ApocaDocuments (15) for the "Recovery" scenario from this week
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Sun, Jun 7, 2009
from Sydney Morning Herald:
Combative lawyer aims to protect the planet
FEW lawyers are ordained as Buddhist priests or give up lucrative careers to take on a single, unfinancial client. But James Thornton, founder of the environmental law firm Client Earth, has done both.
His inspiration comes in part from a meeting years ago with the Dalai Lama, who advised him that environmentalists should meditate, because "solutions never come from an angry mind"... He sees his legal work not as aggressive but as transformative. "Blame isn't so interesting any more. Changing everything is a delightful opportunity," he said... ...
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"Blame" is my middle name.
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Sun, Jun 7, 2009
from Dallas Morning News:
Algae could become reliable jet fuel source
Seawater algae -- a cousin to pond scum -- may someday become a significant source of fuel for military jets and airliners, and at the same time rejuvenate farmlands where tumbleweeds fill old irrigation ditches and abandoned cotton gins bake in the Texas sun.
Algae farmers conceivably could become the newest breed of Texas oilmen. For now, that's still a very big "if." Several scientific and technical obstacles must be overcome before the tiny plantlike organisms, which create unsightly rings on boat hulls and slime on fish tanks, can be turned into a viable fuel.... Producing a lot of oil from the algae, cheaply and quickly, is the goal – basically creating, in a matter of days, what took nature millions of years.
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Has anybody considered tumbleweeds as an alternative, renewable energy source?
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Sat, Jun 6, 2009
from BusinessGreen:
Rainforests could be more profitable standing, says research
The Indonesian rainforest is worth more to businesses standing than if it was felled, according to new research.
A study published in the journal Conservation Letters shows that a scheme that would give palm oil companies -- largely responsible for deforestation in the region -- carbon credits for protecting rainforests would make them more money than clearing land to grow plants for palm oil.
Palm oil is used in a number of cosmetic products as well as man biofuels.
The scheme, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (Redd), could go a long way towards protecting rainforests, Oscar Venter from the University of Queensland told the BBC.
"If Redd does become part of the next international climate agreement, it will have the potential to fund forest protection in areas slated for oil palm conversion," said Dr Venter, who led the research. ...
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And, if we can build a theme park or two in the rainforest... even more profit!
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Fri, Jun 5, 2009
from New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, via EurekAlert:
Birth defect of the male urethra is not increasing in New York state
In recent decades, there have been periodic reports of a worldwide decline in sperm count and quality. Male infertility has ostensibly been on the rise, accompanied by increases in testicular cancer and hypospadias -- a congenital defect in which the opening of the urethra is on the underside, rather than at the end, of the penis. Taken together, these three conditions have been termed testicular dysgenesis syndrome.
Environmental chemicals known as phthalates, some researchers say, may be the cause of the problem. Used in the manufacture of plastics, phthalates at sufficiently high levels have been seen to interfere with male fetal development. Some studies have found that hypospadias are more prevalent among male infants today than they were 30 years ago.
Now, a team of researchers ... have taken a fresh look at the data and have found no rise in rates of hypospadias in New York State from 1992 to 2005. Similar findings have been reported by researchers looking at state-level data in Washington and California.... When combined with recent research showing that sperm counts are not declining, the current study suggests that testicular dysgenesis syndrome may not be a problem in humans, contrary to earlier concerns. ...
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Thank goodness we humans have nothing to worry about! Fish, on the other hand...
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Fri, Jun 5, 2009
from New York Times:
Greening the Herds: A New Diet to Cap Gas
Since January, cows at 15 farms across Vermont have had their grain feed adjusted to include more plants like alfalfa and flaxseed -- substances that, unlike corn or soy, mimic the spring grasses that the animals evolved long ago to eat.
As of the last reading in mid-May, the methane output of Mr. Choiniere's herd had dropped 18 percent. Meanwhile, milk production has held its own.
The program was initiated by Stonyfield Farm, the yogurt manufacturer, at the Vermont farms that supply it with organic milk. Mr. Choiniere, a third-generation dairy herder who went organic in 2003, said he had sensed that the outcome would be good even before he got the results.
"They are healthier," he said of his cows. "Their coats are shinier, and the breath is sweet." ...
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The best ideas make everyone happier -- including the cows!
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Fri, Jun 5, 2009
from BusinessGreen:
New standards pull plug on energy guzzling vending machines
Vending machines for soda and other beverages would sip energy rather than guzzle it under new standards proposed by the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The proposed rules set energy conservation standards and consumption thresholds for refrigerated vending machines that dispense bottled or canned drinks.
The measures would cut energy use of glass- or polymer-front machines by as much as 42 per cent compared to current energy consumption of such machines. Energy use in more traditional solid-front vending machines would be cut by about 15 per cent.... Over a 30-year period, the new standards could yield savings of as much as 10 billion kwh of electricity - about enough for 800,000 typical homes for a year, save vending machine property owners $250 million, and eliminate five million metric tons of CO2 emissions, according to the DOE's long-term projections. The 30-year estimate for CO2 reduction is roughly the equivalent of the CO2 emissions produced by a million cars during a year and has an estimated value of $96 million, the DOE said. ...
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Guilt-free junk food? What next, energy-efficient Big Macs?
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Thu, Jun 4, 2009
from Long Beach Press-Telegram:
Oil tanker at Port of Long Beach is a green first
The giant cable reeled into position, an engineer pulled the handle, and like that, pollution equivalent to 187,000 passenger cars was lifted from local skies.
A 941-foot BP oil tanker that just arrived from the Alaskan frontier became the globe's first such vessel to plug into a dockside electrical outlet Wednesday - an engineering feat expected to cut at least 30 tons of emissions in the coming year... It took nearly five years and $24 million to design and build the dockside power outlet at Pier T, which every few days accommodates hulking tankers carrying a million-plus barrels of oil.
The Navigator previously burned about 10,000 gallons of diesel each day in port to power massive pumps needed to off-load the oil.
Electrification required port engineers to build a million-pound underwater outlet anchored by a series of 168-foot concrete pilings and holding a massive steel cable that connects to the ship. ...
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Fortunately, Paul Bunyon was out of work and thus available to plug it in.
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Thu, Jun 4, 2009
from Mongabay:
Tribes in Peru to get $0.68/acre for protecting Amazon forest
Indigenous communities in Peru will be paid 5 soles ($1.70) per hectare ($0.68/acre) of preserved forest under a new conservation plan proposed by Peru's Ministry of Environment, reports the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in its bi-monthly update.
Antonio Brack, Peru's Minister of Environment, says the scheme could generate $18.3 million dollars for forest communities, which control some 11 million hectares of forest in the country, beginning in 2010. Brack says money has already been set aside for the program in the 2010 budget.... Nevertheless the program will represent a substantial increase in funding over the $30,000 per year indigenous communities presently receive in direct international support for forest conservation, according to Brack. ...
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Jeez, can I buy a few acres?
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Thu, Jun 4, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
Green energy overtakes fossil fuel investment, says UN
Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations.
Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.
The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.
"There have been many milestones reached in recent years, but this report suggests renewable energy has now reached a tipping point where it is as important -- if not more important -- in the global energy mix than fossil fuels," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN's Environment Programme. ...
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That's a tipping point worth tipping!
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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from New Scientist:
Methanol challenges hydrogen to be fuel of the future
For years many companies, governments and researchers have predicted that our energy future must lie with the universe's simplest element. The mooted hydrogen economy would use the gas to store and transport renewable or low-carbon energy, and power fuel cells in the transport sector or in portable electronics.
But creating the necessary society-wide infrastructure has proved difficult and expensive to get off the ground. And now a rival idea, first suggested in 2006 by Nobel chemistry laureate George Olah at the University of Southern California, has received a boost.
The methanol economy, say its supporters, could be with us much sooner than the hydrogen one. Olah's rationale is that modifying our existing oil and petrol-focused infrastructure to run on methanol will be much easier than refitting the world's liquid-fuel-based economy to deal with an explosive gas.
Methanol has already been used to power portable gadgets and could potentially power vehicles and other devices. Now US chemists have worked out the conditions needed to make the feedstock for methanol production using renewable energy. ...
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Now crystal methanol, that'll really be something.
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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from Los Angeles Times:
California Senate approves ban on BPA in plastics
Despite a fierce lobbying effort by the U.S. chemical industry, the state Senate narrowly approved a proposal Tuesday that would ban the use of a substance in baby bottles, toddler sippy cups and food containers that independent scientists say is a threat to childhood development.
The bill by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A -- commonly dubbed BPA -- now goes to the Assembly, where it is expected to face a wall of resistance from manufacturers of the products that contain the chemical...
Researchers from the chemical industry say the public health threat has been vastly overblown, and manufacturers of BPA argue that it has passed muster with nearly a dozen regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States. ...
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Perhaps these chemical industry researchers have been hitting the bottle a bit too much!
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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from WorldWatch Institute:
Farmers Poised to Offset One-Quarter of Global Fossil Fuel Emissions Annually
Innovations in food production and land use that are ready to be scaled-up today could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to roughly 25 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and present the best opportunity to remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, according to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute and Ecoagriculture Partners. As the price of carbon rises with new caps on emissions and expanding markets for carbon offsets, the contribution of land-based, or "terrestrial," carbon to climate change mitigation efforts could increase even further.... Mobilizing agricultural carbon sequestration is therefore an essential tool in the effort to reduce the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases to the 350 parts-per-million level that many scientists argue we must achieve to avoid catastrophic climate change. A recent assessment published by Worldwatch in State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World found that emissions of carbon dioxide will have to "go negative" -- with more being absorbed than emitted -- by 2050 to achieve this goal. ...
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Growing ourselves out of this problem sure has a nice ring to it.
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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from BusinessGreen:
Report: solar panel prices to plummet
The average price of solar panels will drop by over a quarter this year, as falling demand and increased supplies of polysilicon combine to drive down prices.
That is the conclusion of a new study from research firm IC Insights, which predicts that despite the reduction in upfront prices, global solar photovoltaic installations will fall by 22 per cent this year as a result of the recession and the scaling back of some European incentives.
However, the report also forecasts that the expansion of new incentive schemes in the US, China and Europe combined with the fact that the polysilicon supply shortages that dogged the industry in recent years have been largely resolved means that the sector will "come charging back in 2010". ...
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Maybe now's the time to say "charge it!"
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Tue, Jun 2, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
Nancy Sutley: Obama to stake political prestige on passing US climate bill
Barack Obama is prepared to stake his own political prestige on getting climate change legislation through Congress, and would be willing to intervene directly to ensure passage of America's first law to reduce the carbon emissions that cause global warming.
Nancy Sutley, who is pivotal in setting Obama's green agenda as the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the Guardian that the president is ready to use his considerable personal popularity to rally Congress behind a sweeping climate change bill.... The accelerated pace set by some Democrats seems designed to capitalise on recent momentum behind a climate change bill which cleared a crucial committee in late May. The strategy also seeks to take advantage of Obama's current popularity -- Gallup gave him a 65 percent average approval rating last month. ...
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Yes We... still might.
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Tue, Jun 2, 2009
from CBC (Canada):
Scientists unveil plans for online directory of life on Earth
The directory will be a free resource that everyone — not just those working in the scientific community — can contribute to or use, say the people behind the project. The idea is to link together the efforts of thousands of observers around the world who already log their observations of flora and fauna online into one comprehensive, searchable directory.... The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), one of the databases chronicling life on earth, will contribute data to the new directory. Those running EOL -- based out of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. -- are among the major backers of the project.
"We are creating a virtual observatory for world biodiversity, where environmental observations, specimen data, experimental results, and sophisticated modelling can be done across all levels of biodiversity -- from genes to ecosystems," Dr. James Edwards, executive director of EOL, said of the proposed directory. ...
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They better hurry, or it could be a really short directory.
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