ApocaDocuments (10) for the "Recovery" scenario from this week
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Sun, Jan 25, 2009
from New York Times:
Green-Light Specials, Now at Wal-Mart
...Today, the roughly 200 million customers who pass through Wal-Mart's doors each year buy fluorescent light bulbs that use up to 75 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs, concentrated laundry detergent that uses 50 percent less water and prescription drugs that contain 50 percent less packaging.
"If all this sustainability stuff is just for the well-to-do, it's not going to make a difference," said Jib Ellison, the founder of Blu Skye, a sustainability consultant who has worked with Wal-Mart.
As the saying goes, Wal-Mart has also done well by doing good. Along with the McDonald's Corporation, it was one of only two companies in the Dow Jones industrial average whose share price rose last year. ...
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:)
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Fri, Jan 23, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
World's biggest wind turbine-maker says global downturn slashing demand
The world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer Vestas says the current economic downturn has left it with 15 percent excess manufacturing capacity as demand for the technology falls short of projections. The news came as company works to restore its reputation following the discovery of fraud in its Spanish subsidiary.... "Six months ago everyone (in the investment community) said we were not doing enough to meet demand growing at an expected 40 percent this year. Now people are saying 'Why have you put in place plans for a 40 percent increase in capacity when growth levels are only going to be 25 percent?'," he explained. ...
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The investment community's time horizon is that short and their perceptions that wrong? These are the Masters of the Universe?
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Fri, Jan 23, 2009
from Reuters:
Scotch Whisky Goes "Green"
LONDON - Scotch drinkers who care for the climate will soon relish their tipple in the knowledge it is providing clean renewable power in the home of whisky.
Scottish authorities have given planning permission for a consortium of distillers to build a biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant near the heart of the whisky industry in Speyside.
Helius Energy Plc said on Wednesday it and the Combination of Rothes Distillers Ltd would build the plant, which would use distillery by-products and wood chips to generate 7.2 megawatts of electricity, enough for about 9,000 homes, and heat.
"Not only will it generate renewable heat and power, but it secures additional markets for our distillery co-products," Frank Burns, general manager of the Combination of Rothes, said.
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I'll drink to that!
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Thu, Jan 22, 2009
from Tucson Citizen:
UA lab to check for emerging contaminants such as Prozac, estrogen
The Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants, known as ALEC, uses super-sensitive instruments to test water, soil and tissue for minute amounts of substances such as uranium, heavy metals and organic compounds, including pharmaceuticals, said Jon Chorover, co-director of the lab.... Emerging contaminants are substances -- including Viagra, estrogen and Prozac that are raising alarms as potential hazards when found in water or foods containing or grown with contaminated water.
These contaminants are a growing concern in Arizona, where water is a precious resource. ...
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But what happens if they find these contaminants? Is there a market for recycled Viagra?
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Thu, Jan 22, 2009
from SciDev.net:
Peruvian region outlaws biopiracy
LIMA, Peru -- A region of Peru is claiming to be the first in the world to enact a law outlawing biopiracy and protecting indigenous knowledge at a regional level.
Cusco -- in the Peruvian Andes, once the capital of the Inca Empire -- has outlawed the plundering of native species for commercial gain, including patenting resources or the genes they contain.
Corporations or scientists must now seek permission from, and potentially share benefits with, the local people whose traditions have protected the species for centuries.
Indigenous communities can now implement ways to protect local resources, including creating registers of biodiversity and protocols for granting access to it. ...
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One small step for humankind, one giant leap for the rights of nature.
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Wed, Jan 21, 2009
from New Scientist:
Biofuel from the oceans
Now a group at the Korea Institute of Technology in South Korea has developed a way to use marine algae, or seaweed, to produce bioethanol and avoid taking up land altogether.
The group says seaweed has a number of advantages over land-based biomass. It grows much faster, allowing up to six harvests per year; unlike trees and plants, it does not contain lignin and so requires no pre-treatment before it can be turned into fuel; and it absorbs up to seven times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as wood.
The group's patent suggests treating all sizes of algae -- from large kelp to single-celled spirulina -- with an enzyme to break them into simple sugars, which can then be fermented into ethanol.
The resulting seaweed biofuel is cheaper and simpler to produce than crop or wood-based fuels, and will have no effect on the price of food, says the group. ...
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Can we use the algae blooming in our dead zones? Now that would be a win-win!
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Wed, Jan 21, 2009
from WWF, via Science Daily (US):
Power Emissions Limits To Save Most Carbon At Least Cost, Study Suggests
The least cost way to reduce power related carbon emissions in Europe would be to supplement the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) with the introduction of Emissions Performance Standards for energy, according to a new study.... Such a system, successfully used in some US States where it has helped put renewable energy on a more equal footing with traditional energy sources, could cut the EU power sector's greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 by more than two-thirds – more than 800 million tonnes per year.... "The current EU Emissions Trading Scheme unfortunately does not prevent high polluting coal-fired power stations from being built," said Stephan Singer, Director of WWF's Global Energy Programme.
"We need new emissions limits to ensure Europe invests only in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and CO2 capture and storage facilities for coal-fired power stations. Otherwise, Europe will fail to deliver its contribution to keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius." ...
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Anything that prevents coal-fired plants from being built is a good thing. Post-sequestered carbon is plainly stupid.
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Wed, Jan 21, 2009
from Bloomberg News:
Japan to Launch Satellite to Measure Global Warming
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to launch a satellite in two days to measure greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere as nations seek better data on the evolution of global warming.
The Greenhouse-Gases Observing Satellite, or Gosat, will be lofted from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan shortly after noon local time on Jan. 22, the agency said today in a statement on its Web site... The Japanese project will measure the density of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere at 56,000 points around the globe, Yukiko Kaji, spokeswoman for the agency, said by telephone from Tokyo. Development costs for the satellite, dubbed “Ibuki,” the Japanese word for “breath,” totaled 18.3 billion yen ($202 million), she said. ...
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Ibuki ... Japanese word for "you can emit, but you cannot hide"!
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Tue, Jan 20, 2009
from BBC:
Sex smell lures 'vampire' to doom
A synthetic "chemical sex smell" could help rid North America's Great Lakes of a devastating pest, scientists say.
US researchers deployed a laboratory version of a male sea lamprey pheromone to trick ovulating females into swimming upstream into traps.
The sea lamprey, sometimes dubbed the "vampire fish", has parasitised native species of the Great Lakes since its accidental introduction in the 1800s.... This is thought to be the first time that pheromones have been shown to be the basis of a possible way of controlling animal pests other than insects. ...
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I fail to see what is so new about this.
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Mon, Jan 19, 2009
from Fast Company:
Water Desalination: The Answer to the World's Thirst?
A quick spin through recent headlines reveals just how badly -- and how soon -- we're going to need new supplies of freshwater: Over the past 18 months in the United States alone, the governor of Georgia declared a state of emergency due to water shortages; salmonella contaminated municipal water in Colorado; and eight states ratified the Great Lakes Basin Compact, an agreement designed to ensure that Great Lakes water, nearly 20 percent of the world's freshwater, won't be shipped beyond those basins -- not even to nearby Minneapolis or Pittsburgh.
Worldwide, the picture is far bleaker. Global water consumption has roughly doubled since World War II, and yet, according to the United Nations, 1.1 billion people still have no access to a clean, reliable supply. Eighty percent of disease and deaths in developing countries -- more than 2.2 million people a year, including 3,900 children each day -- are caused by diseases associated with unsanitary water. The cost of waterborne diseases and associated lost productivity drains 2 percent of developing countries' GDP each year.... Saltwater already comprises 97.5 percent of the water resources on the planet, and 60 percent of the world's population lives within 65 miles of a seacoast. Why not desalinate seawater and slake the thirst of nations? ...
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Well we sure better think of something!
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