Danish architectural company 3XN has broken ground on an ambitious project in Mumbai that comprises two large sustainable mixed-use residential towers. Boasting an attractive intertwined design that brings to mind entangled trees, the plan is for Grove Towers to actually act almost like trees too – thanks to its sizable vertical gardens that are said to clean the local air. .. Continue Reading Sustainable Grove Towers will "clean Mumbai's air"
May 14, 2014
New Battery Tech From Japan Could Supercharge EVs
Shared via feedly // Many experts suggest that battery technology is really the key to the future of. Its certainly the key to unlocking Tesla for even further growth. Today, a Japanese startup called Power Japan Plus unveiled a new battery chemistry that could significantly improve transportation batteries. In testing, the recycle-able cell has completed more than 3,000 charge/discharge cycles with virtually no performance degradation, meaning that it could conceivably last the lifetime of a car. They company won't yet provide too many details due to pending patents, and won't even say who its first customer is — but the chemistry requires 'specific and proprietary changes to the nanostructure of the carbon crystals.'
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
“For the first time, we have shown a direct link between exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals from industrial products and adverse effects on human sperm function,
EMBO: "For the first time, we have shown a direct link between exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals from industrial products and adverse effects on human sperm function," said Niels E. Skakkebaek, professor and leader of the Danish team.
Hundreds to thousands of chemicals can be rapidly tested for their potential to interfere with human sperm function using the bioassay developed by the researchers. In this initial study, about one hundred chemicals were tested. Around one third, including ultraviolet (UV) filters like 4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4-MBC) used in some sunscreens, the anti-bacterial agent Triclosan used in toothpaste, and di-n-butylphthalate (DnBP), showed adverse actions.
A plethora of endocrine-disrupting chemicals interfere with human sperm function in a way that may have a negative impact on fertilization. These are the findings of a German – Danish team of researchers from the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn, Germany, and the University Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. The work, which is published in EMBO reports, suggests that endocrine disruptors may contribute to widespread fertility problems in the Western world in a way that hitherto has not been recognized.
Endocrine disruptors are present in food, textiles, drugs, household, and personal-care products such as plastic bottles, toys, and cosmetics. Proving the deleterious effects of endocrine disruptors on human beings has been difficult due to a lack of suitable experimental systems.
The European Commission is currently reviewing its policy on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Last year, their plans caused a debate between endocrinologists and a group of toxicologists over how to regulate these chemicals. "Our study provides scientific evidence to assist forming international rules and practices," said the leader of the study, Timo Strünker, from the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn, Germany.
Please continue reading from EMBO
May 13, 2014
Mock nuclear accident test emergency response 3 day exercise the 'largest ever held in Ontario'
"This is the largest nuclear disaster response ever held in Ontario," said Dan Hefkey, deputy minister with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
The drill will take place from Monday, May 26 to Wednesday, May 28, and residents may see emergency vehicles near the plant and hear alerting sirens as the exercise unfolds.
Dubbed Exercise Unified Response, the event will test emergency response plans and see how agencies and governments work together. None of the agencies involved will know the nature of the "accident" until it starts.
Glenn Jager, chief nuclear officer for Ontario Power Generation, said if there was a real-life emergency at a nuclear station, "no one agency can handle it on its own."
This is the first "multi-jurisdictional exercise since 1999," Mr. Jager said. "All eyes will be watching. It's an opportunity to demonstrate and learn."
Mr. Hefkey noted there will be more than 1,000 participants from more than 50 federal, provincial, regional, municipal, hospital, and school board organizations working with OPG.
"You have to appreciate this will be huge in terms of organization. Everyone wants to see how they will respond," Mr. Hefkey said.
"It will make us that much better in the future," Mr. Hefkey said. "Ontario is the largest nuclear jurisdiction in North America and one of the largest in the world. Ontario has more nuclear generating units than California.
"We're wedded to safety. We never take safety for granted. We all have to plan," Mr. Hefkey said. "It's an unlikely scenario, but one we must consider."
OPG spokesman Neal Kelly said planning for the exercise has been ongoing for more than a year.
Ted Wieclawek, fire marshal and chief of emergency management Ontario, said the exercise is about building trust with the public.
"We want to raise awareness and build public confidence," Mr. Wieclawek said. "If we don't instill that confidence, then they will be insecure."
That confidence is needed whether it's an incident on a highway, a tornado or a nuclear accident, he added.
Please read full at:
Climate Scientist, Lennart Bengtsson Joins Climate Skeptic Think Tank
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But weren't you one of the alarmists 20 years ago? Do you think your position at that time was wrong?
Bengtsson: I have not changed my view on a fundamental level. I have never seen myself as an alarmist but rather as a scientist with a critical viewpoint, and in that sense I have always been a skeptic. I have devoted most of my career to developing models for predicting the weather, and in doing so I have learned the importance of validating forecasts against observed weather. As a result, that's an approach I strongly favor for "climate predictions." It's essential to validate model results, especially when dealing with complex systems such as the climate. It's essential do so properly if such predictions are to be considered credible.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You think there's a need for climate research to do some catching up in this regard?
Bengtsson: It is frustrating that climate science is not able to validate their simulations correctly. Since the end of the 20th century, the warming of the Earth has been much weaker than what climate models show.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But the IPCC report discusses these problems in detail.
Bengtsson: Yes, the scientific report does this but, at least in my view, not critically enough. It does not bring up the large difference between observational results and model simulations. I have full respect for the scientific work behind the IPCC reports but I do not appreciate the need for consensus. It is important, and I will say essential, that society and the political community is also made aware of areas where consensus does not exist. To aim for a simplistic course of action in an area that is as complex and as incompletely understood as the climate system does not make sense at all in my opinion.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the past, you have complained about what you described as a strong tendency towards politicization in climate research. Why have you now joined an organization that is inherently political in nature?
Bengtsson: Throughout my life, I have been fascinated by predictability and frustrated by our inability to predict. I don't believe it makes sense for our generation to believe or pretend that we can solve the problems of the future because do not understand what these problems will be. Just do this thought experiment: Imagine you're in month of May 1914, and try to work out a plan of action for the next 100 years! Hardly anything will make sense.SPIEGEL ONLINE: So do you suggest we should carry on with business as usual just because forecasts are complicated?
Bengtsson: No. I think the best and perhaps only sensible policy for the future is to prepare society for change and be prepared to adjust. In 25 years, we'll have a world with some 9 to 10 billion people that will require twice as much primary energy as today. We must embrace new science and technology in a more positive way than we presently do in Europe. This includes, for example, nuclear energy and genetic food production to provide the world what it urgently needs.
Please read full and follow from Meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson Joins Climate Skeptic Think Tank - SPIEGEL ONLINE | shared via feedly mobile
May 12, 2014
Harvard Study: Honeybee decline due to popular insecticides called neonicotinoids,
Science Recorder - A new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health says that the widespread demise of honeybees is due to the use of a class of popular insecticides called neonicotinoids, combined with cold temperatures during the winter months. Thee deadly combination of insecticides and cold weather causes honeybees to abandon their hives–a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Over recent years, Western countries have lost between 30 percent and 70 percent of their honeybee populations, scientists say.
The new study replicates earlier research by same research team that found a link between CCD and low doses of imidacloprid, another neonicotinoid insecticide.
"We demonstrated again in this study that neonicotinoids are highly likely responsible for triggering CCD in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said lead author Chensheng (Alex) Lu in a statement.
The new study replicates earlier research by same research team that found a link between CCD and low doses of imidacloprid, another neonicotinoid insecticide.
"We demonstrated again in this study that neonicotinoids are highly likely responsible for triggering CCD in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said lead author Chensheng (Alex) Lu in a statement.
May 10, 2014
Wisconsin and 3 other US Nuclear plants trying to bypass federal secuirty/safety storage standards
CARLTON, Wis. — The owner of the shuttered Kewaunee Power Station is seeking an exemption to federal safety rules that it says are outdated and overly conservative, but five U.S. senators say the rules governing storage of nuclear material should be maintained.
Dominion Resources Inc. shut down the Kewaunee nuclear plant last year. The spent fuel rods will be placed in storage in 2016.
Federal regulations say an emergency protection zone needs to be maintained up to 50 miles around the storage site. But Kewaunee spokesman Mark Kanz said that rule overstates the possible dangers, Press-Gazette Media reported
"What we are looking for is a waiver for requirements that really no longer are applicable," Kanz said. He said a Dominion analysis showed that after about 17 months of treatment, spent nuclear fuel has limited impact onsite and no impact offsite.
Federal law requires that the U.S. government provide a national repository for spent fuel, but that hasn't happened yet, and it's not clear whether that will move forward. In the meantime Dominion is providing onsite security as long as fuel is stored there, Kanz said.
Three other nuclear plants, in California, Florida and Vermont, are also seeking safety exemptions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But five senators — four Democrats and a left-leaning Independent — say the exemption requests should be denied.... please read on from source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/258626001.html
Common solvent found to have anti-cancer properties
Shared via feedly // published on Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine // visit site
Researchers from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, have found that a N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), a common solvent used in a wide array of industrial and medical products, has cancer-fighting properties. The discovery came about thanks to an observant researcher, and now the solvent is set to be put to the test in a world-first clinical trial on patients with advanced blood cancer... Continue Reading Common solvent found to have anti-cancer properties
May 9, 2014
As Species Decline, So Do the Scientists Who Name
Shared via feedly // published on Slashdot: Few sciences are more romantic than taxonomy. Imagine Darwin, perched over a nest of newly-discovered birds in the Galapagos, sketching away with a charcoal in his immortal journals. Yet Taxonomy is a dying science. DNA barcoding, which can identify species from tiny fragments of organic material, and other genetic sciences are pulling students away from the classical studies of anatomy and species classifications. As the biodiversity crisis wipes undiscovered species off the planet, so to go the scientists who count them.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Companies are making plant based eggs without the chickens, free of cholesterol, saturated fat, allergens, avian flu, and cruelty to animals. For half the price of an egg
MIT: "While an egg farm uses large amounts of water and burns 39 calories of energy for every calorie of food produced, Tetrick says he can make plant-based versions on a fraction of the water and only two calories of energy per calorie of food — free of cholesterol, saturated fat, allergens, avian flu, and cruelty to animals. For half the price of an egg."
Please continue reading from Hampton Creek and Other Startups Hope to Get into the Food Supply | MIT Technology Review | shared via feedly mobile
Beyond Honeybees: Now Wild Bees and Butterflies May Be in Trouble | Via @WIRED
WIRED: It's not just honeybees that are in trouble. Many wild pollinators—thousands of species of bees and butterflies and moths—are also threatened.
WIRED - Their decline would affect not only our food supply, but our landscapes, too. Most honeybees live in commercially managed agricultural colonies; wild pollinators are caretakers of our everyday surroundings.
"Almost 90 percent of the world's flowering species require insects or other animals for pollination," said ecologist Laura Burkle of Montana State University. "That's a lot of plants that need these adorable creatures for reproduction. And if we don't have those plants, we have a pretty impoverished world."
Compared to honeybees, wild pollinators are not well studied, and their condition has received relatively little public attention. Most people don't realize that there are thousands of bee species in the United States. Even many butterflies are overlooked, with the plight of just a few species, particularly monarchs, widely recognized.
WIRED - Their decline would affect not only our food supply, but our landscapes, too. Most honeybees live in commercially managed agricultural colonies; wild pollinators are caretakers of our everyday surroundings.
"Almost 90 percent of the world's flowering species require insects or other animals for pollination," said ecologist Laura Burkle of Montana State University. "That's a lot of plants that need these adorable creatures for reproduction. And if we don't have those plants, we have a pretty impoverished world."
Compared to honeybees, wild pollinators are not well studied, and their condition has received relatively little public attention. Most people don't realize that there are thousands of bee species in the United States. Even many butterflies are overlooked, with the plight of just a few species, particularly monarchs, widely recognized.
Please continue reading from Beyond Honeybees: Now Wild Bees and Butterflies May Be in Trouble | Science | WIRED | shared via feedly mobile
May 8, 2014
Fear Of Economic Blow As Births Drop All Around World :
AP: For those who fear an overcrowded planet, this is good news. For the economy, not so good.
We tend to think economic growth comes from working harder and smarter. But economists attribute up to a third of it to more people joining the workforce each year than leaving it. The result is more producing, earning and spending.
Now this secret fuel of the economy, rarely missing and little noticed, is running out.
"For the first time since World War II, we're no longer getting a tailwind," says Russ Koesterich, chief investment strategist at Blackrock, the world's largest money manager. "You're going to create fewer jobs. … All else equal, wage growth will be slower."
Births are falling in China, Japan, the United States, Germany, Italy and nearly all other European countries. Studies have shown that births drop when unemployment rises, such as during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Birth rates have fallen the most in some regions that were hardest hit by the financial crisis.
In the United States, three-quarters of people surveyed by Gallup last year said the main reason couples weren't having more children was a lack of money or fear of the economy.
The trend emerges as a key gauge of future economic health — the growth in the pool of potential workers, ages 20-64 — is signaling trouble ahead. This labor pool had expanded for decades, thanks to the vast generation of baby boomers. Now the boomers are retiring, and there are barely enough new workers to replace them, let alone add to their numbers.
Please continue reading from Fear Of Economic Blow As Births Drop Around World : NPR | shared via feedly mobile
#Solar #Energy tower for producing electricity 24/7/365 set for Arizona
Via: Physorg: The tower that SWET has in mind is located in a hot dry area. The tower structure is a hollow cylinder reaching skyward into the dry atmosphere heated by the solar rays of the sun. The water introduced by the injection system near the top of the Tower evaporates and is absorbed by the hot, dry air. The air becomes cooler, denser and heavier than the outside warmer air and falls through the cylinder at speeds up to and in excess of 50 mph. The air is diverted into wind tunnels surrounding the base of the tower where turbines inside the tunnels power generators to produce electricity. (Each tunnel has a dedicated generator-room, with multiple-sized generators, powered by the patented drive system. The tower produces clean electricity, 24 hours day and night, 365 days a year.)
Navigated from Energy tower for producing electricity set for Arizona | shared via feedly mobile
May 7, 2014
Sponges made from wood waste may soak up oil spills
As the Deepwater Horizon incident showed us, oil spills can be huge environmental disasters. That said, there are also considerable challenges in dealing with the waste products generated by the forestry and agriculture industries. Now, scientists from Switzerland's Empa research group have come up with a method of addressing the one problem with the other – they've developed sponges made from cellulose waste, that can soak up 50 times their own weight in oil. .. Continue Reading Sponges made from wood waste may soak up oil spills
Section: Environment Please continue reading Shared via feedly // published on Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine // visit site
New hopes for getting the lead out of solar #energy
Solar energy is arguably our most viable low cost energy source. It is forever sustainable and easily captured and converted. But now the technology may have taken yet another leap forward. To date the foundational technology behind photovoltaics was a structure called perovskite, which has been made with lead. Using tin instead of lead perovskite as the harvester of light, a team of Northwestern University researchers has created a new solar cell with "good efficiency". This good efficiency solar cell is low-cost, environmentally friendly and can be easily made using "bench" chemistry -- no fancy equipment or hazardous materials.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Spain fallen 23.1% last year, as power generation from wind farms and hydroelectric plants soared.
Guardian - New figures from Spain's grid operator have revealed that greenhouse gas emissions from the country's power sector are likely to have fallen 23.1% last year, as power generation from wind farms and hydroelectric plants soared.
Red Eléctrica de España released a preliminary report on the country's power system late last month, revealing that for "the first time ever, [wind power] contributed most to the annual electricity demand coverage". According to the figures, wind turbines met 21.1% of electricity demand on the Spanish peninsular, narrowly beating the region's fleet of nuclear reactors, which provided 21% of power.
In total, wind farms are estimated to have generated 53,926 gigawatt hours of electricity, up 12% on 2012, while high levels of rainfall meant hydroelectric power output was 16% higher than the historical average, climbing to 32,205GWh.
Red Eléctrica de España released a preliminary report on the country's power system late last month, revealing that for "the first time ever, [wind power] contributed most to the annual electricity demand coverage". According to the figures, wind turbines met 21.1% of electricity demand on the Spanish peninsular, narrowly beating the region's fleet of nuclear reactors, which provided 21% of power.
In total, wind farms are estimated to have generated 53,926 gigawatt hours of electricity, up 12% on 2012, while high levels of rainfall meant hydroelectric power output was 16% higher than the historical average, climbing to 32,205GWh.
Please continue reading at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/06/wind-power-spain-electricity-2013
May 6, 2014
Rare Earthquake Warning Issued for Oklahoma | Researches suspect fracking waster water injection
LiveScience: "Building owners and government officials should have a special concern for older, unreinforced brick structures, which are vulnerable to serious damage during sufficient shaking," Bill Leith, a USGS senior science adviser for earthquakes and geologic hazards, said in the joint statement.
While scientists haven't ruled out natural causes for the increase, many researchers suspect the deep injection wells used for the disposal of fracking wastewater could be causing the earthquake activity. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas by cracking open underground rock.
Ongoing studies have found a link betweenOklahoma's high-volume wastewater injection wells and regions with an uptick in earthquakes.
According to the USGS, the number of quakes magnitude-3 and stronger jumped by 50 percent in the past eight months in Oklahoma. Some 183 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater struck between October 2013 and April 14, 2014. The state's long-term average from 1978 to 2008 was only two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or larger per year.
If the earthquakes are caused by wastewater injection, then the activity could continue or decrease with future changes in well usage in the state.
Please continue reading from Rare Earthquake Warning Issued for Oklahoma | LiveScience | shared via feedly mobile
Organic farms growing fast. 40% of these farms account for 97% of all organic sales in the US
Vox - The USDA recently released its latest Census of Agriculture, and among the more startling findings was that sales of organic goods are exploding. Between 2007 and 2012, the USDA found, US farms' total organic sales grew from an inflation-adjusted $1.9 billion in 2007 to $3.1 billion in 2012. That's growth of more than 60 percent in just five years.
What the numbers show is that organics is big business; just 40 percent of these farms account for 97 percent of all organic sales in the US, meaning the humble farmers selling organic bell peppers and zucchini at your local farmers' market are making only a tiny fraction of the total US organic haul.
That explosion of big organic farms has helped the average amount of sales per farm to soar above $200,000. That means the average annual take per organic farm has outstripped the average for all US farms together.
What the numbers show is that organics is big business; just 40 percent of these farms account for 97 percent of all organic sales in the US, meaning the humble farmers selling organic bell peppers and zucchini at your local farmers' market are making only a tiny fraction of the total US organic haul.
That explosion of big organic farms has helped the average amount of sales per farm to soar above $200,000. That means the average annual take per organic farm has outstripped the average for all US farms together.
Please continue reading http://www.vox.com/2014/5/4/5679132/organic-is-going-from-hippie-to-mainstream-in-two-charts
May 3, 2014
‘Solar’ jet fuel made out of thin air | Chemistry World
Chemistry World: The dream of producing hydrocarbon fuels from carbon dioxide and sunlight is one step closer thanks to chemists in Europe who have made jet fuel from scratch in a solar reactor for the first time. Although the chemists only produced enough kerosene to fill a glass jar, they believe a full-scale solar concentrator could produce 20,000 litres of jet fuel a day.
Please continue reading from 'Solar' jet fuel made out of thin air | Chemistry World | shared via feedly mobile
May 2, 2014
The EPA is enhancing sustainability: one Great Lake at a time
Two Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants were awarded on Friday totaling $1 million earmarked towards Chicago green infrastructure projects. The projects will improve water quality in Lake Michigan. The infrastructure projects will prevent stormwater from carrying contamination into Lake Michigan.
"Solar" jet fuel created from water and carbon dioxide
In a move that could help address our insatiable thirst for fuel while at the same time help cut CO2 emissions, scientists with the SOLAR-JET (Solar chemical reactor demonstration and Optimization for Long-term Availability of Renewable Jet fuel) project have recently shown that through a multi-step process, concentrated sunlight can be used to convert carbon dioxide into kerosene, which can then be used as jet fuel... Continue Reading "Solar" jet fuel created from water and carbon dioxide
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May 1, 2014
Toyota Describes Combustion Engine That Generates Electricity Directly
While electric cars are now more available than ever, combustion engines will remain for decades to come. Now auto engineers are working to refine combustion power as part of cars that are increasingly electrified, including plug-in hybrids. Toyota's new 'Free Piston Engine Linear Generator' (or FPEG) shows us one potential way. Linear engines eliminate the rotating crankshaft of conventional engines in favor of a single chamber, in which a piston moves forward and backward. A linear engine has no crankshaft, nor connecting rods. In their place is a gas-filled chamber, the compression of which functions like a spring — returning the piston after the expansion / combustion phases of a typical combustion cycle. This back-and-forth motion can be turned into energy, when you haven't got a crankshaft and the mechanically-useful rotation it produces. While linear engines are far from new, and Toyota's test units are only 10 kW (13 horsepower), a pair of them can still produce enough electricity for a Yaris- or Corolla-sized vehicle to cruise on the highway at 75 mph.
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Graphene Could Be Dangerous To Humans and the Environment
It's easy to get carried away when you start talking about graphene. Its properties hold the promise of outright technological revolution in so many fields that it has been called a wonder material. Two recent studies, however, give us a less than rosy angle. In the first, a team of biologists, engineers and material scientists at Brown University examined graphene's potential toxicity in human cells. Another study by a team from University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering examined how graphene oxide nanoparticles might interact with the environment if they found their way into surface or ground water sources.
A very innovative idea to turn salt water... into potable water.
A very innovative idea to turn salt water into potable water.
The Disrupteneur of the day award goes to Gabriele Diamanti. This is beautiful story
GABRIELE DIAMANTI HOPES TO SEE LOCAL CRAFTSMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD ADAPT HIS DESIGN.
"Projects 'for the 90%' mostly fall somewhere between two extremes: charity and business," designer Gabriele Diamanti tells Co.Design. "Neither was my inspiration!" Instead, spurred on by his own extensive travel and friends' involvement in NGOs, he developed a fascination with global water scarcity as a graduate student at Milan Polytechnic in 2005; he recently decided to pursue his interest again and the result is Eliodomestico, an open-source variation on a solar still.
It functions by filling the black boiler with salty sea water in the morning, then tightening the cap. As the temperature and pressure grows, steam is forced downwards through a connection pipe and collects in the lid, which acts as a condenser, turning the steam into fresh water. Once Diamanti established the fundamentals were sound, he experimented with a series of concepts for the aesthetic of the object. "My goal was to design something friendly and recognizable for the users," he explains. "The process developed quite naturally to determine the current shape; every detail is there for a reason, so the form, as well as production techniques, represent a compromise between technical and traditional." Primary field studies in sub-Saharan Africa revealed the habit of carrying goods on the head—also a common practice in other areas around the world—and this was integrated into Eliodomestico's plan. And while solar stills aren't a totally new concept, Diamanti says it's rare to find them in a domestic context rather than in missions or hospitals, or as large plants overseen by qualified personnel that serve entire communities. "I tried to make something for a real household that could be operated directly by the families," he says.
The project recently won a Core77 Design Award for Social Impact; already, Diamanti has received international feedback, and hopes to see locals adapt and modify the design to take advantage of their own readily available materials and native environments. "The idea is that instructions for the project can be delivered to craftsmen" with the help of NGOs, he says, then a micro-credit program could be established to finance small-scale start-ups specializing in production. "So the NGO is the spark, micro-credit is the fuse, the local craftsmen are the bomb!"
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Apr 30, 2014
The Evolution of Earth Day. A billion people strong
ENN Each year April 22nd, marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the environmental movement in 1970. Not only did this movement help pass landmark legislation like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act but it has also engaged more than 1 billion people who now participate in Earth Day activities each year.
The first Earth Day, was essentially a grassroots protest, called for by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who announced a national day of environmental protest when Congress did not seem interested in joining his fight to clean up the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, rallies were held in major US cities where speakers tried to raise awareness about environmental issues and transform public attitudes. Since then, environmentalism has moved from a fringe issue to a mainstream concern.
Please continue reading from ENN Original news: The Evolution of Earth Day | shared via feedly mobile
New Zero-Day Flash Bug Affects Windows, OS X, and Linux Computers
Researchers at the Kaspersky Lab have uncovered a zero-day Adobe Flash vulnerability that affects Windows, OS X, and Linux. 'While the exploit Kaspersky observed attacked only computers running Microsoft Windows, the underlying flaw, which is formally categorized as CVE-2014-1776 and resides in a Flash component known as the Pixel Bender, is present in the Adobe application built for OS X and Linux machines as well.' Adobe has reportedly patched the bug for all platforms. Researchers first detected the bug from attacks performed on seven Syrian computers. The attacks seem to have been hosted on the Syrian Ministry of Justice website, which has led to speculation that these are state-sponsored vulnerability exploits. This speculation is further supported by evidence that one of the exploits was 'designed to target computers that have the Cisco Systems MeetingPlace Express Add-In version 5x0 installed. The app is used to view documents and images during Web conferences.'
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Decommissioning Nuclear Plants Costing Billion$ More Than Expected
This article takes a look at cost estimates of nuclear power plant decommissioning from the 1980s, and how widely inaccurate they turned out to be. This is a pretty fascinating look at past articles in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that consistently downplayed the costs of decommissioning, for example: 'The Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Rowe, Massachusetts, took 15 years to decommission—or five times longer than was needed to build it. And decommissioning the plant—constructed early in the 1960s for $39 million—cost $608 million. The plant's spent fuel rods are still stored in a facility on-site, because there is no permanent disposal repository to put them in. To monitor them and make sure the material does not fall into the hands of terrorists or spill into the nearby river costs $8 million per year.'
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Can you build an economy on foodies and sick people?
Economy in Crisis - A data graphic released by PBS shows the vast majority of the jobs in our country are now service industry jobs. This includes healthcare, retail, leisure along with hospitality, finance, wholesale and many other industries.
The most telling portion of this graphic is the manufacturing section, which shows us that our manufacturing sector is now collectively smaller than the number of jobs we have in government.
Since the recession started in December 2007:
The most telling portion of this graphic is the manufacturing section, which shows us that our manufacturing sector is now collectively smaller than the number of jobs we have in government.
Since the recession started in December 2007:
- there are still 1.3 million fewer U.S. jobs than when the recession began.
- health care has added 1.5 million jobs.
- restaurants and bars have added roughly 700,000 jobs.
- the number of construction jobs has fallen by 1.6 million.
- the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen by 1.7 million.
- the number of government jobs has fallen by about 500,000.
Supreme Court strengthens EPA's role in fighting air pollution
Shared via feedly // published on Think Progress - The Supreme Court issued a strong 6-2 ruling that upheld how the Environmental Protection Agency decided to regulate air pollution that crosses state boundaries under the Clean Air Act. This decision has major consequences for millions across the country who suffer from breathing air pollution. "Today's ruling means that the big polluters' days of dumping pollution on our citizens without consequence are over," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
Apr 29, 2014
The $2.4 million settlement will get Republic's attention, but the involvement in SVEP will get their attention even more.
Ohio-based Republic Steel will pay $2.4 million under an agreement to settle alleged health and safety violations at four plants, including one in Blasdell, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday.OSHA said the settlement... “By agreeing to the terms of this settlement, Republic Steel has demonstrated a commitment to change its culture, invest in its employees, and work with OSHA and the United Steelworkers to make significant changes at its facilities that will improve the safety and health of its workers,” Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said in a statement. “The Labor Department looks forward to working with Republic Steel to ensure that it lives up to its commitment to improve workplace safety.”
OSHA said it launched the inspections last fall after an employee at Republic’s Lorain, Ohio, plant fell through the roof of a building and was seriously injured. The agency said that it expanded its inspections to all Republic Steel’s facilities under its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
Read on at: http://www.buffalonews.com/business/republic-steel-agrees-to-24-million-settlement-with-osha-20140428
Link from John Surma - Special Counsel at Adams and Reese LLP
Moving Duke toxic coal ash ponds would take 30 years, cost $7 to $10 billion
A top Duke Energy executive told lawmakers last week that moving coal-ash ponds away from drinking-water supplies would cost $7 to $10 billion and would take 30 years, John Murawski reports for the Raleigh News & Observer. The company and its stockholders said they will pay the cost to clean up the 39,000 tons of coal-ash sludge that leaked into the Dan River from a Feb. 2 spill but say customers should foot the bill to move the 14 locations, as critics have demanded. (McClatchy Tribune graphic)
A state regulator estimated that customers could expect to see their bills increase by more than $20 a month. Duke officials have countered with a cheaper option that would cost $2 billion to $2.5 billion and leave the coal ash in place at most sites. Under that option, "the coal ash would be air-dried, left in place and covered with a tarpaulin or membrane," Murwaski writes.
Chris Ayers, executive director of Public Staff, the state agency that represents the public in utility-rate cases, "noted that a North Carolina utility's environmental compliance costs are typically included in customers' rates. He said it was too early to tell if the Public Staff would challenge Duke's proposed costs, which the company would have to demonstrate are prudent and reasonable," Murawski writes. "Ayers told lawmakers that Duke could not be held to an environmental standard that did not exist when the pits were constructed a half-century ago."
"Under state law, Duke's coal ash remediation plan will require approval from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources," Murawski writes. "But the cost of that plan is in the hands of the N.C. Utilities Commission, which would review Duke's expenses after the company spent the money." (Read more)
A state regulator estimated that customers could expect to see their bills increase by more than $20 a month. Duke officials have countered with a cheaper option that would cost $2 billion to $2.5 billion and leave the coal ash in place at most sites. Under that option, "the coal ash would be air-dried, left in place and covered with a tarpaulin or membrane," Murwaski writes.
Chris Ayers, executive director of Public Staff, the state agency that represents the public in utility-rate cases, "noted that a North Carolina utility's environmental compliance costs are typically included in customers' rates. He said it was too early to tell if the Public Staff would challenge Duke's proposed costs, which the company would have to demonstrate are prudent and reasonable," Murawski writes. "Ayers told lawmakers that Duke could not be held to an environmental standard that did not exist when the pits were constructed a half-century ago."
"Under state law, Duke's coal ash remediation plan will require approval from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources," Murawski writes. "But the cost of that plan is in the hands of the N.C. Utilities Commission, which would review Duke's expenses after the company spent the money." (Read more)
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What Hasn’t Changed Since The Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Shared via feedly // When I met Rajina Aktar in February of last year, her eyes were still red and her memory still fuzzy from the toxic smoke that had knocked her unconscious three weeks earlier. The 15-year-old had been sewing pockets onto winter jackets when a fire broke out at Smart Export Garments, an illegal factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Walking through the ruins, I saw what appeared to be handprints and scratch marks on the walls of the stairwell where eight workers were crushed to death as 350 people tried to push through a single locked exit. Someone had managed to carry Aktar to safety. In the dank basement room where she lived, she told me that with four relatives to support and no education, she expected to return to the assembly line as soon as she recovered. "There is nothing else," she said. Fires in the factories of Bangladesh's $20 billion garment export industry were occurring an average of two to three times a week then.
Apr 28, 2014
Workers Memorial Day - Making the Choice to Protect Workers, Today and Every Day
April 28 is a day when we at OSHA and the Department of Labor reaffirm that no job is a good job unless it’s a safe job. Workers Memorial Day is a time to remember workers who have been killed, hurt, or made sick by their jobs. Today, in their honor and on behalf of their families, we renew our commitment to the safety and health of every worker.
Before the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in 1970, an estimated 14,000 workers were fatally injured on the job every year. Many more died from diseases caused by exposure to benzene, silica, asbestos and other serious health hazards. Today workplaces are much safer and healthier. But there is still much work to be done.
Unfortunately, the workplace hazards that you usually hear about are the ones you can see — trenches and grain silos, fall hazards and forklifts, electrical wiring and machines with moving parts. But many of the most serious hazards are the “silent killers” – the ones we can’t see, such as airborne chemicals and fine particles of dust.
American workers use tens of thousands of chemicals every day. While many of these chemicals are known or suspected of being harmful, we have workplace exposure standards for only a small fraction. Workers pay the price for lack of regulation – workplace chemical exposures that have already occurred are responsible for tens of thousands of worker deaths every year.
Some of these silent killers, like silica dust and asbestos, work slowly over years of continuous exposure. Other chemicals, like lead and formaldehyde, can have serious effects after relatively short exposures. Whether slow or fast, these tragedies can and must be prevented.
OSHA is very concerned about chemical exposures in the workplace. The American people rightly expect OSHA to have standards that protect workers from preventable death and illness. But there are countless chemicals and chemical mixtures for which we have no permissible exposure limits (PELS). And with few exceptions, the current OSHA PELS have not been updated since they were adopted in 1971, while scientific data clearly indicate that many of these exposure limits do not protect all workers from harm. This is why we have proposed a new standard to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica dust.
Happy Workers' Memorial Day! The workplace "the forgotten environment" of 53,445 deaths
FROM CDC - Workers' Memorial Day, observed on April 28, 2014, recognizes workers who died or suffered from exposures to hazards at work. In 2012, a total of 4,383 U.S. workers died from work-related injuries (1). Most fatalities from work-related illness are not captured by national surveillance systems, but an estimate for 2007 was 53,445 deaths (2).
In 2012, nearly 3 million injuries to and illnesses in private industry workers and 793,000 to and in state and local government workers were reported by employers (3). In the same year, an estimated 2.8 million work-related injuries were treated in emergency departments, resulting in 140,000 hospitalizations (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC, unpublished data, 2014). Several national surveillance systems report new cases of nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses, although no system captures all cases. Based on methods that focus on medical costs and productivity losses, the societal cost of work-related fatalities, injuries, and illnesses was estimated at $250 billion in 2007 (2). Methods that include consideration of pain and suffering would result in a higher estimated societal cost (4). CDC is working to better describe the burden of fatalities, injuries, and illnesses suffered by workers; additional information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/econ/risks.html.
References
Apr 27, 2014
Finally, A Way To Harvest Hydroelectric Energy From Toilet Flushes
Shared via feedly // The average American flushes 24 gallons of water down the toilet daily, while—don't get me wrong, toilets; we appreciate all of your hard work—maybe some of the energy used in a flush could be put to an additional use.
Here's one way: harvest some of the energy from the water and use it for power. A team of researchers in South Korea have created a transducer that translates water motion—from toilets, raindrops, or other water-based uses—into electricity. The technical side is wonky, but essentially, by using the motion from a tiny droplet of water—30 microliters—the team was able to power a small green LED. It's a proof-of-concept demonstration, but scale up to a flushing toilet or a rainstorm, and you can see the appeal.
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