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 at News.com.
Proposals to cool Earth by injecting the atmosphere with sulfate particles would deplete the ozone layer and have “perilous effects” on the planet, according to a paper to be published Friday.
These days everything seems to be going digital and television is no exception. Beginning February 17, 2009, all television stations are required by law to join the digital revolution. From that day forward, all programming will be broadcast in a digital format, more commonly referred to as high definition.
There is no need to panic. And no, you don’t need to buy a new TV. By following a few easy steps, you can convert your old faithful, rabbit-eared friend into a modern digital program receiver. Plus, the federal government will help cover most or all of the cost!
Read the full story from News.com.
4.2 billion.
That’s how many rooftops you’d have to cover with solar panels to displace a cubic mile of oil (CMO), a measure of energy consumption, according to Ripudaman Malhotra, who oversees research on fossil fuels at SRI International. The electricity captured in those hypothetical solar panels in a year (2.1 megawatts each) would roughly equal the energy in a CMO. The world consumes a little over 1 CMO of oil a year right now and about 3 CMOs of energy from all sources.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 today reinforced its concern for the safety of consumers by issuing “stop sale, use or removal” orders to retailers Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, Ace, Do-It-Best, True Value, Sam’s Club, Meijer and K-Mart. EPA is asking the retailers to remove certain illegal, unregistered and misbranded pesticides distributed by Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. from the shelves of stores across the United States.
Read the full story in Environmental Capital.
One of the emerging debates among environmentalists these days is how aggressively to lobby Congress for legislation to reduce greenhouse gases. The argument for acting now is pretty straightforward: the planet is burning. The argument for waiting is that next year’s Congress is likely to include more Democrats, who will be easier to sway than this year’s Congress. And all three of the remaining major-party presidential candidates support the idea of economy-wide caps on greenhouse gas emissions, unlike the current occupant.
So where does one of the nation’s most influential environmental groups – the Sierra Club – stand on this question? “Our top priority is not to pass a bill this year. Our priority is to lay the framework for a good bill next year,” says Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. In an interview with Environmental Capital, Mr. Pope says his group wants “as close as we can get to” a 100% reduction; the leading proposal in Congress to cap greenhouse gases currently calls for closer to a 70% reduction. Mr. Pope also criticizes the large percentage of pollution credits that, under the current version of some bills, would be allocated for free to companies. Large allocations, Mr. Pope argues, would lead to windfall profits for those companies.
Via Docuticker.
Carbon Reductions and Offsets (PDF; 510 KB)
Source: Global Carbon Project (Earth System Science Partnership) via United States Carbon Cycle Science Program
From program news item:The Global Carbon Project (GCP) of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) recently released a report entitled Carbon Reductions and Offsets, exploring voluntary reductions in carbon emissions via efficiency, emission avoidance, and offsetting. The decision making framework and conclusions are drawn from a case study of the ESSP, where travel, conferences, and office support are the major sources of carbon emissions, although the conclusions are also relevant for other programs and research institutions.
Via Docuticker.
Human activity and the environment: Climate change in Canada
Source: Statistics CanadaCanada’s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), major contributors to climate change, rose 25% between 1990 and 2005. However, without increases in energy efficiency, the increase in emissions would have been even greater.
In 2005, human activities released the equivalent of 747 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in Canada. This was up about 25% from emissions of 596 megatonnes in 1990.
One megatonne is equal to one million tonnes. To put this in perspective, driving a mid-size car about 5,000 kilometres results in about one tonne of emissions.
However, during the same 15-year period, the amount of GHGs emitted per unit of economic activity declined 18%, while the nation’s population grew 17%, and energy use increased 23%.
Via Docuticker.
Large-scale biofuel production may increase marginalization of women
Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)Rapid increases in the large-scale production of liquid biofuels in developing countries could exacerbate the marginalization of women in rural areas threatening their livelihoods, according to a new FAO study.
The study notes that large-scale plantations for the production of liquid biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel require an intensive use of resources and inputs to which small farmers, particularly women, traditionally have limited access. These resources include land and water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
+ Full Report (PDF; 453 KB)
Via Docuticker.
Climate change hitting Arctic faster, harder
Source: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)Climate change is having a greater and faster impact on the Arctic than previously thought, according to a new study by the WWF.
The new report, called Arctic Climate Impact Science – An Update Since ACIA, represents the most wide-ranging reviews of arctic climate impact science since the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) was published in 2005.
The new study found that change was occurring in all arctic systems, impacting on the atmosphere and oceans, sea ice and ice sheets, snow and permafrost, as well as species and populations, food webs, ecosystems and human societies.
Melting of arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet was found to be severely accelerated, now even prompting the expert scientists to discuss whether both may be close to their ‘tipping point’ (the point where, because of climate change, natural systems may experience sudden, rapid and possibly irreversible change).
+ Full Report (PDF; 2.2 MB)
Read the full story in the Boston Globe.
Last week, hard plastic baby and water bottles were not considered harmful.
Now, in the eyes of many users, they are toxic. Yesterday, CVS said it will join Wal-Mart, bottle-maker Nalgene, and other companies in pulling tens of thousands of the shatter-proof, transparent products off store shelves. Some parents are tossing hiking bottles into the trash, feeding their babies with glass containers, and searching for a safer alternative to see-through sippy cups.
So how dangerous are these bottles? And what should consumers do about the risk?
A new study by researchers at George Mason University suggests that companies which participate in voluntary environmental programs do worse in their attempts to help the environment than those that do not take on these programs.
Read the full story in Occupational Hazards.
Nanotechnology particles, valued for their antibacterial and odor-fighting properties, are used in a wide range of commercial products such as bandages, washing machines and socks. But researchers from Arizona State University discovered that these socks release silver nanoparticles when washed, raising concerns about the potential impact on environmental and human health.
Read the full story in Federal Computer World.
Successful green computing initiatives rely on a power audit that includes 3 basic steps
Every year, more than 30 billion water bottles are added to America’s landfills, creating a mountainous environmental problem. But if research at Missouri University of Science and Technology is successful, the plastic bottles of the future could literally disappear within four months of being discarded.
The Missouri S&T research team is constructing new breeds of biodegradable and bioavailable plastics in an effort to reduce the tons of plastic waste that ends up in the nation’s landfills each year. Bioavailable plastics contain substances that can be absorbed by living systems during their normal physiological functions.
By combining and modifying a variety of bio-based, oil-based and natural polymers, the team seeks to create optimal blends that can be used to make agricultural films, bottles, biomedical and drug delivery devices, and more.
Read the full story in Plating & Surface Finishing (p. 26-35).
Traditionally, precious metal plating has not been considered a major polluter of the environment. The high costs of the precious metal itself have acted to police the industry in the past, ensuring that precious metals are not lost to the various effluents. With changes in legislation and current perceptions regarding the environment, changes to the chemicals used in precious metal plating are now being seen. This articles shows the trends and current developments in eliminating potentially hazardous chemicals from both the plating bath and from the deposited metals. The difficulties this could bring to both the decorative and industrial/electronic markets are also discussed. The need to develop more environmentally friendly products and how this has been approached will also be covered.
The health of people and the health of the planet are intrinsically, intricately, and intimately interconnected. Unfortunately, the fields of health science and practice and environmental science and practice have grown increasingly apart over the past half-century. The Seventh NCSE National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Integrating Environment and Human Health brought together 850 environmental and health scientists, educators, practitioners, decisionmakers, activists and other interested professionals and citizens to explore this issue. Participants were asked to develop recommendations for improving the health and well-being of people and the planet by improving the connections between the science of the environment and the science of health.
Nanotechnology: Better Guidance Is Needed to Ensure Accurate Reporting of Federal Research Focused on Environmental, Health, and Safety Risks. GAO-08-402, March 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-402
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08402high.pdf
Nanotechnology: Accuracy of Data on Federally Funded Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Could Be Improved, by Robert A. Robinson, managing director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. GAO-08-709T, April 24.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-709T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08709thigh.pdf
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
The United Steelworkers, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council has launched the Green Jobs for America campaign, which focuses on the ability of a serious commitment to clean, renewable energy to create more than 820,000 new green jobs nationwide.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Executives are continuing to focus on energy efficiency investments, according to new research commissioned by Johnson Controls.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Renewable electricity is being supported by a growing number of states through the creation of renewables portfolio standards (RPS). A report released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California provides a comprehensive overview of the early experiences with these state-level RPS policies.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
I meet with too many organizations that are still addressing sustainability as if it’s something new, something different, when in fact many of them have been working on it for over 30 years. They just know it by a different name, Lean.
Many of those companies are surprised to learn that they can take the tools, systems thinking and lessons learned from the process improvement methodology, Lean, and apply them effectively to the operationalization of sustainability.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Twenty-two percent of respondents to a ChangeWave survey say their company is very concerned about reducing its corporate energy usage and 35 percent say they are somewhat concerned.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
The Building Owners and Managers Association International has put together 24 strategies for increasing sustainability and optimizing performance in commercial buildings.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Fifty-one percent of companies have a green data center strategy, according to a Digital Realty Trust survey of senior decision makers at leading North American corporations who are directly responsible for data center strategy. That’s a decline since the 2007 study when 55 percent of companies answered the question affirmatively. The result indicates that corporate adoption of green data center strategies has stalled or taken a step back since last year.
Read the full story at Environmental Leader.
Companies are plastering the Internet with press releases touting Earth Day initiatives – yours is probably one of them. So, how can managers and supervisors increase the probability that sustainable practices will stick in the office – long after any Earth Day momentum fades?
The May 2008 issue of Biomass Magazine is now available. Highlights include:
