Peak food... Wheat doubles in 2 months

Financial Times, Rise in wheat prices fastest since 1973

Wheat prices have seen the biggest one-month jump in more than three decades on the back of a severe drought in Russia, prompting warnings by the food industry of rising prices for flour-related products such as bread and biscuits. Food executives are also warning about surging prices for feeding and malting barley, which could push higher the retail cost of products

Bloomberg Wheat headed for the biggest weekly gain in half a century ....Wheat prices have doubled in less than two months as drought slashed the harvest in Russia, the third-largest grower, and rains cut Canadian output. The surge may herald a new food crisis as corn and other staples jump, said a trade group from Indonesia, Asia's top wheat buyer.

"This situation is reminiscent of the irrational moves already seen in the past, for example at the start of 2008,"


Why? Greed... no longer amount wiping our homes, now they want our food.
 MarketWatch Commodity ETFs: Toxic, deadly, evil are rapidly becoming a malicious virus breeding chaos in the global markets pricing all commodities: food, farm lands, metals, oil, natural gas, livestock, water and other natural resources are the assets under commodity derivatives and their ETFs, pricing that's now controlled more by Wall Street speculators than the weather, adding wild swings in volatility and trillions in global derivative risks.

How will this affect the 1 Billion world and 12% of Americans starving ...as ALMOST HALF THE WORLD FACES WATER SHORTAGE BY 2030

Millions are without access to clean water

This disturbing documentary from Current.com's Vanguard: "The World's Toilet Crisis"

Gulf Oil clean up Fact -still in the water.

Guardian "The fact is that 50% to 75% of the material that came out of the well is still in the water. It's just in a dissolved or dispersed form."

Susan Shaw, a marine toxicologist and director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, said the White House had been too quick to declare the oil was gone. "The blanket statement that the public understood is that most of the oil has disappeared. That is not true.

A 8 year old would explain that you take the amount you spilled minus the amount you actually recovered... would equal the amount still in the environment.

Think the Gulf Spill Is Bad? Wait Until the Next Disaster

China passes U.S. as World's Fastest-Growing Wind Energy Market

PopSci - The DOE released its 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report yesterday, and the results are a mixed bag of highs and lows for the U.S. Americans added 10 gigawatts of wind capacity last year, 40% more than in 2009. But alas, the U.S. is the world's wind power leader no more; China outpaced the U.S. in new wind capacity, stealing away a mantle America had owned for four years.

Last year, the U.S. captured 26% of the world's new additions in wind capacity, a full 10% less than China. But that's really no reason for America to get down on its renewable energy ambitions. The U.S. still owns the most cumulative wind capacity, and our lead in that category is substantial at 35,000 megawatts. China has 25,853 cumulative megawatts of wind capacity in service, just edging out Germany's 25,813 megawatts.

Further, wind power accounted for 39% of all new power generating capacity in the U.S. last year. That's down a bit from 2008, but far exceeds the amount of wind American states added in 2004 through 2007 (in 2008 wind energy made up 44% of new energy capacity, but the financial crisis took a bit out our sails on the new investment front in 2009). Texas led the way, installing 2,292 megawatts alone.

The point is, wind power installation is trending ever-upward even as the financial crisis cut investment in some new energy ventures in 2009. Both the U.S. and China are exploring offshore wind options - the U.S. recently approved it's first offshore wind farm - which could rapidly expand both nation's capacities to install new wind infrastructure. As for China's overtaking the States in new installations, that's nothing to lose face over. As two of the world's largest producers of greenhouse gasses and the two global powers the world is looking to for energy guidance in the new century, America and China should be fostering healthy competition when it comes to going green. We'll get 'em next year.

A PDF of the entire report is available here.

Volkswagen Creates Sewage-Powered Beetle

"The Telegraph reports that Volkswagen is giving new meaning to the term ' Dung Beetle' with a prototype able to cover 10,000 miles annually on the waste from 70 households. The Bio-Bug was launched by Wessex Water, which is generating methane from human waste at a sewage treatment works near Bristol. 'Our site has been producing biogas for many years, which we use to generate electricity to power the site and export to the National Grid,' says one company official. 'We decided to power a vehicle on the gas, offering a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels which we so heavily rely on in the UK.'

 The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association says the launch of the Bio-Bug proves that biomethane from sewage sludge can be used as fuel. 'This is a very exciting and forward-thinking project demonstrating the myriad benefits of anaerobic digestion (releasing energy from waste). Biomethane cars could be just as important as electric cars.'" - Via /.

Haase - Hardly new idea... Haven't I showed this example several times over the years?
ANY car can be converted to run on BioGas.
 

Gasoline From Thin Air

SlashDot - "An enzyme found in the roots of soybeans could be the key to cars that run on air. If perfected, the tech could lead to cars partially powered on their own fumes. Even further into the future, vehicles could draw fuel from the air itself. Quoting: 'The new enzyme can only make two and three carbon chains, not the longer strands that make up liquid gasoline. However, Ribbe thinks he can modify the enzyme so it could produce gasoline. Read more at Discovery

FAIL - Reliving the mistakes of our past

Hippy geodesic dome home at Henry Ford Museum

War, oil, fear big government and a grass roots movement to go back to the land - 1970's?

It appears the more we change the more we stay the same... as hippies grew up into what they despised, they destroyed everything they loved.

Glowing balloons that show air quality

HOWTO: Carnegie Mellon University's Living Environments Lab explain how to make illuminated balloons that change color based on the local air quality. Each balloon is outfitted with a tri-color LED, tiny air quality sesnsor, rechargeable battery, and a few other inexpensive components. I'd love to encounter these as I walk through the city at night! Air Quality Balloons

fructose a turbo for cancer cells

Reuters- Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways... that may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

"These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation," Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote. Read full at Reuters

EHS Opportunity Greater Chicago Area

Great Opportunity for an environmental health and safety professional with previous management experience. The ideal candidate will have some manufacturing experience with a premium on any experience in either food ingredients or specialty chemicals. Plant, which produces and processes surfactants used in household and industrial cleaning supplies, is a non-union shop. Role will focus extensively on the safety aspects of manufacturing with the objective of working with senior-level plant personnel and the workforce in general to reduce accidents, prevent downtime and also minimize levels of restricted time.

Lots of opportunity here for the right person. Credentials should include college degree in engineering or environmental sciences, occupational health and safety certifications or training, master's degree preferred, and previous manufacturing background mandatory.

All interested candidates should respond to Philip Gimson at pjg@mribc.com.

S. 3466 Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act of 2010

CBO  - S. 3466 would require federal courts to order mandatory restitution by defendants convicted of certain crimes under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, such as negligent polluting of a sewer system. Payments of restitution would be made to persons directly harmed as a result of the offense.

San Francisco Bay Restoration Act - S. 3539

CBO - S. 3539 would authorize a program for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide grants to state, tribal, and nonprofit agencies for ecosystem restoration projects and habitat improvement in the San Francisco Estuary. Assuming appropriation of the necessary funds, CBO estimates that implementing S. 3539 would cost $23 million over the 2011-2015 period.

$140 Billion tax payer risk in Subsidies for Nuclear

WASHINGTON – Massive government subsidies proposed in two pending Senate climate and energy bills would shift the risk of financing and constructing new nuclear reactors from the industry to U.S. taxpayers, according to an analysis released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Such subsidies would disadvantage more cost-effective, less risky approaches to curbing the heat-trapping emissions...

Assuming eight new reactors are built over the next 15 years, UCS found those subsidies would amount to approximately $40 billion, or $5 billion per reactor, slightly more than half of what a typical 1,100 megawatt reactor would cost to build today. If the industry is able to secure federal approval to build the 31 new reactors it is expected to request, UCS found that total proposed subsidies could be worth from $65 billion to as much as $147 billion.

"The federal government certainly has an important role to play to ensure innovative, low-carbon technologies can be deployed on a significant scale and become commercially viable," said Ellen Vancko, UCS's nuclear energy and climate change project manager. "But it makes no sense to throw massive subsidies at one technology, especially a mature one like nuclear power, which has a long history of cost overruns, cancellations and bailouts, and already stands to receive billions in government subsidies for new plants."  

Vancko emphasized the word "mature." "The new reactors on the drawing board are based on designs that are not significantly different than those already in commercial operation," she said. "They are neither new nor innovative." Besides, she added, those reactors already are on the short list for $18.5 billion in loan guarantees under the existing Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program and are expected to get more. The Obama administration has called for adding another $36 billion to that program.

Read full at UCS

Crops Absorb Pharmaceuticals From Treated Sewage

Environmental Pollutants: Soybeans can accumulate drugs and personal care products commonly found in wastewater and solid waste.

Each year, U.S. farmers fertilize their fields with millions of tons of treated sewage and irrigate with billions of gallons of recycled water. Through this treated waste, an array of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) make their way unregulated from consumers' homes into farm fields. Now researchers find that at least one crop, soybeans, can readily absorb these chemicals, which raises concerns about the possible effects on people and animals that consume the PPCP-containing plants (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es1011115).

Researchers have previously shown that food crops take up veterinary medicines from manure fertilizer and some cabbage species absorb human pharmaceuticals when grown in hydroponic conditions. But environmental scientist Chenxi Wu and colleagues at the University of Toledo in Ohio wanted to determine if a major food crop could absorb common PPCPs under more realistic agricultural conditions, such as plants grown in soil.  If the chemicals do find their way into the crops under real-life conditions, they could be toxic to the plants, Wu says. "Or they could accumulate through the food chain, and eventually end up in human consumers," he adds.

Read more at C&EN

Aircraft hybrid propulsion system reduce fuel burn by more than 70% and total energy use by 55%

/. - "Borne out of the same NASA research program that gave birth to MIT's D 'double bubble,' Boeing's Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Volt concept is a twin-engine aircraft design notable for its trussed, elongated wings and electric battery gas turbine hybrid propulsion system — a system designed to reduce fuel burn by more than 70 percent and total energy use by 55 percent. The goal of the NASA supersonic research program is to find aircraft designs that will significantly reduce noise, nitrogen oxide emissions, fuel burn and air traffic congestion by the year 2035."

New? Light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity

Standford - New solar energy conversion process discovered by Stanford engineers could revamp solar power production
A new process that simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology, say the Stanford engineers who discovered it and proved that it works.

"photon enhanced thermionic emission," or PETE, could reduce the costs of solar energy production enough for it to compete with oil as an energy source.

Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels – which becomes less efficient as the temperature rises – the new process excels at higher temperatures.

Called "photon enhanced thermionic emission," or PETE, the process promises to surpass the efficiency of existing photovoltaic and thermal conversion technologies.

"This is really a conceptual breakthrough, a new energy conversion process, not just a new material or a slightly different tweak," said Nick Melosh, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, who led the research group. "It is actually something fundamentally different about how you can harvest energy."

And the materials needed to build a device to make the process work are cheap and easily available, meaning the power that comes from it will be affordable.

Melosh is senior author of a paper describing the tests the researchers conducted. It was published online Aug. 1 in Nature Materials.

"Just demonstrating that the process worked was a big deal," Melosh said. "And we showed this physical mechanism does exist; it works as advertised." Read full at Standford.edu

Here comes the sun... in with a bang

Sundays C3 blast is just the beginning, as discussed here before. and while experts are Split Over Intensity - they agree that solar activity affects the Earth's Climate far more than do greenhouse gases.
 
MSNBC  The sun is coming off a low in its 11-year activity cycle, and Sunday's eruption serves as another sign that things are finally picking up. SpaceWeather.com says the event apparently started with a flare from a site known as sunspot 1092, the only significant sunspot group currently facing Earth. At about the same time, the observatory detected a huge magnetic filament of material rising up from the sun's northern hemisphere.

"In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun," SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips said.

Is this the start of something big? Some doomsayers are worried that the sun is on schedule for a 2012 (or 2013) apocalypse - but all the signs so far is that our nearest star is in the midst of a thoroughly normal cycle. As the sun heads toward Solar Max, you can expect the potential for disruption, as well as the potential for harmless light shows like the one some folks will see Tuesday night.

Impact of GHS on WHMIS

WHMIS After GHS …Soon WHMIS will be adopting international classification and labelling rules as developed by the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). This WHMIS After GHS: Preparing for Change publication will help guide you through
the anticipated changes due to the adoption of these new rules. It will help your organization understand the new requirements and help make a successful transition to WHMIS After GHS…

A 42-page document describing the anticipated changes to WHMIS after the GHS principles are adopted is available for purchase on the CCOHS website.

Read more at NextReg

Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 shortsighted & not meet goals

Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 Legislation Introduced by Congressmen Waxman and Rush:
The 166-page legislative proposal would seek to revise the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and related regulatory structures, and put in place a vastly different regime that places significant additional burdens — not just on the chemical industry, but all of product manufacturing and distribution, as well as public utilities and service providers.

As written, and unlike the current chemicals management requirements in the United States, the legislative proposal:

• Extends broad new requirements for chemical mixtures (including paint and coatings products), articles and finished goods;
• Provides none of the exemptions for chemicals and chemical products previously considered safe for intended use (i.e., polymers, R&D materials); and
• Provides no protection for confidential business information (CBI).

In short, the proposed legislation remains problematic despite considerable efforts on the part of all stakeholders to promote ways to integrate needed improvements. ACA believes the requirements the legislation seeks to put in place are shortsighted and will not meet the stated goals. Read full at Paint.org

OSHA proposed Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals

Nexreg A proposed rule to align the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) with provisions of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) will be published in the September 30 Federal Register. The proposal to align the hazard communication standard with the GHS will improve the consistency and effectiveness of hazard communications and reduce chemical-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities," said acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab. "Following the GHS approach will increase workplace safety, facilitate international trade in chemicals, and generate cost savings from production efficiencies for firms that manufacture and use hazardous chemicals." 

Read more from The Compliance Resource Center:

Top U.S. Oil supplier threatens to halt US oil exports, again

The United States imports 9 to 12 million barrels of oil per day.

The top seven countries on the following list account for more than $140 billion worth of oil every year:

• Canada's exports 1,938,000 barrels per day to the U.S. are worth more than $37 billion and account for 16 % of the total trade between the two countries. -  EIA.
• Mexico sends more than 1,096,000 barrels per day to the U.S.,  worth over $22 billion. -EIA.
• Saudia Arabia's economy is fueled by selling 989,000 barrels per day to the U.S. which accounts for 90% of the kingdom's export revenues. - EIA
• Venezuela (Chavez threatens to halt US oil exports, again) sends the U.S. 965,000 barrels per day with an economy heavily reliant on oil for 90% of the country's export revenue.
• Nigeria exports 771,000 barrels per day to the U.S. - EIA
• Angola exports 449,000 barrels per day to the U.S., worth around $9 billion (EIA)...due to unrest in Nigeria, Angola surpassed Nigeria as the largest oil producer in Africa.
• Iraq 448,000 barrels per day, worth over $9 billion  (EIA). This makes the U.S. Iraq's number one oil export partner.

Haase - Sorry, I guess it's my blogs annual 'oil day update'

 

 

 

U.S. addicted to energy, oil, debt

Why Peak Oil is irrelevant, Who's in Denial and Who's Using it all up?
North Americans... have always been spoiled rotten when it comes to paying for energy, and very soon will have to start paying the consequences. As oil becomes scarcer, supply and demand will rear its ugly head. If anyone thought that 2008 prices for gas and diesel were excessive, "you ain't seen nothing." 

However, it is the Indian/Chinese/Japanese bloc which should give rise to sleepless nights. This area is accelerating its oil consumption at ever increasing rates, far higher than North America, Europe and the rest of the world, but has very few oil reserves. Don't forget, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, for them it was a war to secure natural resources in the Pacific, (what US administrations now refer to as "energy security"). Will this same pattern repeat itself?

Simple morals and ethics complicate the situation...

• Why shouldn't the Chinese and the Indians increase their standards of living?
• Why shouldn't the Japanese maintain their standard, which is comparable to our own?
• Who are we to say to almost two billion of the world's population that they must remain in poverty so we can drive gas guzzling Chryslers?

In the middle of this free-for-all stands OPEC, which controls a major part of the world's oil reserves, and which is steadily accelerating its own consumption, thanks to massive internal subsidies. At the moment it is in OPEC's best interest to maintain stable oil production and prices. It tries to keep a fine line, keeping the price for crude as high as possible, to maintain their own economies, yet low enough not to push the world into another recession, which would lower both price and demand.

However, we must remember that OPEC began as a political organisation in response to the Arab-Israeli war in 1973, and it was never its intention to be a friend to the west. The aim was to end western support for Israel by withholding oil. This led to massive oil price increases, an almost continent wide 55 mph speed limit to conserve gas, and a recession... now, Even Saudi Arabia, the world's largest single oil supplier, is starting to feel the effects of peak oil, and has to use enhanced recovery techniques to squeeze the last oil from one of its major oil fields.


Hagens... the planet may never run out of oil... Fat lot of good that'll do when it takes a barrel's worth of energy to get a barrel of oil out of the ground.

And we've long since used all of the easy-to-extract oil, says Nate Hagens, speaking Tuesday night at Kansas Wesleyan University on how communities can learn to adapt to declining resources, energy included.

Hagens is a former vice president for both Lehman Bros. and Salomon Bros. investment firms but quit that career several years ago and last week completed his Ph.D. in natural resources studies at the University of Vermont.

Until recently, he was also editor of theoildrum.com, a website dealing with global energy supply.

Hagen pulls from those areas, and others, such as evolutionary biology, to explain why America and other developed nations are addicted to both energy and debt, and how those addictions work against our long-term good.

Hagens came to Salina at the invitation of The Resliience Group, made up of local people looking for regional solutions to coping with economic disruption, energy depletion and climate change, and the Topeka-based Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy.

U.S. oil production peaked in 1970, Hagens said, and discovery of new supplies globally peaked in 1964; we're now pumping three or four barrels out of the ground for each new barrel discovered.

Hagens allowed that new technology can pull more oil out of fields than in the past, "but at a cost."

And, he said, that cost goes beyond mere dollars, to the point that no matter how high oil prices go, it's not worth the cost.

For example, he said, in the 1930s, the energy generated from one barrel of oil could pull another 100 barrels out of the ground. But as remaining oil became more distant, in less-accessible places, that ratio dropped, to 30-to1 in the 1970s, and to 10-to-1 in the 1990s, and "now it's even lower than that."

"There's a lot of oil there, but if it costs more than one barrel to get a barrel, you're out of gas,"  - Read more

---

Comment#1 - In next 10 years we must find 44 million BOPD – 26 million BOPD to maintain supply and 18 million BOPD to keep up with demand increases.

If you superimpose peak production on top of this demand profile using the following parameters oil prices would increase approximately 250% in real terms over next 10 years – most likely something would give far before that price level

If you want to try the china oil demand or the peak oil models for yourself using your own assumptions they can be found at Enquirica in the "Research" section.

"History, learn from it or become it" - Haase

Are oil speculators going to implode the market like 08?

BloomBerg - JPMorgan Chase & Co. has lowered its forecast by 5.5 percent  for New York oil prices this year on speculation a slowdown in global economies will limit crude's potential to rise.

The bank cut to $77.25 a barrel its estimate for the average price of West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange during the rest of 2010, from a forecast of $81.75 a barrel made last month, according to a monthly report e-mailed today. It lowered its forecast for 2011's average price to $79.25 a barrel from $90.

I really think that the markets are drastically under estimating the needs and growth of  India and China who are making massive investments in volatile oil markets just to meet this years demands... While I would personally like gas prices to drop, it does not seem probable.

The real question is:

Will the upcoming 'economic slowdown' bring lower oil prices or will higher oil prices bring the next 'economic slowdown'?

Devil is driving climate deniers?

LUMO - Observer has printed a rather incredible piece that makes most of the propaganda pieces ... look like friendly fairy-tales for children: A dark ideology is driving those who deny climate change

...The author of the piece, Robin McKie, uses an amusing collection of irrational and downright bizarre sources to sling mud on the climate skeptics. One of them is a book called Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.

These two "pundits" have raised one of the most serious accusations ever invented against the climate skeptics: some of the oldest or dead climate skeptics have actually dared to oppose the Soviet communism! Wow.

More seriously, I find it kind of amazing what kind of arguments these folks are using these days. The legitimate concern is that those panicked people are fanatical defenders of the extreme forms of the "updated" communism - and what their arguments are actually doing is to provide us with a more robust proof of this observation than anything that could actually be made up.

Fortunately, a vast majority of the readers don't buy these articles and would-be arguments anymore: check the discussion in the Guardian. The AGW movement is returning to the status it deserves - and it surely deserves to be on par with the fringe nationalist or Marxist groups - LUMO

Electric Car Subsidies As Handouts For the Rich

Slate - argues that subsidies for electric cars are an example of 'limousine liberalism' — a lavish gift for well-off Americans to buy expensive cars for the sake of appearing green. From the article: 'How rarefied is the electric-car demographic? When Deloitte Consulting interviewed industry experts and 2,000 potential buyers, it found that from now until 2020, only "young, very high income individuals" — from households making more than $200,000 a year — would even be interested in plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars.' Lane also takes issue with the billions of dollars in subsidies offered to automakers for the manufacture of batteries, arguing that research (warning, PDF) concludes that the money will not help in jump-starting the economies of scale that will drive down prices. At least, not as much or as quickly as the President has argued."

The coming Federal Debt Risk to Fiscal Crisis

Congressional Budget Office Report - "Unless policymakers restrain the growth of spending, increase revenues significantly as a share of GDP, or adopt some combination of those two approaches, growing budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels." - CBO Report

The only planned way to get out of this 'democracy ending debt' is to continue to raise payments by 'middle class'..

Why the cause for concern on my blog?
"The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate.  Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace..."

Statistics That Prove Middle Class Can Not Pay the Upcoming Federal Debt

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

See Business Insiders "22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America"

Injured Worker Payments by Workers’ Compensation

CDC - Proportion of Workers Who Were Work-Injured and Payment by Workers' Compensation Systems — 10 States, 2007

Work-related injuries are a major cause of morbidity in the United States, with approximately 4 million employer-reported nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2007 (1). Currently, few population-based state-level estimates of nonfatal occupational injury rates exist. In the few extant studies, self-reported, nonfatal occupational injury rates exceed estimates based on employer reports or state workers' compensation systems (2,3). ... This report summarizes the results of that survey, which found that the proportion of workers who were work-injured during the preceding 12 months ranged from 4.0 to 6.9 work-injured persons per 100 employed persons (Kentucky and New York, respectively). The proportion of self-reported work-injured persons for whom medical treatment was paid by workers' compensation insurance ranged from 47% in Texas to 77% in Kentucky. - VIA DocUticker

Reducing Soot Might Be Shortcut to Reverse Climate Change, New Study Says

The quickest way to slow the melting of Arctic sea ice is through reducing soot emissions, according to a new study of soot's climate effects. Eliminating soot entirely could undo nearly a century of global warming, the study says.

Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson is the latest in a line of scientists to suggest reducing soot to slow global warming. He says it is second only to carbon dioxide in its ability to warm the climate -- it's even more powerful than methane, according to his models.

He found the combination of both types of soot is the second leading cause of global warming, and that if it disappeared tomorrow, the Earth would immediately start to cool off. Average global temperatures would drop within 15 years by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, he found.

Jacobson's latest models, honed over 20 years, included the effects of black and brown soot particles that absorb solar radiation. He analyzed the impacts of soot from fossil fuels and from solid biofuels, including wood, dung and other solid biomass used in home heating and cooking in the developing world.

It wouldn't be hard to reduce soot -- particle traps on vehicles and industrial equipment would be a quick fix, Jacobson says. His work is published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres). Still, the debate is unsettled over soot's global warming potential -- a key metric for climate models.

In June, researchers from Princeton University published a study in PNAS that also assessed the climate effects of soot, and found that nations must take aggressive action to reduce it if they are to meet international climate policy goals.

TRI RY09 Preliminary Dataset ready

On July 27, 2010, EPA released the TRI RY09 Preliminary Dataset, accessible through downloadable files as well as tools such as TRI Explorer (with limited capabilities) and Envirofacts.  The preliminary dataset includes 83% of the total data collected for RY09; EPA plans to update the dataset in August and September as it processes additional 2009 facility submissions.  The downloadable data files are provided in three groups: 1) basic data files, 2) basic plus data files, and 3) dioxin and dioxin-like compounds and toxic equivalent (TEQ) data.  EPA encourages data users to read all of the accompanying information to understand the limitations of using and analyzing the data before the dataset is complete.

Additional information regarding the RY09 Preliminary Dataset, including access to the downloadable files, is available at the following URL:
www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/preliminarydataset

Officers With Arms 'Raid' organic grocery

harvestdream- "There's a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they're raiding us because we're selling raw dairy products?"
With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.

Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.

"I still can't believe they took our yogurt," said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid.

 "How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?"

Read more at LA Times

Really, these officers need to put their guns down someone or someone is going to get hurt...

IEA: Spending $46 Trillion on Global Emissions a "Bargain"

"We are not predicting the future" with this report, IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said, adding that his agency's research instead lays out the consequences of inaction. "Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will require a global effort. While (developed) countries should take the lead, all major economies need to be involved."

"any plan that calls for investing $46 trillion in low-carbon technologies between now and 2050 is too overwhelming to try to comprehend, even to the mathematically inclined. It sounds like just so much Monopoly money because any number with 12 trailing zeros isn't fathomable to most people.

Maybe they should get this guys calculator to figure it out ;-)


My prediction:
In the next two decades the only thing that is going to be harder to find than their "unidentified source" to fill the fossil fuel gap, is $46 trillion

Carbon sequestration burning up billions

 " with the best existing technology, about 20 to 30% of the energy produced by a power plant would be needed to recover the CO2. This energy penalty makes for bad economics." C&EN

Read more about our new billion dollar hole...   Carbon sequestration will never stop global warming

Even if you ignore that fact, these are inarguable: it will raise emissions, energy costs and coal consumption.

The reality is there will be no sustainable energy in a unsustainable economy

Sugar Derivative Solidifies Oil

C&EN:  A new sugar-based compound that selectively converts oils into a gel could serve as a new tool for cleaning up oil spills, its inventors say.

To mitigate oil spills such as the current one in the Gulf of Mexico, cleanup crews typically reach for dispersants—mixtures of chemicals that cause the oil to collect in tiny droplets. If successful, a gelling process would represent an entirely new strategy that could have advantages over the use of dispersants, which have raised toxicity concerns.

In a one-step process aided by enzymes, materials chemist George John of the City College of New York and chemical engineer Srini Raghavan of the University of Maryland and their colleagues have synthesized amphiphilic sugar molecules that bind with hydrocarbon oils and form a gel, even when the oil is mixed with water (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., DOI:10.1002/anie.201002095).

The group tested the gelator in mixtures of water and diesel fuel. Within five minutes, the oil becomes a congealed mass that floats on top of the water and can be lifted out with a spoon.

Read more at  C&EN

Toshiba 'SCiB' Battery Debuts

Toshiba's announcement of the SCiB, a battery we have been following for years.
Here is Toshiba's SCiB site. The battery's specs claim 6,000+ charge/deep-discharge cycles with minor capacity loss, safe rapid charging to 90% in 5 minutes, and enhanced safety regarding overheating or shorting out.
It could make its way into electric vehicles before long. Source /.

Wisconsin landfill waste dropped 15%

WDNR -  The amount of waste sent to landfills in Wisconsin decreased sharply in 2009, according to data compiled by the Department of Natural Resources. The amount of out-of-state waste disposed of in state landfill declined even faster than waste generated within the state.

Every year, landfills are required to report to the DNR the tonnages of all waste received at their facilities from both in-state and out-of-state sources.

The total amount of waste disposed of in landfills in 2009 dropped 15 percent, from 10.3 millions tons in 2008 to 8.8 million tons, in 2009. Waste from households, institutions and commercial establishments (referred to as municipal solid waste) dropped the most -- 22 percent from 2008 to 2009 (6.2 to 4.8 million tons).

During the same period, waste coming to Wisconsin landfills from other states decreased 31 percent. After peaking in 2004 at 2.2 million tons, out-of-state waste has fallen by almost half. The 2009 total of 1.2 million tons was the lowest since 1997. The majority of out-of-state waste comes from Illinois and Minnesota.

The amount of waste coming to Wisconsin landfills may be down for several reasons, according to Ann Coakley, director of the DNR Waste and Materials Management Program.

"The economic downturn that began in 2008 led many households and businesses to scale back purchases in 2009, which means less material was thrown away," she said. "We are seeing this pattern all over the country. In addition, high fuel prices probably discouraged long-distance hauling of waste into Wisconsin."

Also DNR invasive species data shows minority of boaters increasing risk to lakes and river
Surveys at boat landings across Wisconsin in summer 2010 show that 96 percent of people say they are following a new law to prevent the spread of Eurasian water-milfoil and other aquatic invasive species. But a few are leaving boat landings with aquatic plants attached, potentially putting scores of lakes and rivers at risk.

From May through late July, 182 people were observed arriving at boat launches with aquatic plants hanging off their boat trailers or boats, or driving away from boat launches at the end of the day with invasive plants attached, according to statewide reports entered through July 25 by boat inspectors and DNR Water Guards. Boat inspectors advise the boaters of the law and how to comply, but they do not have authority to issue warnings or citations. Survey results are available on the Department of Natural Resources website.