Recycling remains rural problem; W.Va. chemical spill sent millions of plastic bottles to landfills

The Charleston Gazette

The January chemical spill that tainted drinking water in much of West Virginia, forcing residents to rely on bottled water, illustrated the lack of recycling in much of rural America. The vast majority of the millions of plastic bottles used after the spill ended up in landfills, Valerie Bauerlein reports for The Wall Street Journal.

Only 36 percent of West Virginia residents have curbside recycling, and in 2011 the Charleston area recycled less than 1 percent of its eligible plastic, compared to 30 percent nationally. "Many small towns and rural counties struggle to offer recycling services, especially with tight government budgets, limited access to recycling processors and wide fluctuation in the market for recyclable materials," Bauerlein writes. "Only half the population of Mississippi has access to drop-off or curbside programs. Some small cities, such as Lynn Haven, Fla., eliminated recycling programs because there were no nearby processing centers." (WSJ graphic)

The main reason rural areas lack access to recycling is that dumping trash is quicker and easier than recycling. "Shawn Lindsey, a recycling expert who advises the not-for-profit Center for Rural Strategies, said some towns cannot get vendors to bring in recycling containers because it takes weeks to fill a bin, tying up a company asset and providing an insufficient return," Bauerlein writes. Meanwhile, Lindsey said dumping trash in a place like Athens, Tenn., where he works, costs about $20 a ton, while it can cost more than $100 a ton in some urban areas.

Some people are optimistic that rural recycling has a bright future, with technological advances like automated bin-lifting trucks and optical sorters that will make it cheaper, Bauerlein writes. Mississippi was recently "awarded $1 million in grants to four communities seeking to build 'hub-and-spoke' networks, which could pool their collection to make recycling financially viable, according to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality." But the best solution, advocates say, is to make recycling free and easy for everyone.

Please continue reading from source at: Recycling remains rural problem; W.Va. chemical spill sent millions of plastic bottles to landfills

// The Rural Blog

Parents shocked to learn 'BPA-free' baby bottles are loaded with other estrogen mimickers

Natural News: Baby bottles from AVENT, Born Free, Green to Grow, Evenflo and Weil Baby all emit high or very high levels of hormone-altering chemicals, says new research published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health. (1)

"Many PC-replacement-products made from acrylic, polystyrene, polyethersulfone, and Tritan resins leached chemicals with [estrogenic activity], including products made for use by babies. Exposure to various forms of UV radiation often increased the leaching of chemicals with estrogenic activity," write the study authors.

The conclusion of the study will send shockwaves across the baby products industry, stunning many parents who thought "BPA-free" meant "free from all hormone-disrupting chemicals."

Please continue reading from source at: 
http://www.naturalnews.com/045585_BPA-free_baby_bottles_estrogen_mimickers.html

Britain: Antibiotic Resistance Breakthrough in the race to beat the global health threat of antibiotic resistance.

Independent: Scientists at a British university have claimed a breakthrough in the race to beat the global health threat of antibiotic resistance.

In research that could pave the way for an entirely new class of drugs to combat highly resistant "superbugs", the scientists say they have found the "Achilles heel" of a major group of bacteria which includes E.coli and other potentially deadly species.

Antibiotic resistance – the process whereby bacteria evolve resistance to the drugs we use to treat them – is regarded by most experts as one of the gravest threats facing mankind, ranking alongside climate change and global terrorism. In Europe there are already estimated to be 25,000 deaths per year as a result of drug-resistant infections.

Developing new forms of antibiotics is seen as one of the key avenues for combating the threat. Now scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) say that they have discovered a way in which drugs could attack the cell membrane of one of the three major bacteria groups, known as gram negatives.

Please continue reading from source at: Independent

Harley-Davidson to become leader in developing Electric Motorcycles?

AP: Harley-Davidson will unveil its first electric motorcycle next week, and President Matt Levatich said he expects the company known for its big touring bikes and iconic brand to become a leader in developing technology and standards for electric vehicles.

Harley will show handmade demonstration models Monday at an invitation-only event in New York. The company will then take several dozen riders on a 30-city tour to test drive the bikes and provide feedback. Harley will use the information it gathers to refine the bike, which might not hit the market for several more years.

Please read more from source: AP

Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round

 Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine

When we think of wind power, we generally think of huge wind turbines sitting high atop towers where they can take advantage of the higher wind speeds. But Maryland-based Solar Wind Energy, Inc. is looking to turn wind power on its head with the Solar Wind Downdraft Tower, which places turbines at the base of a tower and generates its own wind to turn them... Continue Reading Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round 

Elon Musk's Solar City Is Ramping Up Solar Panel Production

Elon Musk is well known as a private space flight entrepreneur, thanks to his space launch company SpaceX. He is also a purveyor of high end electric cars manufactured by his other company, Tesla Motors. But many people do not know that Musk has a third business, Solar City, which is a manufacturer of solar panels. On Tuesday that company announced a major play to increase the output of solar panels suitable for home solar units. Solar City has acquired a company called Silevo, which is said to have a line of solar panels that have demonstrated high electricity output and low cost. Silevo claims that its panels have achieved a 22 percent efficiency and are well on their way to achieving 24 percent efficiency. It suggests that 10 cents per watt is saved for every point of efficiency gained. Solar City, using the technology it has acquired from Silevo, intends to build a manufacturing plant in upstate New York with a one gigawatt per year capacity. This will only be the beginning as it intends to build future manufacturing plants with orders of magnitude capacity. The goal appears to be for the company to become the biggest manufacturer of solar panels in the world.
Please continue reading from source at: 

Elon Musk's Solar City Is Ramping Up Solar Panel Production
// b Slashdot

Why China Is Worried About Japan's Plutonium Stocks

A fascinating account of why China is so worried about Japan's excessive plutonium stocks: combined with its highly sophisticated missile program, "Chinese nuclear-weapons specialists emphasize that Japan has everything technically needed to make nuclear weapons." It turns out that Japan has under-reported a sizable amount of plutonium, and there have been increasing signs that the country might be moving toward re-militarization. This is a particularly worrying read about nuclear tensions in Asia.
Please continue reading from source at: 
Why China Is Worried About Japan's Plutonium Stocks
// b Slashdot

More than 29 million Americans have diabetes; 1 in 4 doesn’t know | CDC

More than 29 million people in the United States have diabetes, up from the previous estimate of 26 million in 2010, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  One in four people with diabetes doesn't know he or she has it.

Another 86 million adults – more than one in three U.S. adults – have prediabetes, where their blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes.  Without weight loss and moderate physical activity, 15 percent to 30 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years. 

"These new numbers are alarming and underscore the need for an increased focus on reducing the burden of diabetes in our country," said Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., director of CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation.  "Diabetes is costly in both human and economic terms. It's urgent that we take swift action to effectively treat and prevent this serious disease."

Key findings from the National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014 (based on health data from 2012), include:

• 29 million people in the United States (9.3 percent) have diabetes.
• 1.7 million people aged 20 years or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2012.
• Non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults are about twice as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic white adults.
• 208,000 people younger than 20 years have been diagnosed with diabetes (type 1 or type 2).
• 86 million adults aged 20 years and older have prediabetes.
• The percentage of U.S. adults with prediabetes is similar for non-Hispanic whites (35 percent), non-Hispanic blacks (39 percent), and Hispanics (38 percent).

Diabetes is a serious disease that can be managed through physical activity, diet, and appropriate use of insulin and oral medications to lower blood sugar levels.  Another important part of diabetes management is reducing other cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and tobacco use.

People with diabetes are at increased risk of serious health complications including vision loss, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputation of toes, feet or legs, and premature death. 

In 2012, diabetes and its related complications accounted for $245 billion in total medical costs and lost work and wages. This figure is up from $174 billion in 2007.

For more information about diabetes and CDC's diabetes prevention efforts, including evidence-based and cost-effective interventions, such as CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program, visit www.cdc.gov/diabetes.

Please read more from source: More than 29 million Americans have diabetes; 1 in 4 doesn't know | Press Release | CDC Online Newsroom | CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0610-diabetes-report.html

What’s The World To Do About Water?

Water is on track to be the most important and most contentious resource of the 21st century. It could replace oil as the strategic resource that triggers geopolitical conflict. But with the right solutions, it could also be the one that brings us all together.

In 2003, the late Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley gave a lecture at Rice University's Energy & Nanotechnology Conference highlighting humanity's top 10 problems for the next 50 years. His list, in descending order of importance, was: energy, water, food, environment, poverty, terrorism and war, disease, education, democracy, and population. 

The reason energy and water sit at the top, ahead of food and poverty, is that addressing them alleviates subsequent problems. Developing abundant sources of clean, reliable, affordable energy enables an abundance of clean water. An abundance of clean water enables food production and protects the environment. And so forth.

In many ways, the 1900s was the century of energy conflict, with great skirmishes triggered and fueled by a quest for petroleum. Now, the dawn of a new energy era is just around the corner—with the prices of solar power plummeting, and distributed generation and energy efficiency on the cusp of taking off—and we can project forward to a time this century when water replaces energy as the next great challenge for humanity. Getting water right could clear the path to a fully liberated, healthy, and peaceful civilization.

But water is complicated. First, there's no alternative. There are alternatives to coal and petroleum, but water cannot be replaced. Second, water is intertwined with every other sector of society. Energy production requires water for cooling power plants and fracturing shale. Agriculture needs water for irrigation. Industry and cities use trillions of gallons of water for all sorts of purposes. Third, water demands are growing at the same time supplies are fluctuating. Climate change is expected to intensify droughts and floods while shifting where water will be and when. That means humanity will be confronted with decisions about whether to move people to water or water to people.

Thankfully, there are solutions. Some are large, incredibly expensive, and energy-intensive, such as building cross-continent water-transfer aqueducts, new hydroelectric dams, and massive desalination plants. Some are small, such as using micro water harvesters that condense water vapor out of the air. All of them take a while.

In April 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, "If we could ever competitively—at a cheap rate—get freshwater from saltwater, it would be in the long-range interest of humanity and would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishments." That was one month before his famous moon-shot speech. Before the decade was over, we sent man to the moon and back. But we still haven't cracked the code on how to get freshwater from saltwater without a lot of money and energy. That's mainly because our great innovation apparatus has not been dedicated to water. Research budgets have prioritized energy, defense, and health while mostly ignoring water, even though fixing water would help our energy, defense, and health problems. If we spent as much money looking for water on Earth as we do searching for it on Mars, the outcomes might be very different.

In the end, we can solve the water problem. But we need aggressive conservation that will buy us time while our inventors get to work.  

 Please continue reading from This article that originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of Popular Science. 

What's The World To Do About Water?

// Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

With Concern For Greatlakes and Environment, Illinois Bans Microbeads

[NPR] Illinois has become the first state to ban microbeads, the small plastic bits often found in soaps and many different types of cosmetic products. The law, signed this week by Governor Pat Quinn, bans the manufacturing use of these synthetic beads by the end of 2018, and the sale of such items by the end of 2019 in the state. 

"I'm proud that Illinois is... taking the first step away from plastic microbeads toward natural exfoliants, and I'm optimistic that we've started a nationwide movement to protect not just the Great Lakes, but other bodies of water with high concentrations of microbeads," said State Senator Heather Steans in a statement. 

It's well established that these synthetic microbeads accumulate in waterways including lakes and oceans, as they are small enough to make their way through water treatment facilities. Recent work has found 1.1 million plastic particles per square kilometer in Lake Ontario, for example. And they can be taken up by all a manner of animals, which can be harmful to their health. These plastic bits soak up a variety of pollutants, and there is a concern that when fish and other animals eat these plastic bits, they may transfer these chemicals up the food chain to humans and wildlife. (Microplasticscan soak up and transport phenanthrene, for example, an ocean pollutant.)

Why use plastic beads anyway? The answer, in part: They are cheap, and people buy into them. There are many natural exfoliants that can be used, though, like sand, pumice, walnut shells, bits of kelp... or you could just use a wash cloth. 

Please read more from source:  With Concern For Environment, Illinois Bans Microbeads : The Two-Way : NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/10/320638770/with-concern-for-environment-illinois-bans-microbeads

Creator of Burt’s Bees Lives in a Tiny House… Did You Know?

Tiny House Talk - Little Homes and Small Spaces:  I just had to show you this documentary preview of Burt's Buzz which is a movie about Burt's Bees and its creator who happens to love living simply and in tiny houses.

You can see it for yourself below and if you found it inspiring and a little bit surprising be sure to re-share this post with your friends because they might enjoy it too.

Creator of Burt's Bees Lives Simply in Tiny House

"A good day is when no one shows up. And you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz

Original story.

Maps show where U.S. gets various types of energy. Coal still on top

The Rural Blog: With all the discussions about the Obama administration's plan to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2030, talk of a "war on coal" and heated debates between those who support and oppose the plan, it might be a good time to look at exactly where America gets its energy. The Washington Post provides 11 maps that show how different sources—thermal, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind and solar power—are used in the U.S., along with maps of transmission lines, the shifting of coal production from Appalachia to the West and locations of oil wells, pipelines and shale oil and gas wells. 

Coal remains the top source of energy, providing 37 percent of the nation's electricity, Brad Plumer writes for the Post. But coal has fallen out of favor in recent years, with electric utilities retiring 145 generators, with an average age of 55 years old, between 2010 to 2012. (Map: U.S. coal plants)

Natural gas is on the rise, providing 30 percent of electricity, Plumer writes. "Natural gas plants tend to be smaller, easier to build and emit fewer conventional pollutants than coal plants—so they're more widespread. In 2012, there were 1,714 natural gas plants providing about 30 percent of the nation's power." (U.S. gas power plants)

"Nuclear reactors have begun closing in recent years, but there are still 62 nuclear power plants in operation containing 100 reactors," Plumer writes. "Those reactors provide 19 percent of the nation's electricity—without emitting any heat-trapping greenhouse gases." (U.S. nuclear plants)

In 2012, 7 percent of U.S. electricity came from 1,426 hydroelectric plants, Plumer writes. Wind power has increased from 1 percent of the total in 2008 to 4.1 percent in 2013. Solar power accounted for 0.11 percent of electricity in 2012. Meanwhile, the U.S. produces about 60 percent of the oil it needs, but getting it where it needs to go is a different matter. Several pipeline projects are hold amid protests from residents who don't want the oil running through their neighborhoods.

Please read more from source: Maps show where U.S. gets various types of energy

Study finds supposedly plugged oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania are leaking a lot of methane

The Rural Blog: Abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania are creating significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, according to a study by Princeton University. The study found that between 200,000 and 970,000 abandoned wells in the northern part of the state likely accounted "for 4 to 7 percent of estimated man-made methane emissions in that jurisdiction, a source previously not accounted for," Andrew Nikiforuk reports for The Tyee, a British Columbia publication. The study found "that leaks from abandoned oil and gas wellbores pose not only a risk to groundwater but represent a growing threat to the climate." 

An Associated Press investigation published in January found that Pennsylvania is one of four states where it was confirmed that oil and gas drilling has led to water pollution. Since 2005, the state has had 106 water-well contamination cases and in 2013 received 398 complaints that drilling polluted or otherwise affected private water wells. 

And it seems that complianants have few friendly ears to bend. Areport released in early 2013 by the Public Accountability Initiative found that many of Pennsylvania's policymakers, regulators and enforcement workers came from the oil and gas industry they oversee, or left state jobs for industry jobs. The report also found that Pennsylvania's last four governors and 45 current or state officials had ties to the gas industry. There is no direct federal regulation of oil and gas production except on federal land. (Read more)

For the Princeton study, researchers measured methane emissions from 19 abandoned wells, finding that "the highest-polluting well seeped 3.2 cubic metres of gas a day, or 1,168 cubic metres of gas a year. That's nearly $300 worth of natural gas annually," Nikiforuk writes. 

The study also found that "methane leaks from plugged wells, which were properly sealed with cement at the time of their abandonment, were just as high as rates from unplugged wells," Nikiforuk writes. "Wells connected to sandstone formations leaked more often than wells constructed in other formations." Researchers also "found ethane, propane and n-butane mixed with the methane—all indicators that the gas came from zones targeted by industry as opposed to swamps or natural sources," and methane leaks were more prevalent during the summer.

Please read more from source:  Study finds supposedly plugged oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania are leaking a lot of methane

InfoGraphic- What's In Your Drinking Water?

What's in your water?

Data Visualization by Katie Peek; Pharmaceuticals data from Mitchell S. Kostich Et Al., 2014 in Environmental Pollution

In the 1970s, several studies turned up pharmaceuticals in treated U.S. sewage water, and drugs have been a known unknown in water supplies ever since. Recently, researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency tested 50 U.S. wastewater-treatment plants serving more than 46 million people for 58 common drugs. They found many of the meds, but thankfully at concentrations so low it would take years to drink a full dose. –Jessie Geoffray

*The study tested for generic compounds, but some brand names are listed here for easier identification.

Michelle Mruk

Parasites

About 750,000 people in the U.S. end up with diarrhea each year from drinking water contaminated by the Cryptosporidium parasite. In part, that's because Crypto is resistant to the chlorine that water-treatment plants use to kill other microbes. Dozens of cities around the world are now installing massive ultraviolet-light arrays to zap the germ. As water flows through treatment facilities on its way to the tap, it passes through pipes specially outfitted with UV lamps. The UV light penetrates Crypto's thick protein shell, damaging the pathogen's DNA and rendering it harmless. –Peter Andrey Smith

Methane

For a study published in 2013, re-searchers tested 141 drinking-water wells across northeastern Pennsylvania. They found methane concentrations six times higher in wells close to hydraulic fracturing operations—contamination they propose is likely due to poor natural-gas-well construction. The Environmental Pro-tection Agency plans to release its own comprehensive study this year. –Jessie Geoffray

This article originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of Popular Science.

Read the rest of Popular Science's Water Issue.

Please read more from source: 
What's In Your Drinking Water?
// Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

Pure Genius: How Dean Kamen's Invention Could Bring Clean Water To Millions

Via @PopSci... At first glance, the bright red shipping container that sits by the side of the road in a slum outside Johannesburg doesn't look like something that could transform hundreds of lives. Two sliding doors open to reveal a small shop counter, behind which sit rows of canned food, toilet paper, cooking oil, and first-aid supplies. Solar panels on the roof power wireless Internet and a television, for the occasional soccer game. And two faucets dispense free purified drinking water to anyone who wants it.

Created primarily by Coca-Cola and Deka Research and Development, the New Hampshire company founded by inventor Dean Kamen, the container is meant to be a kind of "downtown in a box": a web-connected bodega-cum-community center that can be dropped into underdeveloped villages all over the world. Coke calls it an Ekocenter. It's a pithy name, but it masks the transformative technology hidden within the container.

Inside the big red box sits a smaller one, about the size of a dorm fridge, called a Slingshot. It was developed by Kamen, the mastermind behind dozens of medical-equipment inventions and, most famously, the Segway personal transportation device. Kamen is the closest thing to a modern-day Thomas Edison. He holds hundreds of patents, and his creations have improved countless lives. His current projects include a robotic prosthetic arm for DARPA and a Stirling engine that generates affordable electricity by using "anything that burns" for fuel. The Slingshot, more than 10 years in the making, could have a bigger impact than all of his other inventions combined.

Kamen's company, Deka, inhabits three refurbished 19th-century textile-mill buildings in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Photograph by JJ Sulin

Using a process called vapor compression distillation, a single Slingshot can purify more than 250,000 liters of water per year, enough to satisfy the needs of about 300 people. And it can do so with any water source—sewage, seawater, chemical waste—no matter how dirty.

For communities that lack clean water, the benefit is obvious, but to realize that potential, the Slingshot needs to reach them first. Which is where Coke comes in: The company is not just a soft-drink peddler; it is arguably the largest, most sophisticated distribution system in the world. That's important because the scale of the water crisis the world faces is unprecedented.

Water seems so abundant it's easy to forget how many people don't have a clean source of it. According to the World Health Organization, nearly a billion people lack ready access to safe drinking water, and hundreds of thousands die every year as a result. Many more fall terribly ill.

Plenty of water-purification tools exist, of course—chlorine tablets, reverse-osmosis plants—but they all have drawbacks. Either they're not adequately portable; they require replacement parts that can be hard to come by; or, most vexing of all, they remove only certain kinds of impurities, leaving others to poison the unwitting.

Kamen calls the global water crisis a "Goliath" of a problem, which suggests that he is David. He offers a quick refresher on biblical lore: David, it bears remembering, defeated Goliath with a slingshot.

"In my life, nothing is ever simple or easy," Kamen says. "I didn't wake up one day and say, 'Wow, there's a global water problem. I think I'll work on that.' " He's sitting in his office in an old brick mill building by the Merrimack River in Manchester, New Hampshire. A life-size cardboard Darth Vader leans against one wall, and a wooden chair painted to resemble a seated Albert Einstein sits among a circle of leather swivel chairs. Photos of Kamen's various helicopters (he's had a number over the years and occasionally flies to Deka from his hilltop estate) hang on the wall while outtakes from his dad's work as an illustrator for Mad Magazine and Tales from the Crypt decorate the hallway outside.

Please continue reading from source at: 
Pure Genius: How Dean Kamen's Invention Could Bring Clean Water To Millions
// Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

Why Californians Will Soon Be Drinking Their Own Pee #drought

California has a lot of coastline. So why all the fuss about the drought? Desalination to the rescue, right?

Not quite. The largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere is currently under construction in Carlsbad in San Diego County at great expense. The price tag: $1 billion.

Right now, San Diego is almost totally dependent on imported water from Sierra snowmelt and the Colorado River. When the desalination plant comes online in 2016, it will produce 50 million gallons per day, enough to offset just 7 percent of the county's water usage. That's a huge bill for not very much additional water.

Desalination is not a new technology, but it's still expensive. Despite the cost, its uptake is growing as dry places look to secure drought-proof sources of water. A new desalination plant built on reverse-osmosis microfiltering (the same method as the Carlsbad plant) will supply one-third of Beijing's water by 2019. Desalination is already a major source of water for Australia, Chile, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other drought-prone coastal regions. Smaller solar desalination plants are also gaining appeal in California.

When regional water agencies first considered a Bay Area desalination plant more than a decade ago, they briefly considered making it more than double the size of the plant currently under construction in San Diego County. Since then, the idea for the Bay Area plant has been scaled back to about 10 percent of the original size based on the maximum intake capacity of the local water district. A tentative location has also been chosen: Mallard Slough, near where the Sacramento River meets the Bay. The plant is now on indefinite hold pending local demand, though studies have proven it's technically feasible.

"We're nowhere near done doing all the environmental impact reporting," said Abby Figueroa of East Bay Municipal Utility District, one of the partners of the would-be Bay Area desalination plant. "There are other options that are more likely for us to use in the short term. We're counting on conservation as one of those supplies."

Still, the drought may force a decision sooner rather than later. "This is year one [of the drought] for us. Other parts of California are in year three or four. The real pressure for us is going to come next year if it doesn't rain."

Which brings us to the pee-drinking.

This year's drought has motivated California to invest $1 billion in new money on water recycling efforts statewide, a much more cost-efficient way of increasing potable water supplies. But reusing purified sewer water for brushing your teeth is not without its own set of issues. National Journal describes the biggest holdup:

The problem with recycled water is purely psychological. Despite the fact the water is safe and sterile, the "yuck factor" is hard to get over, even if a person understands that the water poses no harm. In one often-cited experiment, researchers poured clean apple juice into a clean bedpan, and asked participants if they'd be comfortable drinking the apple juice afterwards. Very few of the participants agreed, even though there was nothing wrong with it. It's forever associated with being "dirty," just like recycled wastewater...

Please read more from source:  Why Californians Will Soon Be Drinking Their Own Pee

// MoJo Articles | Mother Jones

This story originally appeared in Slate and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Electric car battery tech lets you go 1,000 miles between charges via @Computerworld

Computerworld - An Israeli company has teamed up with Alcoa to develop battery technology that allowed an all-electric car to travel 1,100 miles between charges.

The technology, a combination of an aluminum-air and lithium-ion battery, was demonstrated last week using an all-electric, sub-compact car at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve racetrack in Montreal.

The aluminum-air batteries, created by Israeli-based Phinergy and Canadian aluminum maker Alcoa, create energy by combining aluminum, ambient air and water.

Alcoa and Phinergy are collaborating on new materials, processes and components to commercialize the aluminum-air battery.

"The idea of metal-air batteries has been around for 100 years," said Doug Ramsey, Alcoa's business development manager. "With the partnership between Alcoa and Phinergy, we've optimized a system that can efficiently turn a solid piece of aluminum, with the addition of air and water as a catalyst, into a charge."

Please read more from source: 
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248966/Electric_car_battery_tech_lets_you_go_1_000_miles_between_charges

Cable Boxes Are the 2nd Biggest Energy Users In, Homes as much electricity as produced by four giant nuclear reactors, running around the clock.

224 million U.S. cable TV set-top boxes combined consume as much electricity as produced by four giant nuclear reactors, running around the clock. They have become the biggest single energy user in many homes, apart from air conditioning. Cheryl Williamsen, a Los Alamitos architect, has three of the boxes leased from her cable provider in her home, but she had no idea how much power they consumed until recently, when she saw a rating on the back for as much as 500 watts — about the same as a washing machine. A typical set-top cable box with a digital recorder can consume as much as 35 watts of power, costing about $8 a month for a typical Southern California consumer. And the devices use nearly as much power turned off as they do when they are turned on.The article outlines a voluntary industry agreement that should make a dent in this power consumption (it "calls for a power reduction in the range of 10% to 45% by 2017"), but makes the point that much larger gains are possible: "Energy experts say the boxes could be just as efficient as smartphones, laptop computers or other electronic devices that use a fraction of the power thanks to microprocessors and other technology that conserves electricity. Ideally, they say, these boxes could be put into a deep sleep mode when turned off, cutting consumption to a few watts. At that rate, a box could cost less than $1 a month for power, depending on how much it is used."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Via @martyn_williams Groups ask Apple to end toxic chemical use Used in electronics factories, benzene can cause cancer and n-hexane can cause nerve damage

ComputerWorld - "We're asking Apple for strategic reasons and because we think they'll actually do this," said Elizabeth O'Connell, campaigns director at Green America, when asked why the focus wasn't Samsung, which is the world's largest smartphone maker.

"We are less hopeful that Samsung will do this anytime soon," she said. "But if we can get Apple to be the first mover, we will have a lot more leverage against Samsung."

A string of suicides among workers in Chinese electronics factories turned the spotlight on the sometimes poor working conditions endured by workers who produce gadgets like iPhones. After initially appearing to downplay the problem, Apple has taken a number of proactive steps to improve conditions and conducts several hundred audits of its suppliers each year.

It has pressured its suppliers to improve working conditions, imposed a number of new conditions on them and begun publishing regular reports on how they are doing. But the reports aren't detailed enough for some.

The letter to Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environmental affairs...

Please read on at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249006/Groups_ask_Apple_to_end_toxic_chemical_use

New Sensor To Detect Food-Borne Bacteria On Site, could save 1,000's of lives

According to the CDC, around 48 million people in the US get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die as a result of foodborne illnesses every year. One of the main culprits is listeriosis (or listeria), which is responsible for approximately 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths. Now researchers at the University of Southampton are using a device designed to detect the most common cause of listeriosis directly on food preparation surfaces, without the need to send samples away for laboratory testing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CDC - Smokeless Tobacco Use causes cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, and pancreas

Source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC)

Smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, and pancreas (1). CDC analyzed National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to estimate the proportion of U.S. working adults who used smokeless tobacco in 2005 and 2010, by industry and occupation. This report describes the results of that analysis, which showed no statistically significant change in the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among workers from 2005 (2.7%) to 2010 (3.0%). In 2010, smokeless tobacco use was highest among adults aged 25–44 years (3.9%), males (5.6%), non-Hispanic whites (4.0%), those with no more than a high school education (3.9%), and those living in the South (3.9%). By industry, the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use ranged from 1.5% in education services to 18.8% in mining industries, and by occupation from 1.3% in office and administrative support to 10.8% in construction and extraction. These findings highlight opportunities for reducing the health and economic burdens of tobacco use among U.S. workers, especially those in certain industries (e.g., mining) and occupations (e.g., construction and extraction) where use of smokeless tobacco is especially common. CDC recommends best practices for comprehensive tobacco control programs, including effective employer interventions, such as providing employee health insurance coverage for proven cessation treatments, offering easily accessible help for those who want to quit, and establishing and enforcing tobacco-free workplace policies.

Please read more from source: 
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6322a1.htm

New sensor to detect food-borne bacteria on site

It is estimated that every year in America there are around 76 million food-borne illnesses that result in 325,000 hospitalizations and over 5,000 deaths. One of the main causes is the disease "Listeria", which has the highest hospitalization (92 per cent) and death (18 per cent) rate among all food-borne pathogen infections. Now researchers at the University of Southampton say that they are trialling a device designed to detect these bacteria directly on food preparation services, and without the need to send samples away for laboratory testing... Continue Reading New sensor to detect food-borne bacteria on site 

California Whooping Cough Cases "an Epidemic"

As reported by the San Jose Mercury News, the state of California is "in the throes of a whooping cough epidemic, state health department officials announced Friday. Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health, said 3,458 cases of whooping cough have been reported since Jan. 1 -- including 800 in the past two weeks. That total is more than all the cases reported in 2013." Public broadcaster KPBS notes that of the 621 people known to have come down with whooping cough in San Diego county, the vast majority (85 percent) were up to date on their immunizations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

#GreatLakes Pesticide experiment "It's pretty toxic" raises killing zebra mussels, "we've had a 90% kill rate,"

Scientists for the first time in Wisconsin plan to use a bacteria to kill zebra mussels — in this instance, in a Florence County lake.

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey want to apply the biological pesticide next month to sections of Keyes Lake in the hope of killing off zebra mussels that have attached themselves to native mussel beds.

If experiments prove successful, the treatment could one day be a tool to control the spread of destructive zebra and quagga mussels, both invasive species.

Zebra mussels were discovered in the Great Lakes in the mid-1980s, and turned up in inland Wisconsin lakes in 1994. They can now be found in 163 lakes and rivers in the state, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Quagga mussels are in the Great Lakes, but have not yet invaded inland lakes of Wisconsin.

The pair of tiny, sharp-shelled species devour plankton, disrupting ecosystems. They proliferate in areas by the tens of thousands and push out native species, clog water intake systems and play a role in spurring algae blooms.

On inland waters, worries run the gamut — from the potential for declining land values to the loss of native mussel populations. On the Great Lakes, the invasive mussels threaten a multibillion-dollar recreational sport fishing industry while fouling beaches by spurring weed growth that rots on shore.

Zebra mussels are believed to have hitchhiked from Eurasian ports in the ballast of ships, and now are often transported between lakes by boats and bait buckets.

The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said this week it is reviewing a request by the geological survey for an experimental use permit to spread the bacteria, known by its trade name, Zequanox, in targeted areas of the lake.

There have been past experiments in 2012 — in DuPage County, Ill., and near Alexandria, Minn. — but the research on the 195-acre Keyes Lake will be a first in Wisconsin involving testing in public waters.

The lake was chosen because zebra mussels were found there in 2010 and because it also has a healthy population of native mussels, said James A. Luoma, a research scientist for the geological survey in La Crosse.

The agriculture department has conducted an environmental assessment of the product and found no potential environmental harm if it is used as advised by the manufacturer. The public can comment on the plans until June 19.

Luoma said a team from the agency plans to spread 25 to 30 pounds of the product in enclosed areas of the lake in about 5 feet of water where both native and zebra mussels have been found.

In some experiments, "we've had a 90% kill rate," Luoma said. "It's pretty toxic."

But apparently it is not toxic to anything else.

Please read more By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel at : http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/scientists-experiment-hope-to-kill-zebra-mussels-in-state-lake-b99289167z1-262775121.html

High-performance supercapacitor doubles performance of commercial alternatives

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a new graphene-based supercapacitor that uses a nanoscale architecture to double its energy and power performance compared to commercially-available alternatives. This breakthrough is another important step toward making supercapacitors viable for use in fast-charging, high-performance electric cars and personal electronics. .. Continue Reading High-performance supercapacitor doubles performance of commercial alternatives
// Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine

Geothermal Heat Contributing To West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melting

Thwaites Glacier, the large, rapidly changing outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is not only being eroded by the ocean, it's being melted from below by geothermal heat, researchers at the Institute for Geophysics at The University of Texas at Austin (UTIG) report in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings significantly change the understanding of conditions beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where accurate information has previously been unobtainable. The Thwaites Glacier has been the focus of considerable attention in recent weeks as other groups of researchers found the glacier is on the way to collapse, but more data and computer modeling are needed to determine when the collapse will begin in earnest and at what rate the sea level will increase as it proceeds. The new observations by UTIG will greatly inform these ice sheet modeling efforts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

cryptogon.com » Dryers Waste $4 Billion a Year in Energy Costs

USA Today: U.S. consumers are wasting $4 billion annually to power clothes dryers that, unlike other common household appliances, have barely improved their energy efficiency since the 1970s, a report today says.

A typical electric dryer may now consume as much energy per year as the combined use of an efficient new refrigerator, clothes washer and dishwasher, reports the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Homes pay more than $100 annually to run an electric dryer and $40 for a gas one, its report finds.

"Dryers have gone largely unnoticed," says Noah Horowitz, NRDC senior scientist, noting regulators have focused on other appliances. Since the 1970s, he says U.S. efficiency requirements have been updated seven times for fridges but only three times — each one modest — for dryers. As a result, new fridges — and dishwashers and washing machines — have more than halved their energy use.

Yet, he says Americans spend $9 billion annually to operate inefficient dryers, 75% of which are electric. He says they could save $4 billion of that — and reduce heat-trapping carbon-dioxide emissions — if all electric units were updated to the most efficient hybrid heat pump model sold overseas, mostly in Europe.

Please continue reading from source at: USA Today

Tesla Allows Rivals to Use Its Intellectual Property to Develop Electric Vehicles

Tesla Motors: Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.

Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible.

At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn't have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn't burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.

At best, the large automakers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume. Some produce no zero emission cars at all.

Please continue reading from source at: Tesla Motors

Utah utitlity wants penalty fee for installing solar

Think Progress  - Utah's main utility, Rocky Mountain Power, has proposed a new fee on its residential solar customers. While solar users make up a small percentage of RMP's customer base — only about 2,000 people — that number is growing quickly and the prospect of paying an additional $4.25 a month is not sitting well with residents and solar installers.

Utah's fight is indicative of a rapidly escalating tension: As rooftop solar becomes more and more mainstream, driven largely by middle class customers, utility companies across the country are looking to soften the blow to their business model by charging solar customers a monthly fee.

On the surface, it's a heated debate over the immediate value of solar power — who pays, who benefits, and how to make the situation equitable — but the core issue is really the increasing likelihood that distributed generation sources, like rooftop solar, will completely upend the traditional utility business model.

Please read more from source: Think Progress

The Truth About the PepsiCo Naked Juice $9 million Lawsuit Settlement

Last week, Naked Juice agreed to settle a very important class action lawsuit which accused the company of deceptive labeling.

The primary basis of the lawsuit stemmed from the company's use of the words "All Natural" on products that contained Archer Daniels Midland's Fibersol-2 ("a soluble corn fiber that acts as a low-calorie bulking agent"), fructooligosaccharides (an alternative sweetener), other artificial ingredients, such as calcium pantothenate (synthetically produced from formaldehyde), and genetically-modified soy.

Since these ingredients are either genetically-engineered or synthetically produced and do not exist in nature, it is completely misleading to consumers for these juices to claim to be "All Natural."

As part of the settlement, Naked Juice, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, has agreed to remove the label "All Natural" from all of its juices and to pay a $9 million settlement to the class action group.

Without a question, this is a big, big win for consumers and is a huge step forward for more accurate labeling in the U.S.  It also puts other food manufacturers on serious notice that GMOs are anything but natural and cannot be marketed as such.

Yet, as one digs deeper into the fine details of this lawsuit settlement, there are some extremely troubling details of which the general public is completely unaware.

THE DETAILS THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT

Please read more from source:  http://livingmaxwell.com/naked-juice-lawsuit-settlement-details-shameful-truth

Exhaustion of cheap mineral resources is terraforming Earth – scientific report | Nafeez Ahmed | Guardian

Nafeez Ahmed | Guardian -   A new landmark scientific report drawing on the work of the world's leading mineral experts forecasts that industrial civilisation's extraction of critical minerals and fossil fuel resources is reaching the limits of economic feasibility, and could lead to a collapse of key infrastructures unless new ways to manage resources are implemented.

  

The peer-reviewed study - the 33rd Report to the Club of Rome - is authored by Prof Ugo Bardi of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Florence, where he teaches physical chemistry. It includes specialist contributions from fifteen senior scientists and experts across the fields of geology, agriculture, energy, physics, economics, geography, transport, ecology, industrial ecology, and biology, among others.

  

Much of the report's focus is on the concept of Energy Return on Energy Invested, which measures the amount of energy needed to extract resources. While making clear that "we are not running out of any mineral," the report finds that "extraction is becoming more and more difficult as the easy ores are depleted. More energy is needed to maintain past production rates, and even more is needed to increase them." As a consequence, despite large quantities of remaining mineral reserves:

"The production of many mineral commodities appears to be on the verge of decline... we may be going through a century-long cycle that will lead to the disappearance of mining as we know it."

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CDC - Preventing Norovirus Outbreaks, 70% are caused by infected food workers.

20M

About 20 million people get sick from norovirus each year, most from close contact with infected people or by eating contaminated food.

#1

Norovirus is the leading cause of disease outbreaks from contaminated food in the US.

70%

Infected food workers cause about 70% of reported norovirus outbreaks from contaminated food.

Norovirus often gets attention for outbreaks on cruise ships, but those account for only about 1% of all reported norovirus outbreaks. Norovirus is very contagious, and outbreaks can occur anywhere people gather or food is served. People with norovirus usually vomit and have diarrhea. Some may need to be hospitalized and can even die. Infected people can spread norovirus to others through close contact or by contaminating food and surfaces. Food service workers who have norovirus can contaminate food and make many people sick. In norovirus outbreaks for which investigators reported the source of contamination, 70% are caused by infected food workers.

The food service industry can help prevent norovirus outbreaks by:

• Making sure that food service workers practice proper hand washing and avoid touching ready-to- eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them.
• Certifying kitchen managers and training food service workers in food safety practices.
• Requiring sick food workers to stay home, and considering use of paid sick leave and on-call staffing, to support compliance.

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Please read more from source:  CDC - Preventing Norovirus Outbreaks | Vital Signs | shared via feedly mobile