Due To Extreme Drought, The Number Of Cattle In The U.S. Is The Smallest It Has Been Since 1951

The last time the number of cattle in the United States was this low was 63 years ago.  But back in 1951, there were only about 154 million people living in the United States.  Now, there are more than 313 million people living in this nation.  The size of the U.S. cattle herd has been shrinkingfor seven years in a row, and we are rapidly heading toward a beef shortage unlike anything that this country has ever experienced before.  Of course the primary reason for this is the extreme drought which has been plaguing the western half of the country.  As I noted recently, 2013 was the driest year that the state of California has ever experienced, and due to the lack of water ranchers across the western half of the nation have been selling off their cattle to be slaughtered.  If you check out the U.S. Drought Monitor, you can see that almost the entire state of California is officially experiencing “D3 Extreme Drought” right now.  If this drought does not end, we will eventually be facing a food crisis in the United States that is greater than any of us have ever seen in our entire lifetimes.

According to ABC News, the size of the U.S. cattle herd is already down to less than 88 million animals…

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the U.S. inventory of cattle and calves totaled 87.7 million animals as of Jan. 1. That was down by about 1.6 million cattle, or 2 percent, compared with this time last year.

The agency says this is the lowest January inventory since 1951.

As I noted above, the number of cattle in this country has been shrinking for seven years in a row.  If we still had the same number of people that we did back in 1951, this would not be too much of a problem.  Unfortunately, the reality is that we now have more than twice as many people to feed.

And of course this drought is not just causing problem for ranchers.  If rain does not start falling, there are rural communities all over California that will soon have no water to drink…

The punishing drought that has swept California is now threatening the state’s drinking water supply.

With no sign of rain, 17 rural communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out within 60 to 120 days. State officials said that the number was likely to rise in the months ahead after the State Water Project, the main municipal water distribution system, announced on Friday that it did not have enough water to supplement the dwindling supplies of local agencies that provide water to an additional 25 million people. It is first time the project has turned off its spigot in its 54-year history.

Are you starting to understand?

This is serious.

Read more by Michael Snyder

West Coast Is “On Track for Having the Worst Drought In 500 Years”

Is the West Coast In the Middle of a "Mega Drought"?

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"We are on track for having the worst drought in 500 years," said B. Lynn Ingram, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

California droughts can last decades … or even centuries.  As the San Jose Mercury News points out:

Through studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence, researchers have documented multiple droughts in California that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years — compared to the mere three-year duration of the current dry spell. The two most severe megadroughts make the Dust Bowl of the 1930s look tame: a 240-year-long drought that started in 850 and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another that stretched at least 180 years.

"We continue to run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to encounter is about seven years," said Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. "We're living in a dream world."

***

Some scientists believe we are already in a megadrought, although that view is not universally accepted.

Bill Patzert, a research scientist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, says that the West is in a 20-year drought that began in 2000. He cites the fact that a phenomenon known as a "negative Pacific decadal oscillation" [not linked to climate change] is underway — and that historically has been linked to extreme high-pressure ridges that block storms.

 Please continue reading at WASHINGTON'S BLOG

Starving hives: Pesticides cause bees to collect 57% less pollen, study says

​Bees exposed to "field-realistic" doses of insecticides gather less than a half the pollen that they normally do, dooming their young to starvation, UK researches have said. While some scientists hailed the findings, pesticide makers remained unimpressed

In a spin-off of their earlier study, a team of British scientists have revealed how the neurotoxic chemicals contained in agricultural neonicotinoids affect the very basic function of the honeybees – the gathering of pollen, or flower nectar.

"Pollen is the only source of protein that bees have, and it is vital for rearing their young. Collecting it is fiddly, slow work for the bees and intoxicated bees become much worse at it. Without much pollen, nests will inevitably struggle," explained University of Sussex professor Dave Goulson, who has led the study. His comments were made in a statement released alongside the research.

Goulson's latest paper called "Field realistic doses of pesticide imidacloprid reduce bumblebee pollen foraging efficiency" was published at the end of January in peer-reviewed journal Ecotoxicology.

The scientists exposed some of the studied bees to low doses of imidacloprid and tracked their movement with the help of electronic tags. Unexposed bees were also tracked, and each insect flying out and returning to a hive was weighed to find out the amount of pollen it gathered.

It turned out that bees exposed to the neonicotinoid brought back pollen from only 40 percent of their trips asopposed to 63 percent of useful trips which their "healthy" counterparts undertook. 
Intoxicated bees cut the amount of pollen gathered by nearly a third - overall, the comparative study showed that the hives exposed to the pesticide received 57 percent less pollen.

"Even near-infinitesimal doses of these neurotoxins seem to be enough to mess up the ability of bees to gather food. Given the vital importance of bumblebees as pollinators, this is surely a cause for concern,"Hannah Feltham of the University of Stirling, another member of the research team, stated.

Please continue reading

http://rt.com/news/bees-pesticides-pollen-study-553/

Worldwide Cancer Cases Expected to Soar by 70% Over Next 20 Years

Guardian: Cancer cases worldwide are predicted to increase by 70% over the next two decades, from 14m in 2012 to 25m new cases a year, according to the World Health Organisation.

The latest World Cancer Report says it is implausible to think we can treat our way out of the disease and that the focus must now be on preventing new cases. Even the richest countries will struggle to cope with the spiralling costs of treatment and care for patients, and the lower income countries, where numbers are expected to be highest, are ill-equipped for the burden to come.

Please continue reading at Guardian

Startup Promises Half-Price Gasoline from Natural Gas

MIT: If Siluria really can make cheap gasoline from natural gas it will have achieved something that has eluded the world's top chemists and oil and gas companies for decades. Indeed, finding an inexpensive and direct way to upgrade natural gas into more valuable and useful chemicals and fuels could finally mean a cheap replacement for petroleum.  

Natural gas burns much more cleanly than oil—power plants that burn oil emit 50 percent more carbon dioxide than natural gas ones. It also is between two and six times more abundant than oil, and its price has fallen dramatically now that technologies like fracking and horizontal drilling have led to a surge of production from unconventional sources like the Marcellus Shale. While oil costs around $100 a barrel, natural gas sells in the U.S. for the equivalent of $20 a barrel.

Please continue reading

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523146/chasing-the-dream-of-half-price-gasoline-from-natural-gas/

Bacteria and urea turn sand into for more-sustainable concrete

Cement is an energy-intensive product. Making it means heating limestone to 2642 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, 5 percent of the entire world's carbon dioxide emissions come from cement production. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of scientists searching for more-sustainable solutions to cement and the concrete it's the primary ingredient in. One of the newest: A process that stiffens sand with the help of bacteria and urea. 

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Increased Cyber Security Can Save Global Economy Trillions

Increased Cyber Security Can Save Global Economy Trillions
Source: World Economic Forum

Failing to improve cyber security could cost the world economy and lead to more frequent cyberattacks, according to a new report released today by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey & Company.

The Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World report addresses options that institutions can take to improve cyber resilience and mitigate the economic and strategic impact of such attacks. With the recent proliferation of cyberattacks, corporate executives need to devote increasing attention to protecting information assets and on-line operations.

The report notes that major technology trends, including massive analytics, cloud computing and big data, could create between US$ 9.6 trillion and $US 21.6 trillion in value for the global economy. However, if attacker sophistication outpaces defender capabilities – resulting in more destructive attacks – a wave of new regulations and corporate policies could slow innovation, with an aggregate impact of approximately US$ 3 trillion by 2020.

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World's First Magma-Based Geothermal Energy System

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) announced it broke through to the Mantle and created a superheated steam pipe capable of producing power at the nearby Krafla Power Plant in Northern Iceland. The system was operational for several months until a malfunctioning valve forced its closure. The IDDP, however, plans to either reopen its first magma-based geothermal bore hole(PDF) — IDDP-1 — or drill another one at Reykjanes. While the IDDP-1 is not the first bore hole to reach the planet's magma, it is the first time an operation has been able to harness the mantle's heat to produce a steam pipe that could power a plant.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Powertraveller's modular charger powers up by crank, sun, wind and water

Powertraveller adds an ultra-versatile portable charger to its gadget charger line. Not only does the new Powermonkey Expedition include standards like a clamshell solar panel, AC adapter and crank charger, it complements them with a portable wind/river turbine. Carry the kit on your adventures and simply connect the generator component that's most suitable for the current conditions. .. Continue Reading Powertraveller's modular charger powers up by crank, sun, wind and water

California drought: 17 communities could run out of water within 60 to 120 days, state says

Mercury News, CA - As California's drought deepens, 17 communities across the state are in danger of running out of water within 60 to 120 days, state officials said Tuesday.

In some communities, wells are running dry. In others, reservoirs are nearly empty. Some have long-running problems that predate the drought.

The water systems, all in rural areas, serve from 39 to 11,000 residents. 

And it could get a lot worse.

"As the drought goes on, there will be more that probably show up on the list," said Dave Mazzera, acting drinking-water division chief for the state Department of Public Health.

Please continue reading from California drought: 17 communities could run out of water within 60 to 120 days, state says - San Jose Mercury News | shared via feedly mobile

Device Mines Precious Phosphorus From Sewage

Scientists predict that the scarcity of phosphorus will increase over the next few decades as the growing demand for agricultural fertilizer depletes geologic reserves of the element. Meanwhile, phosphates released from wastewater into natural waterways can cause harmful algal blooms and low-oxygen conditions that can threaten to kill fish. Now a team of researchers has designed a system that could help solve both of these problems. It captures phosphorus from sewage waste and delivers clean water using a combined osmosis-distillation process. The system improves upon current methods by reducing the amounts of chemicals needed to precipitate a phosphorus mineral from the wastewater, thus bringing down the cost of the recovery process.

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Megatons To Megawatts Program Comes To a Close

In the aftermath of the Cold War, the disintegrating Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and tons of weapons-grade fissile material. In the economic and political turmoil, many feared that it would fall into unfriendly hands. However, thanks to the doggedness of an MIT professor, Dr. Thomas Neff, 500 metric tons of weapons grade material made its way into nuclear reactors in the United States through the Megatons to Megawattsprogram. During the program, about 10% of all electricity generated in the U.S. came from weapons once aimed at the country. Now, after nearly 20 years, the program is coming to an end. The final shipment of Soviet-era uranium, now nuclear fuel, has arrived in Baltimore.

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American #wind #energy to be stored in Canada using giant hydro "battery"

A recent deal to build a proposed transmission line that crosses the international border with Canada has the potential to enable the storage of abundant wind power from the US in a giant hydro “battery” in Manitoba.

A pair of utilities, Minnesota Power and Manitoba Hydro, have inked a Renewable Optimisation Agreement (ROA) under which electricity from excess wind produced in North Dakota can be stored in Manitoba’s hydro reservoir when loads and prices are low, with the potential for selling that power back onto the huge United States Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) market at times when needs are high.

The deal involves the pair building a new 400 mile 500 kV transmission line, with a capacity of 750 megawatts, connecting northeastern Minnesota with Winnipeg, at a cost of $1bn split between the two utilities.

Manitoba Hydro is already an external participant with MISO, as a large hydroelectric system with some of the lowest electricity prices in North America.

“We can act as a rechargeable battery for the MISO market,” says Manitoba Hydro Division Manager of Power Sales and Operations David Cormie. “The arrangement we have with Minnesota Power is that they are going to invest in new transmission in the US, and Manitoba Hydro will invest in the transmission in Canada, and at the same time Manitoba Hydro is going to build new power dams that create more storage capability.”

The deal with Minnesota Power would use 51 per cent of the proposed line’s capacity, leaving the remainder available for other US utilities to do the same.

Huge “battery” to the north

The province lies at the centre of a 400,000 square mile watershed that drains from the Rocky Mountains to the west and Lake Superior to the east. The Nelson River drains north to Hudson Bay with an average flow at the sea of 115,000 cubic feet per second - eight times that of the Colorado River.

Manitoba's 1,000 feet of hydro-electric potential remains only half developed and two new hydro projects with associated storage planned for the Nelson River has created the opportunity for further interconnecting the Manitoba battery to MISO.

“We are able to able to operate our hydro system in a manner that takes energy out of the market when the prices are low, and returns the energy to the market in periods when the prices are high,” Cormie explains.

“But the new storage capability of our hydro system can only be useful if the transmission line capacity to the market gets bigger. So between the storage that Manitoba Hydro is developing and Minnesota Power’s willingness to build new transmission, we in effect are making the battery bigger, enabling more two-way trade in electricity.”

Please read By Susan Kraemer at:

http://social.windenergyupdate.com/operations-maintenance/american-wind-be-stored-canada?utm_source=e-brief2801&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2801&utm_campaign=WEU

Outbreak of exposure to a novel synthetic cannabinoid known as "black mamba."

An outbreak of exposure to a novel synthetic cannabinoid was rapidly controlled in Colorado, according to a letter to the editor published in the 23 Jan 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Andrew A Monte, MD, from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, and colleagues discuss an outbreak of exposure to a novel synthetic cannabinoid known as "black mamba."

The researchers identified 263 cases that met the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment case definition between 21 Aug and 19 Sep 2013. A total of 76 patients presented to emergency departments at 2 teaching hospitals where exposure was confirmed. Most cases involved single-agent ingestions. The patients were mainly young men, and symptoms included altered mental status, tachycardia followed by bradycardia, and seizures. For most patients, care was managed in the emergency departments, although 10 patients were admitted to intensive care units. The outbreak ended abruptly, with only 10 cases reported from 13 Sep to 25 Oct 2013.

The novel synthetic cannabinoid molecule, ADB-PINACA, was identified consistently in multiple brand products. Exposure to ADB-PINACA correlated with neurotoxicity and cardiotoxicity. Dissemination of case management guidelines by the poison center and public health outreach efforts were successfully implemented to limit the outbreak.

"Medical toxicologists, public health officials, and law enforcement officials worked together to determine the cause of symptoms, develop the most effective treatment, and limit the distribution of this novel and potentially dangerous synthetic cannabinoid," the authors write. 

--

Reference

Monte AA, Bronstein AC, Heard KJ, Iwanicki JL: An Outbreak of Exposure to a Novel Synthetic Cannabinoid. N Engl J Med 2014; 370(4): 389-90; <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1313655>.

CRS — Oil and Chemical Spills: Federal Emergency Response Framework

Oil and Chemical Spills: Federal Emergency Response Framework (PDF)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)

Thousands of oil and chemical spills of varying size and magnitude occur in the United States each year. A recent spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River in early January 2014 in and near Charleston, WV, illustrates the potential magnitude of such incidents that can have broad impacts on local populations. When a spill occurs, state and local officials located in proximity to the incident generally are the first responders and may elevate an incident for federal attention if greater resources are desired. In the case of the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol spill in West Virginia, President Obama issued a federal emergency declaration on January 10, 2014, to provide alternative water supplies to affected individuals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also is supporting state efforts to respond to the spill.

The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, often referred to as the National Contingency Plan (NCP), establishes the procedures for the federal response to oil and chemical spills. The scope of the NCP encompasses discharges of oil into or upon U.S. waters and adjoining shorelines and releases of hazardous substances into the environment. The NCP was developed in 1968 and has been revised on multiple occasions to implement the federal statutory response authorities that Congress has expanded over time. Three federal environmental statutes authorized the development of the NCP: the Clean Water Act, as amended; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended; and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

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TRI-MEweb and RY 2013 TRI Reporting Forms & Instructions Availability

TRI, EPCRA, RMP & Oil Information Center: The newest version of the TRI-MEweb online reporting system, as well as the Reporting Year (RY) 2013 TRI Reporting Forms & Instructions manual are now available.  Effective January 21, 2014, facilities must use TRI-MEweb to submit TRI reporting forms to EPA (except for trade secret information, which facilities will still complete on paper) according to the Electronic Reporting of Toxics Release Inventory Data Final Rule (link included).  All RY 1991 to RY 2013 TRI forms in hardcopy format that are mailed to the Data Processing Center in Fairfax, Virginia, will be returned to the sender with a notice that forms must be submitted using the TRI-MEweb application.  Facilities must submit TRI forms for RY 2013 by July 1, 2014.

Login to your CDX user account and access the TRI-MEweb application at the following URL:

https://cdx.epa.gov/CDX/Login

Guidance on using TRI-MEweb to submit TRI forms is available at the following URL:

www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-meweb-resources

The RY 2013 TRI Reporting Forms & Instructions is available at the following URL: 

www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-reporting-forms-and-instructions 

Free Webinar - Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program: A Holistic Continuous Improvement Framework

This webinar will discuss the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products program, a multi-attribute, continuous improvement methodology that provides a path to manufacturing healthy and sustainable products for our world. It requires a paradigm shift in thinking about how a product is designed, what it contains, how it is made, and where it goes after use. As a guidance system for product designers and manufacturers, the program leads to the creation of innovative products that redefine quality and beauty.  Thu, Feb 13, 2014 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

The program guides continual improvement towards products that are: 

- made with materials that are safe for humans and the environment 

- designed so all ingredients can be reused safely by nature or industry 

- assembled and manufactured with renewable, non polluting energy 

- made in ways that protect and enrich water supplies, and 

- made in ways that advance social and environmental justice. 

Presenter: Susan Klosterhaus, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute 

Register at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/313286403072512002

Jellyfish impact on nuclear #Energy: Forget earthquakes and tsunamis: Jellyfish are fast-growing threat

Forget earthquakes and tsunamis: one of the fastest-growing threats to nuclear operations could come from blobby, brainless creatures.

As threats go, the humble jellyfish hardly looks like a formidable opponent.

With a body that is between 95% and 98% water, plus no digestive or nervous system, the average Cnidarian would seem unlikely to imperil mankind's mightiest power generating systems, for example. But you might be surprised.

In September a swarm of moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita), a species that is not even dangerous to swimmers, took on one of the biggest nuclear plants on the planet… and won.

The umbrella-shaped creatures clogged a cooling water intake at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden and forced operator E.ON Kärnkraft Sverige to shut down the third reactor, cutting off 1,450MW of generation for several days.

Nor was this the first time jellyfish had struck a nuclear power plant. Oskarshamn had experienced the problem previously, in 2005. The following year Chubu Electric Power Co's Hamaoka plant in Japan had to cut its power output while dealing with a jellyfish blockage.

And in 2011, moon jellyfish swarms caused shutdowns at EDF Energy's Torness Power Station in Scotland, UK, and at Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie plant on Hutchinson Island in the US.

Cooling water

EDF Energy had to manually shut down both units at the plant "due to the high volumes of jellyfish fouling the cooling water screens," said the operator, adding that the UK Office of Nuclear Regulation had been briefed on developments.

"Reduced cooling water flows due to ingress from jellyfish, seaweed and other marine debris are considered as part of the station's safety case and are not an unknown phenomenon. At no time was there any danger to the public.

"There are no radiological aspects associated with this event and there has been no impact to the environment."

Three local trawlers ultimately helped clear the jellyfish from the vicinity of the Scottish plant. Meanwhile the Palm Beach Post provided a graphic account of the St. Lucie incident.

"Travelling through the pipes at about 4.6 mph, the jellyfishes' poisonous tentacles broke off," it said. "Trash rakes and large, rotating metal screens that prevent debris from getting into storage tanks could not keep pace with the influx of dying and dead jellyfish."

- See more at: http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/supply-chain/jellyfish-impact-nuclear-plant-operations

Wisconsin New Phosphorus Compliance Legislation Introduced

Earlier today, State Senators Cowles and Farrow, and State Representative Loudenbeck introduced legislation that creates a new option for point-source dischargers in Wisconsin complying with the state's strict numeric phosphorus water quality standard. Current law provides a point source three options to comply with phosphorus discharge limits: 1) install new technology to remove more phosphorus from wastewater flows, 2) utilize adaptive management or water quality trading, or 3) seek a traditional variance. The proposed legislation, LRB 3079, creates a fourth option for point source dischargers: opt into a legislated variance. Point sources that choose to opt into the legislated variance would be required to reduce the phosphorus they discharge to the extent practical, while also paying fees that will be directed to counties to use in working at the local level to reduce nonpoint contributions to Wisconsin's surface waters.

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Dying Bees Are Building Nests With Our Waste Plastic

In a paper published in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere, researchers from York University and the University of Guelph in Canada explained that while plastic waste has previously been shown to have devastating impacts on the environment, less attention has been given to the resourcefulness of species in the face of their changing surroundings. "Plastic waste pervades the global landscape," they wrote. "Although adverse impacts on both species and ecosystems have been documented, there are few observations of behavioral flexibility and adaptation in species, especially insects, to increasingly plastic-rich environments."

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Powering Phones, PCs Using biofuel cells use Sugar catalysts

A team of researchers at Virginia Tech University have developed a battery with energy density an order of magnitude higher than lithium-ion batteries, while being almost endlessly rechargeable and biodegradable as well – because it's made of sugar. The battery is an enzymatic biofuel fuel cell – a type of fuel cell that uses a catalyst to strip molecules from molecules of a fuel material. Instead of using platinum or nickel for catalysts, however, biofuel cells use the catalysts made from enzymes similar to those used to break down and digest food in the body. Sugar is a good fuel material because it is energy dense, easy to obtain and transport, and so simple to biodegrade that almost anything biological can eat it. Sugar-based fuel cells aren't new, but existing designs use only a small number of enzymes that don't oxidize the sugar completely, meaning the resulting battery can hold only small amounts of energy that it releases slowly. A new design that uses 13 enzymes that can circulate freely to get better access to sugar molecules, however, is able to store energy at a density of 596 amp-hours per kilogram – an order of magnitude higher than lithium-ion batteries, according to Y.H. Percival Zhang, who studies biological systems engineering at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. "Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature," Zhang said in a statement announcing publication in Nature Communications of his paper describing the battery. "So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery."

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Industrial Heat Has Acquired Andrea Rossi's E-Cat Technology #Renewable #Energy

RESEARCH TRIANGLE, N.C., Jan. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Industrial Heat, LLC announced today that it has acquired the rights to Andrea Rossi's Italian low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology, the Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat).  A primary goal of the company is to make the technology widely available, because of its potential impact on air pollution andcarbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and biomass. 

"The world needs a new, clean and efficient energy source. Such a technology would raise the standard of living in developing countries and reduce the environmental impact of producing energy," said JT Vaughn speaking on behalf of Industrial Heat (IH). 

Mr. Vaughn confirmed IH acquired the intellectual property and licensing rights to Rossi's LENR device after an independent committee of European scientists conducted two multi-day tests at Rossi's facilities in Italy. 

The published report by the European committee concluded, "Even by the most conservative assumptions as to the errors in the measurements, the result is still one order of magnitude greater than conventional energy sources" [referring to energy output per unit of mass]. The report is available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3913. In addition, performance validation tests we conducted in the presence of IH personnel and certified by an independent expert.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/24/6098944/industrial-heat-has-acquired-andrea.html#storylink=cpy

Please continue reading at The Sacramento Bee

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/24/6098944/industrial-heat-has-acquired-andrea.html

Nearly half of NYC food banks run out of food when food stamps were cut by gov

Huffington Post - The $5 billion cut to food stamps that went into effect in November has forced struggling New Yorkers to turn to pantries for help, but many of the organizations simply can't afford to stock enough supplies on their shelves.

According to a report released by the Food Bank for New York City, 48 percent of emergency food providers ran out of food required for meals or pantry bags in November.

Please continue reading at Huffington Post

Not just China, One-third in state still live where air does not meet U.S. standards

latimes.com..."I don't think we should be too congratulatory because this year has been a bad year," said board member John Balmes, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.

In the South Coast region, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties, the number of high-ozone days has dropped 21% since 2003 and state officials now estimate about 60% of people — including all coastal residents — live where smog meets federal health standards. But 6 million people in inland areas still live with unacceptably smoggy air.

In the San Joaquin Valley, only one-quarter of the population enjoys air quality that meets federal health standards for ozone. Though the number of high-ozone days in the valley has fallen 35% since 2003, some 3 million people live in areas where smog levels are too high, according to the air board's estimates.

Please continue reading

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0124-california-air-20140124%2C0%2C2523617.story#ixzz2rL7jTJo1

Aquion has started production of a low-cost sodium-ion battery aimed at making renewable energy viable.

A former Sony TV factory near Pittsburgh is coming to life again after lying idle for four years. Whirring robotic arms have started to assemble a new kind of battery that could make the grid more efficient and let villages run on solar power around the clock.

Aquion, the startup that developed the battery, has finished installing its first commercial-scale production line at the factory, and is sending out batteries for customers to evaluate. It recently raised $55 million of venture capital funding from investors including Bill Gates. The money will help it ramp up to full-speed production by this spring.

Jay Whitacre, the Carnegie Mellon professor of materials science and engineering who invented the new battery, says it will cost about as much as a lead-acid battery—one of the cheapest types of battery available—but will last more than twice as long. And while lead is toxic and the sulfuric-acid electrolyte in lead-acid batteries is potentially dangerous, the new battery is made of materials so safe you can eat them (although Whitacre says they taste terrible). Nontoxic materials are also a good fit for remote areas, where maintenance is difficult.

Most importantly, by providing an affordable way to store solar power for use at night or during cloudy weather, the technology could allow isolated populations to get electricity from renewable energy, rather than from polluting diesel generators. Combining solar power and inexpensive batteries would also be cheaper than running diesel generators in places where delivering fuel is expensive (see "How Solar-Based Microgrids Could Bring Power to Millions").

The batteries could allow the grid to accommodate greater amounts of intermittent renewable energy. As Aquion scales up production and brings down costs, the batteries could also be used instead of a type of natural gas power plant—called a peaker plant—often used to balance supply and demand on the grid. When recharged using renewables, the batteries don't need fuel, so they're cleaner than the natural gas power plants.

Please continue reading

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523391/startup-thinks-its-battery-will-solve-renewable-energys-big-flaw/

Drinking Water Not Tested For Tens Of Thousands Of Chemicals

The Salt : NPR 

The fact that a second contaminant in West Virginia's drinking water eluded detection for nearly two weeks — despite intense testing of the water — reveals an important truth about how companies test drinking water: In most cases, they only find the contaminants they're looking for.

Freedom Industries earlier this week revealed it had spilled two chemicals, not just one. The second chemical is PPH, a mixture of polygycol ethers. It was combined with first contaminant — 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol, or MCHM — a chemical that washes coal.

PPH made up about 7 percent of the contents of the tank thatspilled into the Elk River, about 1.5 miles upstream from the treatment plant's intake.

Experts say it's not surprising that the drinking water company did not detect a second contaminant during its search for MCHM.Laboratories can hunt for unexpected chemicals, but generally they don't.

"When water companies do specific tests on contaminants like this they look for a fingerprint, if you will," says Brent Fewell, senior vice president of environment, health and safety of a different water company, United Waters. "Every chemical has a chemical fingerprint. And so when you focus on that fingerprint and you're not focusing on other fingerprints, you very well could miss a contaminant like this."

There are tens of thousands of chemicals in use

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New Virus Associated With Massive Bee Die-Offs, Researchers Report

A rapidly mutating virus may be partially responsible for the massive bee die-offs known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), which has wiped out a third of commercial bee colonies annually for the past seven years, a group of U.S. and Chinese researchers reports. Most scientists, including the study's authors, believe CCD is triggered when colonies are weakened by a combination of factors, such as viruses, parasites, and perhaps pesticides. The study, published in the journal mBio, found in bees a variant of the tobacco ringspot virus, an RNA virus that likely jumped from tobacco plants, to soy plants, to bees. Weak bee colonies began succumbing to massive die-offs in autumn, and the researchers found those bees were heavily infected with tobacco ringspot — which is believed to affect honeybees' nervous systems — and other viruses. Strong colonies that made it through the winter showed no evidence of infection by tobacco ringspot. The researchers believe the virus jumped from plants to bees through "bee bread," a concoction of pollen, nectar, and saliva they feed their larvae. Bee infection by tobacco ringspot is the first known instance of a virus from pollen jumping to bees.

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‘Big chill’ expected to stay until 2040 #polarvortex

"What happens as the cooling begins, the jet stream moves from west to east in very large waves, but the amplitude, that is the north-south orientation of those waves, increases. It's called a meridional pattern of weather, and that's why you see the record colds that you had in the U.S. recently, but also record warms," Ball explained.

"Look at eastern Australia as an example, or Siberia earlier in the winter. So if you imagine these waves where you've got cold air pushing toward the equator in one area, you've also got warmer air pushing further toward the poles in other areas. That's why you've got this increasing variability of the weather," said Ball, who noted that history tells us exactly what these conditions mean.

"If you look at the historic record, and I mean going over 10,000 years, this pattern occurs as the earth starts its cooling down process. And that's what's going to happen," he said. "We're going to be in this cooling until at least 2040."

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http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/big-chill-expected-to-stay-until-2040/

China Exports 20% of its Pollution to U.S., Study Finds

China is exporting more than just cheap products to the US… they're also exporting their pollution to California, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal. That pollution is contributing to extra smog in the Los Angeles area. A significant amount of Chinese pollution – 20 percent of it – comes from the export industry. Wind blows the smog across the Pacific Ocean in about six days, creating an increase of 12 to 24 percent in the daily sulfate concentrations along the West Coast. RT's Meghan Lopez takes a look at why China's boasts that they have lowered their pollution levels may mean they just exported that pollution to the US.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/world/asia/china-also-exports-pollution-to-western-us-study-finds.html?_r=0

4 killed as explosions rip through plants in 2 states |

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Explosions in two U.S. states, one at an animal feed plant in Nebraska and another at a steel plant in Oklahoma, killed at least four people and injured almost a dozen on Monday, authorities said.

An explosion and fire flattened part of an animal feed plant in Omaha, Nebraska, killing two people and injuring at least 10 others, authorities said.

In the Omaha incident, about 38 employees were working at the International Nutrition plant at midmorning when there was an explosion and part of the building collapsed, interim Fire Chief Bernard Kanger told a news conference.

One body has been recovered and the other is expected to be recovered on Tuesday from the industrial accident, Kanger said. Of the 10 injured, four were in critical condition, he said.

All employees have been accounted for, but authorities are not sure if there were any visitors in the plant, he said.

In a separate incident, two workers likely "burned to death" when a furnace exploded at about 4 p.m. local time at an Oklahoma steel plant, a Marshall County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said.

A third person was injured at Mid American Steel and Wire in Madill, Oklahoma, but treated for burns and released from a local hospital, said Madill Fire Department Fire Chief Keith Pruitt.

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http://wnax.com/news/030030-4-killed-as-plant-explosions/

The Asbestos Map of the United States

As readers of this blog know, I find the naturally occurring poisons a fascinating subject. Without any help from us, remember, our planet is home to an astonishing variety of dangerous substances – arsenic and antimony, cadmium, lead, mercury, and ...

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India Is Building The World's Largest Solar Plant For $4.4 Billion

The Business Insider has an article on India's plan to build a 4 GW solar power plant in Rajasthan - India Is Building The World's Largest Solar Plant For $4.4 Billion.

Since 2010, India has hiked installed solar power capacity from a meagre 17.8 megawatts to more than 2,000MW, official figures show, as part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's aim to make "the sun occupy centre-stage" in the country's energy mix. Key to the progress has been a rapid fall in the cost per unit of solar electricity to close to what is known as "grid parity" -- the cost of conventional electricity generated by carbon-gas emitting coal. ... The next stage of expansion will see India build the world's largest solar plant to generate 4,000MW on the shores of a saltwater lake in the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, which should drive solar power costs even lower. Operators believe economies of scale from the 280-billion-rupee ($4.4 billion) Sambhar plant to be constructed over the next seven years will reduce prices to 5.0-5.5 rupees a kilowatt-hour. "This is the first project of this scale anywhere in the world" and "is expected to set a trend for large-scale solar power developments," said Ashvini Kumar, director of Solar Energy Corp, one of five public utilities that will run the plan... Shared via feedly // published on Peak Energy // visit site

Nanomaterial thermophotovoltaic system increases efficiency and portability of solar power

It's not a new idea to improve upon traditional solar cells by first converting light into heat, then reemitting the energy at specific wavelengths optimally tuned to the requirements of the solar cell, but this method has suffered from low efficiencies. However, new research at MIT using nanoscale materials finally shows how thermophotovoltaics could become competitive with their traditional cousins, and grant benefits such as storing solar energy in the form of heat to postpone conversion into electricity... Continue ReadingNanomaterial thermophotovoltaic system increases efficiency and portability of solar power 

Sugar batteries could be greener, cheaper and store more energy than lithium-ions [

Even today's best rechargeable lithium batteries do lose their ability to hold a charge after a while, and are considered toxic waste once discarded. In just a few years, however, they may be replaced by batteries that are refillable and biodegradable, and that will also have a higher energy density yet a lower price ... and they'll run on sugar. .. Continue Reading Sugar batteries could be greener, cheaper and store more energy than lithium-ions 

@Kohler helps @Caltech in quest to reinvent toilet for world's poor via @JournalSentinel

Associated Press

A boy walks to a latrine outside his makeshift home in a slum in Mumbai, India. The United Nations estimates that nearly 75 million people in India, and nearly 700 million worldwide, use unimproved toilets, while an additional 1 billion use no toilet at all.

Aligning itself with a group of doctoral students in California and a Sheboygan-raised environmental chemistry professor, Kohler Co. is lending a hand to an effort to reinvent the toilet.

This may prompt you to snicker. Don't. It's not funny, and the fact that nice people avoid talking about human waste contributes to what is an enormous and deadly problem.

In India, for example, the United Nations estimates that more than 600 million people don't use toilets. They don't use latrines either. They go on the ground.

And that's just one country. While significant improvement has occurred over the last 20 years, an estimated 1 billion people worldwide still practice open defecation. Another 700 million use unhygienic facilities such as "hanging latrines" that discharge directly into streams, or buckets that may simply be emptied in the streets.

All told, estimates of annual deaths from diarrhea, the majority of them spawned by feces-contaminated water, range as high as 1.5 million. Most of the victims are under 5 years old.

"The statistics about the number of children that die every day from diarrhea-related diseases are shocking," said Robert Zimmerman, a Kohler engineer who is the Wisconsin-based firm's senior channel manager for sustainability.

Can Kohler help? The company is far better known for producing upscale bathroom fixtures — the firm's mission statement and marketing cite its dedication to "gracious living" — than for focusing on basic sanitation for the world's poor.

But Kohler also is among the world's five largest manufacturers of plumbing products, with 2011 sales in the category of $1.8 billion, according to market researcher The Freedonia Group. And when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, by far the country's biggest and most generous foundation, announced its attention-grabbing "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" in 2011, Kohler took notice.

Industry stagnant

It's been a long time since this field saw radical change. The modern flush toilet, author Rose George wrote in her 2008 book, "The Big Necessity," works in essentially the same way as the device invented in the late 1500s by Sir John Harington, a rakish English courtier, author and wit who installed one of his toilets for Queen Elizabeth I at her palace in Surrey.

And with advances in the late 18th and early 19th century, the flush toilet has worked pretty well and has contributed greatly in reducing disease and prolonging life — when it's well-connected. But it's not much help unless it feeds a system to treat the waste it swirls away. In much of the world, that sort of infrastructure doesn't exist, and may never exist.

"That's very, very expensive," said Doulaye Koné, an environmental engineer who grew up in a village in Africa's Ivory Coast and now is the Gates Foundation's senior program officer for water, sanitation and hygiene. "It's a huge capital investment. It's a very big operational cost.... It will work in very few (developing world) cities."

So the foundation called for off-the-grid designs without connections to water, sewer or electrical lines. It issued grants to eight universities, including one to the California Institute of Technology and a team led by environmental science professor Michael Hoffmann.

The plan: Develop a self-contained toilet and waste treatment system powered by a solar panel generating enough energy to store for use at night.

Kohler contacted Caltech and offered to supply fixtures for the prototype. In doing that, Zimmerman said, the company found out that Hoffmann was from Sheboygan — he'd graduated from North High School in the '60s — and knew Kohler well.

"It was good serendipity there," Zimmerman said.

Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/mainheadlines/business/kohler-helps-caltech-in-quest-to-reinvent-toilet-for-worlds-poor-b99184547z1-241042421.html