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Thursday, July 21, 2005
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I will be out of the office Friday, July 22-Monday, July 25 and Thursday, July 28-Monday, August 1. Posts will be sporadic (or nonexistent) until the first full week of August. Thanks for reading!
12:37:57 PM Google It! 
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The US Environmental Protection Agency's public involvement web site has been expanded to include new materials and links to useful information about tools and techniques in use all over the world. The site also includes a new Feedback section with ready-to-use surveys for activities such as hearings, meetings, listening sessions, FACA groups, community advisory groups, small group discussions and stakeholder negotiations [http://www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/feedback]. In addition, the Public Involvement Resources and Training (PIRT) database, previously on EPA’s intranet, is now publicly available at http://www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/pirtdatabase. Users can search the database and suggest additional resources, conferences and training opportunities.
12:26:50 PM Google It!
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A company converting waste into oil may skip the States for greener pastures. [Source: Dragonfire]
12:16:27 PM Google It!
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In 2003, the industrial sector was responsible for 33% of the nation's total energy use; opportunities abound for increasing industrial energy efficiency. This report analyzes the forces that shape today's industrial energy markets and describing strategic approaches to energy management. The report features 17 case studies, including one featuring Frito-Lay, whose energy efficiency upgrades are returning 30% on investment annually. [Source: GreenerBuildings.com]
12:13:35 PM Google It!
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This June 2005 study is the first to rate plastic lumber strictly on environmental and public health priorities. By releasing the guide, HBN seeks to both assist consumers making environmentally sound choices about plastic lumber, and to positively influence the direction of the plastic lumber industry toward sustainable products. Thirty-eight products are reviewed. [Source: GreenerBuildings.com]
12:11:08 PM Google It!
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Eight new nonresidential construction projects in California have received the 2005 Savings By Design Energy Efficiency Integration Awards for combining energy efficiency with outstanding design. The awards program is sponsored by The American Institute of Architects, California Council; Pacific Gas and Electric Company; San Diego Gas & Electric(R); Southern California Edison; and Southern California Gas Company. [Source: GreenerBuildings.com]
12:09:59 PM Google It!
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As house size increases, resource use in buildings goes up, more land is occupied, increased impermeable surface results in more stormwater runoff, construction costs rise, and energy consumption increases. In new, single-family houses constructed in the United States, living area per family member has increased by a factor of 3 since the 1950s. This journal article examines some of the trends in single-family house building in the United States and provides recommendations for downsizing houses to improve quality and resource efficiency. By Alex Wilson and Jessica Boehland [Source: Journal of Industrial Ecology via GreenerBuildings.com]
12:09:13 PM Google It!
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The Compton Foundation seeks to foster human and ecological security by addressing contemporary threats to these inalienable rights. The Foundation focuses most of its grantmaking in the areas of Peace & Security, Environment & Sustainability, and Population & Reproductive Health, with a special emphasis on projects that explore the interconnections between these categories. Priority is given to projects that have more than local application, are replicable, and are likely to be taken over and managed by a long-term funding source. The next application deadline is September 7, 2005.
12:07:25 PM Google It!
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The mission of the National Geographic Society's Education Foundation is to prepare children to embrace a diverse world, succeed in a global economy, and steward the planet's resources. Teacher grants to support innovative geography education projects are given directly to educators to facilitate their work in promoting geographic literacy in the classroom, school, district, and community. Project proposals should involve students in the research and study of a particular geographic issue/problem and create a public awareness campaign for sharing their knowledge with a wider audience. Teacher grant applications are accepted from any current teacher or administrator in an accredited K-12 school within the United States and Canada. Projects that have outreach to urban areas are particularly encouraged. The application deadline is September 2, 2005.
12:06:10 PM Google It!
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Moving beyond recycling to preventing garbage itself as the next generation of social and civic responsibility, Seattle Public Utilities is launching an initiative called Wasteless in Seattle. [Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
12:05:13 PM Google It!
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Grist Magazine summarizes the article:
Some of the newest hybrid car models are not notably more fuel-efficient than their conventional brethren, but still qualify buyers for a "clean fuels" tax credit, causing greens no end of mixed feelings. In the case of the Honda Accord, the 2005 hybrid model uses electric-motor technology to boost the car's power rather than significantly reduce fuel consumption and save gasoline -- testing by Consumer Reports indicates that it gets about the same miles per gallon as the conventional Accord. Oil-phobic activists are guarded in dissing
the power-happy hybrids, since their growing popularity motivates automakers to improve hybrid technology. But they'd like to see the government get a little more selective about which hybrids qualify for tax benefits. Honda, meanwhile, points out that it does offer hybrid cars that emphasize gas savings over power -- for those who want them. [Article source: New York Times -- need a login/pw?]
11:29:15 AM Google It!
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The Journal of Industrial Ecology has recently published a special issue on Consumption and Industrial Ecology. The entire special issue is available on the web at http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE/consumption at no charge. The Journal of Industrial Ecology is a peer-reviewed international quarterly published by MIT Press, owned by Yale University, and headquartered at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
This issue breaks new ground in providing systematic and quantitative assessments of the impact of consumption--what we buy and what we use--on the environment. The articles in the special issue address the relationship between consumption and
- diet change
- time use
- U.S. house size
- worktime reduction
- product life spans
- quality of life
- NGO advocacy strategies
- the rebound effect
as well as the environmental impact of consumption at the household, city, and national levels in countries around the world.
Support for the special issue was provided by the Garfield Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics.
11:26:32 AM Google It!
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Over the past ten years, Fuji Xerox has re-engineered its popular office copiers to make the most of available resources. By Eriko Saijo [Source: GreenBiz.com]
11:24:23 AM Google It!
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Ratcliff, an architectural firm in Emeryville, Calif., developed this Web-based tool to help designers, clients, and colleagues implement green design throughout the planning and design process. The Green Matrix is designed to cross-reference topics of sustainability with the standard phases of project design, thereby illuminating appropriate strategies for a particular phase of work. [Source: GreenBiz.com]
11:23:37 AM Google It!
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A new report highlights ways in which businesses depend on services provided by ecosystems, how those ecosystem services are changing, and the ramifications for business and industry. [Source: GreenBiz.com]
11:22:27 AM Google It!
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A pilot program called eCycling, a collaboration between U.S. EPA, Staples, Inc., and the Product Stewardship Institute, shows that items such as computers can be easily recycled at low cost to consumers and retailers. [Source: GreenBiz.com]
11:21:27 AM Google It!
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Project Start Date: 5/1/2005
Project End Date: 4/30/2008
This project will demonstrate the environmental benefits of introducing biocide into wood using hydrophobic nanoparticles as a delivery vehicle and controlled release device for organic and inorganic biocides. The primary benefits expected from use of nanoparticles as controlled release devices for biocide in wood are an increased service life of wood and a reduction of biocide loss to leach, which is expected to allow wood to be effectively protected with lesser amounts of biocide than is used now. These benefits are expected to be realized by using a new and more efficient nanoparticle preparation to give a slow biocide release rate coupled with good nanoparticle stability in aqueous suspensions These features will allow the nanoparticles to be delivered efficiently into wood, but once in wood maintain a slow release rate. Successful completion of this project will benefit all ecosystems containing preserved wood. Even greater benefits are expected for wetlands and other moist ecosystems through reduction of biocide contamination, and in forest ecosystems harvested for wood by extending the service life of preserved wood and wood products. [Recent EPA Catalog Records.]
11:08:10 AM Google It!
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From the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Colleges are increasingly clearing books and journals out of their libraries to make room for "information commons" -- digital information centers stocked with computers, technical-help desks, comfortable chairs, and even coffee shops. Do digital libraries, as their fans suggest, help students take a more active role in learning? Is anything wrong with moving books off-site as long as they can still be obtained digitally or overnight through interlibrary loan? Or are librarians too quick to embrace a passing fad?
Read the article about The University of Texas at Austin, which is clearing nearly all of the books out of its undergraduate library this summer to make room for an iinformation commons where students can collaborate with classmates on multimedia projects, consult with Internet-savvy librarians, and check out laptop computers. [Library RSS Feeds]
10:59:38 AM Google It!
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From the Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2005
The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce is investigating three professors whose work suggests that the earth's climate is warmer now than at any time in many centuries and that increasing levels of greenhouse gases from burning fossils fuels are largely to blame.
In letters to the three scientists last week, Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, demanded detailed documentation about the hundreds of studies on which they were an author or co-author. Mr. Barton also sent a letter to the director of the National Science Foundation that requests information about the work of the three professors, as well as a list of all grants and awards in the area of climate and paleoclimate science, which number 2,700 in the past 10 years.
Several climate scientists reached by The Chronicle expressed dismay at the investigation and described it as harassment.
Mr. Mann [an assistant professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, and one of the three whose research is being investigated] said he would comply with the congressman's requests, but because of the legal issues involved, he said he could not comment in detail. "I am pleased that the U.S. Congress has shown in interest in the issue of climate change," he told The Chronicle. "I am confident that when members of Congress take a look at the science, they will join with the consensus of the world's scientists that the earth is indeed warming, and that human activity has played a primary role in the warming observed in recent decades."
UIUC: Read the rest of the article (search for global warming in the headline) [Library RSS Feeds]
10:58:33 AM Google It!
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From MSNBC via Associated Press:
TUCSON, Ariz. - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans. Read more. [Library RSS Feeds]
10:57:10 AM Google It!
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming is caused primarily by humans and "nearly all climate scientists today" agree with that viewpoint, the new head of the National Academy of Sciences - a climate scientist himself - said Wednesday. [AP Top Science News At 7:40 a.m. EDT]
10:53:59 AM Google It!
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The dead zone off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas should be considerably smaller than usual this year - about the size of Rhode Island, rather than larger than Jamaica, researchers say. [AP Top Science News At 7:40 a.m. EDT]
10:53:26 AM Google It!
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Unless the economic value of ecosystem goods and services is acknowledged in environmental decision-making, they will implicitly be assigned a value of zero in cost-benefit analyses and policy choices will be biased against conservation, warns a report from the National Academies' Water Science and Technology Board. The report identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem services -- even intangible ones -- and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts. [The National Academies News]
10:49:22 AM Google It!
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A report from the National Academies' Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate examines the human and natural causes of climate change, including greenhouse gases, aerosols, land-use change, and solar variability. Whereas emphasis to date has been on how these climate forcings affect global mean temperature, the report finds that regional variation and climate impacts besides temperature deserve increased attention. The report also identifies research that should be pursued to improve understanding of climate forcings. [The National Academies News]
10:48:15 AM Google It!
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A new report by the National Academies' Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology on the health effects of perchlorate, a chemical that in high doses can decrease thyroid function in humans and that is present in many public drinking-water supplies, says daily ingestion of up to 0.0007 milligrams per kilogram of body weight can occur without adversely affecting the health of even the most sensitive populations. That amount is more than 20 times the "reference dose" proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a recent draft risk assessment. [The National Academies News]
10:47:32 AM Google It!
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The U.S. National Academy of Sciences joined 10 other national science academies today in calling on world leaders, particularly those of the G8 countries meeting next month in Scotland, to acknowledge that the threat of climate change is clear and increasing, to address its causes, and to prepare for its consequences. Sufficient scientific understanding of climate change exists for all nations to identify cost-effective steps that can be taken now to contribute to substantial and long-term reductions in net global greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The statement echoes the findings and recommendations of several previous reports by the U.S. National Academies. [The National Academies News]
10:46:22 AM Google It!
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For more than 100 years, the Coeur d' Alene River Basin has been known as "The Silver Valley" for being one of the most productive silver, lead, and zinc mining areas in the United States. Over time, high levels of metals (including lead, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc) were discovered in the local environment and elevated blood lead levels were found in children in communities near the metal-refining and smelter complex. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed a 21-square mile mining area in northern Idaho as a Superfund site. EPA extended those boundaries in 1998 to include areas throughout the 1500-square mile area Coeur d'Alene River Basin project area. Under Superfund, EPA has developed a plan to clean up the contaminated area that will cost an estimated $359 million over 3 decades--and this effort is only the first step in the cleanup process. [New from the National Academies Press]
10:45:29 AM Google It!
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Eutrophication (the overenrichment of aquatic ecosystems with nutrients leading to algal blooms and anoxic events) is a persistent condition of surface waters and a widespread environmental problem. Some lakes have recovered after sources of nutrients were reduced. In others, recycling of phosphorus from sediments enriched by years of high nutrient inputs causes lakes to remain eutrophic even after external inputs of phosphorus are decreased. Slow flux of phosphorus from overfertilized soils may be even more important for maintaining eutrophication of lakes in agricultural regions. This type of eutrophication is not reversible unless there are substantial changes in soil management. Technologies for rapidly reducing phosphorus content of overenriched soils, or reducing erosion rates, are needed to improve water quality.[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recent issues]
10:41:18 AM Google It!
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Officials at the WV state Department of Environmental Protection are in an ethical quandary. They need to rid the agency's headquarters of an insect infestation but they don’t want to use pesticides. [Environmental Health News]
10:32:17 AM Google It!
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© Copyright
2005
Laura L. Barnes.
Last update:
10/25/2005; 12:11:23 PM.
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