Linux Prevents Obsolescence: Could Reduce E-Waste by Millions of Tons of per Year

A report from the government of the United Kingdom discussing the benefits of open source software indicates that Linux could certainly alleviate this problem.

"A typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows is 3-4 years. A major UK manufacturing organization quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as 6-8 years." A significant difference...a doubling even, of the lifetime of a computer.

Thus, a world using Linux would be a world with half the computer waste (and, admittedly, halved sales for Dell and the rest.)

Read more here

Where's my hovercar

Fuel cell cars still 20 years out, says conference
Forget cars. Micro electronics and power plant generation were the word this week in Texas.

Read more - http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/921

 

Schwarzenegger Talks Green

Arianna Huffington, was a little skeptical about Arnold Schwarzenegger's green credentials as Governor of California:
"It is incredibly important to ask whether the measures that are being taken are enough to get us to the stated goal, or is it another way to get credit for something that will never happen. And by then, of course, the governor will no longer be in office and there is no accountability."

Of course Ms. Huffington ran, and lost, against Arnie, so her criticisms should be taken in context, but she is right to say that announcements in themselves are not going to stop global warming. She is also right that some of the Governor's 'green' moves are little more than gestures (a Hummer on biofuels is still a Hummer). Fortunately, however, as we learned through Remy at the fabulous O2 Network, the Governor seems to be going out of his way to prove that his greenness is more than just talk. In a recent interview on CNN Money he sets out some of the measures he is taking to make California a leader in sustainability. Read full here

 

Indonesia as 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter

Deforestation, which releases a significant number of carbon dioxide, has put Indonesia as the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and China, a report released Friday said. According to the report, titled "Indonesia and Climate Change" and published by the World Bank and the British government, yearly emissions in Indonesia from energy, agriculture and waste all together are around 451 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). ... Link-  http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070323/kyodo/d8o23ef80.html (VIA-Ecological.org)

The EPA estimates that U.S. consumers throw away 100 billion of the bags a year

The city of San Francisco is on the verge of banning use of the plastic grocery bags that have been a marvel (for their carrying capacity) and a plague for 30 years. The bags were outlawed in South Africa in 2003, they are banned in Bangladesh (where they were blamed for causing flooding during monsoons by clogging drains) and Taiwan. Ireland imposed a 19-cent per bag tax five years ago, and reduced plastic bag consumption 90 percent. Alaskans have actually been ahead of Californians in this particular environmental effort: The bags are banned in at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska, including the towns of Emmonak, Galena, and Kotlik. And a ban on the plastic sacks goes into effect later this year in Paris; they are outlawed in all of France starting Jan. 1, 2010.

Across the landscape, where they snag on everything and flutter in the breeze, they are a discouraging visual pollutant. And while their energy and solid waste impact may be modest, they should also be an easy habit to kick.

DOE sets spending plan for $1.474 billion in new EERE funds

DOE released its spending plan on March 16th for funds appropriated by last month's continuing resolution, which included $1.474 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Compared to the appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2006, DOE's spending plan will more than double the funding for EERE's programs in hydrogen technology, solar energy, and biomass and biorefinery systems research and development. The plan also increases funding for research in wind energy and energy efficiency technologies for vehicles, buildings, and industries. 

 

Source: U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) News, (VIA- glrppr.org).

Mapping pesticide exposure routes

Combining modeling with biomonitoring data reveals pesticide exposure routes in pregnant Latina women in the Salinas Valley (Calif.).

Thomas McKone and his co-workers set out to answer a simple question: can the levels of pesticides in pregnant women in the Salinas Valley (Calif.) be correlated with the amounts of these chemicals used in surrounding farmlands? A simple statistical model suggested no direct correlation, but McKone and his colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, didn't stop there.

The team combined multiple fate and exposure models with biomonitoring data. The results, published today on ES&T's Research ASAP website (DOI: 10.1021/es0618447), show that the study population has a significantly higher intake of organophosphorus (OP) pesticides than the average woman in the same age group.

 

McKone and his team studied OP pesticide exposure in about 600 pregnant Latina women in the Salinas Valley. They were all part of a larger study on women and children's environmental health, called the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) project. The concentration of the pesticide metabolites in the CHAMACOS population was compared with the average levels in women from across the U.S. (from data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, in 1999–2000). This revealed that the Salinas Valley women are being exposed to "significantly higher" levels of the pesticides, says McKone.

Few studies "include how much [of a contaminant] is actually reaching us as organisms and how this results in concentrations in our tissue and fluids," adds MacKay. This study provides "a shining example of the approach that should be taken for more substances, including pesticides and industrial chemicals. If that can be done, it will help the whole risk assessment process enormously."—RHITU CHATTERJEE

Scaling up microbial fuel cells

Advances in anodes and cathodes move microbial fuel cells closer to practical uses.
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) remain a laboratory curiosity—bugs powering bug-sized motors by converting sugar or other organic materials into electricity. In a move to scale up the power generated by MFCs, Bruce Logan and colleagues at the Pennsylvania State University developed two new electrodes. The work is described in a companion pair of papers published today on ES&T's Research ASAP website 
Yi Zuo, Pennsylvania State University(es0627601 and es062644y).

 

"We have followed this work with interest," says John Hruby, an environmental supervisor with Gerber Products Co. "These two papers are breakthroughs in engineering real systems applicable in today's world," he says. Hruby believes that eventually MFCs can help the food processing industry convert high-strength organic wastewater, which is expensive to treat and dispose of, into an asset. Logan's group achieved a power density of 2400 milliwatts per square meter, a new high for an air-cathode system. Power density was normalized to the area of the cathode rather than the anode, because "the anode surface area is so large that it no longer would affect power generation," says Logan. The cathode, likely to remain the most expensive component, "is what is limiting power on a surface-area basis." The MFC produced 73 watts per cubic meter of its reactor volume; a reactor the size of a typical refrigerator might produce 100 watts.

 

Full read here:

 

Ethanol Binge' Sends Corn Prices Skyward

Last week US BioEnergy had a ground-breaking ceremony at a new ethanol plant in Dyersville, Iowa, bringing to 78 the number of ethanol plants under construction, with 113 already operating. And that's not good news for the ranchers and poultry farmers of the Rocky Mountain West. Amid the "ethaphoria" currently gripping agribusiness and certain parts of the nation's capital, a growing chorus of voices is pointing out an unintended consequence on the reliance on corn and grains as the ...

From - EcologicalInternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry)

It's Today

The long awaited day is here. All of you that signed up for the challenge, let's see what you are made of.   

It is obvious that people would find life extremely difficult without computers, maybe even impossible. If they disappeared for just one day, would we be able to cope?

 

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

Shutdown your computer on this day and find out! Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer?

 

We are not preaching to anyone to turn off their computers, just suggesting that people might like to take part in this experiment, and see what happens. See if people think differently after a day without their computer..."

 

Hence the idea for Shutdown Day.

 

VIA - ecoiron

Seriously... GM plans to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2010

General Motors yesterday pledged to cut the carbon dioxide emissions from its manufacturing plants in North America by forty percent over the next three years. The reduction amounts to 4.5 million metric tonnes of CO2. This is part of GM's participation in the EPA Climate Leaders program which brings together business and government to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

GM has been part of the program since 2002 and had a goal at that time to reduce emissions by ten percent by 2005 and surpassed that in the first year, eventually cutting emissions by twenty-five percent over the first five years. Most of the reductions have come about through improvements in energy efficiency, reduced waste and more use of renewable resources.

DETROIT - Today, General Motors announced its goal to reduce CO2 emissions from its North American manufacturing facilities by 40 percent by 2010, based on 2000 levels. GM is setting this target as part of its voluntary partnership in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Climate Leaders program. This reduction would equal 4.5 million metric tons and equate to annual emissions from the power consumed by 432,692 U.S. households.

"GM has demonstrated that voluntary programs work, and they make good business sense," said Elizabeth A. Lowery, GM vice president, Environment and Energy. "Our partnership with the EPA's Climate Leaders program is an excellent example of how government and industry together can encourage innovation and strong, forward-thinking action to help reduce environmental impact."

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/23/gm-plans-to-cut-manufacturign-co2-emissions-by-40-by-2010

 

U.S. Aims to Accelerate Phase Out of Ozone Damaging Chemicals

The United States has submitted a proposal to adjust the Montreal Protocol, accelerating the phase-out of ozone damaging chemicals.

 

The proposal includes four elements that can be considered individually or as a package:

• Accelerating the phase-out date of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) by 10 years;
• Adding interim reduction steps;
• Setting an earlier baseline;
  

Phasing out the most damaging HCFCs to the ozone layer as the first priority.

 

These proposals would accelerate existing efforts to address ozone layer protection, cleaner air, and climate change by calling on the global community to act more quickly in phasing out hydrochlorofluorocarbons. In addition, this year is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Montreal Protocol, which presents an excellent opportunity to assess the progress that the Parties have made since 1987, as well as an opportunity to accelerate the work that remains to be done to meet the Treaty's objectives.

For more information about the proposal: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/intpol/montprotocolamend.html

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Submitted VIA RSS By Laura B. http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb/?p=2346

 

Biofuels Process Could Meet All U.S. Transportation Needs

Purdue University chemical engineers have proposed a new environmentally friendly process for producing liquid fuels from plant matter (or biomass) potentially available from agricultural and forest waste that they said would provide all of the fuel needed for "the entire U.S. transportation sector."

The new approach, announced on March 14, modifies conventional methods for producing liquid fuels from biomass by adding hydrogen from a "carbon-free" energy source, such as solar or nuclear power, during a step called gasification. Adding hydrogen during this step suppresses the formation of carbon dioxide and increases the efficiency of the process, making it possible to produce three times the volume of biofuels from the same quantity of biomass, said Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.

When conventional methods are used to convert biomass or coal to liquid fuels, 60 percent to 70 percent of the carbon atoms in the starting materials are lost in the process as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, whereas no carbon atoms would be lost using H2CAR, Agrawal said.

 

So providing hydrogen derived from water through solar electrolysis reduces the amount of biomass needed," Agrawal said. "The average energy efficiency of growing crops is typically less than 1 percent, whereas the energy efficiency of photovoltaic cells to split water into hydrogen and oxygen is about 8 percent to 10 percent. I am getting hydrogen at a higher efficiency than I get biomass, meaning I need less land."

"Having said that, this is the first concept for creating a sustainable system that derives all of our transportation fuels from biomass," Agrawal said.

"This waste is due to the fact that you are using energy contained in the biomass to drive the entire process," he said. "I'm saying, treat biomass predominantly as a supplier of carbon atoms, not as an energy source."

 

Rakesh Agrawal: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/Directory/Faculty/Agrawal.html

Original news submitted via RSS by By Laura B.- http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb/?p=2372

 

Bath Products with 23 ppm of cancer-causing chemicals..

Cancer Causing Chemicals In Bath Products
The characters are irresistible to you and your child, but a new study reveals there's a suspected human cancer-causing chemical inside millions of bottles of bubbles. A large number of personal care products tested for the contaminant 1,4-Dioxane.

The FDA recommends a maximum of 10 parts per million (ppm) of the contaminant. The author of A Safe Trip To Eden, says 15% of the products tested, exceeded that recommendation.

Among the children's products, the Hello Kitty Bubble Bath was the worst offender. It was found to have 12ppm, 20 percent more than the FDA recommendation. The chemical was also found in some adult products.

Clairol Herbal Essences Rainforest Shampoo and Olay Complete Body Wash with vitamins both had nearly two and a half times the FDA recommendation. You won't see 1,4-Dioxane listed as an ingredient on any of the bath products. The companies do not have to label them, because the contaminant is a bi-product of the manufacturing process.

.... there's no way of knowing if any personal care product is completely free of the contaminant, even those that are certified organic.
Please read full by Lindsay Wilcox http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6261353

World Water Day 2007 - Water, water, everywhere - not

Across this country, people are more and more concerned about global warming. In marking World Water Day today, it is important to highlight how the global water crisis is contributing to the problem of climate change.

The media coverage on climate change in Canada has focused almost exclusively on greenhouse-gas emissions, as have most politicians and commentators. While we do not want to underestimate the serious nature of these emissions, we wish to bring attention to another important cause of global warming: the global water crisis. Read more here

The world is running out of water. Humans are polluting, depleting and diverting its finite freshwater supplies so quickly, we are creating massive new deserts and generating global warming from below.

In many parts of the world, surface waters are too polluted for human use. Ninety per cent of waste water in the Third World is discharged untreated. Eighty per cent of China's and 75 per cent of India's surface waters are too polluted for drinking, fishing or even bathing.

Decreasing levels on the Great Lakes are projected to cost billions of dollars in lost shipping.

Dwindling inflows have aggravated the increasing pollution of many lakes with increasing nutrients from agricultural and urban sources, causing unprecedented nuisance blooms of algae.

Read more here


More from World Water Day 2007
This year's theme, 'Coping with Water Scarcity,' highlights the increasing significance of water scarcity worldwide and the need for increased integration and cooperation to ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources. Check for events in your area.

U.S. Labor Department Launches Web Site on Toxic Substances at Facilities

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced public availability of a database to provide information on toxic substance and chemical exposure at facilities covered under Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The site contains toxic substance exposure information related to Department of Energy (DOE) and Radiation Exposure Compensation Act facilities. To assist compensation applicants in obtaining evidence of exposure in the workplace, the Labor Department has compiled records on more than 1,900 toxic substances at 24 major DOE sites, as well as more than 4,000 uranium mines and 48 uranium mills.

"We want to get money into the hands of eligible claimants as quickly as possible," said Shelby Hallmark, director of the Labor Department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. "The department created this database to help injured workers and their families get information they need, as well as to provide an avenue for workers to offer feedback and tips on where and when toxic substances were used at covered facilities."

The SEM database will be continually updated as new exposure evidence is identified and additional covered sites are evaluated.

The SEM Web site can be accessed at http://www.sem.dol.gov/

J. J. Keller's SafetyClicks This month:

1. NEMA publishes ANSI Z535.1-2006 standard for safety colors
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) recently published ANSI Z535.1-2006, American National Standard for Safety Colors. This standard sets forth the technical definitions, color standards, and color tolerances for safety colors.


2. ANSI/AIHA revises two ventilation standards
Two industry consensus standards on ventilation have been revised: ANSI/AIHA Z9.2 - Fundamentals Governing the Design and Operation of Local Exhaust Ventilation Systems and ANSI/AIHA Z9.7 - Recirculation of Air from Industrial Process Exhaust Systems.


3. CSB places new emphasis on safety studies
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) recently released its new Strategic Plan for 2007 through 2012. This plan was completely revised during 2006, with a heightened emphasis on investigations, studies, recommendations, and outreach efforts that have a significant potential to impact chemical safety.


4. New ASSE construction safety standard announced for hoists
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) recently announced the approval of the new American National Standard Institute (ANSI) A10.22-2007 standard. The standard, Safety Requirements for Rope-Guided and Non-Guided Workers' Hoists, recognizes the need for protection of personnel from injury in construction and demolition operations.


5. EPA actions could compromise public environmental information
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released information on the EPA's proposal to change Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements. The GAO believes that the TRI reporting changes will likely have a significant impact on information available to the public about dozens of toxic chemicals from thousands of facilities in states and communities across the country.


6. OSHA's Top 25 violations for 2006
Every year, OSHA compiles statistics on violations to its standards. During 2006, there were 106,015 violations to standards ranging across all industry segments under federal OSHA jurisdiction, with adjusted penalties of nearly $34 million. This table lists the top 25 most frequently violated regulations for Part 1910, General Industry.


7. Don't overlook manufacturers' instructions
In addition to OSHA and industry standards, it is also critical that you are familiar with manufacturers' instructions for equipment your workers are using. Three workplace fatalities and subsequent OSHA violations emphasize this importance and the tragic consequences that can occur when manufacturers' procedures are not followed.

Chest compressions most important in CPR

Chest compression is more important than mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in helping save lives during cardiac arrest, according to a new study in The Lancet of 4,068 adult patients who had cardiac arrest witnessed by bystanders. Researchers in Japan found that cardiac arrest patients were more likely to recover without sustaining brain damage if the rescuers focused on chest compressions instead of rescue breaths.   Source - Forbes/Associated Press

March 23, 2007 - Please Take A Moment

On Friday, March 23, 2007, families, friends and others will gather on the South Steps of the Texas State Capitol to observe a moment of silence marking the second anniversary of the deadly explosion at the BP Texas City oil refinery.

Please take a moment to sign the Remember the 15 Bill. You may also view the bill and send an email to representative in Congress urging them to take action. The current bill, if enacted, would strengthen worker safety protections, toughen environmental regulations, and create more powerful government oversight of the petrochemical industry. http://www.rememberthe15.com

We hope that you will join Eva, families of the other deceased and wounded, as well as representatives of elected officials and workers' unions on March 23rd, beginning at 12:30 P.M., to commemorate the victims of the explosion at Texas City, and to call for passage of the Remember the 15 Bill.

This is a fight about saving lives, saving families, saving the environment and holding big corporations responsible for their actions. This is also a battle for justice – one that we hope you will join.

Thank you for your efforts.
Tammy Miser - USMWF

Cars ranked by toxic chemical content - healthycar.org

Billing it as the first-ever consumer guide to toxic chemicals in cars, an advocacy group on Tuesday rated more than 200 models based on interior parts — from steering wheels to armrests — whose chemical components can break down over time.

Read full at:

The Ecology Center tested 200 vehicle interiors for chemical content. In this photo, the group shows some areas in a 2007 Chevy Silverado and their chemical composition in percentages or parts per million. For the ppm numbers, 10,000 ppm represents 1 percent of weight, the group said.

"These chemicals become part of the air we breathe, contributing to 'new car smell' and a variety of acute and long-term health concerns," the Ecology Center said in announcing the ratings on Tuesday. "Since the average American spends more than 1.5 hours in a car every day, toxic chemical exposure inside vehicles is a major source of potential indoor air pollution."

"In general, new vehicles have levels of chemicals... exceed proposed guideline values and may be hazardous to your health," "The findings demonstrated that the air in the cabin of these cars was contaminated by high concentrations of a large variety of organic compound diffusing from the interior materials," the researchers said in the study, published in the journal Indoor and Built Environment.

The Ecology Center added that the same chemicals can also create environmental damage.

"When vehicles are discarded at the end of their life, the majority of plastic and other non-metallic parts are shredded and put in landfills or burned in incinerators," it said. "When discarded in landfills, harmful chemicals contained in vehicle plastics can leach out and contaminate soil and water. When incinerated, toxic chemicals are dispersed throughout the atmosphere."

The full ratings are online at www.healthycar.org

Whistleblowers get $437,000 in record ocean dumping sentence.

Twelve whistleblower crew members each were awarded $437,500 as part of a $37 million settlement, the largest ever, involving deliberate ocean pollution from ships owned by one of the world's largest publicly-traded oil tanker firms.

Drugs All Natural? Think again... 70% of new drugs come from Mother Nature

Around 70 percent of all new drugs introduced in the United States in the past 25 years have been derived from natural products reports a study published in the March 23 issue of the Journal of Natural Products. The findings show that despite increasingly sophisticated techniques to design medications in the lab, Mother Nature is still the best drug designer. (Read more from mongabay.com here)

Environmental comic book Save Our City, Save Our Planet.

Michael Bitz, a teacher and educational researcher sees comic books as the perfect teaching tool. Bitz is the founder of the Comic Book Project, which allows children to use their storytelling skills —, which resulted in the environmental comic book Save Our City, Save Our Planet. For more information about the Comic Book Project, visit http://www.comicbookproject.org/

Or read comic here:
http://www.comicbookproject.org/nyc.pdf

Click here to read the full story in the Washington Post...From Laura B. http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb

The California Legislature Experiments With "Green Chemistry" This year,

California Legislature is considering a package of bills that would prohibit or reduce the use of the most abundant and potentially harmful chemicals. They are also going to vote on legislation that would establish a State toxics inventory program to keep better track of the chemical industry.

Alleviating Your Toxic Body Burden - Dioxins, phthalates, and PCBs are incorporated into products we use daily including baby toys and teething rings. Chronic exposure may cause birth defects, mental retardation, neurological damage, and chromosomal abnormalities, yet safe exposure levels that protect both consumers and workers have yet to be determined.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1979 allows for synthetic chemicals to be produced and manipulated into products without any testing for potential human health problems. Since 1979, over 70,000 chemicals have been registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Only a small percentage has undergone testing; most of those produced in large quantities are rarely tested at all.

 

Promoting Green Chemistry and banning the most potentially dangerous products is a great first step. We'll be working with our help ensure that our children grow up in a healthier, less-toxic world.

Read full here

Madison, WI - Declaration of WAR on Mercury Pollution

MERCURY CONTAMINATION OF FISH WARRANTS WORLDWIDE PUBLIC WARNING (From precaution.org)

Madison, Wisc. -- The health risks posed by mercury contaminated fish is sufficient to warrant issuing a worldwide general warning to the public -- especially children and women of childbearing age -- to be careful about how much and which fish they eat. That is one of the key findings comprising "The Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution" published today in a special issue of the international science journal Ambio.


Five other major findings in the declaration were:
** On average, three times more mercury is falling from the sky today than before the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago as a result of the increasing use of mercury and industrial emissions.

** The uncontrolled use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is contaminating thousands of sites around the world, posing long-term health risks to an estimated 50 million inhabitants of mining regions. These activities alone contribute more than 10 percent of the mercury in Earth's atmosphere attributable to human activities today.

** Little is known about the behavior of mercury in marine ecosystems and methylmercury in marine fish, the ingestion of which is the primary way most people at all levels of society worldwide are exposed to this highly toxic form of mercury.

** Methylmercury exposure now constitutes a public health problem in most regions of the world.

"The policy implications of these findings are clear," "The declaration and detailed analyses presented in the five supporting papers clearly show that effective national and international policies are needed to combat this global problem."

### Read More From Article http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/prn_madison_declaration_on_hg.070308.htm

New Database Seeks to Aid Energy Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor is introducing a public database that provides
information on toxic substance and chemical exposures at facilities covered
under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of
2000. The website contains records on more than 1,900 toxic substances at 24
major Energy Department sites, more than 4,000 uranium mines and 48 uranium
mills. By AP via Business Week
Go to the Full Story...

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8NVE3C80.htm

Expected PPE Rule Called 'Victory' for Workers

In response to an AFL-CIO and United Food and Commercial Workers Union lawsuit, the Labor Department vows that Fed-OSHA will issue a final rule on its proposed employer-payment-for-personal protective equipment standard by November, eight years after it proposed the rule. The unions note that Fed-
Go to the full story in Reuters

Massive explosions Houston-Area Refineries Uninspected by OSHA...

OSHA has not conducted planned inspections of the vast majority of south Texas petroleum refineries over the last five years, including the BP Texas City plant where 15 people were killed in massive explosions in 2005, according to the Houston Chronicle. By Anne Belli, Houston Chronicle [With Photo]
Go to the Full Story...

Happy belated St. Patricks day

Binge Drinking, Drugging Take Toll on Irish Construction Sites
In Ireland, an Institute of Occupational Safety and Health survey finds that a widespread culture of binge drinking and drug abuse among young workers in the construction industry causes hundreds of accidents every year. Go to the Full Story...

OSHA Issues Revised Amputation Protection Guide

"Safeguarding Equipment and Protecting Employees from Amputations," a revised employer guide that identifies eight mechanical motions and eight hazardous actions that present possible amputation hazards. GrainNet Go to the Full Story...

Florida Must Restore Fed-OSHA Standards for Public Workers

Adherence to Fed-OSHA rules would better protect 8.5 million public workers in the 26 states that allow local governments to voluntarily set their own safety and health standards for their employees. In Florida, which dropped such protections for local and state public employees, it would come too late for two Daytona Beach employees who were killed in a chemical explosion in early 2006. Daytona Beach News-Journal
Go to the Full Story...

Guess who is driving "green" markets & congress - Hint $

Investors call on Congress to go green - More than 50 major U.S. investors are asking Congress to enact tough federal legislation to curb carbon emissions and to overhaul energy policies nationwide...

Read more

Ethanol Market Encourages Farmers to Plant Massive Amounts of Corn

Seed Supply Tight; A burgeoning ethanol market has the nation's farmers gearing up to plant massive amounts of corn this spring, creating shortages of some popular biotech hybrid seeds.

The first certifiably "green" mansion - Green Gluttony Gone Wild!

Earth-friendly Manson? But who would guess that this is the largest eco-friendly house in America built in Atlanta by Ted Turner's daughter. With its 27 photovoltaic panels on the roof, solar tubes that snake into interior rooms, geothermal heat pumps, and rainwater-collecting cisterns, this is, in fact, the first home over 5,000 square feet ever to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council - and evidence of a new wave of eco-building that doesn't look like eco-building.EcoManor won LEED certification using innovations like geothermal systems, photovoltaic panels and soy-based insulation. Energy should be 80 to 90 percent below average for a like-sized Atlanta home.

Meantime, Turner has given hundreds of millions of dollars to environmental causes "...guilt-tripped him into it." , he confesses that he has paid scant attention to building green. (Why bother, since with 22 ranches and other properties, he says, "I don't spend more than a month each year at any one.")

(Fortune Magazine)

"Carbon Footprint" of four years in Iraq...Food math?

This would make the top of Hugg, digg or Grist if someone did the "carbon foot" of the war... However, the majority of us do not like to think about "the daily cost of war" . It is a sobering as a kick in the chest. While it is easy for any "arm chair patriot" to fly a flag in their yard or his neighbor to say "war is wrong" while burning a flag. It takes bravery, courage, love and compassion to blindly defend the freedom that lets those same people sleep safely at night.

For the "best and brightest" who scarify all for my freedom - Thank you. For "arm chair patriots" who need numbers to "quantify" that war is hell, see below....

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Food or Fuel? A calculation made by Joseph Stiglitz, a US Nobel prize winning economist concludes that One minute of war in Iraq costs US$380,000.

United Nations World Food Program costs US$0.19 to feed a child for a day. Nineteen cents. 20,000 children die of hunger every day. The time it took you to read this post, already 15 died.

Taking those two figures together, one minute of war in Iraq would feed 2,000,000 children for a day.
One day of war in Iraq would feed 8,000,000 children for a year.

There are 800 million hungry in the world. Three-four months of war in Iraq would feed all hungry in the world.

Photo credit: Robert Kasca. Picture taken after the bombing of the UN building in Baghdad.

Source: theroadtothehorizon.blogspot.com