·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in E: The Environmental Magazine.

There could hardly be a better state to host a “green” Superbowl than Arizona, which needs to call attention to the very immediate realities of pollution and resource depletion and the importance of fast environmental action.

Read the full story in E: The Environmental Magazine.

A new analysis released by researchers from Yale and Columbia Universities last week found that the United States ranked 39th of 149 countries studied on the basis of overall environmental performance. Switzerland, with lots of open space and forward-thinking environmental policies, took the top honors, followed by Sweden, Norway, Finland and Costa Rica. Twenty-two member countries of the European Union outranked the U.S., as did several other industrialized nations like Japan (which finished 21st). Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Angola and Niger were at the bottom of the list, although 89 other countries were excluded due to incomplete data.

Read the press release.

Five states and non-profit organizations in Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, Florida, and Texas were recently awarded more than $500,000 in federal grant funds to educate health care providers and women of child-bearing age on environmental health risks. The EPA grants will focus on environmental health issues that include exposure to mercury, lead, environmental tobacco smoke, chemicals, pesticides, drinking water contaminants, and indoor and outdoor air contaminants.

Read the full story in Building Design & Construction.

According to FMI’s 2008 U.S. Construction Overview, construction industry stakeholders are increasingly recognizing green building capabilities as “good” — and being a necessary part of a firm’s best practices. Green building is no longer a niche sector, and three major trends are pushing green building to the forefront of the construction industry.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

A $23 million residence hall under construction in Champaign will be the first at the University of Illinois to be certifiably green.

The eco-friendly features of the 262-bed Presby Hall include a geothermal system to heat rooms and water, water-saving plumbing, as well as environmentally friendly lighting and paint.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The vast stock of older buildings presents a much bigger opportunity to cut down on energy consumption and carbon emissions.

EPA has released two publications specifically designed to increase environmental awareness among multilingual communities. Teach English, Teach about the Environment is a curriculum designed to help teach adult students English, while introducing basic concepts about the environment and individual environmental responsibility. The concepts introduced in the curriculum can help immigrants understand their role in contributing towards cleaner and healthier communities by reducing, reusing and recycling.

The second publication, Working Together for a Healthy Environment – A Guide for Multi-Cultural Community Groups, is designed to help community-based organizations plan and execute community events that promote reducing, reusing and recycling. It has a brief introductory paragraph on the inside cover in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.

Read Teach English, Teach about the Environment at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teachers.htm

Read Working Together for a Healthy Environment – A Guide for Multi-Cultural Community Groups at http://www.epa.gov/osw/community.htm

Read the full story in the Daily Press.

The scientists from Old Dominion University stood on the roof of the local sewage plant and smiled.

“Look at the color,” said Margaret Mulholland, pointing to emerald-green slime growing in plastic tanks filled with treated sewage. “Just wait until this summer. It’ll be a darker green, and in clumps.”

The tanks are part of a pilot project for turning algae into biodiesel fuel.

Read the full story in the Miami Herald.

Entrepreneur JP Patten hopes to attract people to his retrofitted lawn mowers, which he says are more efficient and environmentally friendly. But they’re also expensive, at $1,899.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

Biodiesel expert and environmentalist Josh Tickell’s documentary about biodiesel and America’s need for fuel independence received one of the Sundance Film Festival’s top honors at the festival’s awards ceremony in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 26.

“Fields of Fuel” was chosen for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and was presented to Tickell by host William H. Macy. The film’s producer and other crew members accompanied Tickell onstage to accept the award. In his acceptance speech, Tickell said, “May we work together to create a green and sustainable future.”

Read the full story in the Independent.

Solar reflectors could one day make petrol from thin air, and algae may provide all the diesel we need. Simon Usborne reports on the race to perfect energy sources for the future

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Several lawmakers from Illinois said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman made it clear in a meeting in Washington on Tuesday that he was poised to pull the plug on a showcase clean coal energy project slated for Downstate Illinois.

The Bush administration appeared on the verge of killing off the $1.8 billion FutureGen project only a day after the president highlighted plans for a big hike in energy research spending in his State of the Union address.

Read the press release or the full report.

Most researchers are not in favour of changing the current system of peer review for journal articles;  they believe that it helps to improve scientific communications and increases the overall quality of published papers.  Alternatives such as ‘open peer review’ (where papers are available for public comment prior to publication’) were not popular in a new study of over 3,000 senior authors, reviewers, and editors from around the world. However, some were interested in post-publication review, where a published paper is opened up for public comment, as a useful supplement to, but not a replacement for, traditional peer review.

Researchers did, however, prefer double-blind review (where both reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity) to the currently prevalent single-blind system (where only the reviewer is anonymous), seeing this as a way to improve both objectivity and fairness. A majority of reviewers and editors also said it would be desirable to be able to review authors’ data as part of peer review.

While of the majority of respondents saw peer review as an effective filter for research, some did not think it was effective at detecting plagiarism, fraud or misconduct.

The report, by Mark Ware Consulting, also underscored that the most productive reviewers are currently overworked, which is an area that may need further monitoring and analysis.

Read the full press release.

The CIA’s newest campus in Northern Virginia represents the Agency’s most ambitious effort to date to create a state-of-the-art work environment with a design that focuses on “green” principles. The design is so effective that the campus buildings have earned certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Read the full press release.

Recycled televisions and computer monitors, known as CRTs, often end up in another country as unusable and broken.

That can be a problem because Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) contain hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and mercury. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to make sure that the destination-country is aware that the recycled materials are on their way.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Cathode Ray Tube Rule in the U.S., which is intended to encourage recycling and reuse of CRTs and CRT glass. The rule requires that recyclers notify EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. when they plan to export used and broken CRTs. EPA will then notify the receiving country of the shipment. However, if the CRTs are intact, instead of broken, and destined for reuse, the recycler must send a one-time notification to EPA before exportation. In this case, there is no requirement to notify the receiving country.

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.climatebiz.com/enewsletter.

The State of Green Business in 2008: Are We Swimming, Treading or Sinking?
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36600
The newly released, first annual State of Green Business report takes a close look at the reality behind all the green claims to find out just how well U.S. are businesses doing in their quest to be greener and more environmentally responsible.

World Leaders Call for Global Climate Change Effort, Strengthened Public Governance
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36589
Business and foreign leaders called for strengthened public governance frameworks that will boost corporate global citizenship and fuel the fight against climate change.

E.U. Sets Ambitious Goals to Address Climate Change
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36579
Under the newly released proposals, European countries will aim for a 20 percent reduction in their emissions by 2020, using carbon credit trading, automotive emissions limits, renewable energy and energy-efficient heating and cooling as key strategies.

Intel Named Biggest Buyer of Green Power
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36598
Intel Corp. will buy 1.3 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy a year in a bid to stimulate the green power market.

New Online Resource Gets the Skinny on Eco-Labels
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36592
Ecolabelling.org aims to take the mystery out of the bewildering herd of green labels by studying the foundations of all types of eco-labels aimed at both consumers and corporations.

State of Oregon Joins Climate Savers Initiative
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36584
The State of Oregon joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative in a bid to make the IT equipment in its offices and agencies more energy efficient. By 2015, the state wants to reduce agency energy consumption by 20 percent below 2000 levels.

Website Gives Businesses Basics, Resources on Climate Change
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36571
The Global Environmental Management Initiative has set up a new website sharing the basics of how climate change relates to businesses.

Woolworths Works to Reduce Refrigerant Emissions
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36574
In its bid to hold its carbon emissions at 2006 levels, Woolworths of Australia will incorporate new practices related to refrigerant at all of its new supermarkets.

Adjustments to Agriculture May Help Mitigate Global Warming: Report
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36562
A recent report from Greenpeace details the direct and indirect effects of agriculture on climate change and suggests how the sector can move from being a major greenhouse gas emitter to being a carbon sink.

Safeway Converts U.S. Fleet to Biodiesel
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36550
The retailer’s fleet uses more than 1,000 big rigs throughout its operations. The move will help Safeway avoid about 75 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

TerraPass Launches Carbon Calculator for Businesses
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36541
The Carbon Balanced Business Program is a free online carbon tool that calculates emissions from on-site energy use, off-site server energy use, company vehicles, business travel, and employee commuting.

Can Airlines Actually Reduce Their Emissions?
By GLOBE-Net
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=36561
Last year, air travel and transport emerged as major contributors to global warming. Airlines and shipping companies are exploring a range of potential solutions in the face of legislation underway in Europe. Is it even possible for planes to be friendly to the skies?

The Dangerous Rise of Carbon Fundamentalism
By Brad Allenby
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=36591
Climate change science and policy is rapidly becoming carbon fundamentalism, an over-simplistic but comprehensive structure of moral valuation that can be applied to virtually any individual or institution.

Powering a Sustainable Future
http://climatebiz.com/sections/toolsresources_detail.cfm?LinkAdvID=96951
This report from the WBCSD examines the sustainability challenges posed to the electric utilities sector by global warning, exploring strategies, principles, best practices and case studies for utilities to help guide utilities toward sustainability.

EcoLabelling.org
http://climatebiz.com/sections/toolsresources_detail.cfm?LinkAdvID=96949
This recently launched site has already compiled data on more than 260 green labelling schemes, with the overall goal of taking the mystery out of the bewildering herd of green labels by studying the foundations of all types of eco-labels.

The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• Clean, Green Energy Can be a Reality for the Southeast
• Renewable Energy Powers Rwandan Health Centers
• Consumers Click with Energy Savings
• Keeping Down with the Joneses
• How Would a Recession Affect the Solar Industry?
• A New Energy Direction: A Blueprint for Santa Barbara County

Read the full story in Metropolis Magazine.

Evo Design’s new kitchenware line is made from recycled plastic.

Read the full story in Metropolis Magazine.

How do the leading voices in transportation and sustainable cities envision our future?

Read the full story in Metropolis Magazine.

Philadelphia, a city of tiny row houses, might be just the place to build a new version of the American dream: green and affordable.