| Wednesday, March 25, 2009 |
| Aresenic laced water, not just in Asia |
 Every day, more than 140 million people in southern Asia drink groundwater contaminated with arsenic. Thousands of people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar and Vietnam die of cancer each year from chronic exposure to arsenic, according to the World Health Organization. Some health experts call it the biggest mass poisoning in history.
According to a 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences, arsenic in drinking water causes bladder, lung and skin cancer, and may cause kidney and liver cancer. The study also found that arsenic harms the central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as heart and blood vessels, and causes serious skin problems. It also may cause birth defects and reproductive problems.
"How does the arsenic go from being in the sediment loads, in solids, into the drinking water?" said Fendorf, a professor of environmental Earth system science and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.
To find out, he launched a field study in Asia in 2004 with two Stanford colleagues: Chris Francis, an assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences, and Karen Seto, now at Yale University. The initial study was funded with a two-year Woods Institute Environmental Venture Projects grant. Five years later, the research team appears to have solved the arsenic mystery and is working with policymakers and government officials to prevent the health crisis from escalating.
"We found out that, sure enough, within the first 2 to 3 feet from the surface, arsenic was coming out of the solids-that is, the sediments transported down from the Himalayas—and into the water, and then it migrated down into the aquifer," Fendorf said. Aquifers are the source of drinking water for people who use wells throughout Cambodia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and Vietnam.
Beginning March 24, Fendorf will co-host a four-day meeting on arsenic poisoning in Siam Reap, Cambodia, with about 60 experts, including government officials, scholars, NGOs and funding agencies, such as the World Bank. The meeting was convened by the American Geophysical Union and the Woods Institute.
Arsenic is in water in 25 states of the United States. Due to the ability for better water filtration in this area of the world it doesn't provide as much of a threat, but it is still cause for concern.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency often finds problems with bottled water, but doesn't tell the public about them.
Canada's federal food watchdog issued 29 recall notices for bottled water products between 2000 and early 2008, citing deficiencies such as contamination by bacteria, moulds, glass chips and trace amounts of arsenic.
Of the recalls, affecting 49 different products, it issued a public warning in only seven cases, two of which came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made public its recall orders.
Source for some of this article came from:
Stanford University (2009, March 25). New Solutions For The Arsenic-poisoning Crisis In Asia. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 25, 2009.Labels: arsenic, asia, canada, united states, water filtration |
posted by Christy @ 10:16 AM 
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| Monday, March 23, 2009 |
| Help stop oil and gas leasing in the arctic |
 The Chukchi and Beaufort seas, off the northern coast of Alaska, host an incredible range of Arctic animals including polar bears, walruses, ice seals, and bowhead and beluga whales. These waters are also vital habitat for countless numbers of migratory birds that summer in the Arctic. For thousands of years, communities on the Arctic coast have depended on this healthy ocean ecosystem to support their subsistence way of life.
Now, oil and gas development may jeopardize these waters and those who depend on them. The federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) is considering whether to proceed with a Bush Administration plan to lease vast swaths of U.S. Arctic waters for oil and gas development. The exact consideration would offer 73 million acres of Arctic waters to oil and gas leasing.
It makes no sense to compound the stress of climate change by opening huge areas of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas to offshore oil and gas development. Such development will have serious adverse impacts on the region's wildlife and Native communities. Moreover, oil and gas activities in Arctic waters are risky: high winds, powerful seas, variable ice conditions, and cold temperatures may overcome even the best technologies. And if a spill does occur, there is no proven method to clean it up in ice-laden waters.
The World Wildlife Fund, which has the world's largest Arctic conservation program, also recommends that the most vulnerable and important areas of the Arctic be deemed permanently off-limits to oil and gas development. Such "no-go zones" should be based on the sensitivity and productivity of special priority areas, where oil spill response would be virtually impossible to clean up or where any spill would cause irreparable long-term damage. These areas include Bristol Bay in the southeastern Bering Sea in Alaska, known as "America's fish basket," where more than 40 percent of all wild seafood is caught in the United States. Oil and gas development in the bay is estimated to bring in $7.7 billion over the 25-40 year lifetime experts predict it would take to extract the resources. By comparison, the renewable fisheries of the Bristol Bay region are valued at $50-$80 billion over that same time period.
Obama's proposed budget, unveiled last month, would impose a new excise tax and fees on companies that take oil and natural gas from federal waters and reimposes a tax - again largely targeting the oil industry - to pay for cleaning up Superfund sites. The administration also supports an end to a tax break for the major oil companies that is supposed to spur development of domestic manufacturing jobs.
President George W. Bush abruptly ended a long-standing executive ban on off-shore oil leasing in Alaska's Bristol Bay in January 2007. Lease sales in Bristol Bay were then scheduled for 2011 despite recommendations by the National Marine Fisheries Service to exclude Bristol Bay from the nation's 2007-2012 outer continental shelf leasing program. The Obama Administration has extended the public comment period on all lease sales until September 2009 but has not overturned the Bristol Bay sales.
"We're turning the page on a new level of responsibility in terms of how we're dealing with the fiscal realities of the country," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "...Not everyone is going to be happy."Labels: arctic, gas leases, oil drilling |
posted by Christy @ 2:01 PM
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| Saturday, March 21, 2009 |
| Project Vulcan and Google Earth |
 A new high-resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is now available on Google Earth thanks to Project Vulcan. With a few clicks on Google Earth, anyone can now view pollution from factories, power plants, roadways, and residential and commercial areas for their state, county or per capita.
Individuals also can easily see how their county compares to others across the nation. A team led by scientists at Purdue University developed the maps and system, named Vulcan after the Roman god of fire. The system quantifies all of the carbon dioxide emissions that result from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline.
Explore the Vulcan website for the Vulcan gridded data, methodological details, publications, plots and analysis. A major new initiative, launched from the Vulcan experience is currently being built - the Hestia Project - in which we plan to quantify greenhouse gas emissions for the entire planet at the building scale with complete driving processes. This work is supported by Purdue's Showalter Trust and Knauf Insulation.
Simon Ilyushchenko, an engineer at Google, volunteered his time to create the Vulcan layer. Google engineers are allowed to donate 20 percent of their time, or one day of their workweek, to a cause or project of their choice.Labels: google earth, project vulcan |
posted by Christy @ 5:00 PM
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| Global Carbon Project News |
 "Forests, grasslands and oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere faster than ever but they are not keeping pace with rapidly rising emissions," says CSIRO scientist and co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, Dr Mike Raupach.
"While these natural CO2 sinks are a huge buffer against climate change, which would occur about twice as fast without them, they cannot be taken for granted."
Dr. Raupach and Swiss scientist, Dr Nicolas Gruber, co-chaired one of 43 sessions at the conference - Climate Change, Vulnerability of Carbon Sinks.
Dr. Raupach says concern about the vulnerability of carbon sinks is based on identifying several mechanisms that could cause the present stabilizing role of oceans and land to be weakened or even reversed.
"Such a change would have drastic consequences for the predicted magnitude or speed of climate change occurring and scientists will meet in Copenhagen to review and question the latest research from which advice can ultimately be provided to decision-makers."
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of Kyoto Protocol signatory countries. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing but slower than the atmospheric CO2 growth, which has been increasing at 2 ppm since 2000 or 33% faster than the previous 20 years.
Annual mean growth rate of atmospheric CO2 was 2.2 ppm per year in 2007 (up from 1.8 ppm in 2006), and above the 2.0 ppm average for the period 2000-2007. The average annual mean growth rate for the previous 20 years was about 1.5 ppm per year. This increase brought the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 ppm in 2007, 37% above the concentration at the start of the industrial revolution (about 280 ppm in 1750). The present concentration is the highest during the last 650,000 years and probably during the last 20 million years. [ppm = parts per million].
The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001. The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes.
The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle. The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases.
The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the World Climate Programme, the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas, under the Earth Systems Science Partnership.Labels: carbon emissions, global carbon project |
posted by Christy @ 4:36 PM
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| Friday, March 20, 2009 |
| Wolf pups and black bears take a hit |
 Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's cruel aerial slaughter has suddenly escalated.
This week, Palin's henchmen have killed 66 wolves, using helicopters, spotter planes and aerial gunners. To make matters even worse, Palin's Board of Game has approved the use of poison gas and deadly snares to kill defenseless wolf pups and their families in and around their dens.
This week, at least 66 wolves have been killed by aerial gunners with high-powered rifles in helicopters near Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. And, under new policies approved by Governor Sarah Palin's Board of Game, wolf pups could be gassed to death in their dens in the weeks ahead.
Under new guidelines, hunters can use snares to trap black bears in a specific area and can access the area via private helicopters. As for wolves, state employees are now authorized to use poison gas to kill orphaned wolf pups in dens (orphaned, presumably, after aerial hunting).
The Board of Game and Department of Fish and Game aim - or at least hope - to kill up to 60 percent of the 2,500 to 3,000 black bears that, in their opinion, prey upon an unacceptably high number of moose calves in Unit 16B, a huge area that extends from the foothills of the Alaska Range to Cook Inlet and from the Yentna River southwest to Redoubt Creek.
I'm not going to pretend I know the ins and outs of this, because I don't. I don't live in an area overwhelmed with wolves. I can't imagine though that they have become such a problem that poison gas needs to be thrown into their dens.
As for the bears, if you kill 60% of them does that mean in years to come you'll then be using those traps to kill the moose who would then perhaps be overly populated. I mean to what extent to do you step on the toes of mother nature?Labels: black bears, wolves |
posted by Christy @ 1:59 PM
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| Wednesday, March 18, 2009 |
| Russia bans seal bashing |
 Russia said Wednesday it had banned the hunting of baby seals, weeks after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a "bloody industry."
"The bloody sight of the hunting of seals, the slaughter of these defenseless animals which you cannot even call a real hunt, is banned in our country, just as well as in most developed countries, and is a serious step to protect the biodiversity of the Russian Federation," the minister for natural resources, Yuri Trutnev, said in a statement.
Seals inhabit Russia's White Sea region in the Arctic. As in Canada and Norway, hunters target the fluffy baby seals -- also known as "whitecoats" for their highly valued snow-white fur -- in early spring and club thousands to death.
Putin has a reputation as an animal lover, and says killing seals, "should have been banned a long time ago."
Calling the annual "harvesting" of baby seals a "hunt" is grotesque distortion. It's anything but a "hunt." It's slaughter, and has little economic value.
There are an estimated 200,000 harp seals in Russia's White Sea sealing grounds -- down by 90% from when they were first counted 80 years ago. Some 35,000 baby seals are killed each year when they are about six weeks old and their coats a dazzling white.
The ban was imposed by the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency. The documentation has been sent for state registration with the Ministry of Justice.
"We are delighted at the adoption of this decision and would like to separately underline the important role played by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry in this cause. Thanks to their efforts this has finally taken place. Being a state structure, it greatly influenced the advancement of this process," International Fund for Animal Welfare's Anna Filippova said.Labels: IFAW, russia, seals |
posted by Christy @ 9:11 AM
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| Tuesday, March 17, 2009 |
| Time to plant your budget friendly garden |
 With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots - literally - cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget.
My husband planted green peppers and tomatoes last year. It was our first garden at the townhouse. It didn't go super well, but it went well. We did get a lot of herbs, but there is a significant amount of shade and water drainage is an issue due to the slope of our tiny yard. But I think he plans on putting more in the garden this year, and I'm happy about this.
Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.
"People's home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we've seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for our vegetable seeds. We're selling out," said George Ball, CEO of Burpee Seeds, the largest mail-order seed company in the U.S. "I've never seen anything like it."
Gardening advocates, who have long struggled to get America grubby, have dubbed the newly planted tracts "recession gardens" and hope to shape the interest into a movement similar to the victory gardens of World War II.
The National Gardening Association estimates that a well-maintained vegetable garden yields a $500 average return per year. A study by Burpee Seeds claims that $50 spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $1,250 worth of produce annually.
A new report by the National Gardening Association predicts a 19 percent increase in home gardening in 2009, based on spring seed sales data and a telephone survey. One-fifth of respondents said they planned to start a food garden this year and more than half said they already were gardening to save on groceries.
I know we're not in April yet, but keep in mind April is National Garden Month. With a tough economy and concerns about global warming, pollution, and health on the rise, April is the perfect time to kick off some new habits that address these issues, while making your lifestyle healthier and your community stronger.Labels: garden, organic food |
posted by Christy @ 8:18 AM
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| Monday, March 16, 2009 |
| Greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide? |
 A team of international researchers at the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences have discovered a potentially harmful greenhouse gas, known as Sulfuryl Fluoride, within the atmosphere. The bad news is it is 4,800 times worse than CO2, but the good news is it has been caught early enough in the game that the researchers do not think that it is going to be a major problem.
Sulfuryl fluoride is a gas fumigant that has been used -- since the 1950s -- to kill bugs and rodents in indoor structures, such as homes, warehouses, and railroad cars.
Up until recently, federal guidelines prohibited food-related uses of sulfuryl fluoride. This prohibition, however, has recently been rescinded -- due to an intensive lobbying effort from DOW AgroSciences.
Since companies are not required to remove food from the premises before fumigating, fumigations with sulfuryl fluoride produce high levels of fluoride residues "in or on" the stored foods. According to recent regulations approved by EPA, it is now acceptable for fumigations to produce fluoride residues of 70 ppm "in or on" all processed foods (except for the processed foods otherwise specified), 130 ppm "in or on" wheat, and 900 ppm "in or on" dried eggs.
NRC panel member Kathleen M. Thiessen, senior scientist at SENES Oak Ridge Inc., Center for Risk Analysis, presented clear evidence that water with about 1 mg/L of fluoride or more presents potential risks to the thyroid gland.
"Many Americans are exposed to fluoride in the ranges associated with thyroid effects, especially for people with an iodine deficiency," Thiessen said. "The average adult exposure is around 0.03 mg/kg/day, and the levels of exposure at which one sees thyroid effects in some individuals with an iodine deficiency are right around that same range," she said. A low level of thyroid hormone can increase the risk of cardiac disease, high cholesterol, depression, and, in pregnant women, decreased intelligence of offspring, she said.
Over 2,000 professionals have signed a STATEMENT being distributed by the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) calling for an end to water fluoridation worldwide. Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the landmark 2006 National Research Council report on fluoride's toxicology, three officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the Executive Board of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, leading fluoride researchers, and medical, dental, scientific and environmental professionals from around the world.
You can take action and sign the statement, too, click here >>Labels: air, pollution, Sulfuryl fluoride |
posted by Christy @ 8:12 AM
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| Sunday, March 15, 2009 |
| Cruelty to "downed" farm animals |
 Since the mid-1990s, The HSUS has been working hard to stop as a matter of public policy the abuse of downer cattle -- animals too sick or injured to walk. And on Saturday, March 14, 2009, President Obama himself announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was officially putting a stop to non-ambulatory cattle being mishandled in order to get them into slaughter plants. He made the announcement along with two top selections for the Food and Drug Administration and a series of other statements about food safety.
In his weekly address, President Barack Obama said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will close the loophole allowing downers to be used for food. He called food safety "something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent."
The president also formed a new Food Safety Working Group to look into food safety laws and recommend improvements, and ordered the Food and Drug Administration to employ more food inspectors.
The abuse of downed dairy cows commanded the national spotlight after an HSUS investigation documented the horrific practices at Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co. The investigation findings were released January 30, 2008.
Before releasing the latest documentation of downer abuses, The HSUS briefed then-Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer about the latest abuses and renewed a request that the USDA act immediately to ban processing any downed cattle for food.
The HSUS also urged the USDA to extend the ban to the 1,200-plus livestock markets and auctions that operate around the nation, and require that operators of those facilities and slaughter plants immediately and humanely euthanize downer cattle upon identifying them in that non-ambulatory state.
SOURCELabels: cows, humane society |
posted by Christy @ 5:07 PM
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| Friday, March 13, 2009 |
| Global Climate Change Debates |
 Preparing for Climate Change: In an editorial, it argues that the U.S. government must start acting now if the United States is to successfully adapt to the challenge posed by inevitable changes in the global climate. It says that developing new agricultural practices in the United States is the best way it can help the world.
First, the report offers this warning: "As a result of human activity, the average temperature of Earth will soon leave the less-than-1 degree Celsius range that it has maintained for more than 10,000 years." The US climate "is no longer stable, but will continue to change in new and often surprising ways," it adds. It calls for deeper research into how specific regions will be affected and on ways to lessen or adapt to changes.
Though federal leadership will be "essential," the report does not recommend a central agency to deal with the effort. It suggests a need to support existing governments in adapting to climate change.
The Economist examines President Obama's plans to meet the climate change challenge. It says the president will have a hard time convincing Congress, and that the answer is not simply to throw money at the problem.
The president is right to want to cut emissions. The alternative, allowing climate change to take its course, would be far more damaging to America and the world. The economic impact of rising sea levels, reduced crop yields, fiercer storms and many other doleful consequences would be devastating.
But fighting climate change will be costly. It will involve swapping cheap but dirty fuels for cleaner but dearer ones, as Congress intends, as well as building lots of expensive new power plants to replace older, more polluting ones. That in turn will lead to higher electricity and fuel prices. Despite the president's airy talk of green jobs, cutting emissions, by almost all calculations, will increase costs for most businesses and families. Those extra costs must be kept to a minimum.
Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, argues that those who view global warming in entirely negative terms are neglecting the benefits that warmer weather could have on people's health around the globe. By viewing the problem in this way, the writer argues, governments can make sounder policy choices.
This was the message delivered to a conference in Copenhagen this week by Alistair Hunt, a researcher at Bath University. "I am trying to bring home the impact of climate change to everyone," he said.
It is true, as Hunt noted, that the 2003 heatwave claimed 2,000 lives in Britain; that human-caused warming will increase global temperatures by about 2.6 degrees Celsius on average; and that high temperatures cause heat strokes, heart attacks and other illnesses, which hit the elderly and chronically ill the hardest. But low temperatures also kill. The old, infirm, homeless and very young are at the highest risk of hypothermia, heart attacks, strokes and illnesses caused or exacerbated by the cold.
Winter regularly takes many more lives than any heatwave: 25,000 to 50,000 people each year die in Britain from excess cold.
More from the Council on Foreign Relations' Daily Opinion Roundup >>
In regards to the image from NASA - Red shows areas where temperatures have increased the most during last 50 years.Labels: climate change, global warming |
posted by Christy @ 9:54 AM
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| Great White Shark Origin |
 For the last 150 years, some paleontologists have concluded the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is a smaller relative of the line that produced Carcharodon megalodon, the largest carnivorous fish known. Other paleontologists disagree, arguing the great white shark evolved instead from the broad-toothed mako shark. The second group contends megalodon, which grew to a length of 60 feet, should have its genus name switched to Carcharocles to reflect its different ancestry.
The study in the March 12 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology falls squarely into the mako camp. It concludes megalodon and modern white sharks are much more distantly related than paleontologists initially believed.
"I think that this specimen will clarify things," said lead author Dana Ehret, a vertebrate paleontology graduate student at the Florida Museum of Natural History located on the UF campus. "When we only have isolated teeth to describe, it's very hard to come to a definitive conclusion."
The study is based on a remarkably well preserved 4- to 5-million-year-old fossil from Peru of an early white shark species: a complete jaw with 222 teeth intact and 45 vertebrae. Most ancient shark species are known only from isolated teeth. Based on tooth size and analysis of growth rings within the vertebrae, the shark was about 20 years old and 17 to 18 feet long, a size in the range of modern white sharks.
Having the teeth in place allows researchers to see important distinguishing characteristics that help determine a fossil's genus and species, such as whether a tooth curves toward the outside of the jaw or its midline, Ehret said. He believes the fossil belongs to a white shark species closely related to Isurus hastalis, a broad-toothed mako shark that probably grew to 27 feet long and lived 9 million to 10 million years ago.
The specimen-which includes part of the spinal column, the head, jaws lined with 222 teeth-is the most complete fossil known of an ancient great white shark.
Scientists had long assumed that great whites—which can reach lengths of 20 feet (6.1 meters)-were close kin of the prehistoric "megatooth" sharks, frightening creatures that grew up to 50 feet (15.2 meters) long and had jaws more than 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide.
But a new look at the fossil suggests that great whites are more closely related to the less fearsome and smaller mako shark, a species that still exists today.
SOURCELabels: fossil, shark, species origin |
posted by Christy @ 9:47 AM
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| Thursday, March 12, 2009 |
| Windy air, churning water, global warming spawns |
 Natural releases of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean due to shifting wind patterns could have amplified global warming at the end of the last ice age--and could be repeated as manmade warming proceeds, a new paper in the journal Science suggests.
Many scientists think that the end of the last ice age was triggered by a change in Earth's orbit that caused the northern part of the planet to warm. This partial climate shift was accompanied by rising levels of the greenhouse gas CO2, ice core records show, which could have intensified the warming around the globe. A team of scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory now offers one explanation for the mysterious rise in CO2: the orbital shift triggered a southward displacement in westerly winds, which caused heavy mixing in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, pumping dissolved carbon dioxide from the water into the air.
"The faster the ocean turns over, the more deep water rises to the surface to release CO2," said lead author Robert Anderson, a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty. "It's this rate of overturning that regulates CO2 in the atmosphere." In the last 40 years, the winds have shifted south much as they did 17,000 years ago, said Anderson. If they end up venting more CO2 into the air, manmade warming underway now could be intensified.
Scientists have been studying the oceans for more than 25 years to understand their influence on CO2 levels and the glacial cycles that have periodically heated and chilled the planet for more than 600,000 years. Ice cores show that the ends of other ice ages also were marked by rises in CO2.
Anderson and his colleagues measured the rate of upwelling by analyzing sediment cores from the Southern Ocean. When deep water is vented, it brings not only CO2 to the surface but nutrients. Phytoplankton consume the extra nutrients and multiply.
In the cores, Anderson and his colleagues say spikes in plankton growth between roughly 17,000 years ago and 10,000 years ago indicate added upwelling. By comparing those spikes with ice core records, the scientists realized the added upwelling coincided with hotter temperatures in Antarctica as well as rising CO2 levels.
In the same issue of Science, Toggweiler writes a column commenting on the work. "Now I think this really starts to lock up how the CO2 changed globally," he said in an interview. "Here's a mechanism that can explain the warming of Antarctica and the rise in CO2. It's being forced by the north, via this change in the winds."
Anderson says that if his theory is correct, the impact of upwelling "will be dwarfed by the accelerating rate at which humans are burning fossil fuels." But, he said, "It could well be large enough to offset some of the mitigation strategies that are being proposed to counteract rising CO2, so it should not be neglected."
SOURCELabels: carbon dioxide, global warming, wind |
posted by Christy @ 2:23 PM
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| Bright-green environmentalism |
"Bright-green environmentalism is a call to use innovation, design, urban revitalization, and entrepreneurial zeal to transform the systems that support our lives."
Alex Steffen coined bright green in 2003, but 2009 could be its breakout year, thanks in large part to the new administration in Washington, D.C. From the campaign trail to his inaugural speech to last week's address to the joint congress, President Barack Obama has consistently brought the conversation back to sustainability and energy efficiency. "No recent president made energy and the environment such a centerpiece of his inaugural speech, not even Jimmy Carter, who burned much of his political capital, not to say cardigans, struggling to rejig America's energy habits," wrote Keith Johnson, eco-blogger for The Wall Street Journal, in January.Labels: alex steffen, environmentalism, president barack obama |
posted by Christy @ 2:19 PM
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| Wednesday, March 11, 2009 |
| Little shot of ozone to ease your pain |
Ozone or trioxygen (O3) is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic O2.
A minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment-that safely and effectively uses oxygen/ozone to relieve the pain of herniated disks-will become standard in the United States in the next few years, predict researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 34th Annual Scientific Meeting. In a related study, the interventional radiologists examined just how ozone relieves the pain associated with herniated disks.
Oxygen/ozone therapy involves injecting a gas mixture of oxygen and ozone into a herniated disk. The treatment can limit pain and inflammation by reducing the disk's volume. Currently, open diskectomy and microdiskectomy (both involving removal of disk material through an incision) are the standards in surgical treatment for herniated disk.
"Ozone shrinks disk volume; this is why it provides pain relief," said Kieran J. Murphy, M.D., interventional neuroradiologist and vice chair and chief of medical imaging at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose second study explored the mechanism of why oxygen/ozone treatment works.
Much research in oxygen/ozone treatments has been done by interventional radiologists in Italy, said Murphy, indicating that as many as 14,000 individuals have received this treatment abroad over the past five years.
SOURCE
In further research...
Ozone, along with reactive forms of oxygen such as superoxide, singlet oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and hypochlorite ions, is naturally produced by white blood cells and other biological systems (such as the roots of marigolds) as a means of destroying foreign bodies. Ozone reacts directly with organic double bonds. Also, when ozone breaks down to dioxygen it gives rise to oxygen free radicals, which are highly reactive and capable of damaging many organic molecules. Ozone has been found to convert cholesterol in the blood stream to plaque (which causes hardening and narrowing of arteries).
Hmm...Labels: ozone |
posted by Christy @ 8:53 AM
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| Monday, March 9, 2009 |
| Volcanic smog causing trouble in Hawaii |
 Leafless monkey pod and browning Norfolk pine trees litter Ted Seaman's 3.5 acre nursery in the small town of Pahala on the southern edge of Hawaii's largest island.
His skill as a grower isn't to blame. It's the noxious fumes that have been pouring out of the Kilauea volcano in unprecedented volumes since last spring.
"You can only go so far before you say forget it," said Seaman, who has since taken a job trimming trees. The 53-year-old is currently focused on saving enough money to file for bankruptcy.
Sulfur dioxide from the volcano has wiped out multiple small farms and nurseries in the nearby largely rural district of Kau. The gas, which creates volcanic smog when mixed with sunlight and air, threatens the viability of some area flower and vegetable crops.
Roses, sunflowers, protea, lettuce, tomatoes, and even medical marijuana are hurt by the smog.
Many farmers are desperately hoping government grants or other financial help will save their farms. But the recession has depressed state tax revenues, and Hawaii has little money to help farmers.Labels: farm, pollution, smog |
posted by Christy @ 3:08 PM
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| Friday, March 6, 2009 |
| Ambiance of Ikea Solar Lights |
 "This year, IKEA is introducing a whole new summer range for dining, relaxing and creating an outdoor haven." says Madeleine Lowenborg-Frick, Public Relations Manager for IKEA Canada. "Three key trends have emerged from this season's Collection. Modular lounge seating, eco-friendly outdoor options, and graphic statements. These trends are driven by function as much as by style."
Ikea is making sure that summers don't make you waste electricity in illuminating your garden for an outdoor barbeque with a new range of solar-powered lights, which are available in different shapes and sizes to tickle the taste of all. The lights are powered by the energy of the sun, which is stored in rechargeable and replaceable batteries during daytime.
All the lighting fixtures carry LEDs that consume 70% less electricity than conventional lamps and last up to 4 times as long as regular bulbs. Most importantly, these lights are completely wireless, which saves you from digging your garden to hide the ugly wires. The lights should be on the shelves in the next few weeks.
Of course you won't be able to use them to light an outdoor party unless you plan on having your guests stumbling around in the dark. But they will still provide a lovely ambiance.Labels: lights, solar |
posted by Christy @ 9:41 AM
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| Wednesday, March 4, 2009 |
| Interactive Green Jobs Map from EDF |
 The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) just unveiled a groundbreaking online interactive green jobs map to showcase the potential economic benefits of green energy.
This first-of-its-kind tool shows over 1,000 American companies and communities that are already part of a green transformation.
Leaders in economic development view a cap on carbon as a path to an American manufacturing renaissance and a bright spot in our economy.
A cap creates customers for climate solutions across the country, including new customers for the component manufacturers, final product manufacturers, installers and service companies.
Led by Gary Gereffi, a Duke professor of sociology, researchers at Duke's Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC) assess five carbon-reducing technologies with potential for future green job creation: LED lighting, high-performance windows, auxiliary power units for long-haul trucks, concentrating solar power, and Super Soil Systems (a new method for treating hog wastes).
They conclude that hidden economic opportunities exist within the supply chains that provide parts and labor for these five industries. The report includes a snapshot of the opportunities for U.S. manufacturing jobs, with a detailed breakdown of the supply chains and maps highlighting the location of companies positioned to support green jobs. States that stand to benefit most from jobs in these sectors include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
"These maps tell the story of companies across the manufacturing heartland that will get new customers and create jobs with a cap on carbon."
- Jackie Roberts, Director of Sustainable TechnologiesLabels: carbon cap, environmental defense fund, green jobs |
posted by Christy @ 8:28 AM
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| Monday, March 2, 2009 |
| True "green" energy from plants |
 The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists at the University of Southampton to produce a new generation of solar cells.
The Southampton team led by Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis of the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, has developed a new range of photovoltaic devices that use a process found in vegetative methods of light harvesting, to deliver unprecedented amounts of electrical current from light.
In photosynthesis each molecule has evolved to deliver a function that complements the perpetual cycle of light to energy conversion. With the advent of nanoscience, scientists are now able to build devices of multiple nanoscale components, each one designed to deliver a specific functionality.
Professor Lagoudakis comments: "We looked at the ways that energy is funnelled in nature and through reverse engineering, using multiple nanoscale components, we designed and fabricated a hybrid photovoltaic device that can absorb light and efficiently convert it to electric current.
"These are early days but the possibilities for the application of this technology for environmentally-friendly energy production are very exciting."
University of Southampton (2009, March 3). Ultimate In 'Green' Energy: Plants Inspire New Generation Of Solar Cells. ScienceDaily.Labels: Green, plants, solar energy |
posted by Christy @ 6:49 PM
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