Owner: Environmental, Health & Safety URL:http://www.christopherhaase.com/blog/ Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 10:59:14 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: For those of us who believe “Earth Day is Everyday”. I have been truly blessed to have always worked in a profession protecting others and the environment.
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Jay Leno straddles a biodiesel crotch rocket 2006-10-22 12:39:14 There's so very little information about what's going on in this picture here, details of who's bike and where. Pretty much all that the poster Martin tells us is, "Hey mom, check me out with Jay Leno
..." We can also figure out it's Leno and crew with a biodiesel
motorcycle. There's an accompanying video, but it's 40 seconds of Jay revving up the bike, spewing some white smoke, and then 3 seconds of him driving down the driveway. It looks like Leno visited Imperium Renewables up in Seattle (maybe) earlier this month, and that's where the images are from. Jay's not new to biodiesel, he wrote a pro-biodiesel article in Popular Mechanics last year. What I want to know more about it that biobike. Via-autobloggreen.com Read more:crotch
, rocket
Can a new type of concrete save the world? 2006-10-22 12:28:49 A tough new ceramic material that is almost twice as strong as concrete
may be the key to providing high-quality, low-cost housing throughout developing nations. The ceramic is called Grancrete, which, when sprayed onto a rudimentary Styrofoam frame, dries to form a lightweight but durable surface. Using conventional techniques, it takes 20 men two weeks to build a house. A five person crew can construct two grancrete homes in one day. » original news (Via gnomic -hugg.com)
Canada: Clean Air Act an illusion: Suzuki 2006-10-22 12:21:54 Canadian Press: The new federal Clean
Air Act would do nothing to clean up the air or address climate change if it became law, which it won't, a David Suzuki
Foundation campaigner said Friday. All opposition parties in the House of Commons have said they will vote against the bill, which means the chances of the minority Conservative government getting it passed are vanishingly small. "This is completely unnecessary legislation" said Morag Carter, director of the foundation's climate ... Link (Via Dr. Glen Barry) Read more:Canada
, illusion
, Clean Air Act
Is Starbucks greenwashing with its latest Black Apron coffee? 2006-10-21 12:16:54 The newest StarbucksBlackApron
edition coffee, Ethiopia Gemadro Estate, is touted as being sustainable and preserving habitat. Digging a bit into the background reveals this coffee is grown by a huge multinational conglomerate that is replacing endangered wild coffee with nursery-grown plants and expanding into land that Starbucks describes as primary forest. Read the whole story. » original news Nuthatch via hugg.com
DIY, Super Battery! 2006-10-21 12:13:58 Imagine charging a battery... IN 20 SECONDS! Imagine a battery that lasts... YEARS! Keep imagining because no one is smart enough to put this DIY project on the market. Capacitors are uber green. » original news Via linton hugg.com Read more:Super
Video, Coffee To Compost 2006-10-21 12:07:00 Great video about a group called MUD that goes around on bikes collecting used coffee grounds. They turn it into compost! Sooooo green! » original news linton via hugg.com Read more:Coffee
, Compost
EPA Releases List of Best Workplaces for Commuters 2006-10-21 11:58:12 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has its annual list of Best Workplaces for Commuters
from the Fortune 500 companies. This year, 133 companies employing more than 700,000 workers qualify for this list. The top 20 employers are ranked by the percentage of domestic employees who are eligible for commuter benefits, such as subsidized transit passes, telework, carpool programs, and emergency rides home. Each year, the congestion created from commuting to and from work causes 3.7 billion hours of lost productivity, costing employees 92 million work weeks, and the nation $63.1 billion in wasted time and fuel. Information on Best Workplaces for Commuters: http://www.bwc.gov - By Laura B. on Transportation
Oldie but still good on Frogs' Sexual Abnormalities 2006-10-21 11:26:00 New York Times WASHINGTON, June 18 — Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency say there is "sufficient evidence" to conclude that the country's most widely used pesticide, atrazine, causes sexual abnormality in frogs. They are recommending that the agency conduct more research to understand atrazine's mechanisms and its broader impact on frog populations. Popular Pesticide Faulted for Frogs
' Sexual
Abnormalities Read more:Oldie
Brownfields growing green fuels in Michigan update 2006-10-21 11:11:33 We wrote in the beginning of September about a professor at Michigan
State University, Kurt Thelen, who was working on a project that grows crops on old industrial waste sites (known as brownfields) and then using those crops to make biofuels. The benefits including the plants sucking up some of the toxins in the soil, using "waste" land and creating more biomass for fuel. In an update from DaimlerChrysler, one of Thelen's partner on the site, the crops - sunflowers, corn, soybeans and more - have been harvested and will soon be tested as biomass for biofuels. Thelen's project, located in Rose Township, was endorsed by the EPA and could (fingers crossed here) lead to growing biofuels crops on hundreds of brownfields across the country. Via Autobloggreen
Complete Works of Charles Darwin now online for free 2006-10-21 11:01:44 Yesterday, the Complete Work of CharlesDarwin
Online officially launched, bringing 50,000 pages of searchable text and 40,000 images to the public for free. Presented by the University of Cambridge and other collaborators, the site currently contains only half of what will be available by 2009. Seen here, a diagram from the Origin of Species. When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history.' Link (via-David Pescovitz) Read more:Works
, online
, Charles Darwin
The Death of Ephemeral Conversation 2006-10-19 14:01:44 The political firestorm over former U.S. Rep. Mark FoleyÂ’s salacious instant messages hides another issue, one about privacy. We are rapidly turning into a society where our intimate conversations can be saved and made public later. This represents an enormous... good read here Read more:Conversation
Ducks Againist Global Warming 2006-10-23 13:50:00 National Wildlife Action (NWF's c4) is putting out TV ads in PA - against Santorum on mercury pollution and global warming. It's pretty funny.
It was initially intended for sportsmen (duck hunters, anglers), but seems to be pretty broadly appealing now.
Enjoy!
Derek Brockbank - National Wildlife Action (www.nwa.org) Read more:Ducks
, Global
, Global Warming
Why the PV world is starting to focus on concentrating technologies 2006-10-23 13:35:00
Close up of a 35 kW concentrating solar unit
AMONIX Concentrating light on a solar cell greatly increases its output. With improvements in technology now starting to offer efficiencies of 38%, the concentrating PV sector says that US$3/W systems are just a couple of years away.
CENTRATING PV - THE BASIC PRINCIPLE The principle of concentrating PV (CPV) is quite straightforward. In the familiar 'flat-plate' PV modules, a large area of photovoltaic material (usually crystalline silicon) is exposed to the maximum naturally occurring sunlight. Normally, that maximum is achieved by installing the modules at an incline optimized for the latitude, but sometimes they are installed on moving frames that can follow, or track, the sun as it passes across the sky. The PV cells perform under direct (sunny) or diffuse (cloudy) radiation conditions, but output is at its highest when the maximum amount of light falls on the cells (assuming there are no detrimental effects from overhe Read more:technologies
Is this "NEW" News? The rich get richer while people suffer 2006-10-23 16:22:57 Medicare, price increases spur higher profits for drugmakers The Medicare Part D program has led to an increase in prescriptions, despite many drugs carrying higher prices than in previous years. Major drugmakers are reporting higher profits as the U.S. market accounts for an increasing percentage of company sales and profits. VIA he New York Times Read more:people
, richer
, suffer
Nothing in life is FREE - Part V 2006-10-23 15:52:47 [http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005123.html] Chris Anderson - Mr. Long Tail, editor of Wired Magazine - makes a great decision here at Pop!tech: assuming that everyone in the audience has either read The Long Tail or knows the argument, he gives a different talk: “What Happens When Things Get Free?” (It covers much of the same ground as the book, but draws a different narrative through many of the same examples.) He starts with a photo of Dr. Carver Mead. Mead started thinking about what happens as semiconductors get cheap to the point where they’re free. The answer is, “you should waste them.” This insight led to VLSI - Very Large Scale Intergration - chips that included thousands of transitors, not just single ones. Chris walks us through the most linked sites on the Internet according to Technorati, pointing out that the four “punks” behind BoingBoing are now more influential than Fortune, Reuters or the Chicago Tribune. (He doesn’t mention that they’r Read more:Nothing
I.T. guys are not CFO's - Billions will be overspent on networks 2006-10-23 15:37:55 Billions will be overspent on networks: Gartner — Savvy forecasting, careful buying and getting more value from vendors are the keys to reining in budgets, analysts say — ICT spending decision-makers will waste an estimated US$100 billion (NZ$150 billion) during the next five years … Source: computerworld.co.nz Author: Neal Weinberg Link: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/mgmt… Via Techmeme Read more:Billions
Find a national park near you 2006-10-23 15:33:49 The National Park Service have done some serious upgrading to the park finder formerly known as clunky. You can search for parks by name, location, activity, and topic. If you mouse over your third column results, you'll get a pop-up with a snippet of info (much like the one you see in the screenshot above). In addition, you can instantly access park hours, fees, and reservation info.
US govt bans Vegemite 2006-10-23 15:29:23 The US has banned importation of icky Australian delicacy Vegemite (a brown gunky spread that is simultaneously delicious and grody), enraging Aussie expats in the US, who require a steady supply of Vegemite in order to remain functional. The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite contains folate, which in the US can be added only to breads and cereals. "The border guard asked us if we were carrying any Vegemite," Mr Fogarty said. Link via boingboing.com (Thanks, Chris!) (Vegemite label photo via AZAdam's Flickr stream)
Ecosystem Of Vanishing Lake Yields Valuable Bacterium 2006-10-23 15:23:40 A team of researchers that includes an MSU professor is characterizing a bacterium found near Soap Lake, Wash., that could potentially clean polluting nitrates from fertilizer and explosive manufacturing plants. Read more here Read more:Ecosystem
, Vanishing
Ocean 'dead zones' increasing fast 2006-10-23 15:21:09 The number of “dead zones” in the world’s oceans may have increased by a third in just two years, threatening fish stocks and the people who depend on them, the U.N. Environment Program said on Thursday. Full read via MSNBC Read more:Ocean
A $20 Solar Charger Runs All My Gadgets 2006-10-23 15:14:00 I bought this portable solar panel from Solar
Style on eBay for $20. This small solar charger has a built in battery (see this previous article for more information). With this portable solar panel, I charge my MP3 player, a portable amplifier, a set of battery-powered Sony surround sound speakers, a cellular phone, a digital camera, two LED lamps, a LED booklight, and a LED flashlight. If you are already positioning yourself to optimize sunlight, it is quite simple to do this. If I added a $50 solar panel, I can power two laptop computer, and have all of my audio-visual and computer devices running on renewable energy. From Justin Thomas, Virginia (via-treehugger.com) Read more:Charger
GM, Whole Foods Using 'Solar Service System' 2006-10-23 22:40:00 GM, WholeFoods
, and Staples are all generating, or will be generating, solar power... without paying for the equipment or installation. These companies and others are taking advantage of "solar service systems" that own and install solar arrays on clients' properties, and sell the companies below-market rate green power. » original news (via hugg.com) Read more:Solar
, Service
, System
, Whole Foods
Alternative Energy - Things you didnt know 2006-10-23 22:15:41 All of these technologies have some problems in common. The first is the intermittency and reliability of the sources. It isnt always windy, the sun isnt always shining and waves arent always splashing. This causes the inherent problem of providing a constant power supply to users at home. » original news (via hugg.com) Read more:Alternative
, Energy
, Alternative Energy
Your Job Or Your Life: Popcorn Lung Comes To Wisconsin 2006-10-23 21:52:47 This is sickening.The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal has a two part series about how the "popcorn lung" tragedy has hit the state of Wisconsin
, "'Killer Butter' Puts Illinois Worker's Life in Precarious State," and "Struggling for air: Flavoring chemical tied to severe lung disease remains unregulated".The articles tell stories all too familiar to Confined Space readers where we've been writing about popcorn lung for years: how diacetyl, the fake butter flavoring chemical literally destroys the lungs of food workers exposed even for a relatively short time, how despite overwhelming evidence of the chemical's danger, as well as sick and dying workers, OSHA refuses to even contemplate regulatory action, how a group of unions and a group of scientists have petitioned OSHA to issue an emergency standard to protect workers, how the EPA is studying whether or not consumers are exposed (but hasn't released the results), how juries have awarded and companies have settled for m
Walmart's Green Party 2006-10-24 13:55:53 "So it may seem surprising at first glance that Bob and Harvey Weinstein are throwing a star-studded gala to honor Wal-Mart chief H. Lee Scott on Oct 23 for, of all things, his "commitment to environmental sustainability." "For its part, Wal-Mart has embarked on a five-year effort to reduce packaging, an effort that sits well with eco-friendly bizzers like the Weinsteins. Ultimately, that may include rethinking the packaging of DVDs and CDs." » original news (via hugg.com) Read more:Party
, Walmart
, Green
, Green Party
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