·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Despite advertised measures to decrease pollution, as the one-month countdown to the Beijing Olympics approaches, the government’s numbers rank Beijing as having the dirtiest air in China.

With a rating of 98, officially a “blue sky day” but only by two points, Beijing yesterday had the dirtiest air among monitored cities according to the Chinese government Web site that releases daily pollution figures.

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

A synthetic chemical widely used in the manufacture of computers and flat-screen televisions is a potent greenhouse gas, with 17,000 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide, but its measure in the atmosphere has never been taken, nor is it regulated by international treaty.

The chemical, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), could be considered the “missing greenhouse gas,” atmospheric chemists Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu of UC Irvine wrote in a paper released June 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “With the surge in flat-panel displays, the market for NF3 has exploded.”

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Environmentalists criticized the pledge by the leaders of the world’s richest nations because it failed to set a short-term goal for greenhouse gas cuts.

Download the publication (PDF, 18 p.)

Our decision to include the areas listed is based primarily on audit, evaluation, or investigative work we performed and additional analysis of Agency operations. Thus, it is possible that additional challenges exist in areas that we have not yet reviewed or that other significant findings could result from additional work. Our key management challenges are listed below with detailed summaries provided in Attachment 1. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your reaction to the list and any comments you might have.

Management Challenge

• Threat and Risk Assessments
• EPA’s Organization and Infrastructure
• Performance Measurement
• Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
• Meeting Homeland Security Requirements
• Oversight of Delegations to States
• Chesapeake Bay Program
• Voluntary Programs – Update

Download the publication (PDF, 34 p.)

This paper reviews various studies that have examined the relationship between corn used in ethanol production and corn prices. They suggest increased corn demand for ethanol could account for 25 to 50 percent of the corn price increase expected from 2006/07 to 2008/09. Another analysis presented in the paper suggests that ethanol could account for 60 percent of the expected increase in corn prices between 2006/07 and 2008/09 when market demand and supply are inelastic with respect to price—i.e., a period when stocks are very low, feed use is slow to respond, export demand is strong due to foreign agricultural policies, and acreage is very constrained.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has successfully partnered with the Best Buy retail store chain to collect and recycle thousands of consumer electronic goods, also known as e-goods, that were ruined by recent Iowa floods.

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The Web 2.0 Summit–a conference of the Silicon Valley digiterati–seems to have changed its theme from “monetize the Web” to “save the world.”

Tim O’Reilly, one of the Web 2.0 Summit organizers, on Monday posted a blog with details on the fifth edition of the conference coming up in November and its Launchpad event for start-ups.

The concept is to break out of the Web-only worldview and see if the ideals of the Web, like collective intelligence and innovation, can be applied to the world’s woes.

Read the full story at News.com.

Designer Gordon Murray, best known for his work on Formula One racing cars, detailed on Monday a new city car design called the T.25 that is aimed at reducing congestion and lowering pollution.

Designer Gordon Murray, best known for his work on Formula One racing cars, detailed on Monday a new city car design called the T.25 that is aimed at reducing congestion and lowering pollution.

To lower the car’s carbon footprint, the company has rethought the cradle-to-grave lifecycle of the car. For example, many of the parts, including the capacity and body, can be recycled and the manufacturing process is being set up with a minimal number of parts to reduce energy use during fabrication.

Read the full story in Water & Wastewater News.

A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigation showed that pesticides and degradation products detected most frequently in shallow groundwater samples at four study sites were predominantly from triazines and chloracetanilides, according to a recent press release.