·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• Urban Sustainability: A Force for Change
• Popcorn-ball Design Doubles Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
• Inside Renewable Energy Podcast: Full Cost Accounting of Energy; A Detailed Discussion about Future Wind Technologies
• The Coming Baseload Power Crisis
• The Solar Industry Needs Branding To Foster Mainstream Acceptance
• Project financing for wind: Pointers and pitfalls

Read the full story from Reuters.

Dental practices may be a source of a dangerous form of mercury contamination in the water supply, a small study suggests.

In tests of wastewater from two dental practices, researchers at the University of Illinois found high levels of methylated mercury — a chemically altered form of the metal that is toxic to the brain and nervous system.

Via Librarians’ Internet Index.

This article discusses the question “Are disposable plastic or reusable cloth diapers better for the environment and for the babies themselves?,” noting that “[w]hile many of us might answer with a kneejerk ‘cloth!’, the answer isn’t necessarily that easy.” Discusses studies and cloth diapering. Note: Some of the diaper companies listed are no longer in business, but current listings can be found by searching for “diapers” in the website’s “National Green Pages.” From Co-op America.

Via Librarians’ Internet Index.

Compilation of reviews of classroom resources on environmental topics such as energy conservation, waste and recycling, habitat and ecosystems, water, and wildlife. Search the database by topic, type of resource (such as online tools, green design projects, and service learning projects), location, grade level, and other factors. Teachers can submit new resources and rate existing resources. From Edutopia, a project of the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
URL: http://www.edutopia.org/go-green

Via Librarians’ Internet Index.

Website for an Environmental Defense Fund campaign designed as a “wake-up call” about global warming, “the most serious environmental challenge of our time.” Includes discussions of the dangers of global warming (such as health concerns, extreme weather, and economic impacts) and the science of global warming (such as pollution and improving energy consumption), an energy calculator, and tips for what you can do at home and on the road.
URL: http://fightglobalwarming.com/

Via Librarians’ Internet Index.

“Replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) is a great way to reduce electrical use … but throwing them away in your regular trash can lead to soil and water pollution because CFLs contain small amounts of mercury.” This site provides a directory of “free, local and convenient ways for California residents to recycle CFLs (and other household wastes such as batteries and electronic devices).” From the California Public Utilities Commission.
URL: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/CEC/electric/080210_cfls.htm

Via Librarians’ Internet Index.

Website for a campaign to remind people to bring “your own bags every time you go to the store. It’s one simple way to go green in your daily life.” Includes some statistics about paper and plastic bags, a list of bagging solutions from around the world, tips to remember your bags (such as keeping them by your door), and links to related sites. From the San Francisco Bay Area Recycling Outreach Coalition.
URL: http://igotmybag.org/

This fact sheet from Clean Production Action outlines how Extended Producer Responsibility can promote sustainable product design.

Read the press release.

Seventh Generation, the country’s leading provider of environmentally safe household products, is celebrating Earth Day where it matters most: in classrooms from coast to coast, where teachers are presenting the company’s unique Earth Day lesson plan and preparing their students to become responsible stewards of the natural world.

Designed for grades 5-7, the new Cost of Clean lesson plan is an inquiry into the nature of common household chemicals. It asks students to think about the impacts these products have and challenges them to create their own non-toxic solutions to common cleaning dilemmas.

Presentations from the Joint Region 7/Region 5 P2 Roundtable meeting are now available at http://www.p2ric.org/Roundtable/2008SpringAgenda.cfm.

PowerUp is a free, online, multiplayer game developed by IBM Research that allows students to experience the excitement and the diversity of modern engineering. Playing the game, students work together in teams to investigate the 3D game environment and learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants.  Includes lesson plans for teachers.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

A new map offers more than 100 times the detail of previous inventories of carbon dioxide. The map, from Vulcan, a research project led by Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor at Purdue, shows where CO2 is being emitted in the continental U.S. in 10-kilometer grids and combines data from sources including factories, automobiles on highways and power plants.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

In case you missed this, the April 8 issue of Newsweek, on sale April 8, has a cover that converts into a prepaid envelope for sending Target’s plastic shopping bags to Terracycle where they are manufactured into reTotes, the reusable shopping bags sold by the retailer.

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

DuPont heads this year’s Toxic 100, a list of the top corporate air polluters in the U.S. from researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. Nissan Motor, Archer Daniels Midland, Eastman Kodak, and General Electric round out the top five.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune finds trace amounts of drugs and chemicals–including anti-seizure medication and a Teflon ingredient– in Lake Michigan drinking water.

Read the press release.

Teaching others about the environment has earned a Texas teen presidential recognition.

Bianca Locke of Pasadena will be honored by President Bush today during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Locke is part of an elite group of students from across the nation to be presented with the President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA), which recognizes youth who help protect local environments and promote environmental awareness.

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

Ford Yields to Shareholder Pressure, Outlines Plan to Reduce GHG Emissions
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55871
Bowing to pressure from a bloc of shareholders, Ford has become the first automaker to detail its strategy to reduce its fleet’s greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020.

ConocoPhillips Kicks Off $300K Energy Competition
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55829
ConocoPhillips will give away $300,000 for ideas that help fight climate change, improve energy efficiency or develop new energy sources, the company said Monday.

Climate Registry Develops Reporting Protocol
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55844
Just a few months shy of its first birthday, the Climate Registry released the methodology that will guide how its members will report greenhouse gas emissions.

Nevada Utility’s Coal Pursuit a Risk for Investors, Ratepayers: Report
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55856
A plan to build a new coal-fired power plant in Nevada will expose the shareholders of Sierra Pacific Resources to “significant financial and environment risks,” according to a financial advisory firm.

DHL to Cut Emissions by 30 Percent by 2020
By Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55899
Program includes vehicle and aircraft fleets replacement, buildings overhaul and staff training.

Carbon Disclosure Project, IBM Research Carbon Management Practices
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55889
By interviewing companies with a history of carbon measuring and reporting, IBM and the Carbon Disclosure Project hope to provide best practices and insight into carbon management tactics.

Marriott Pledges $2 Million to Protect Brazilian Rainforest
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55860
Marriott International has committed funds to preserve a 1.4 million acre rainforest in Brazil and has announced new and expanded environmental goals for its hotels and supply chain.

U.S. Senate Approves Extension of Renewable Energy Credits
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55881
The U.S. Senate voted to extend renewable energy tax credits that, if passed into law, would pump an estimated $6 billion into renewable projects over the next decade.

Free Carbon Permits for E.U. Utilities Could Yield Windfall Profits
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55857
The distribution of free carbon emissions permits to European Union utilities has the potential to yield the companies windfall profits worth billions over the next five years, according to a new report.

The Climate Tipping Point and Timeline … Accelerated
By Daniel M. Kammen
http://climatebiz.com/sections/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55893
Although experts are still debating at what point we’re likely to see dramatic, rapid changes in global climate, the fact that the planet is able to absorb less carbon means the importance of concerted action is needed now.

A Day In A Low-Carbon Life
http://climatebiz.com/sections/toolsresources_detail.cfm?LinkAdvID=97588
This report from IBM describes a day in the life of a fictional CEO preparing to face market analysts in 2012. It explores some possible challenges business leaders might face while doing business in the coming low-carbon economy.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Air quality regulators in the San Francisco Bay Area appear set to begin charging hundreds of businesses in the region for their emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Graphene–a flat single layer of carbon atoms–can transport electrons at remarkable speeds, making it a promising material for electronic devices. Until recently, researchers had been able to make only small flakes of the material, and only in small quantities. However, Rutgers University researchers have developed an easy way to make transparent graphene films that are a few centimeters wide and one to five nanometers thick.

Thin films of graphene could provide a cheap replacement for the transparent, conductive indium tin oxide electrodes used in organic solar cells. They could also replace the silicon thin-film transistors common in display screens. Graphene can transport electrons tens of times faster than silicon, so graphene-based transistors could work faster and consume less power. (See “Graphene Transistors” and “Better Graphene Transistors.”)

Read the full story in Technology Review.

As wind power becomes more common, its unpredictability becomes more of a problem. Sudden drops in wind speed can send grid operators scrambling to cover the shortfall and even cause blackouts; unexpected surges can leave conventional power plants idling, incurring costs and spewing pollution to no purpose.

To address the problem, power-grid operators are combining hyper-local meteorological data and artificial intelligence to predict when the wind turbines installed on their networks will turn. This month, New York’s Independent System Operator (NYISO) announced plans to integrate wind modeling into its grid control schemes by the summer, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) plans to fire up a similar system this summer, if not sooner. The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), meanwhile, plans to expand a forecasting program that already covers about a quarter of the state’s wind-power capacity.

Read the full story in Occupational Health & Safety.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration published a proposed rule April 1 that will require stronger railroad tank cars for transporting poison inhalation hazard materials. The agencies on Monday announced four public meetings in May to receive comments on the rule, with the first meeting (May 14) limited to transportation of chlorine and the second (May 15) to transportation of anhydrous ammonia. Together, those two chemicals account for almost 80 percent of all PIH rail tank car shipments annually.

Read the full EERE Progress Alert.

After the March release of a report on nanomanufacturing, from the 2007 Nanomanufacturing for Energy Efficiency Workshop, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a research call on Nanomanufacturing for Energy Efficiency research and development, intended for the DOE national laboratories with industry participation. It has been estimated that the potential impact from technology applications in chemicals, refining, and maritime industries alone could result in 0.5-1.1 quadrillion Btu and over 60 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

The focus of this issue is Green Procurement. Topics include: the business case for green procurement; implementing a green procurement program; guides for implementing green procurement policies; examples of existing green procurement programs; challenges to green procurement; on-line tools for implementing green procurement; green certification; green procurement and the home; and, the green procurement of energy.

Island Press, a longtime publisher of environmental and sustainability books, now provides podcast interviews with some of its authors in their Island Sounds podcast series.

Read the full story in Nature.

Is the Arctic’s biggest ice sheet in irreversible meltdown? And would we know if it were?

Edmonton, June 11th and 12th, 2008

The annual Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable (CPPR) provides a unique opportunity in Canada for pollution prevention (P2) leaders, decision-makers, and practitioners to exchange ideas, share expertise, and coordinate P2 efforts. The CPPR brings together corporate, government, academic and non-profit representatives and is an important event for networking and finding out about exciting P2 initiatives in Canada. Come join us! On-line registration has been activated and the agenda has been posted at www.c2p2online.com/CPPR

For additional information, please email leah@c2p2online.com or phone 416-979-3534 ext.1.

Read the press release.

The Palazzo Las Vegas, a Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS – News) property, announced that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) made its “green” status official with the presentation of a Silver LEED® Certificate (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) at an award ceremony held today. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons and David E. Rodgers, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy were also on-hand to honor this impressive accomplishment.

Read the press release.

Most Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuters don’t give the proper disposal or recycling of the fluorescent lights over their heads a second thought as they ride in and out of Manhattan. However, this issue is at the heart of the recent resolution of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) complaint against the LIRR, which the railroad settled by paying a financial penalty of $43,875.

Please join us on April 23rd and 24th for what promises to be an interesting and stimulating exploration of environmental discovery. The Environmental Horizons Sustainability Summit is the Environmental Councils annual showcase of the depth and breadth of environmental scholarship on the University of Illinois campus. An additional component this year is the Sustainability Summit hosted by Provost Linda Katehi.

The Sustainability Summit will examine how our scholarly efforts on campus advance the cause of environmental sustainability. Experts from across campus will discuss the issues, possible solutions and steps forward with regard to sustainability issues at the University of Illinois. The summit will run for two full days, April 23 & 24 from 8:30-5:00.

Keynote address: The Built Environment is Health Policy: The World We Shape Shapes our Health will be given on Wednesday, April 23rd at 7:00 pm in Illini Room A of the Illini Union by Dr. Richard J. Jackson, MD, Founding Director of the Graham Institute for Sustainability at the University of Michigan.

Keynote address: Green the Ghetto: How, Why, and What Happens If We Don’t – will be given on Thursday, April 24th at 7:00 pm in Illini Room A by Majora Carter, Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx.

The Open House will showcase posters presented by undergraduate and graduate students; art work from students, faculty and staff, and community members; and exhibits by numerous campus units and student groups.

More information about Environmental Horizons 2008 and a complete agenda can be found at www.uiuc.edu/goto/horizons