Monthly Archives: November 2011

Yamaha shows lightweight retro 125cc motorcycle that gets 220 mpg

November 30, 2011

Yamaha’s press conference at the Tokyo Motor Show today was a genuine sign of the times. Four brand new world premiers were shown. The largest internal combustion engine amongst them was a 250cc model with fat tires designed to go anywhere – the SUV of motorcycles was the claim. There was also a three-wheeled...
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Landmark Legal Agreements Set Truth-in-Labeling Standard for Organic Personal Care Products

November 30, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 30, 2011 Kiss My Face, Boots, Colomer and eight other major brands reach first-ever settlement requiring adherence to California’s Organic Production Act
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LG to Halve Greenhouse Emissions

November 30, 2011

LG Electronics USA has set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by the end of 2020, compared with a 2007 baseline. To accomplish this reduction, the company says it will focus on cutting its energy consumption through such means as expanding and enhancing energy management systems and technology; increasing...
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Power Generation Costs in China

November 30, 2011

China’s renewable and nuclear energy targets have recently been updated by the NEA (National Energy Agency). They now stand at 150 gW of installed wind capacity by 2020, along with 20 gW of solar, 380 gW of hydro and 80 gW of nuclear. The NEA plans to increase non-fossil fuel energy to 15 percent...
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Disease that attacks black walnut trees sweeps across US

November 30, 2011
Disease that attacks black walnut trees sweeps across US

Following on the heels of an Emerald Ash Borer infestation that wiped out millions of ash trees in the Great Lakes region, a new disease, dubbed Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD), has been decimating black walnuts in the western U.S. – and now it’s spreading east. - greatlakesecho
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Why Small Hydropower Beats Big Dams – Environment – GOOD

November 30, 2011

This graph from the Energy Information Administration communicates the reality of renewable energy in America better than any other single source. Renewable energy covers only a small slice, 8 percent, of the country’s needs. And despite the focus on biofuels and solar power, the chart shows that more than a third of that slice comes...
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TIME Machine – TIME in U.S. is different…

November 30, 2011

From: ilovecharts
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Cleantech 100 identifies top innovators in sustainability – gizmag

November 30, 2011

Recently the Cleantech Group, with the assistance of an advisory panel of corporate executives, sat down to decide upon the third annual Global Cleantech 100: the hundred “most promising and innovative” clean technology companies of 2011. The listed companies span a range of industries, and though solar energy firms, chemical recyclers, LED manufacturers and...
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E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels

November 29, 2011
E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels

Strains of E. coli bacteria were engineered to digest switchgrass biomass and synthesize its sugars into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The switchgrass, which is among the most highly touted of the potential feedstocks for advanced biofuels, was pre-treated with ionic liquid, a key to the success of this study. Read on at: sciencedaily
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Economic study questions cost-effectiveness of current biofuels and their ability to cut fossil fuel

November 29, 2011
Economic study questions cost-effectiveness of current biofuels and their ability to cut fossil fuel

greencarcongress - A new study by economists at Oregon State University questions the cost-effectiveness of current biofuels and says they would barely reduce fossil fuel use and would likely increase greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers focused on the major mandated and currently used biofuels worldwide: corn ethanol, soybean biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass grown in the...
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Siemens launches 6MW direct-drive wind turbine

November 29, 2011

greencarcongress - Siemens Energy launched its new 6-megawatt (MW) …features the Siemens direct drive design with 50% fewer parts than comparable geared wind turbines. With a towerhead mass of roughly 350 tons, the SWT-6.0 is the lightest machine in its class. This combination of robustness and low weight significantly reduces infrastructure, installation and service costs, and...
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OSHA cites Wisconsin Rapids company

November 29, 2011

Wisconsin Rapids – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is accusing a Wisconsin Rapids company of repeatedly putting its workers in danger. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/osha-cites-wisconsin-rapids-company-2r387sg-134678708.html
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Rossi electricity generation claim is based on getting steam up to 450 celsius with Energy Catalyzer

November 29, 2011

Ecat World – Rossi claims – we have found a breakthrough with a primary fluid with which the reactors remain stable when we make steam at 450 Celsius. We are working on it together with our Customer. I am learning very much from him, and in particular I am learning from the person who...
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Hackers Can Remotely Set Ablaze HP Printers, Researchers Say

November 29, 2011
hp laserjet

A security vulnerability discovered in Hewlett-Packard printers would allow hackers to steal data from the printers, cause them to burst in flames or be used as a launchpad to attack other computers connected to the printers. The flaw lies in the design of HP’s LaserJet printer models, and possibly other printer models as well,...
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Too busy to Occupy Wall Street

November 29, 2011

Robert Hall
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Greenversations » We’re moving!

November 29, 2011

EPA’s main blog site, Greenversations, has been the home of the High School Blog since August, 2009. But, like many students, we’re spreading our wings and taking on a new challenge: The EPA Students Blog! Please come check out the brand new EPA Students Blog because it’s your special place to read, write and...
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Who Owns America’s Farmland? | Sustainablog

November 29, 2011

Nationwide, farmers only own 60% of the land they farm. In many of the most productive row cropping areas of the Midwest, the percent of farmer-owned land is significantly lower (see Map above from the USDA, 2007 Census of Agriculture). Much of our farmland resource is owned by non-farmers and rented to those who...
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Two people hospitalized after Pleasant Prairie chemical leak – JSOnline

November 29, 2011

JSonline- Two people have been hospitalized after a chemical leak in Pleasant Prairie. A hazmat team responded to the leak, which brought about an evacuation at the food processing plant at about 12:55 a.m. Tuesday morning. According to police, some cleaning chemicals got mixed, creating fumes. »Read Full Article at WTMJ
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How Rooftop Farms, Upstate Farms and Community Gardens All Help to Feed New York (Video) : TreeHugger

November 29, 2011

We’ve seen backyard “SPIN” farmers making a living on less than an acre. We’ve seen rooftop supermarket gardens providing produce for shoppers below. We’ve seen lots of community gardens and urban farms. And of course we’ve seen plenty of small-scale rural farmers integrating animal husbandry with vegetable growing. But how do all these different production models fit together for...
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Atrazine in water tied to menstrual irregularities, low hormones.

November 29, 2011

Women who drink water contaminated with low levels of the weed-killer atrazine may be more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles and low estrogen levels, scientists concluded in a new study. http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/2011-1123atrazine-tied-to-menstrual-irregularities
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Unstoppable Superbugs: MRSA more.

November 29, 2011

Antibiotics… 190 million doses are administered in hospitals every day. But what happens when your body becomes so used to the drugs it can no longer fight off serious or even simple infections? http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/health/health_watch&id=8445428
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Cadmium tainted rice a problem for Chinese consumers.

November 29, 2011

On a scale of China’s food safety issues, pollution-tainted rice might just be the biggest problem of all. Rice is the country’s national staple, a grain deeply intertwined with history, culture and all things Chinese. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/111122/rice-2.0-toxic-rice-cadmium-poisoning-global-economy
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Killer lung disease victims left for years on useless asthma inhalers.

November 29, 2011

James Thomlinson was diagnosed with asthma when he was ten. So for the next ten years James carried a steroid-based inhaler that didn’t really improve his breathlessness…James had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This covers conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis — where permanent damage has been done to the small airways.  This...
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Brand new cleaner-burning power plant idled.

November 29, 2011

Minnesota’s second-largest electric company has spent $437 million on a recently completed coal-burning power plant 85 miles west of Fargo that has the best-available pollution controls and draws city wastewater instead of fresh water. The new plant could supply about 63,000 homes. Instead, it is shutting down. http://www.startribune.com/business/134647533.html
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Is This North America’s Greenest Building? | ThinkProgress

November 29, 2011

The University of British Columbia has opened the most sustainable building in North America, a $37-million “living laboratory” that will help to regenerate the environment and advance research and innovation on global sustainability challenges. The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is one of only a handful of buildings worldwide that will provide...
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Researchers Genetically Engineer Algae to Increase Oil Yields by Up to 50%: Should We Be Concerned?

November 29, 2011

Researchers at Iowa State University say they’ve unlocked a genetic pathway in algae that can dramatically increase.. oil yields for non-food based biofuels by as much as 50%…But do they represent a different environmental threat? …Researchers led by Iowa State Professor of Genetics Martin Spalding figured out how to keep those genes turned on...
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Canada won’t confirm it’s pulling out of Kyoto | Reuters

November 29, 2011

OTTAWA – Canada dismissed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Monday as a thing of the past, but declined to confirm a media report it will formally pull out of the international treaty before the end of this year. Get update at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/28/us-carbon-canada-kyoto-idUSTRE7AR1M…
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UN: farmers must produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed population | Environment | guardian.co.uk

November 29, 2011

A quarter of farmland is highly degraded, according to the … United Nations global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources, finding in a report that a quarter of all farmland is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world’s growing population is to be fed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates...
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Future Farmers Hold Environment’s Fate in Their Hands – Yahoo! News

November 29, 2011

“Agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions could double by 2050 if current trends in global food production continue,” study researcher David Tilman, of the University of Minnesota, said in a statement. “This would be a major problem, since global agriculture already accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions.” “Strategically intensifying crop production in developing...
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How bacteria can break down hazardous environmental pollutants

November 29, 2011

ScienceDaily — Researchers now understand how bacteria can break down phosphonic acids, persistent and potentially hazardous environmental pollutants found in many common medicinal products, detergents and herbicides. “We’ve achieved a critical step that has evaded other research groups for nearly 50 years,” says David Zechel, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and an...
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Does Cow Power Pay Off? :: POWER Magazine

November 29, 2011

Livestock animals in the U.S. produce more than one billion tons of manure annually. … farm waste emits two potent greenhouse gases: methane, which has 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide, which has 310 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year timespan. Since a 2008...
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More on EV Batteries to equal gas powered

November 29, 2011

…In the previous article I pointed out that Electric Vehicle Battery Packs need to have an energy density of around 675 Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) if they are to have an equal range to today’s petrol-powered cars. I also pointed out that the Nissan Leaf - the world’s first truly mass-produced electric car – has a battery...
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Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he’s from the future | CNET UK

November 29, 2011

Filed under “WTF”… A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world. The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this...
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Lawsuit on Minnesota wind farm forwarded to state’s high court

November 29, 2011

The state Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in on the legality of the process used by state regulators to approve a Minnesota wind farm. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/134622428.html
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Army Corps to crank up power on electric fish barrier

November 29, 2011

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced late Monday that it will be cranking up the power on the electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in an effort to keep Asian carp from swimming up the canal and into Lake Michigan. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/134635148.html
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Worker, overcome by fumes, dies in Dodge County

November 29, 2011

One man was killed and another critically injured Monday afternoon when they were overcome by fumes at a Dodge County company. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/worker-overcome-by-fumes-dies-in-dodge-county-lf3811g-134642413.html
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Sobering Map Pinpoints Every Vehicle-Related Death in the US : TreeHugger

November 28, 2011

  …the total scale of lives lost on America’s streets and highways is profoundly disturbing. Mapping site ITO Worldrecently compiled data of virtually every fatality that occurred on roads in the United States between 2001 and 2009 into one sobering map. According to information provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the map above represents...
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Wind and aerospace lead demand for advanced composite materials

November 28, 2011

This week’s Graphic comes from Lux Research’s recent report forecasting market growth for advanced composites based on carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, and graphene. All told, the combined market is on track to expand from $7.0 billion this year to $25.8 …Continue reading
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UN warns 25 pct of world land highly degraded

November 28, 2011

(AP) — The United Nations has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources, finding in a report Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world’s growing population is to be fed. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-pct-world-highly-degraded.html
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Ethanol company Corn Plus fined $760,000 for lying to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

November 28, 2011

Burning ethanol in your car is supposed to be better for the environment, but when the company producing the biofuel falsifies air pollution monitoring data, things may not be as clean as they seem.   That’s what happened to Corn Plus, an ethanol producer in Minnesota that plead guilty in federal court last week to...
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Will NASA Ever Recover Apollo 13′s Plutonium From the Ocean – Slashdot

November 28, 2011

Houston, we’ve had a problem,’ said astronaut Jack Swigert on April 13, 1970. But the problem wasn’t as simple as three astronauts potentially trapped in the void of space, 200,000 miles from Earth. The catastrophic risk came from the SNAP-27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), a small nuclear reactor that was going to be placed...
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Toyota, BMW may build green cars together

November 28, 2011

Toyota and BMW have reportedly begun discussions on swapping their signature green technologies. The Japanese automaker would open up its hybrid tech to BMW, while the Germans would provide diesel engines for Toyotas. This is a little different than the recent memorandum of understanding signed between Ford and Toyota, since that partnership – if...
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Shocker! Newt Gingrich doesn’t understand oil

November 28, 2011

energybulletin - I often don’t bother arguing with the “Drill, Baby, drill” folks – the reason is that while I think they are misguided and their lack of understanding of the possibilities of US oil are embarassing, they also have a point – as we get further down the energy curve, most of our available energy...
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: EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information

November 28, 2011

WASHINGTON – As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to enhance the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals management program and increase transparency, the agency is making available to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information (CBI). The move is part of EPA’s plan to make public...
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Bloomberg News Launches Sustainability Section : TreeHugger

November 28, 2011

Bloomberg News has a new section dedicated completely to “all things sustainability.” And it’s already breaking news, as Sami made clear this morning in his post on renewable energy investments trumping fossil fuels for the first time. The Bloomberg Blog explains more about the site: The goal is to uncover what businesses are doing, or what they need to be...
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Cow You-Know-What Fuels Village Power Plant

November 28, 2011
DCF 1.0

Sure they’re methane producers of the highest order, but at least some of what comes out of cows is being put to good use. Take the Greenhill Dairyfarm Biogas Plant in the United Kingdom. The combined heat and power company Alfagy says a project it worked on there is using the waste from 600...
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Nuclear power takes too long to build? « Kaj Luukko

November 28, 2011

Finnish energy engineer Kaj Luukko published some useful homework on the French nuclear deployment, with comparisons to the recent global wind power deployment. Luukko’s website is in Finnish, but you can access the Google translation of this post here. Source link: http://seekerblog.com/2011/11/27/nuclear-power-takes-too-long-to-build/
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Post-Fukushima ‘anti-radiation’ pills condemned by scientists | Environment | The Guardian

November 28, 2011

The Green party‘s former science and technology spokesman is promoting anti-radiation pills to people in Japan affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, that leading scientists have condemned as “useless”. …Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College, London, describes his statements about heart disease caused by caesium as “ludicrous”....
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The Next 25 Years in Energy – IEEE Spectrum

November 28, 2011

The latest annual energy outlook by the International Energy Agency, though not radically different from earlier editions in broad outline, nonetheless paints a very dramatic picture of the next quarter century. …Like previous outlooks, this one distinguishes between a business as usual scenario and a New Policies Scenario in which governments generally try to...
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China Doubles Down on Nuclear Power – IEEE Spectrum

November 28, 2011

China’s surging economy runs mostly on coal, which slakes four-fifths of the country’s thirst for electricity. And all over China, the consequences of that dependence are apparent: Its major cities are swathed in deadly smog, regional blackouts ensue when coal trains bog down on clogged rail networks, and coal mining routinely kills more than...
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Selling the Oil Illusion, American Style – chrismartenson.com

November 28, 2011

“The task of the real intellectual consists of analyzing illusions in order to discover their causes.” ~ Arthur Miller Gregor Macdonald - US production of crude oil peaked in 1970 at 9.637 mbpd (million barrels per day) and has been in a downtrend for 40 years. Recently, however, there’s been a tremendous amount of excitement...
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Alberta oilsands algae could be greenhouse gas solution

November 28, 2011

Carbon-catching algae have been chosen as one of four “flagship” projects at the council, which has of budget of almost $1 billion and 4,000 staff across Canada. “The idea behind a flagship,” said McDougall, “is to do something really important that would be substantial in scale and make a real difference to Canada if...
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Dispatch #70 – Why Do the Chinese Eat Everything ?

November 28, 2011

Dispatch #70 – When I was in Guangzhou, the former Canton and China’s ivory carving and trading capital, I learned that there is a special market for cats. You pick your cat and they kill it and butcher it on the spot for you to take home and eat, and another one that specializes...
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Where Is All Of That Coal Ash Going From the We Energies Bluff Collapse? – Caledonia, WI Patch

November 28, 2011

Manthey - “We are working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard in our clean-up efforts,” Manthey said “…We’re still not sure what the root cause and contributing factors were in the bluff collapse.” Back in the 1950s, there was a ravine along the shoreline, which was filled...
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FDA Continues to Caution – Chicken jerky treats from China are causing illness in dogs.

November 28, 2011

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is again cautioning consumers that chicken jerky products for dogs (also sold as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with illness in dogs. In the last 12 months, FDA has seen an increase in the number of complaints it received of dog illnesses associated with consumption...
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The fleecing of America: The United States Covered Bond Act of 2011

November 27, 2011

“what the hell were you thinking?”…Never has this been quite as extraordinary as it is in the Covered Bond Act of 2011, a bill that is intended to avoid the hassle and exposure of public debate over bailing out the criminals while leaving the country twisting in the wind.  Of course this will be...
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Here You Go: It’s Over – MarketTicker

November 27, 2011

CNBC is reporting that there are now clients running out of the markets entirely because they do not believe their customer funds are safe. The market is done folks. …Oh sure, there will be rallies and there will be selloffs.  But there is no longer a market, there is no longer a thing to trade, and...
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California “economic headshot” ….Going Ahead With Bullet Train

November 27, 2011

Despite all logic…” have rallied around a plan to build a 520-mile high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco, cutting the trip from a six-hour drive to a train ride of two hours and 38 minutes. And they are doing it in the face of what might seem like insurmountable political...
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Ignorance is bliss when it comes to challenging social issues

November 27, 2011

ScienceDaily — The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. “These studies were designed to help understand the so-called ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach to social issues,” said...
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State and Local Erosion Sudies and Hazard Maps

November 27, 2011

Examples of State and Local Erosion Sudies and Hazard Maps Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency The document provides a historical perspective on state and community efforts to conduct erosion studies and develop hazard zone maps. It provides the designer with two things: 1) a description of 31 coastal erosion reports, databases, and references covering...
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Perkins+Will, WM Launch Building Material Database, Recycling Tracker · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader

November 27, 2011

Design firm Perkins+Will has launched a free, universally accessible database aimed at educating people on building materials that are, or are suspected of being, hazardous to human and environmental health. The database is based on the “precautionary principle,” the idea that in the absence of scientific consensus, an action merits precautionary treatment if it has...
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Toxic-waste dump worries Clermont Co. – Cincinnati.com

November 27, 2011

Toxic-waste dump worries Clermont Co.The county’s biggest concern is that the landfill poses a potential threat to Harsha Lake, a main source of the county’s drinking water. While the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the landfill’s owner say measures to protect the environment are …and more »
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Josh Kopelman: “I Think 2012 Will Look More Like 2008 Than 2011″ | TechCrunch

November 27, 2011

Remember, R.I.P Good Times …a number of factors are making some startup investors wary. “I think 2012 will look more like 2008 than 2011,” warns First Round Capital’sJosh Kopelman. His pace of investing has not slowed down.  He’s just being realistic…on the larger economic front, things don’t look so rosy. Overall economic growth remains sluggish at (a recently...
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Analyst: U.S. Tariffs, Solar Price Rises ‘Likely’

November 27, 2011

As the Chinese solar power industry considers filing a retaliatory trade case against the U.S., IDC research manager in renewable energy Jay Holman said American companies’ actions against China were likely to succeed. But he warned that such a result would raise module prices and make it harder for developers to get projects done....
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Taking a Value Approach to Sustainability

November 27, 2011

At the 2011 Green Initiatives Conference Jim Weinbauer, vice president, director of sustainability at AECOM, bringing avalue approach to a sustainability business opportunity mindset. Read on: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/11/23/taking-a-value-approach-to-sustainability/
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DOE Cuts Scope 1 and 2 GHGs 13% in Two Years

November 27, 2011

The Department of Energy reduced its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent from its FY 2008 baseline of 4.6 million mTCO2e, to 4 mT in FY 2010, putting it on course to beat its target of a 28 percent reduction by 2020, according to the DOE’s 2011 Strategic Sustainability Performance...
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China records biggest reduction in emissions.

November 27, 2011

China reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 billion tons between 2006 and 2010, the biggest decrease of any country in the period, according to a new report. The country’s energy intensity, or energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product, dropped 19.1 percent last year from the level of 2005. http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/National/2011/11/27/China%2Brecords%2Bbiggest%2Breduction%2Bin%2Bemissions/
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Environmental programs fall victim to budget cuts.

November 27, 2011

Conservation programs and environmental regulations have been pared back significantly in many states that have grappled with budget deficits in recent years. Because environmental programs are just a sliver of most state budgets, the cuts often go without much public notice. http://www.idahopress.com/news/state/environmental-programs-fall-victim-to-budget-cuts/article_32331586-8ac6-5a00-bb1c-880cd8618e29.html
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In the Future, the Internet Will Heat Your House – NY Times

November 27, 2011

…. tens of thousands of power-gobbling servers. Concentrated in one place, the servers produce enormous heat. The additional power needed for cooling them — up to half of the power used to run them — is the steep environmental price we have paid to move data to the so-called cloud. Enlarge This Image Nick...
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Reducing meat and dairy consumption: easier said than done, or easier done than said?

November 27, 2011

In his 2011 ASSA Cunningham Lecture this month, food policy expert Professor Tim Lang suggested that we “experiment” with alternative diets to reduce our meat and dairy consumption. Lang suggested that an evidence–policy gap exists in relation to food and discussed the range of urgent and persistent failings of our current food systems. What do we...
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Americans Spend More in the Search for Happiness—And It’s Not Working – Lifestyle – GOOD

November 27, 2011
this isn

“Money within reason can make you happy,” Roberts says. “Spending money on others or vacations with family and friends will bring you happiness, but a mad rush to spend will only get you another day older and deeper in debt.”Recession? What recession? The National Retail Federation estimated that as many as 152 million people...
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CO2 may not warm the planet as much as thought

November 26, 2011

New Scientist: The climate may be less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought ““ and temperature rises this century could be smaller than expected. That’s the surprise result of a new analysis of the last ice age. However, the finding comes from considering just one climate model, and unless it can be replicated...
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Keeping Wind Turbines Spinning Is The Goal | EarthTechling

November 26, 2011

Here’s something you might not have considered when it comes to wind power: The amount of time, money and productivity that is lost to repairing and maintaining the turbines. Turbine-manufacturing giant GE has thought about it, and says costs are “skyrocketing.” To try to get things under control, the company is working with the Illinois Institute of...
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MSHA should scrap any plan to wait for OSHA action on respirable crystalline silica

November 26, 2011

Before too long the US Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies should be issuing their annual regulatory plans and semi-annual agendas. These documents serve as official public notice of agencies’ regulatory (and deregulatory) priorities. The Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order (EO) 12866 direct agency heads to release these documents in April...
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A fifth of global energy from biomass without damaging food production says scientists at the UK Energy Research Centre | UK Energy Research Centre

November 26, 2011

A new report suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass (plants) without damaging food production. The report reviews more than 90 global studies…The report finds that the main reason scientists disagree is that they make different assumptions about population, diet, and land use. A particularly important bone...
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Smart phones power consumption cut by more than 70 percent

November 26, 2011

This is big…Researchers have designed a network proxy that can cut the power consumption of 3G smart phones up to 74 percent. This device enhances performance and significantly reduces power usage by serving as a middleman for mobile devices to connect to the Internet and handling the majority of the data transfer for the...
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Regulators Investigate Chevrolet Volt Battery – NYTimes.com

November 26, 2011

Federal safety regulators are investigating the Chevrolet Volt after the battery caught fire twice in crash tests… http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/business/regulators-investigate-chevrolet-v…
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McFeatters: Return with us now to those pre-EPA days » Ventura County Star

November 26, 2011

Somehow I don’t think those 16 senators have thought this deregulation thing through; certainly they don’t intend any of the consequences coming to their backyard… “Smog” is the light pollution that Los Angeles has. In Pittsburgh, during a good winter inversion, it would be nighttime all day, sometimes for several days. Cars had to...
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Cesium levels hit tens of billions of becquerels at river mouth.

November 26, 2011

Researchers have sounded the alarm over river water containing cesium levels at tens of billions of becquerels a day flowing into the sea near Fukushima Prefecture, site of the crippled nuclear power plant. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111250019
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Fed Minutes: Bernanke Firmly In Control Of FOMC, QE3 Coming – Forbes

November 26, 2011

With the Fed failing at both of its objectives, and projections for the situation to remain pretty much the same next year, it seems like Bernanke will have pull on the trigger on QE3. This is BAD news…. Read on with tissues:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/11/22/fed-minutes-bernanke-firmly-in-control-of-fomc-qe3-coming/
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China power plants fined for pollution violations – Yahoo! News

November 26, 2011

SHANGHAI – China has ordered fines for eight coal-fired power plants accused of violating pollution limits and in some cases, falsifying emissions data. …China is the world’s largest polluter, relying on coal to supply about three-quarters of its surging electricity generation. Controlling pollution from power plants is a priority in its effort to reduce...
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Researchers Create New “Everlasting” Battery That Could Charge The Grid

November 26, 2011
Researchers Create New Everlasting Battery That Could Charge The Grid

Researchers at Stanford are hard at work trying to create a battery that could keep wind and solar energy flowing even when the sun isn’t shining and the air is still. They’ve just released information about their current project, a promising new electrode that could make batteries that would last through at least 40,000...
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Brace Yourself: The World Could End In 2012 – NPR

November 25, 2011

Brace Yourself: The World Could End In 2012NPR - Some people predict catastrophe in 2012, based on Mayan forecasts. Anthropologists now say there are two, not just one, ancient references to December 2012. But they warn modern forecasters of doom have “twisted the Mayan cosmovision. … and more
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Boffins find new 2012 Cryptic 1300-yr-old inscription ≠ Mayan doomsday, they insist

November 25, 2011

The Register – The Mexican archaeology institute says that a second possible reference has been found to a date in December 2012 as the end of a 5,200-year Mayan calendar cycle after which “the cosmos is regenerated”. Reportedly the glyph in question is carved into the back of a brick found in ancient temple...
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Goldman Sachs predicts that U.S. will be world’s largest producer of oil in 2017

November 25, 2011

The Oil Drum - On Sunday, September 11, 2011, The Sunday Times quoted a Goldman Sachs (GS) report also summarized by Rigzone that predicted the United States will become the world’s largest oil-producing country. This astonishing production increase is accomplished by changing the definition of oil and by using optimistic projections of liquids-rich shale...
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Soot mitigation is cheap and the World will back into it as India and other poor countries get riche

November 25, 2011

Soot mitigation is a far easier and faster method of reducing climate change than targeting CO2. The soot only stays in the air for a few weeks so once we reduce the generation of soot it will have immediate impacts. Five hundred million Smoke free cookers could be acquired for $50 to 100 billion...
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Happy Evacuation Day (New York)

November 25, 2011

Following the American Revolution, Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when the last vestige of British authority in the United States — its troops in New York — departed from Manhattan. The last shot of the American Revolutionary War was reported to be fired on this day, as a British...
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Man-made super-flu could kill half humanity — RT

November 25, 2011

A virus with the potential to kill up to half the world’s population has been made in a lab. Now academics and bioterrorism experts are arguing over whether to publish the recipe, and whether the research should have been done in the first place. “I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as...
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Farmer-Owned Corn Ethanol Cooperative Fined For Falsifying Air Pollution Records : TreeHugger

November 25, 2011

Minneapolis Star Tribune: “In its plea, Corn Plus admitted that its employees filed false reports in 2009 and 2010 indicating that its control equipment, known as bag houses, was working properly. Lovett said false monitoring logs also were created for the plant’s scrubbers, which remove volatile organic compounds.”…Heads rolled and Corn Plus also had...
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Canada’s chronic asbestos problem – The Globe and Mail

November 25, 2011

Most of the world, including the medical community, agrees that asbestos is desperately dangerous. The World Health Organization reports that more than 100,000 people die every year from lung cancer and other respiratory diseases due to asbestos exposure. And many more will die, because 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplaces...
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China’s environmental watchdog tightens control over rare earth projects.

November 25, 2011

The Ministry of Environmental Protection on Thursday announced a list of the first 15 rare earth metal enterprises that have passed the ministry’s environmental protection check. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-11/24/c_131267958.htm
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Workers suspended cooling device at Fukushima plant.

November 25, 2011

Amid the chaos on March 11 as the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant started to spiral out of control, workers manually shut down an “isolation condenser,” or a cooling device in the plant’s No. 1 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Nov. 22. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111240054a
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Japan reports new strain of ‘mad cow’ disease,

November 25, 2011

Japan has confirmed its eighth case of mad cow disease, and there is concern it could be a new strain of the disease, which was found in a cow just 23 months old, making it the youngest animal in the world to be confirmed as having Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/12027035/japan-reports-new-strain-of-mad-cow-disease/
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Japan utility says radioactive substances belong to landowners, not us.

November 25, 2011

During court proceedings concerning a radioactive golf course, Tokyo Electric Power Co. stunned lawyers by saying the utility was not responsible for decontamination because it no longer “owned” the radioactive substances. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201111240030
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Canada’s asbestos industry suspends work for first time in 130 years.

November 25, 2011

Canada’s once-mighty asbestos sector has ground to a halt for the first time in 130 years, as production of the controversial fibre has stalled in both of the country’s mines. http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1092076
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Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the Euro’s collapse is looming

November 25, 2011

Economist Magazine – A euro break-up would cause a global bust worse even than the one in 2008-09. The world’s most financially integrated region would be ripped apart by defaults, bank failures and the imposition of capital controls (see article). The euro zone could shatter into different pieces, or a large block in the north...
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Rossi claims he will generate electricity from the Energy Catalyzer within one year

November 25, 2011

In the recent interview that Andrea Rossi gave on the Tom and Doug radio show, Andrea Rossi revealed that on November 11th he had made an important breakthrough with regards to the production of electrical power from the energy catalyzer. Ecat World – Rossi said in the interview that production of electricity from the E-Cat has...
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“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.” – Simone Weil

November 25, 2011


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U.S. blocks key fund in climate agreement: report | Reuters

November 25, 2011

(Reuters) – The U.S. is refusing to sign a flagship global climate fund as negotiations intensify ahead of the UN climate summit next week…Read on at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/us-climate-idUSTRE7AO02X20111125
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Now China to probe U.S. renewable energy support | Reuters

November 25, 2011

This is bad…Very bad. (Reuters) - China on Friday announced an investigation into government policy and subsidy support for renewable energy, weeks after the United States decided to probe sales of Chinese-made solar panels. The announcement by the Commerce Ministry also comes after China’s solar industry association said on Tuesday that Chinese solar companies may ask...
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