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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(4)
Plague/Virus:(2)
Climate Chaos:(6)
Resource Depletion: (5)
Biology Breach:(10)
Recovery:(8)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
food crisis  ~ toxic water  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ water issues  ~ arctic meltdown  ~ invasive species  ~ climate impacts  ~ heavy metals  ~ health impacts  ~ algal bloom  ~ koyaanisqatsi  



ApocaDocuments (8) for the "Recovery" scenario from this week
[see full week] ~ [see full Recovery scenario and stories]
Sat, Jun 28, 2008
from Brown University, via EurekAlert:
Brown Researchers Create Mercury-Absorbent Container Linings for Broken CFLs
Each [compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)] contains a small amount (3 to 5 milligrams) of mercury, a neurotoxin that can be released as vapor when a bulb is broken. The gas can pose a minor risk to certain groups, such as infants, small children and pregnant women.... The team has created a prototype – a mercury-capturing lining attached to the inside of store-bought CFL packaging. The packaging can be placed over the area where a bulb has been broken to absorb the mercury vapor emanating from the spill, or it can capture the mercury of a bulb broken in the box. The researchers also have created a specially designed lining for plastic bags that soaks up the mercury left over from the CFL shards that are thrown away. ...


We are beginning
to see the light.


ApocaDoc
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Sat, Jun 28, 2008
from University of Missouri, via EurekAlert:
Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming, MU Study Finds
"If a tree is submerged in water, its carbon will be stored for an average of 2,000 years," said Richard Guyette, director of the MU Tree Ring Lab and research associate professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. "If a tree falls in a forest, that number is reduced to an average of 20 years, and in firewood, the carbon is only stored for one year." ... The team studied trees in northern Missouri, a geographically unique area with a high level of riparian forests (forests that have natural water flowing through them). They discovered submerged oak trees that were as old as 14,000 years, potentially some of the oldest discovered in the world. This carbon storage process is not just ancient; it continues even today as additional trees become submerged, according to Guyette. ...


The sound of one carbon clapping.

ApocaDoc
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Fri, Jun 27, 2008
from NIST, via EurekAlert:
Standards set for energy-conserving LED lighting
These standards -- the most recent of which published last month -- detail the color specifications of LED lamps and LED light fixtures, and the test methods that manufacturers should use when testing these solid-state lighting products for total light output, energy consumption and chromaticity, or color quality. Solid-state lighting is expected to significantly reduce the amount of energy needed for general lighting, including residential, commercial and street lighting. "Lighting," explains NIST scientist Yoshi Ohno, "uses 22 percent of the electricity and 8 percent of the total energy spent in the country, so the energy savings in lighting will have a huge impact." ...


The road to survival is paved with standards.
Really!

ApocaDoc
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Wed, Jun 25, 2008
from University of Idaho, via EurekAlert:
Food Scientists Confirm the Effectiveness of Commercial Product in Killing Bacteria in Vegetable Washwater
The product, sold commercially as FIT Fruit and Vegetable Wash, not only proved much more effective than the commonly used chlorine dioxide but is made from ingredients like citric acid and distilled grapefruit oil that are generally regarded as safe. Chlorine dioxide, whose use in food plants can put workers at risk, was compromised by soils and plant debris in the washwater and killed only 90 percent of the target organisms in the food plant and followup laboratory studies. By contrast, FIT killed 99.9999 percent... ...


Chlorines = bad for nature
Citric acids and oils = not as bad + works better.
Any questions?

ApocaDoc
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Wed, Jun 25, 2008
from Religious Intelligence:
Call on religious groups to switch electrical suppliers
A leading authority on climate change has called on Christians to change their electricity supplier. Speaking to The Church of England Newspaper, Sir John Houghton said it would make an enormous difference to the future of the planet. Speaking after the launch of Tearfund's latest My Global Impact environmental scheme Sir John Houghton said: "The Christian church is the biggest NGO in the world. If Christians can get together on something they can really make a very big difference."... [Switching to sustainable energy suppliers] would force the electricity supplier to buy more renewable energy and that would change the energy very substantially." ...


Hey, let's get the Muslims and the Hindus and Catholics and the Janes and the Aztecs and the Zoroasterans and the rest on board too!

ApocaDoc
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Mon, Jun 23, 2008
from AsiaNews.it:
World toxic waste summit in Bali
The meeting, which opened today in Bali, Indonesia, has attracted about a thousand delegates from 170 countries, and will last until Thursday. Its focus will be on ways to better dispose of dangerous waste in emerging and developing nations in order to minimise its effect on human health and the environment. The Basel Convention of 1989 was designed to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries which lack the infrastructure and know-how to guarantee eco-sustainable disposal or recycling. However the Convention has not been successful in stopping the flow of hazardous waste, especially e-waste, from industrialised countries to emerging nations like China and India that have become virtual dumps for the West. ...


Where else are we going to put it?
We can't have it here!

ApocaDoc
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Mon, Jun 23, 2008
from The ApocoDocs:
PANIQuiz Released for the week ending June 23
How big will the Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" be this year, if the scientists are correct? What does a Texas inventor call his "bio-crude," derived from organic waste? New research suggests ocean temperatures and sea levels are higher than estimated by what percentage? How will a new eco-club in Britain generate electricity? Plus more. ...


More fun than a barrel
of quagga mussels.


ApocaDoc
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Mon, Jun 23, 2008
from Guardian (UK):
Put Oil Firm Chiefs on Trial, says leading climate change scientist James Hansen
James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable. ...


SAY it, Jimmy, PREACH it to us, YES we say YES ohgod YES it is TIME!

ApocaDoc
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