Monthly Archives: April 2010

Your Official Guide to Save The Frogs Day 2010! Please download Your Official Guide to Save The Frogs Day 2010, and forward it on to all your friends! This guide was published as our April 2010 Members Newsletter. If you enjoy reading it, please support our worldwide amphibian conservation efforts by becoming an Official...
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ISHN - A bit of history was made yesterday when President Obama became the first president to issue a proclamation in recognition of Workers Memorial Day (April 28th). Here is the proclamation, provided by the White House press office: (Please read full at WhiteHouse.gov)…On Workers Memorial Day, we remember all those who have died,...
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Did I speak too soon? This is a nice concept that may work well. The efficiency is a potential red herring, since the input energy is “free” in the sense that once the plant is set up, wind just keeps on turning up. So the important figure is the final cost per unit energy....
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According to comprehensive research using government incident databases, about 8 million gallons of petroleum releases were reported as a result of Katrina hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, nearly 75 percent of the total volume of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The releases were largely due to storage tank failure...
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NextBigFuture: The first model is a uranium nitride reactor that will sell for $45-70 million “all in” and provide 25 MW of electrical power. The company was told teh NRC will start evaluation February of 2011. (Inc Magazine) Deal gives a quick sketch of how his nuclear plant works: A room-size reactor is buried...
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Paul T. Anastas is a scientific evangelist. More specifically, he is a green chemistry and green engineering evangelist, which should not be surprising as he is generally regarded as one of the “fathers” of the green chemistry movement. However, as the new assistant administrator in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency‘s Office of Research...
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Mongabay – The Obama Administration has approved the nation’s first offshore wind farm after more than eight years of legal challenges, reports the Associated Press. Speaking Wednesday in Boston, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the $2 billion Cape Wind project marks “a new direction in our nation’s energy future.” The 130-turbine, 420-megawatt wind...
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From the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center – Sustainable Electronics Initiative, 2010. Electronic Waste (e-Waste) Terms and Definitions: Organizations and Certifying Bodies Electronic Waste (e-Waste) Terms and Definitions: Legislation and Directives Electronic Waste (e-Waste) Terms and Definitions: General Terms Thanks always to Laura Barnes (P2-Pays!)
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Ahhh… duh. The oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico is sending ripples through Florida and national politics, giving Gov. Charlie Crist a reason to withdraw his support for offshore drilling. - GreenChange Related: New offshore drilling will reduce our dependency on foreign oil APRIL FOOLS U.S. Judge Suspends Oil Leases to Study...
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Sorry Berkeley… nice paper misses the point that the small decrease in cartel controlled market pricing hardly justifies or offsets the food or commodity price increases of biofuels or the massive toll it takes on freshwater and forest resources? University of California-Berkeley, derives a method to quantify the impact of biofuel on fuel markets,...
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“I am hoping battery tech gets a whole lot better – fast. Jim “ arc-ion.com Sorry Daugherty… Hoping for a true ‘breakthrough’ may be bleak. Invented in 1799 by Alessandro Volta, it not only has yet to be perfected, but has operated all along on essentially the same chemical principles. Were that it were...
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Interesting theory… But, I am bothered this is called a ‘new theory’ and ‘for the first time’ when the idea of Abiogenic petroleum dates back to late 1800′s (like batteries and electric cars . EurekaAlert – The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were...
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Despite burning up our finite fossil fuels, governments around the world still spend 500 billion US dollars a year subsidizing fossil fuel industries. A new study from the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development looks at the difficult political situation behind ending fossil fuel subsidies. Please more by Jeremy...
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Forests continue to decline worldwide, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Employing satellite imagery researchers found that over a million square kilometers of forest were lost around the world between 2000 and 2005. This represents a 3.1 percent loss of total forest as estimated from...
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Good posts this week from GreenChange US Senate Democrats walk climate bill to slow death “It’s not fair to say it’s dead, but it’s on the back burner… It could happen this year, but at this point it’s not likely,” said a senior Democratic aide familiar with Reid’s thinking. “Clean coal” won’t work, new...
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At least you can avoid plastics and therefore avoid exposure to the BPA, right? Unfortunately, another group of scientists has just announced that’s getting harder and harder to do. Bottom line: there is now solid evidence that Earth’s oceans have been contaminated on a global scale with BPA. The March issue of the Journal...
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(NaturalNews) Drug and chemical giant Bayer AG has admitted that there is no way to stop the uncontrolled spread of its genetically modified crops. “Even the best practices can’t guarantee perfection,” said Mark Ferguson, the company’s defense lawyer in a recent trial. Two Missouri farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their crop with modified genes...
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There is an interesting paper in the most recent issue of PNAS by Kempton et al, Electric Power from Offshore Wind by Synoptic-Scale Interconnection. The paper is in a tradition of literature looking at how to solve the problem that renewables are intermittent by averaging over production in a wide geographical area – on...
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A team of University of Maryland students, faculty and mentors has earned one of 20 coveted spots in the international U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 to be staged on the National Mall next year. For the Decathlon, the Maryland team is constructing a house to run on solar power, as well as...
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Inhabitat If you thought the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was a nightmare, things just got worse — it has a twin. As Plastiki makes its way across the Pacific to raise awareness about plastic in the oceans, scientists have found a matching patch in the Atlantic Ocean that stretches for thousands of square miles....
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Sharholders of Coca-Cola will vote today on a measure to force the soft drink company to go public on their plans to eliminate bisphenol A (or BPA) from the lining of their beverage cans. Coke apparently removed the chemical from their plastic bottles but chose to keep it in the epoxy liners of the...
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OffGrid- A rural Canadian town is boosting its population by offering newcomers the chance to build a sustainable community from scratch and live off the grid. CBC’s The Passionate Eye followed the residents’ first year in the eco-village in Craik, Saskatchewan, about 80 kilometres north of Moose Jaw, resulting in the Eco-Home Adventures documentary, available to...
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Charge Your Phone With Your Own Power – Now you can recharge your small electronic devices with your own power through a small renewable energy tool called Clipray. It’s a good and cheap of American Red Cross-endorsed emergency products that you will need in an emergency power needs of your small electronic devices. The...
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OSHA ups the ante on citation finesDailyReporter - Stiffer penalties are threatening an already tempestuous relationship between builders and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “But, also,” he said, “I would say the inspections are more thorough.” The agency this year will increase the maximum fines allowed for citations. The maximum penalty for a...
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Seven secret polluters whose negative impact on the planet is worse than it may seem. Yahoo News: Mobile Phones, when a cell phone gets thrown out, toxic chemicals in its electronics, plastics and batteries can pollute soil and ground water if not properly handled, said Steven Cohen, an environmental specialist at Columbia University. ConcreteThe...
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The environmental challenges and opportunities facing this region are great and I am glad to see Susan jump in with both feet -Haase “I look forward to working closely with Susan Hedman on the range of urgent environmental issues we face, in Region 5 and across the nation,”  “At this moment of great challenge...
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“To just have one program that would preempt states and have a one-size-fits all federal approach really not only ignores the whole history of success in the environmental area but also would not be the wisest way to go in terms of either maximizing greenhouse gas reductions or to maximize the amount of job...
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BigGav: The NYT has an article on generating power by incinerating waste – Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags. Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its...
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(VIA – TOD) Early environmentalist Rachel Carson, who helped launch the modern environmental movement against pesticides may have fatally flaud…  In her now-famous 1962 book Silent Spring, she argued that DDT, when sprayed on a Michigan campus to halt the spread of Dutch elm disease, would spread far and wide and harm robins’ ability to...
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ScienceDaily — Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after analyzing 17 years’ worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate. “It’s 36 percent more efficient to grow grain for food than for fuel,” said Ilya Gelfand, an...
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U.S. electricity demand fell 4.2 percent last year, the largest drop in 60 years, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the agency’s “State of the Markets Report 2009,” only three of the 11 recessions in the past 60 years have resulted in a drop in electric demand, and officials said in the...
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TOD – since 2007 the situation really hasn’t changed much. Billions will be spent with the expectation is that this development will cause significant cost reductions, making the technology affordable by 2020. There are two large drawbacks, however: The process is quite energy intensive, and thus will use up coal supplies faster. The process...
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This rig and spill will be ‘much of the start’ of prices that had to rise…  Source EIA Retail Prices (Cents Per Gallon) Retail Prices Change From Last 04/19/10 Week Year Gasoline 286.0 0.2 80.1 Diesel Fuel 307.4 0.5 85.3 Watch the end of this chart by Sept 2010. Related: (VIA – TOD) Peak...
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To all EHS professionals, I would personally like to thank all of you for your career choice dedicated to protecting our greatest resources, “People and The Planet”. You have made a difference in my life and the world around you. Thanks again for making EarthDay, EveryDay! Christopher Haase  ————————————-Related: Worldchanging: Bright Green: The Last...
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced support for energy-saving commercial building projects as part of an ongoing effort by DOE to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in the United States. With money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DOE’s national laboratories will select and fund technical experts to provide technical...
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Nuclear power plant construction likely will be just as difficult to accomplish after the legislative session as it was before. The Clean Energy Jobs Act would repeal a state law that prohibits nuclear power plant construction in Wisconsin until the federal government builds a repository to store nuclear waste. That law, Soletski said, creates...
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Seattle City Light, Seattle’s publicly owned power utility, has been selected to lead a national effort to guide municipalities in evaluating light emitting diode (LED) street lights. The Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium will collect, analyze, and share information and lessons learned about LED street-lighting...
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“I’ll give you a couple of examples of what we need to get rid of: the Department of Energy, EPA, OSHA and IRS.” – Les Phillip  Decatur Daily (ViA Cal-OSHA) Some may not like to hear some of the things he is saying, but at least he is saying some things that need to...
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This week China Invested $20 Billion in securing of nearly 15% U.S. oil in Venezuela…Foreign Oil: China has a plan. We don’t.“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on...
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This quote is as relevant as much as it is irrelevant… as it could of been pulled from headlines of the 70′s or 80′s “By using more electricity, natural gas and biofuels in our transportation fleet, we can quickly reduce our dependence on OPEC.“ How to End America’s Addiction to Oil – Wall Street...
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Congress to Address Helium Shortage Hurting Scientific Research and Nuclear Security (popSci) Failure to recognize an impending supply squeeze for helium-3–a nonradioactive gas produced in the agency’s nuclear weapons complex–has created a national crisis requiring White House intervention and threatening… This Helium Shortage could hit the Nuke , Oil And Gas Industry – HARD...
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Presentations from DOD 2010 Climate and Energy Symposium  From Integration & Synthesis Panel Introduction, John Benedict We didn’t buy Endurance in the past: when designing everything that used energy in the battlespace, we assumed fuel logistics was free and invulnerable; fuel would auto-magically appear, both in theater and in wargames Now we know...
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NextBigFuture: In the picture is the Toyota Estima hybrid minivan that has been available only in Japan Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will launch competitively priced Prius hybrid minivans using lithium ion batteries early next year, the Nikkei business daily reported. The new Prius minivan will offer a spacious interior and improved fuel economy, and...
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Laura B. p2tech – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing new, more rigorous guidelines for new homes that earn the Energy Star label. Compared to the current Energy Star guidelines, the new requirements will make qualified new homes at least 20 percent more efficient than homes built to the 2009 International Energy...
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Federal regulations cost a whopping $1.187 trillion last year in compliance burdens on Americans. “Trillion-dollar deficits and regulatory costs in the trillions are both unsettling new developments for America,” said report author, Clyde Wayne Crews, CEI Vice President for Policy. “It is sobering to note how both dwarf the initial $150 billion ‘stimulus package’...
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VIA Laura B. P2Tech Shoppers lined up early this morning to take advantage of a 15 percent appliance rebate program under which the state of Illinois will hand out $6.5 million in federal funds to people who buy energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers and the like. Some 670 stores in Illinois are competing for instant rebates...
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program today released its Federal Fleet Management Guidance, meeting a requirement of President Obama’s Executive Order (E.O. 13514) on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. This is the first comprehensive guidance to address the environmental impact of the Federal fleet and will help...
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce (via DocUticker) Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, today told lawmakers that while targeted tax incentives can play a role in fostering deployment of clean energy, there are other instruments that may prove to be more impactful and...
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Jeremy Hance – Mongabay ..”One of the main differences between habitat islands and true islands is the intervening matrix,” says Koh. By ‘matrix’, Koh does not mean an alternate reality where one can fight in slow-motion, but instead the type of landscapes in targeted areas, such as old-growth forests, secondary forest, small-scale agriculture, pasture,...
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InformationisBeautiful.… the Nordic Volcanological Institute of the University of Iceland measured the CO2:SO2 ratio as 5:1 (source). So Eyjafjallajoekull is emitting an estimated 15,000 tons of CO2 a day. Data here: http://bit.ly/planevolcano
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The interesting discovery of magic box called Groasis Waterboxx that can produce fresh water for the plants even in the driest place on earth. Groasis Waterboxx prototype has been tested in the Sahara desert with 90 percent encouraging results. The box created by Pieter Hoff, an entrepreneur from Dutch, would be very nice to...
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Anthony Watts: First, let me say I’m a fan of solar power when done correctly and without financial carrots hung out for electricity generation that entice abuse of the system. I put solar on my own home. Bishop Hill points out that some solar power installations in Spain were producing power at night. What...
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Mr. Gleick was called “one of 15 people Obama should listen to“… I would have to agree.  What if the world runs out of water?  In a session titled Water Scarcity and the Human Right to Water at the Skoll World Forum, water experts Peter Gleick, Gary White, and Gidon Bromberg discussed the very...
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off-grid.net The current system of generating electricity centrally and distributing it through the grid wastes as much as sixty per cent of energy -and it ain’t about to get any better, a leading UK academic has told Off-Grid. Tim Green, Professor of Power Engineering at Imperial College London told us  that efficiency losses in...
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MIT Grad Student Danielle Zurovcik (below) designed this hand-powered suction device to speed up wound healing. It costs $3 and it works.  Nobody knows precisely why it works, but doctors have known for decades that the healing process for open wounds can be greatly speeded up by applying negative pressure — that is, suction...
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Not as funny as it is true… and it is very funny. 
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 EPIC – The energy depletion consequences are game changing. 1994, the International Energy Agency released a statistic that attracted little attention but years later would transform oil markets and the global economy. China, the west’s energy watchdog said at the time, had just become “a net importer of oil on an annual basis for...
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The Senate Committee on Ethics Reform and Government Operations, on a 4-1 vote Thursday, approved the bill. The Senate sponsor is state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, and its Assembly sponsor is state Rep. Louis Molepske Jr., D-Stevens Point. After introducing the bill last month, Molepske offered a number of amendments, including opening the third-party...
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“This is a project clearly Steven Chu would love” The initial phase of the test loop program for the SILEX laser enrichment technology has been successfully completed by Global Laser Enrichment (GLE). The test loop facility is designed to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the technology and is intended to advance the design of...
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The WSU Energy Program is offering a full day training on the residential sections of the 2009 Washington State Energy Code. The course will focus on the changes to the energy code but will also discuss energy basics, code layout and use, and application to projects during the design, review, and construction phases. The...
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The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) recently reached the milestone of investing $4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for energy efficiency in federal buildings nationwide (GSA press release). To accomplish this feat, the GSA streamlined operations to quickly award contracts and begin construction on hundreds of green projects. The agency anticipates...
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From rabies to bird flu to HIV, diseases passing from animals to humans is a well-known phenomenon.  But a virus jumping from plants to humans? Never. At least, that’s what doctors thought until Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, discovered that the mild mottle virus found in peppers may...
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Energy-efficiency measures in the southern U.S. could save consumers $41 billion on their energy bills, open 380,000 new jobs, and save 8.6 billion gallons of water by 2020, according to a new study from the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The study concludes that...
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T. Boone Pickens will be testifying before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. The topic is “Energy Tax Incentives Driving the Green Job Economy” and all 1.6 million members of the Pickens Plan Army will be at the table with him (in spirit)! Boone will address our nation’s dangerous dependence on OPEC...
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…our people set a new record for food stamp consumption in a month, hopefully this is a record-breaking surge that ends sometime soon. About 39.4 million Americans, the most ever, received food stamps in January, the government said. The number of recipients was up 22% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department...
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… people would hide things from their doctor if the medical record system shared anonymous data with other organizations. Read full a Comsumerist
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USA Today – Beef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds. A program set up to test beef for chemical residues “is not accomplishing its mission of...
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Surplus oil production capacity could disappear by 2012 a report from US Joint Forces Command,  • Shortfall could reach 10m barrels a day, report says • Cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 a barrel The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there...
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DARPA contractor to build drone that Scavenges Solar and Thermal Energy Day and Night… Drones powered by solar energy offer the promise of staying in the air for years on end, but DARPA scientists also want an option for the nighttime. Now the Pentagon agency has awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences to...
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…bacteriophages have been engineered to clear up infections that seemed otherwise untreatable, and genetic material from viruses has been used to ease biofuel production. Now a team at MIT is using a modified virus to assemble the biological nano-scaffolding necessary to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Of course, other means...
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“What a pity international governments don’t seem to be able to make an agreement to ration finite resources like tuna, atmospheric carbon or fossil fuels, but instead devote their time to making an international agreement enforcing controls over something that costs no resources to copy.” – Colin Jackson, a commenter on a blog,
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The search for the more efficient and more electrical energy stored batteries are continues to be developed. The lightweight rechargeable lithium-air or lithium-oxygen batteries are also being developed by the scientists with reason of its ability to store electrical energy three times higher than current conventional lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-air battery concept actually has long...
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I remember studying this theory as a kid and loved the idea of having the ability to have a simplified approach to work out the most complex problems. Apparently good theories don’t die easy. Enter the matrix: the deep law that shapes our reality by NewScientist SUPPOSE we had a theory that could explain...
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“A team of scientists recently created the world’s first underwater robotic vehicle powered entirely by renewable, ocean thermal energy. Researchers from NASA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the US Navy developed Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC), an autonomous robot that runs on a thermal recharging engine. The engine derives power from...
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Responding to concerns from Congress, the FDA announced today that they are in the process of reviewing how consumers use triclosan, an antibacterial agent used in soap and many other products. And while the FDA says it doesn’t have enough info to tell people not to use soaps containing triclosan, it also doesn’t see...
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About google Marine Conservation Program The fellowship was awarded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Each Fellow will receive $150,000 to conduct an innovative three-year project designed to protect global ocean ecosystems and marine life. GOOGLE – Dive into the ocean and explore lost shipwrecks, dive and surf spots, the ocean’s deepest trench, marine protected...
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The design should tell you right away this isn’t your ordinary light bulb. GE is set to realease a new Energy Smart LED Bulb capable of lasting 40years.  General Electric recently introduced the 9-watt Energy Smart LED bulb, which is a replacement for the ordinary 40-watt bulbs. The new LED bulb will last for...
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An economic impact study commissioned the by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce projects the cost of closing Chicago-area navigational locks to shipping could be as much as $4.7 billion over the next 20 years, an estimate far exceeding the one produced by two business consultants hired by Michigan’s attorney general in February. Link
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DailyReporter The mystery surrounding changes to the state’s Clean Energy Jobs Act is sowing distrust among lawmakers who fear new policy with no input. “I don’t think everyone’s going to be 100 percent happy with the final bill,” Soletski said. “And I’m fine with that. It means we’re doing something right.” “I don’t have...
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On April 6, 2010, EPA published a proposed rule to add 16 new chemicals to the TRI toxic chemical list (75 FR 17333).  The chemicals that EPA is proposing to add have been classified as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in their Report on Carcinogens.  Based...
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EIA -  compared to a year ago… things look different in a year. The drop in nuclear generation was the largest absolute fuel-specific decline from December 2008 to December 2009 as it fell 2,490 thousand megawatthours or 3.4 percent. Generation from natural gas-fired plants was 11.2 percent higher than it was in December 2008...
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Electronic versions of the Tier I qualified facility SPCC Plan template in 40 CFR Part 112, Appendix G are now available.  The template is intended to help the owner or operator of a Tier I qualified facility develop a self-certified SPCC Plan.  To use the template, the facility must meet all of the applicability...
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The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA  is hiring a Projects Coordinator to lead projects that provide experience-based learning about sustainability through co-curricular programs, campus operations, student life, and community service. The Coordinator will initiate and manage projects that engage students in hands-on learning about sustainability, renewable energy,...
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They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ. It’s time that research identified how phthalates are getting into our children’s bodies so that policymakers might consider regulations to limit...
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It has been 20 years since the federal government tried to determine whether living near a nuclear power plant is bad for your health.  It’s not! concluded the 1990 U.S. National Institutes of Health – National Cancer Institute report, “Cancer in Populations Living Near Nuclear Facilities.” That don’t-worry-be-happy report has been attacked as deeply...
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U.S. Judge Suspends Oil Leases to Study Drilling Effects on Climate Change. A federal judge has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how drilling contributes to climate change. At issue are the large amounts of greenhouse gases emitted...
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EPA announces the availability of grant funds and direct assistance (through Agency contract support) and solicits proposals from eligible entities to facilitate community involvement in area-wide planning approaches to brownfields assessment, cleanup and subsequent reuse. Area-wide planning grant funding and technical assistance will be directed to brownfields-impacted areas, such as a neighborhood, district, city...
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“And if we can’t make (the Springfield project) work,” she said, “you’re going to see small wind farms having trouble getting off the ground in the future.” Wisconsin utilities searching for renewable electricity sources are more likely to invest in large-scale wind farms or import from out of state, Lummus said. But, she said,...
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Builders rally against gas tax for carbon research  A proposal to use a federal gasoline tax increase to pay for carbon-emissions research is frustrating builder associations that want the money for highway construction. “Ultimately, we have very limited opportunities to make the investment that everybody says we need in our transportation system,” said Brian...
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Breakthough in LED could save U.S. 100′s of Billions…Would we? PopSci: researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have finally cracked the code on LED green.  By reverse engineering the solar cells they’ve worked on for so long, researchers at NREL were able to generate a difficult combination of green and red that could...
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During the pre-recession years of the 21st century, we experienced wide-ranging nonrenewable natural resource (NNR) scarcity on a global scale for the first time. Supplies associated with an overwhelming majority of the global energy resources, metals, and minerals that enable our industrialized way of life failed to keep pace with increasing global demand during...
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The twilight of the machine It’s as indicative as it is ironic that the most popular ideas for a response to the impact of resource depletion on our gargantuan and increasingly unstable technologies involve building even more gargantuan and unstable technologies A faceoff between two cultural icons, Rosie the Riveter and HAL 9000, points...
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(Bloomberg) - Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. The area, once home to Potawatomi Indians and Dutch celery farmers, was finally on the verge of getting cleaned up. Then, in January 2009, Lyondell...
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Ouch… U.S. Forecasts LNG Imports to Increase 42% in 2010 Quotes of the Week “How much longer can the world pretend that it won’t soon be facing another energy shock, one every bit as challenging as the one it faced two years ago? Whether we are talking about supply or demand, there is nothing...
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Researchers have discovered the yield-boosting power (up to 60% more yield) of a single gene, which controls when plants make flowers and that works in different varieties of tomato and, crucially, across a range of environmental conditions. The team made the discovery while hunting for genes that boost hybrid vigor, a revolutionary breeding principle...
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ATSDR and CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) have launched a National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures, working with government, professional organizations, tribal groups, community and nonprofit organizations, health professionals, business and industry, and members of the public to create a national action agenda. The agenda will outline how the United...
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