U.S. government web sites you didn't know you could use

VIA - lifehacker.com

Overlooked and difficult to find, there are hundreds of thousands of U.S. government web sites that can help you accomplish a variety of tasks. At the right federal .gov destination you can locate historical documents, keep tabs on Congressional happenings, view presidential paperwork, and a whole lot more. Keep reading for the most useful U.S. government web sites out there.

For sheer accessibility, USA.gov wins hands-down as the U.S. government's official portal on the Web. You can find all sorts of goodies here: grant information, hundreds of online services (drivers' license renewal, shop government auctions, contact elected officials, etc.), the latest government news, and a ton more.

Related: For more government Web portals, check out FedWorld, Students.gov, Health.gov, or one of the coolest sites I've ever seen - the New York City Maps Portal.

 

GPO Access

GPO Access, part of the U.S. government printing office, offers you official information from all three branches of the federal government. A few links to note: core documents of U.S. democracy, a huge catalog of government publications, and an A-Z list of federal databases.

Related: You also don't want to miss the GPO's cache of congressional records, public presidential papers, or Ben's Guide.

 

Library of Congress

I could (and frequently do) get lost in the stellar Library of Congress. For instance, you can access state and local government information, browse the gigantic American Memory collection, or view current and historical legislative info courtesy of THOMAS.

Related: The National Archives is a good place to start your historical/genealogical research - you can also view actual scanned-in archival documents, such as the Document for Today.

 

CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook provides detailed information for (most) every known country, territory, and province in the world. You can also download a printable version.

Related: Find stats at the U.S. Census Bureau, federal data from FedStats, or view the National Atlas.

 

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Forget wasting time sluffing through pages of spammy job search information - the Occupational Outlook Handbook is the real deal. You can find state by state job market information, employment projections, even an A-Z occupations index that will give you an idea of what you should be making in your chosen field.

Related: Don't forget the Social Security Administration or the IRS.

 

Science

Since I have a budding geology buff in my house, science sites rank high on my list of most useful, and the United States Geological Survey is at the top. You can find all sorts of interesting information here, such as worldwide earthquake updates or the largest earth science library in the world.

Right next to the USGS is NASA, the home of the U.S. space program. This site is so gigantic that it's a bit difficult to summarize; however, my favorite spots have to be the image gallery, the archive of past missions, and the index of NASA World Book encyclopedia articles.

There's also the National Weather Service, the GrayLit Network, the Life Sciences Data Archives, and Science.gov, a portal for all kinds of scientific information.

 

And that's not all

As previously mentioned, there are literally hundreds of thousands of government web sites that are extremely useful, yet manage to fly somewhat under the radar....these picks are just the tip of the iceberg. What are your favorite government sites? Please share in the comments.

Wendy Boswell, Lifehacker's Weekend Editor, enjoys getting lost in the maze of government web sites. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

Unpleasant Surprises for Natural Gas

By Chris Nelder  (w w w . g r e e n c h i p s t o c k s . c o m )

Last week was just full of unpleasant surprises for natural gas supply.

Chris Nelder was researching the issues and it looks like we have some serious supply issues on our hands, starting now and growing worse over the next 20 years or more.

He also have prepared a detailed free report on it, which you can find here But here's the short version.

First, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a warning that it's very concerned about an impending supply gap for natural gas.

This is important because about one quarter of our electricity in the U.S. is generated from natural gas, a share that is expected to increase along with demand.

But he does believe that share can be increased. And that spells "higher grid electricity" prices for this country, and an even better outlook for solar and wind generation.

Apparently, receding horizons, massive cost increases, and lack of construction materials and skilled labor have all contributed to delays and cancellations in new power plant construction. It's just not a friendly environment for investing in new plants.

Sweetener used in everything, may be making us sicker

STOP POISONING YOURSELF WITH THE HEALTHY SWEETENER...

• Did you know the FDA refused to approve this best-selling sweetener for 16 years...?
  
• Until one powerful politician called in a favor which finally got it legalized...?
  
• And now it's been linked to brain cancer, memory loss, impaired vision, hearing loss, joint pain, asthma, coma, seizures...?

Aspartame, the sweetener being used in everything from sodas to salad dressing, may be making us sicker and fatter than good old sugar ever could!

Now, discover how this "healthy option" could actually kill you... plus learn more real medical truths that could save your life!

New guide offers information on managing unused pharmaceuticals

MADISON - People, businesses and institutions have new online resources to help them manage or dispose of pharmaceuticals and other personal care products in ways that are safe for them and the ... Read Full Article

Corn Ethanol Expansion - Kills viable biodiesel market...

 This story could easily be filed under Conspiracy Theory, Oil Company-Based. But is it deserved? "The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday that farmers nationwide planted 92.9 million acres of corn this year - 19 percent more than last year and 3 percent more than the government had projected in March. The demand for ethanol led U.S. farmers to plant the most corn since 1944. But that extra corn acreage means that farmers planted 15 percent less land to soybeans. The price of soybean oil is "almost to the point where it's not economically feasible to make biodiesel," said Dan Holesinger, manager of Clinton...

Best liveaid Quote

They rocked the world, but as the clean-up at nine climate change gigs
around the globe begins, many wonder if the galaxy of pop stars did much to
change it.

"I pray that this event ends global warming the same way that Live Aid ended
world hunger," he said in London.
- comedian Chris Rock

USGBC makes $1 Million Commitment to Support Green Building Research

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced that it will commit $1 million to green building research. These funds will be targeted at increasing research in areas such as energy and water security; global climate change prevention; indoor environmental quality; and passive survivability in the face of natural and man-made disasters.

 

Source: Building Design+Construction, 6/25/07. VIA- www.glrppr.org/news/

New studies find changing levels of mercury in fish and PCBs in people

MADISON – Wisconsin's updated fish consumption advisory booklet, "Choose Wisely, A Health Guide for Eating Fish in Wisconsin," arrives as studies show mixed trends in contaminant levels in sport-caught fish and the people who eat them.

• A Department of Natural Resources study analyzing statewide data from 1982 to 2005 found that mercury levels in walleye decreased 0.5 percent per year in northern lakes but increased 0.8 percent in southern lakes, and remained constant in middle latitudes of the state, according to Candy Schrank, a DNR toxicologist. The study found mercury generally increased with fish length but that relationship varies among lakes and other variables such as season, gender, lake area, and alkalinity are also important. The study will be published in the journal Ecotoxicology. A similar study by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission also found that walleye mercury decreased in northern lakes . This study was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology.
• A Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services survey found that PCB levels in the blood of Great Lakes charter boat captains and anglers decreased by 30 percent between 1994 and 2003. This decline reflects a gradual decline of PCB levels in the environment and in local sportfish. PCB production ended in the United States in 1977. However, these chemicals are still found in older appliances and electrical equipment.

"While these results show that exposure to some contaminants may be less in some parts of the state compared to the 1980s, further reductions will likely depend on mercury emission controls and PCB remediation efforts," Schrank says.

SOURCE - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Study Says 13 Million Deaths a Year Could Be Prevented

A recent report out of Europe indicates that tackling air pollution, contaminated drinking water and other environmental risks could save 13 million lives annually around the globe. Released by the World Health Organization, the report shows that Angola, Burkina Faso, Mali and Afghanistan to be among the countries most affected by environmental risk factors including noise pollution, hazardous working conditions, problematic agricultural methods, and climate change. Interestingly, in 23 of the 192 countries on which the report focused more than 10 percent of deaths can be traced to just two factors, unsafe drinking water and indoo...

 

Read more here

 

 

 

 

Picture & source VIA Treehugger

 

Chemical facilities should register under anti-terrorism rule

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommends that chemical facilities begin the registration process to gain access to the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) system. This is a voluntary registration process for facilities that think they may be covered by DHS's Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards located in 6 CFR Part 27 and that would like to initiate the process to determine whether or not they are covered by the rule.

Are FEMA Trailers Making Residents Sick?

Today the government says 86,000 families are still living in those white FEMA travel trailers across the Gulf — more and more waking up with a host of health problems — tied, medical experts believe, to the place they still call home.

Trailers with floors and cabinets built with particle board containing the chemical formaldehyde. Under hot, humid conditions, formaldehyde lets off toxic fumes, especially harmful to young lungs.

"It's the long-term carcinogen issue that really concerns me," Needle said.

Terry Sloan was a floor supervisor at a Gulf Stream Coach factory in Etna Green, Ind. Gulf Stream Coach built more than 50,000 stripped-down travel trailers.

Sloane says his crew worked at a breakneck pace for months, which, he says, forced the company to use cheaper wood products.

"Quality suffered dramatically because of the drive and pressure to put these trailers out," Sloan said.

Executives at Gulf Stream Coach declined an on-camera interview. Instead, the company issued this statement saying, in part, "For the FEMA trailers it used components and materials that met or exceeded industry standards."

But there are no federal standards for formaldehyde. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends a workplace exposure limit of .1 parts per million.

Last year the Sierra Club tested 31 travel trailers in Mississippi and found that virtually all — 94 percent — had levels of formaldehyde above that limit.

And CBS News has discovered an internal FEMA document that cites cancer as a potential job hazard for those just inspecting the trailers.

FEMA'S recommendation for fixing the problem? Open the windows and turn on the air conditioner.

David Paulison, FEMA's administrator, told Keteyian, "I don't know that the trailers are causing" any sickness.

As for Angela Orcutt, she's long suspected something in her home was making her son sick.

So we tested it, using the exact same meter used by FEMA.

Our result read .17. That's 70 percent higher than what the EPA standard is.

"It's scary," Orcutt said.

Coke Vows to Reduce Water Used in Drink Production

NEW YORK - The Coca-Cola Co. said on Tuesday it will reduce the amount of water used to produce its beverages and put more effort into recycling the water it uses in manufacturing.

Coke, which along with its bottlers used 290 billion litres of water for beverage production last year, said it would make a US$20 million commitment to the World Wildlife Fund.
"Our goal is to replace every drop of water we use in our beverages and their production," Coke chief E. Neville Isdell told the WWF's annual meeting in Beijing.

More than half the water Coke used in 2006 was dedicated to processes like rinsing, cleaning, heating and cooling, rather than going into the drinks themselves.

US: June 6, 2007 REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

US Adopts Limits on Clean Water Law Enforcement

 WASHINGTON - The landmark US law to fight water pollution will now apply only to bodies of water large enough for boats to use, and their adjacent wetlands, and will not automatically protect streams, the US government said on Tuesday.

Environmental groups said they fear the new policy will muddy the purpose of the federal Clean Water Act and put many smaller bodies of water at risk. Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation mandating protection of creeks, estuaries and other watersheds.

The EPA's new policy does not offer clear instructions to scientists in the field on how to protect surface waters, Devine said, and would eliminate protections for many streams. He also said the case-by-case decisions would inspire an onslaught of lawsuits and public confusion.

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Proposed standard to bring Green building practices mainstream

From- Plant Engineering,
A proposed new standard that will provide minimum guidelines for green building practices is nearly complete and has been released for public review and comment.
Standard 189P: Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings will provide a baseline for sustainable design, construction and operations in order to drive green building into mainstream building practices. It will apply to new commercial buildings and major renovation projects and will address key areas of performance including energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable site selection, water usage, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.
"Standard 189P will become the benchmark for all sustainable green buildings in the United States because it is being developed for inclusion into building codes," said John Hogan, chair of the Standard 189P project committee. "This means that owners and designers will have a consensus-based document that will set the minimum criteria that a building must satisfy in order to be considered a green building."

Comments on the standard will be accepted through July 9, 2007 at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. The standard is being developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council.

 

Click here to read the full press release.

Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility...and worse.

Fate can take strange forms, and so perhaps it does not seem unusual that Captain Charles Moore found his life's purpose in a nightmare. Unfortunately, he was awake at the time, and 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

It happened on August 3, 1997, a lovely day, at least in the beginning: Sunny. Little wind. Water the color of sapphires. Moore and the crew of Alguita, his 50-foot aluminum-hulled catamaran, sliced through the sea.

Returning to Southern California from Hawaii after a sailing race, Moore had altered Alguita's course, veering slightly north. He had the time and the curiosity to try a new route, one that would lead the vessel through the eastern corner of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre. This was an odd stretch of ocean, a place most boats purposely avoided. For one thing, it was becalmed. "The doldrums," sailors called it, and they steered clear. So did the ocean's top predators: the tuna, sharks, and other large fish that required livelier waters, flush with prey. The gyre was more like a desert—a slow, deep, clockwise-swirling vortex of air and water caused by a mountain of high-pressure air that lingered above it.

The area's reputation didn't deter Moore. He had grown up in Long Beach, 40 miles south of L.A., with the Pacific literally in his front yard, and he possessed an impressive aquatic résumé: deckhand, able seaman, sailor, scuba diver, surfer, and finally captain. Moore had spent countless hours in the ocean, fascinated by its vast trove of secrets and terrors. He'd seen a lot of things out there, things that were glorious and grand; things that were ferocious and humbling. But he had never seen anything nearly as chilling as what lay ahead of him in the gyre.

It began with a line of plastic bags ghosting the surface, followed by an ugly tangle of junk: nets and ropes and bottles, motor-oil jugs and cracked bath toys, a mangled tarp. Tires. A traffic cone. Moore could not believe his eyes. Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap. It was as though someone had taken the pristine seascape of his youth and swapped it for a landfill.

How did all the plastic end up here? How did this trash tsunami begin? What did it mean? If the questions seemed overwhelming, Moore would soon learn that the answers were even more so, and that his discovery had dire implications for human—and planetary—health. As Alguita glided through the area that scientists now refer to as the "Eastern Garbage Patch," Moore realized that the trail of plastic went on for hundreds of miles. Depressed and stunned, he sailed for a week through bobbing, toxic debris trapped in a purgatory of circling currents. To his horror, he had stumbled across the 21st-century Leviathan. It had no head, no tail. Just an endless body.

"Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic." This Andy Warhol quote is emblazoned on a six-foot-long magenta and yellow banner that hangs—with extreme irony—in the solar-powered workshop in Moore's Long Beach home. The workshop is surrounded by a crazy Eden of trees, bushes, flowers, fruits, and vegetables, ranging from the prosaic (tomatoes) to the exotic (cherimoyas, guavas, chocolate persimmons, white figs the size of baseballs). This is the house in which Moore, 59, was raised, and it has a kind of open-air earthiness that reflects his '60s-activist roots, which included a stint in a Berkeley commune. Composting and organic gardening are serious business here—you can practically smell the humus—but there is also a kidney-shaped hot tub surrounded by palm trees. Two wet suits hang drying on a clothesline above it.
 

 

 

Read full here by By Susan Casey, Photographs by Gregg Segal

Food health: 5-30 second rule

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: CONFLICTING RESULTS ON THE FIVE SECOND RULE

HAROLD McGEE, NY TIMES, 2007 - Accompanied by six graphs, two tables and equations whose terms include "bologna" and "carpet," [a new study from Clemson University provides] a thorough microbiological study of the five-second rule: the idea that if you pick up a dropped piece of food before you can count to five, it's O.K. to eat it. . . Findings: --Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor. --Cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli. --And, if you drop your food on a floor that does contain microorganisms, the food can be contaminated in 5 seconds or less. Connecticut College seniors and cell and molecular biology majors Molly Goettsche and Nicole Moin took two food samples - apple slices and Skittles candies - to the Connecticut College dining hall and snack bar. They dropped the foods onto the floors in both locations for five, 10, 30 and 60 second intervals, and also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse. They then looked for any rogue bacteria that might have attached to the foods. The researchers found no bacteria were present on the foods that had remained on the floor for five, 10 or 30 seconds. The apple slices did pick up bacteria after one minute, however, and the Skittles showed a bacterial presence after remaining on the floor for five minutes. The results prove, according Goettsche and Moin, that you can wait at least 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and more than a minute to pick up dry foods before they become contaminated with bacteria.

Biofuels or Bio-fools?

Here's an ethical question: in a world where people starve, does it make sense to run cars on food? In 2005, ethanol plants consumed 14 percent of the nation's corn crop. Producing seven times as much fuel, under Bush's proposed mandate, would put the proportion close to 100 percent.

....it didn't take him long to decide that cellulosic ethanol was the Next Big Thing.

It was a simple question of math. In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which required 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels—mostly ethanol—to be blended into gasoline per year by 2012. Then, in his State of the Union Address this year, President Bush called for increasing that mandate to 35 bil­lion gallons by 2017, both to help the environment and to reduce America's reliance on foreign imports of fossil fuels. The ethanol mandate advocated by the president represents one-fourth of the gasoline consumed last year in the United States.

...Few governments are willing to live and let live when it comes to biofuels. Ethanol currently benefits not just from the multibillion-gallon man­date, but also from a 51-cent-per-gallon-of-ethanol tax credit to blenders that mix the stuff with gaso­line. At the same time, a tariff on imported ethanol reduces foreign competition.

Celunol isn't the only business chasing the cel­lulosic dream. John Howe, the company's vice president for public affairs, jokes that when he looks out his window in Cambridge, he can see six other firms working on the same problem. Most are fueled by a gusher of venture capital flowing as mightily as Heywood hoped his well would. In 2005, accord­ing to the National Venture Capital Association, venture capitalists (VCs) poured $195 million into alternative energy companies. In 2006, that figure reached $727 million. Cleantech Venture Network, an arm of the Cleantech Group (a consortium of companies that invest in green technologies) cal­culates that biofuel investments rose sevenfold from 2005 to 2006 (see chart on page 93).

Alexander Farrell, an energy expert who also teaches at Berkeley, tried to calm the debate with a January 2006 article in Science magazine that aggregated six different studies, including Pimentel's and Patzek's. Farrell's team found that, on the whole, corn ethanol had a positive energy balance, though "the average hides a lot," he said in an interview. "Some ethanol has a bigger benefit, and some a negative benefit—worse than gasoline." As for greenhouse gases, "the average is not terri­bly positive. There are technologies and plants today that perform well, but no one has an incentive for good performance."

At the pump, ethanol faces another big problem: it is less powerful than gasoline in today's engines. New flex-fuel vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol blends (E85) show decent fuel efficiency, and if an engine is built to take complete advan­tage of ethanol, the biofuel's high octane levels could give it some advantages over gasoline. But ethanol-optimized vehicles are as rare as ethanol service stations. That means that in the near future, ethanol, since it gets fewer miles per gallon in con­ventional cars, needs to be cheaper per gallon than gasoline to compete. Achieving that low price is tough because of America's limited corn supply. In 2005, ethanol plants consumed 14 percent of the nation's corn crop. Without efficiency gains or mas­sive imports, producing seven times as much fuel, under Bush's proposed mandate, would put the pro­portion of the crop close to 100 percent.

But ethanol policy isn't necessarily about prac­ticality. It's about politics, personified in another presence on the RFA's board: Martin Lyons, senior vice president for ethanol sales and marketing at Archer Daniels Midland Company.

What is clear is that, despite its environmental and efficiency woes, corn ethanol has been the lucky beneficiary of an American political quirk, first pointed out by economist Bruce Yandle in a famous 1983 article in the journal Regulation. In the article, Yandle, now dean emeritus of the Clemson College of Business and Behavioral Sciences, recounted that, while he worked at the Federal Trade Commission, he noticed a funny thing about regulations that captured the public's imagination and managed to endure. These regulations evolved not because of rational cost-benefit analysis, Yandle wrote, but because of odd alliances between what he called "Bootleggers and Baptists."

Yandle suggested that most regulations could be viewed in this light. Groups with moral motives provide cover for those who benefit eco­nomically (groups that, unlike bootleggers, typically operate within the law), even if the two sides don't have much else in common. So far, this dynamic has propelled etha­nol from obscurity to the center of American energy policy.

Read full here

THE GREAT WATER HIJACKING

TARA LOHAN, ALTERNET - Across the country, multinational corporations are targeting hundreds of rural communities to gain control of their most precious resource. By strong-arming small towns with limited economic means, these corporations are part of a growing trend to privatize public water supplies for economic gain in the ballooning bottled water industry.

With sales of over $35 billion worldwide in the bottled water market, corporations are doing whatever it takes to buy up pristine springs in some of our country's most beautiful places. While the companies reap the profits, the local communities and the environment are paying the price.

One of the biggest and most voracious of the water gobblers is Nestle, which controls one-third of the U.S. market and sells 70 different brand names -- such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier, Poland Spring and Ice Mountain -- which it draws from 75 springs located all over the country. By TPR  prorev.com

BUT IT MAKES YOU LOOK SO SENSITIVE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. . .

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY ­ - Factories are using more than 18 million barrels of oil and up to 130 billion gallons of fresh water a year to create bottled water. And the resources mentioned above are just to make the plastic containers. Another 41 billion gallons of water is then used to fill them ­ water that is often just tap water, and other times has less frequent monitoring for safety or purity than if it had come out of a tap.

Jarvis, who has studied the issue for 15 years and makes frequent presentations on it, arrived long ago at a simple conclusion ­ bottled water is not worth the price, and the people buying it often have no idea of the environmental repercussions.

"There have always been, and still are some places in the developing world where bottled water is necessary for health concerns and relief efforts," Jarvis said. "But in most of the world it was a niche item until the 1970s, when Perrier spent millions on advertising, and the industry just took off. It hasn't looked back since, and now in America we're spending $20,000 every minute of every day on bottled water."

Between 1978 and 2006, the consumption of bottled water in America went up 20 times, or 2,000 percent. Large soft drink companies dominate the market.

With bottled water, Jarvis said, any past issues of health and safety now take a back seat to convenience, taste, and perhaps most important, trendiness. About 700 name brands of water compete for shelf space, and tap water that originally cost maybe five cents a gallon can be sold for $4 a gallon. Doesn't take a business genius to see how that pencils out.

The water itself, Jarvis said, is generally fine ­ usually no more or less safe than tap water, which in the United States is among the safest in the world. Worth noting, however, is that community water supplies are subject to fairly strict and constant monitoring required by the Safe Drinking Water Act, while bottled water is considered a "food" and entails much less frequent monitoring for safety and quality by the Food and Drug Administration or individual states. Tests of bottled water have at times found contaminants.

"There doesn't seem to be any correlation between safety and bottled water consumption in the U.S.," Jarvis said. "New York City, for instance, gets its water from a very carefully managed watershed and has some of the best drinking water in the nation ­ and also among the highest per capita consumption of bottled water."

And some of the myths surrounding water, Jarvis said, need to be checked. Spring water, for instance, is often touted as if it's inherently safer or more pure than other forms of water ­ when in fact it could be subject to more surface pollution because of the engineering difficulties associated with securing a source that is a spring-based or shallow well supply. Water from deep wells ­ like that often used for municipal water supplies ­ could be of the same or better quality than water from springs. . .

But before people get too carried away with visions of pristine water from a sparkling aquifer or mountain stream, Jarvis said, they should be aware that 25-40 percent of what is on store shelves is just tap water that has undergone additional treatment or had minerals added at the bottling plant.

"If people still want to drink bottled water, I usually recommend purified water, 'rain' water or well water from a nearby local source to provide the best combination of purity and environmental sensitivity," Jarvis said. "But a reasonable alternative is just chilled tap water in a re-usable container. That often removes the chlorine taste that people complain about with tap water, it's safe, and it's a lot cheaper."

By TPR - prorev.com

OSHA's Targeted Inspection Plan for 2007

Approximately 4,150 high-hazard worksites are on tap for inspection under OSHA's 2007 Site-Specific Targeting Program, as of May 14. This year's program will initially target sites that reported 11 or more injuries or illnesses, resulting in days away from work, restricted work activity, or job transfer for every 100 full-time employees (known as the DART rate). The list will also include sites that have a days away from work injury and illness (DAFWII) rate of 9 or higher. The program stems from the agency's Data Initiative for 2006, which surveyed approximately 80,000 employers to attain their injury and illness numbers for 2005.

...fuel derived from corn "is about the dumbest idea I've ever seen."

Quote of month - I tend to agree with Charlie Munger when he recently said running cars on fuel derived from corn "is about the dumbest idea I've ever seen." But no matter how much the investing geniuses and I agree on the economics, I think the political tailwind behind ethanol is unstoppable."

 

Read more here

Colbert: The Word on Global Warming

Thanks Grist!

Green Clean Schools Act sails through Illinois Senate

With a 52-5 vote in the Senate Wednesday, Illinois became only the second state to enact legislation requiring green cleaning in schools. The act will require all elementary and secondary schools in Illinois to purchase environmentally sensitive cleaning supplies, which are now cost-comparable and equally effective to conventional cleaning products. The bill authorizes the Green Government Coordinating Council to determine specific standards for green products within six months. Schools will develop plans for meeting the standards within three months of the standards' development, but may continue using their current stock of cleaning supplies until it is depleted. Source: Healthy Schools Campaign, (VIA- glrppr.org)

Biofuels displace indigenous people

Indigenous people are being pushed off their lands to make way for an expansion of biofuel crops around the world, threatening to destroy their cultures by forcing them into big cities, the head of a U.N. panel said Monday. Read here

New EPA Environmental Steward Site

EPA has launched a Web site to help business, government and private citizens make intelligent choices on sustainable environmental benefits.

The environmental stewardship Web site can be found at http://www.epa.gov/stewardship.

 

Environmental stewardship is the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment. Everyday, more than 300 million Americans make countless choices that can impact our environment. By being an active environmental steward you can reduce those impacts and make a difference in the kind of world we live in today and pass on to future generations.

As the leading environmental agency in the United States, EPA has an important role to play in promoting environmental stewardship-by individuals, communities, businesses and other organizations, and by our partners throughout government.

Search EPA Programs Supporting
Environmental Stewardship

Individuals
Communities
Businesses and Institutions
Governments

Get Tips for Practicing
Environmental Stewardship

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New chemical catalyst that can help remove and destroy perchlorate in contaminated water

UIUC's LAS News - When a plume of contaminated groundwater from a manufacturing plant near Las Vegas seeped into the Colorado River, the contaminant "perchlorate" spread throughout the Southwest. The cleanup could take decades.

To aid with such catastrophic cleanups, LAS researchers from the University of Illinois have developed a new chemical catalyst that can help remove and destroy perchlorate in contaminated water.  Read the full story

By Laura B. lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu (thanks! ;-)

BIOFUELS CUTTING GRAIN CROPS, SPEEDING DEFORESTATION

TIM WEBB, INDEPENDENT, UK - Biofuels have also driven up food prices, hitting the world's poor the hardest. According to the International Grain Council, at the end of this financial year the world's grain stocks (corn, wheat and barley) will be the lowest since the 1970s, mainly because of soaring demand from biofuels. Some of these "green" energy sources also use up more energy during the manufacturing and refining process than they save.

Politics - particularly the interests of big agricultural businesses - is starting to dictate the biofuel market. The US has imposed punitive import tariffs on Brazilian-made ethanol - one of the world's most efficient biofuels - and subsidises the export of its domestically made corn-based ethanol, which is one of the least efficient. This subsidy could lead to a trade war between the EU and the US.

The biggest drawback with biofuels is the deforestation that it directly and indirectly causes. How much deforestation takes place is hard to measure, but if new demand emerges - such as from biofuels - more land has to be found from somewhere.

WI - State seeks to expand emergency rules aimed at containing deadly fish disease

MADISON – Reports over the weekend that a new viral fish disease likely killed fish in the Lake Winnebago System is spurring Wisconsin fisheries officials to seek to expand the reach of emergency rules aimed at preventing viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, from spreading to new waters.

Fisheries officials will ask the state Natural Resources Board to meet in a special session Thursday, May 17, to consider expanding key emergency rule requirements beyond Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, the Mississippi River and their tributaries. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in Room 613 of the State Natural Resources Building (GEF 2), 101 S. Webster St., Madison.

"When we originally went to the Natural Resources Board in April, they made it clear to us that if VHS was found outside Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, they wanted us to come back and they would consider extending the rules to new waters or statewide," Staggs says. "That's what we're doing now that initial tests indicate the disease has spread to the Lake Winnebago system."

 

VHS is not a health threat to people who handle infected fish or want to eat their catch, but it can kill more than 25 fish species, causing them to bleed to death.

Read more from WDNR

Citigroup Commits US$50 Bln to Green Projects

The amount includes nearly US$10 billion in activities that the bank has already undertaken. Citigroup plans to increase to US$10 billion from about US$1 billion its commitment to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions at its 14,500 locations worldwide. The bank operates in more than 100 countries.

"It's a dramatic announcement," said Daniel Esty, a Yale University environmental law professor who co-wrote "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage."

"To the extent it signals a sea change in Citigroup's attitude toward the environment, it could have a sweeping impact across economies globally," said Esty.

Cal/OSHA on Falk Blast & Veterans Home of California

Firm to Fight Citations in Wake of Milwaukee Blast
J.M. Brennan Inc. vows to challenge the three Fed-OSHA citations and nearly $17,000 in fines it received in connection with the December propane explosion that killed three workers and injured 45 others at the Falk Corp. plant in Milwaukee. Small Business Times
Go to the Full Story...

 

"We have a great working relationship with Cal/OSHA and they've bent over backwards to work with us." Marcella McCormack, administrator of the Veterans Home of California at Yountville, about the facility's avoidance of nearly $40,000 in workplace safety penalties Go to the full story in the Napa Valley Register

MSN - Does a story right on saving gas?

FROM MSN: It turns out that we wouldn't have to cut consumption by 40 percent or 30 percent or even 20 percent to send pump prices lower. Try 7 percent.

That's how much demand fell off last winter. After peaking at 9.7 million barrels in the week of Aug. 4, 2006, U.S. gasoline demand hit a low of 9.0 million barrels during the week of Jan. 19, 2007 — a difference of 7 percent. During the same period, the average U.S. price peaked at $3.083 in August and fell to $2.213 by the end of January — a drop of 28 percent.

 

Read more at MSN

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

True or myth... could someone email me if this is a hoax?

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Scientists may have cured cancer last week.
Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no problem to use it for other purposes.

The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced for bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies research and develop.
Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were fed water supplemented with DCA.

Cancer cells don't use the little power stations found in most human cells - the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which is less effective and more wasteful.

Doctors have long believed the reason for this is because the mitochondria were damaged somehow. But, it turns out the mitochondria were just dormant, and DCA starts them back up again.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.
With glycolysis turned off, the body produces less lactic acid, so the bad tissue around cancer cells doesn't break down and seed new tumors.

So, the groundwork will have to be done at universities and independently funded laboratories. But, how are they supposed to drum up support if the media aren't even talking about it?

Original research:

Boy I Called this one :-) LEDs emerge winner to fight fluorescents

NEW YORK - The light bulb, the symbol of bright ideas, doesn't look like such a great idea anymore, as lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad are talking about banning the century-old technology because of its contribution to global warming.

But what comes next? Compact fluorescent bulbs are the only real alternative right now, but "bulbs" that use light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are quickly emerging as a challenger.
  
Department of Energy, and widespread use of LED lighting could cut consumption in half. By 2027, LED lighting could cut annual energy use by the equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil, with the attendant reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas believed to be responsible for global warming.

The energy efficiency is no doubt a draw for commercial clients like hotels, but LEDs have another big advantage: they last up to 50,000 hours, according to manufacturers. That compares to about 10,000 hours for fluorescents and 1,000 hours for incandescents. Not having to send out janitors to replace burned-out bulbs means big savings in maintenance costs.

LEDs already beat fluorescents for energy efficiency in some niche uses. For instance, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting LED lighting in its in-store refrigerators, where the cold dims fluorescents and incandescents produce too much heat. LEDs also starting to replace flat fluorescent backlights in liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs, where they produce better colors.

LEDs don't contain toxic mercury, which CFLs do, though the amount is very small. (Recent stories circulating on the Web about calling a hazmat team if a CFL breaks are exaggerated. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends sweeping up, not vacuuming, the fragments, then checking out local recycling options.)  The cost of LED lighting should be coming down quickly. Polybrite founder Carl Scianna said the cost of individual white-light diodes, several of which go into an LED bulb and make up much of the cost, have come down in price from about $8 to $1.50 in a year.

 
"They're going to keep going down," Scianna said. "By the middle of next year, they'll be priced for consumers."
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On the Net:
U.S. Department of Energy on LEDs: http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/
Recycling options for CFLs: http://www.lamprecycle.org

http://www.cree.com
Lighting Science Group: http://www.lsgc.com/

 

Biofuels are the 'next environmental danger'

Far from being the salvation of an oil-hungry society, biofuels could actually trigger increases in food prices and deforestation, according to a report.

It doesn't suggest doing away with them altogether, but says that current targets for swapping petrol and diesel for fuel derived from crops are too ambitious.

The UK government, and the European Union have set their sights on using biofuels in 10 per cent of our cars by 2020. But the Co-op's report suggests that to produce this amount of fuel on a global scale would require as much as nine per cent of arable land being diverted to fuel crops.

Professor Dieter Helm, who sits of the government's Council for Science and Technology, told the BBC: "The sort of targets being set for biofuels will have quite radical effects on agriculture and therefore will have very substantial consequences for food prices and agriculture more generally."

He points out that rainforest is already being felled to make way for fuel crops.

"Think of the energy involved in felling those rainforests. Think about the damage to the climate being done by the loss of those trees. Think about the ploughing and the cultivation of fields. Think about the transport of those fuels, and you start to realize the carbon imprints are about much more than simply what happens to grow in a particular field at a particular point in time."

Source theregister

Switch to Cleaner Marine Fuel Will Increase CO2 Emissions

Reuters. The International Energy Agency (IEA) is cautioning that switching from fuel oil to cleaner, less polluting marine diesel in ship engines would result in a net increase in global carbon dioxide emissions, require billions in refinery investments and could boost oil prices.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is considering the switch from fuel oil to marine diesel to improve the environmental footprint of the shipping industry.

In its monthly Oil Market Report, the IEA said that studies had concluded that converting refineries to produce enough diesel for shipping demand would produce at least an extra 53 million tonnes a year of CO2, whereas emissions from ships if using diesel would only fall by 27 million tonnes.

"It may also require an additional 2 million barrels per day of crude runs, which would be the equivalent of finding another Kuwait," the West's energy watchdog said.

Read more at greencarcongress.com