Browsing environmental news sources so you don't have to. Contact Laura Barnes (lbarnes@istc.illinois.edu) with questions, comments, and suggestions.
Follow ENB on TwitterRead the full story in Science News.
“Solar power has been criticized in the past” for requiring too much energy to produce, says Vasilis M. Fthenakis of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. “But what we find out is that those criticisms are not true with the new technologies.”
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Travelers who don’t trust the water from a mountain stream or a hotel-room faucet have a portable high-tech option for purifying drinking water.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Extraordinary winter conditions in many parts of the world have been seized on by those who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming.
Read the full post in Environmental Capital.
Texas, a model of wind power’s potential, now is a model of wind power’s pitfalls too.
Minders of the Lone Star State’s electricity grid had to cut power to some offices and factories Wednesday evening when the wind dropped — and with it, electricity produced from the state’s many wind farms. The green juice slowed from 1,700 megawatts to the trickle of 300 megawatts.
Read the full post in Environmental Capital.
Next week the House Committee on Energy and Commerce will be trying to figure out how to square climate-change policies and economic competitiveness, a road the Senate’s already been down. On the Hill, a lot of people look to Europe for lessons on how to do battle with climate change. It’s certainly instructive.
Today, the 27 nations of the European Union took their first whack at Europe’s more ambitious climate and energy proposals. The new rules call for a big increase in the amount of renewable energy and would sell—not give away—pollution rights to big industry. Surprise: No country seems very satisfied with the tougher talk.
Read the full story from Conscious Choice.
Lisa Gautier, founder and executive director of the non-profit Matter of Trust (.org), has spent more than a decade utilizing “surplus materials” — both natural and man-made — through innovative, practical and even profitable means. Matter of Trust bravely embraces such icky leftovers as used vegetable oil, fungus, algae and even human hair, employing them in new ways that frequently mimick the subtle quirks of nature.
Read the full story from Conscious Choice.
We talked with three eco-mavericks who, in stumbling toward a better way of living, unexpectedly found themselves at the forefront of a growing cultural movement — one that at its most extreme is anti-consumerist and at its most mild, pro-recycling. A caterer-turned-overnight-media-hero, an ex-lawyer photographer and a modern-day muckraker each willingly dirtied their hands and made trash (or more accurately, the examination of our society’s consumptive behavior) a permanent part of their lives. And without preachy prose, judging looks or finger wagging, their somewhat extreme tactics have managed to get many of us more mild-mannered types talking and thinking about our own cycle of consumption.
In this commentary in Environmental Science & Technology, Jerald L. Schnoor says that overlooking some pretty important ideas that contribute to the current environmental crisis. Thanks to Rick Yoder for the pointer.
The U.S. Green Building Council has doubled its funding commitment for green building research grants to be awarded in 2008 to a grand total of $2 million. Of the additional $1 million in grants, $500,000 has been allocated for K-12 school facility research related to occupant impacts. The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation. A formal request for pre-proposals has been released. Pre-proposal abstracts are being accepted from February 12 through March 6, 2008. Selected applicants will be asked to submit comprehensive proposals for the final phase of the selection process.
This is the fourth year of The Home Depot Foundation’s Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly signature program. The Awards program seeks to identify, recognize and showcase the outstanding and innovative work of nonprofit housing development corporations engaged in green building/healthy home construction and rehabilitation.
Our interest is to share with local, state and national stakeholders the exemplary accomplishments of the nonprofit sector in combining affordable housing construction with the guiding principles of green home building in order that low- and moderate-income families have access to quality housing they can afford to own, operate and maintain.
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! , a program for pre-schoolers that airs on Nick Jr., has joined with the National Gardening Association to promote gardening for young children through a new grant program.
Seventy-five applicants will each receive an assortment of garden tools and garden- and nature-oriented teaching materials valued at $1,000, along with a Wubbzy garden activity guide.
KidsGardening.com also includes other grants sponsored by the National Gardening Association.
To be eligible, organizations must offer structured programs in settings such as preschools, daycare centers, and Head Start programs. Applicants must plan to garden with a group of at least ten children (ages 3-5) during 2008.
USA Today, the United Nations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations and media leaders have joined forces to engage young adults (14-24) in contributing to the public dialogue on pressing social issues using the power of the Internet and user-generated content.
In its 4th year, FYI – Film Your Issue has grown into a global Internet-based competition that invites high school and college students in the United States and around the world to express themselves on pressing contemporary issues by creating and uploading short two-minute films on issues that impact them and their generation.
Beginning February 15, films can be uploaded to multiple participating platforms, including MTV, YouTube, and American Film Institute Screen Nation, as well as promoted on MySpace TV.
Awards and prizes include internships at USA Today, the UN, the award-winning PBS Series “P.O.V.”, and the Humane Society of the United States; a $5,000 college scholarship from the Gates Foundation; having your film broadcast on Starz; having entries distributed by the Associated Press to its 1,800 Online Video Network media outlets; being profiled on MTV News and presented at the NAACP annual conference; VIP Pass/film presentation at AFI Silverdocs; the Walter Cronkite Civic Engagement Leadership Award and Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award; and many more.
This post in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Buildings & Grounds blog is the first installment of periodic reviews/summaries of books covering architecture, landscape, energy, sustainability, and related topics. The first two featured books are Biking to Work and Greening Your Office, both from Chelsea Green Publishing’s Green Guides series.
Read the full story in Water & Wastewater News.
The Weather Channel will air and will make available to governmental agencies and environmental groups public service announcements on water conservation.
Read the full story in Water & Wastewater News.
White Pine County, Nev., is a critical recharge area for several major regional flow systems that extend north to the Great Salt Lake and south to the Colorado River, according to the U.S. Geological Survey study, “Water resources of the Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifer system, White Pine County, Nevada, and adjacent areas in Nevada and Utah.”
Working with University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering and business school faculty and students, a Wisconsin entrepreneur has perfected a fiber-reinforced fishing lure that may prevent millions of pounds of toxic plastics from polluting waters nationwide.
The European Commission has proposed to restrict the sale and use of paint strippers containing dichloromethane. Such paint removers, are used in industry and are also sold in “Do-It-Yourself” stores accessible to everybody. Dichloromethane vapour is toxic to the central nervous system and the Commission’s proposal follows concerns of some experts that a number of accidents and fatalities which have occurred in recent years in the EU have been linked to use of the substance. The Commission therefore proposes to ban the sale of such paint strippers to the general public and professional users. However, taking account of other expert opinion that this substance may be safely used by professionals if adequate precautions are taken, Member States may permit their purchase and use by licensed professionals who have received appropriate training. For industrial activities, their use will be permitted under strictly controlled conditions. The formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council is expected by the end of the year.
Download the report [PDF, 16 p.]
This research brief examines whether the legal authorities that establish the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in the Emergency Planning and Community-Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) could be applied to nanomaterials. Although several organizations have published analyses of whether specific environmental laws could be used to regulate nanomaterials, none of these reviews has examined EPCRA or TRI in any detail.
Read the full story from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
If you have never been in a virtual world, here is your chance to visit one of the most popular, Second Life, and see how people are using this online environment to address real world environmental issues ranging from tackling climate change to fostering more sustainable consumption patterns. The tour will take you to places like:
- Eolus One, where a virtual world energy management system is reducing energy consumption in real-world buildings;
- Etopia Eco-village which showcases sustainable architecture and sustainable living;
- the Avatar Action Center that seeks to educate Second Life residents about sustainability issues and empower them to take action in their real lives; and
- Second Chance Trees where residents plant virtual trees that trigger the planting of endangered tree species worldwide.
Read the story from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Environmental Change and Security Program.
“In general, one can associate lower populations with lower emissions, but it’s not going to guarantee a low emissions outcome,” explained Brian O’Neill, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Larger populations tend to produce higher total levels of emissions, but other factors—including urbanization, technology, and population age structure—can affect a large population’s emissions output, said O’Neill. He was joined by Joseph Speidel of the University of California, San Francisco, for a February 20, 2008, discussion of the links between population and climate change sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program.
Read the full story in E The Environmental Magazine.
“We see Iceland as the world’s laboratory for a decarbonized future,” says Ingibjorg Sólrun Gisladóttir, the country’s foreign minister and former mayor of Reykjavik. Of course, many countries say similar things, but Iceland has a head start, because it’s partly decarbonized already. Some 85 percent of Iceland’s homes are heated with geothermal energy, which also produces 18 percent of the country’s electricity. The rest is emission-free hydroelectric power from the many dams on Iceland’s free-flowing rivers. As much as 72 percent of Iceland’s primary energy is renewable, the highest percentage in the developed world. Coal smoke no longer darkens the skies.
Read the full story in E The Environmental Magazine.
Kids outgrow shoes at an alarming rate. And gone are the days of the all-white walking shoes that live on as bronzed bookends or pencil holders. Kids’ shoes are a quickly expanding market, filled with mini adult versions of everything from flip-flops to slippers to heeled dress shoes. Companies with a green perspective are looking to balance what’s most important in a child’s shoe—durability and flexibility—with materials and methods that are better for the planet. These environmentally conscious shoes are generally more expensive, but kids’ shoes are also a favorite hand-me-down, especially during those fast-growing toddler years. That makes quality construction all the more appealing, whether as a parent to multiple kids, or a mom or dad in a network of other like-minded parents.
Read the full story in E The Environmental Magazine.
Itchy skin, irritated eyes, brittle hair, breathing difficulties—who would sign up for that kind of workout? Yet that is the reality for many who swim in indoor pools. As a toxicologist, I’ve been asked repeatedly whether the chlorine in swimming pools is unhealthy. But until now, I haven’t taken up the issue. After all, who wants to point fingers at something with so many benefits? Indoor swimming is a great form of exercise, especially in the cold, dark winter months. However, the hazards associated with pools keep popping up like weeds in the flower bed. The news of a six-year-old boy nearly dying from a Nebraska motel pool has pushed me over the edge into the witches’ brew of swimming pool toxics.
Read the full story in E The Environmental Magazine.
Last week, federal researchers unveiled the findings of a six-year study on the presence of synthetic pollutants in 20 western national parks. Traces of the 70 worst pollutants known to and created by man (including mercury, chlorpyrifos, DDT and PCBs) were found throughout the parks studied from Colorado to California to Washington.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Just outside the city limits of Tel Aviv, Israel, a transformation is taking place. Hiriya, once a waste landfill, is quickly becoming the largest and most advanced environmental center in the country. Today Hiriya is the base for a waste sorting and recycling center as well as a green energy center. Not very long ago, the site was a dump. With innovative thinking and a desire to give back to the community, what was once a waste of space will soon be part of expansive Ayalon Park.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Mass media efforts to raise American public concern about climate change — such as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and the “scientific consensus” media drumbeat – ironically may be having the opposite effect, according to results from a new study appearing in the scientific journal Risk Analysis.
Visit the website to download this lesson.
Summary: This lesson requires students to read the article “Is Environmental Health a Basic Human Right?” and then, using concepts from the article, stage an informal debate between students advocating government versus private sector management of scarce resources.
EHP Article: “Is Environmental Health a Basic Human Right?”
EHP Student Edition, March 2005, p. A1006
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/112-17/spheres.html
Objectives: By the end of this lesson students should be able to:
