Aug 16, 2010 from Telegraph.co.uk: Price of red meat likely to push more people towards fish and vegetarian diet Fish is likely to become a larger part of the British diet because it is one of the few foodstuffs that has fallen in price in recent years, research suggests. The price of fish has fallen by eight per cent over the past three years as the cost of meat has surged by 10 per cent.
The trend reflects the high price of grain and fossil fuels, which are needed to raise pigs and cattle. In comparison, fishing the oceans requires no feed input and less fuel. Health and environmental concerns are also contributing to the changing consumption patterns.
A newly published retail index shows fish is one of the few grocery products that has become cheaper.
The price of staples such as bread and eggs increased by 18 per cent since 2007 and tea is up 30 per cent, according to figures compiled by price comparison website mySupermarket.co.uk. ...
A little fish told me that they're going to get more expensive all too soon.
