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In the Amazon, World's 'Most Threatened Tribe' Faces Extinction

Earth Island Journal — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:22:00 -0700

by Maureen Nandini Mitra

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest live the Awa hunter-gatherers - an ancient, partially-contacted Indigenous peoples, now thought by some to be the "Earth's most threatened tribe".

The nomadic Awa have always treaded lightly on Earth, carrying only their most precious possessions as they move through the forest - their children, pets, and bows and arrows. The rest, the forest provides: food in the form of babacu nuts, acai berries, and fresh meat; palm leaves to weave baskets from; sturdy vines to use as ropes, and resin from trees to burn for light.

The matrilineal Awa's love for animals, especially monkeys, is unique and endearing. Women are encouraged to suckle monkeys and other animals alongside their own children, an act they consider sacred. Most families raise a host of pets - from talkative parakeets to wild pigs, owls, and tamarins. A small number of Awa who avoid contact with outsiders are among few of the last uncontacted people on the planet.

After the Awa were first contacted by outsiders in 1973, the Brazilian government opened access to the forests they had called home for generations. In 1982, after massive iron ore deposits was discovered in the area, the European Economic Community and the World Bank helped fund a railway and other developments in the region that ushered in a waves of settlers. The Awas forest became a prime target for loggers and ranchers, who are often armed and trigger-happy.

Now, nearly four decades later, the dense forests that used to cover vast swathes of northeastern state of Maranhao have all but disappeared under the onslaught of outsiders swarming into Awa territory - territory formally recognized as belonging to the Awa only as recently as 2005 (following years of campaigning by human rights groups). Mining and logging on Awa land is illegal, but there's little enforcement of these laws.

The Awa's forest is facing one of the highest rates of deforestation of all Indigenous areas in the Amazon, says Survival International, which launched a massive campaign to save the Awa last month. Satellite images show over 30 percent of rainforests in one of the four territories inhabited by the Awa has already been destroyed.

Legal efforts to save the forest have had little impact so far. In 2009 a federal court ordered illegal settlers to leave Awa territories within 180 days, but an appeal by a cattle rancher delayed the ruling. Now there's a second ruling, from another federal judge, ordering the settlers to leave by December 2012. But many fear that, like before, this order too will get stuck in legal wrangling in the courts for years to come. And in the mean time, the Awa's will continue to be at grave risk.

Several experts, including officials at Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) - the government body responsible for protecting Indigenous lands, have warned that the Awa face extinction unless more is done to protect their land from outsiders who not only clash with the tribespeople, but also bring in common diseases like the flu, that uncontacted people are often immune too .

A Brazilian judge, who visited the region to investigate the situation said they were "dealing with a real genocide," as did anthropologist and Awa expert Dr Eliane Cantarino O'Dwyer. Survival International estimates there are only about 360 contacted Awa remaining, and about another 70 to 90 uncontacted tribespeople hiding in the rapidly vanishing forest.

We've seen, again and again, in forests and wilderness areas across the world, that the Indigenous people are some of the best stewards of our environment. Yet world over, they are losing out in the rush for resources to feed our ever-expanding economies. But there's a chance the Awa can be saved. That is if enough pressure is put on Brazil to honor the Awa's right to their land and protect it from illegal encroachment. International pressure helps. Survival International's campaign, that hopes to persuade Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo to clear out loggers, ranchers, and settlers who are threatening the safety of the Awa tribe, is already starting to make a difference. has already generated over 20,000 protest emails to the Brazilian government. "The sense of urgency is being felt around the world, especially as this is a cause that can be won - a people who can be saved," says Survival's campaign head, Fiona Watson,who has worked with Brazil's Indians for more than 25 years. "Brazil's government must take firm action on illegal logging and uphold it's own demarcation laws, if the Awa are to be saved from extinction." Learn more about the Awa and what you can do to help them at http://www.survivalinternational.org/awa

Reprinted with permission from Earth Island Journal

New Geothermal Technology Uses CO2, Not Water

SustainableBusiness.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:09:00 -0700

A new geothermal company has a technology that makes carbon capture more cost-effective because it produces revenue-generating electricity from the sequestered carbon.

Heat Mining Company LLC is commercializing technology invented at the University of Minnesota, "CO2 plume geothermal." Rather than using water to extract heat from deep underground to produce geothermal energy, it uses carbon dioxide emitted and sequestered from fossil fuel plants.

That opens many more locations to geothermal, including being used as a back-up for wind or solar projects.

"This technology has the potential to introduce a new era of electrical power production from renewable wind, solar, and geothermal energy as well as from traditional fossil fuels, while significantly reducing emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," says Martin Saar, co-inventor and earth sciences professor in the university's College of Science and Engineering.

The University of Minnesota submitted the technology for patents in March 2009 and licensed it exclusively, worldwide to Heat Mining Company LLC through the Office for Technology Commercialization.

Hooked up to a coal plant, for example, carbon-based geothermal can power CO2 injection pumps while generating revenue from electricity sales. That can offset the very high costs of implementing carbon capture technology.

Here's how it would work:

A geothermal plant would pump CO2 down an injection well into a salty aquifer 2-5 kilometers below the surface, where tremendous pressure and temperatures of 70-200 degrees C would transform the gas first into a liquid and eventually into a "supercritical" state. "It has liquid-like density and gas-like viscosity," says Saar. "It's not really anything we're familiar with in the everyday world, but most materials do this at sufficiently high pressures and temperatures."

The supercritical CO2 would flow through porous bedrock more easily than water. Becoming far less dense than water as it warms, the CO2 would rise quickly through the brine-soaked bedrock and pool beneath a virtually impermeable caprock, such as shale. The now hot, low-density fluid would buoyantly rise through a production well without pumping.

At the surface, the CO2 would drive a turbine - more efficiently and vigorously than water drives conventional steam -generation turbines. After cooling, the CO2 would be pumped back down the injection well, flowing in a closed, geothermal heat self-powered thermosyphon loop that would let none escape to the atmosphere.

The geothermally generated power could help run the CO2 injection pumps that provide the initial CO2 captured from the CO2 emitter. In addition, revenue from any additional power generation could help defray the cost of carbon capture and sequestration.

Oil companies routinely inject CO2 deep into oil- or other hydrocarbon-bearing formations to force out remaining hydrocarbons in so-called enhanced oil recovery operations.

CO2 injection presents little risk of earthquakes or serious ground deformation, says Saar. "The oil industry has been doing it for decades. Adding geothermal to it should actually reduce seismic risks, because what happens when you tap the heat out of it, you reduce the pressure."

The CPG method has been demonstrated in computer simulations and details have been investigated in laboratory experiments. The next step is to build a pilot plant to test it in the field.

Geothermal is far behind solar and wind - it's growing, but pretty slowly.

Photo by Bill Ward/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from SustainableBusiness.com

Norway Opens $1 Billion Carbon Capture Plant

SustainableBusiness.com — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:21:00 -0700

Norway opened a $1 billion carbon capture and storage plant, Technology Centre Mongstad, the largest in the world.

The project, a joint venture between the Norwegian government and oil companies Statoil, Shell and Sasol, has had cost over-runs and delays since it was announced in 2006 for a 2010 launch.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg calls it an important project for Norway and the world. Other potential projects in Europe have stalled because of lack of funding.

Carbon capture removes carbon emissions from industrial processes and permanently buries it way underground.

There are actually two carbon capture plants and together they can process 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The plan is to test two technologies that trap carbon to see if either is cost-effective and safe enough to be scaled for industrial use.

Carbon emissions will be captured from a nearby 280 megawatt (MW) combined heat and power plant and a refinery. Their emissions have different levels of carbon dioxide, 3.5 percent and 13 percent respectively.

Both post-combustion techologies remove 85-95 percent of carbon. One uses ammonia to trap carbon, the other using an amine chemical. The main objective is test their performance, track costs, and increase technical know-how regarding operation of an industrial-scale plant, according to Nature News.

The test only includes the capturing part of the equation - there will be no attempt to store the carbon. After it's captured, it will be released into the atmosphere.

After this demonstration stage, full-scale carbon capture was planned by the end of 2014, but that's been delayed to at least 2018 because of costs.

Carbon prices have to be much higher to justify the investment - at the moment Europe's cap-and-trade permits cost less than EUR7 per ton of carbon.

This could be the last gasp for carbon capture. Few countries are showing interest in experimenting with such expensive, unproven technology at this point, even though it seemed to be a solution that would allow dirty plants to keep emitting.

One interesting project, The Texas Clean Energy Project, which announced the first power purchase agreement for a commercial-scale carbon capture coal plant in the US. The demonstraton project comes online in 2015.

And the first large scale carbon sequestration project in the US is now operating in conjunction with an ethanol plant in Illinois.

Two projects - one in Wyoming and the other in West Virginia - have been cancelled because of the lack of a federal energy policy.

Photo by Curran Kelleher/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from SustainableBusiness.com

Melting Sea Ice Could Lead to Pressure on Arctic Fishery

Yale Environment 360 — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:11:00 -0700

By Ed Struzik

With melting sea ice opening up previously inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean, the fishing industry sees a potential bonanza. But some scientists and government officials have begun calling for a moratorium on fishing in the region until the true state of the Arctic fishery is assessed.

When scientists with the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program began tracking 323 vertebrate species across the entire Arctic several years ago, most assumed that many fish and animals would not fare well in a region where rapid warming is causing such profound changes.

But in a report released recently at the International Polar Year (IPY) conference in Montreal, that scenario isn't turning out to be as dark as some had originally thought. While it appears that ice-dependent mammals such as polar bears and beluga whales could be in trouble, scientists are reporting that the great bowhead whale that was nearly hunted to extinction in the early twentieth century is making a remarkable comeback. And commercial fish populations such as Pacific herring and ocean perch appear to be expanding dramatically in some places.

Not surprisingly, the world's fishing industry is watching the swift disappearance of Arctic sea ice and the potential fishing bonanza with great interest. But so are a growing number of scientists, government officials, and conservationists, who are calling for a fishing moratorium in this area until the health of fish stocks can be assessed.

A key concern is the so-called 1.1 million-square-mile "donut hole" in the central Arctic Ocean that does not fall under any country's jurisdiction. Until a few years ago, this part of the Arctic Ocean was locked in ice for virtually 12 months a year. But now climate change is melting that barrier and making it seasonably accessible. In 2007, when sea ice cover in the Arctic was at a record low, 40 percent of the "donut hole" was open.

What fish live in that area now and in what numbers, and which species might move in as sea ice continues to melt, are not well understood. But a number of factors - including melting sea ice, warmer and fresher water, and shifting gyres and currents - appear to be improving productivity in many areas, including those that used to be covered in ice for most of the year.

No one believes that the central Arctic Ocean is ripe for fishing just yet. But because there are snow crab on the Chukchi Shelf and fish such as Arctic cod along the shallower perimeters of the region, it wouldn't require a long migration for these fish to move in and out of the "donut hole." The small Arctic cod is not what commercial fishermen are after. But because they are found across the Arctic region and play a key role in supporting larger fish populations, they will play a pivotal role in the expansion of Arctic fisheries.

Concern about the exploitation of this untapped resource in the heart of the Arctic is growing.

"I was there in 1992 when the last trawler brought in the last catch of cod off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador," says Trevor Taylor, a one-time fishing vessel captain and former Minister of Fisheries for the Canadian province. "It's been 20 years since the cod fishery was shut down, and although there are hopeful signs of a recovery, it's going to be a long time, if ever, before it's even half recovered. The same thing is going to happen in the Arctic if we open the door to commercial fishing without understanding the presence and abundance, the structure and movements, and the role these fish play in the broader ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean."

Taylor is now policy director for Oceans North Canada, which advocates science-based policies on fishing, shipping, and energy development in the Arctic Ocean that are consistent with indigenous land claims and traditional practices. The group is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts in the United States, which worked to persuade more than 2,000 scientists from 67 countries to sign a letter at the IPY meeting in April calling for the development of an international fisheries agreement that would protect the waters of the central Arctic Ocean. Other Arctic waters within 200 miles of coastlines are governed by various nations as part of their Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, rights.

As indifferent as governments often are in responding to such petitions, some Arctic states are paying attention to the issue of fishing in the polar regions. The U.S. closed its Arctic waters to fishing in 2009 to allow scientists to assess the changes that are taking place in the marine ecosystem. While the new regulations close all U.S. waters north of Alaska's Bering Strait, fishing in the Bering and Chukchi seas continues.

Canada is considering doing the same thing on its side of the Beaufort Sea in advance of energy developments that could have an impact on a fishery that is only beginning to be inventoried.

Marine conservationists see this as a good start because management of the world's fish stocks has generally been disastrous. The United Nations estimates suggest that 28 percent of global fisheries are overexploited, 3 percent are depleted, 52 percent are fully exploited, and just 1 percent is recovering.

Large parts of the Arctic, particularly those on the periphery of the Arctic Ocean, are fertile fishing grounds that have already been overexploited. From the 1960s to the 1980s, fishing trawlers scooped up - often illegally - redfish and round-nosed grenadier in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, to the point that stocks there are now almost completely depleted. Both Barents Sea cod and Bering Sea pollock have also suffered from extreme harvesting pressures.

The situation could actually be far worse than has been estimated. A team of University of British Columbia researchers reported last year that fisheries catches in the Arctic totaled 950,000 tons from 1950 to 2006. That's almost 75 times the amount reported by fishermen to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) during this period.

Oceanographer Eddy Carmack has conducted 90 field investigations in rivers, lakes, and seas and published over 170 scientific articles during his long career. Having first traveled to the Arctic in 1969, the year of Woodstock, he is only half joking when he says that "things are a-changing" in the region. While he doesn't doubt that some fish populations are expanding, he says the issue of harvesting is not as simple as one might imagine.

"You can't expect to exploit one species in the Arctic when you really don't have any idea what role that species plays in a larger ecosystem that is undergoing dramatic change that we really don't understand very well," he said.

Carmack and other oceanographers have been studying life on the sea bottom and the changes that are occurring as a result of early ice melt. In the Bering Sea, they're already seeing a shift from an Arctic ecosystem to one that is sub-Arctic. Everything, from amphipods to gray whales, is moving northward.

Henry Huntington, science director for Pew's Arctic Program, says the time has come for Arctic states to act fast, especially in areas such as the central Arctic that are currently unprotected. "For the central Arctic Ocean, the rapid retreat of summer sea ice means that the international waters are accessible to fishing vessels for the first time in recorded history," Huntington said. "Everywhere else in the world, fisheries have rapidly expanded into accessible waters. Rather than see a repeat of the sad history of fisheries in most of the world - when we were left to wonder where the fish went and start some science and management later - we have a chance to get the science and management in place before fishing begins."

Photo by Polar Cruises/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360

Building Automation Systems Get Smart

Eric Bloom — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:37:00 -0700

by Eric Bloom

According to our recent report on building automation systems, the market for building automation controls today totals over $75 billion per year. There's still room for growth, however, not just in developing regions but even in North America and Western Europe. Automation systems and controls relating to HVAC and lighting are not always required by code, but they can play an important role in maintaining high levels of energy efficiency. As LEED certifications soar (recently passing 2 billion square feet of commercial certified space worldwide) and organizations look to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions, such controls are one of the key enabling technologies that achieve high levels of energy performance in buildings. Although some of this growth is due to the increasing stringency of building energy efficiency regulations, such as the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which will require all new construction in Europe to achieve nearly zero-energy levels by 2021, much of the investment in building automation controls will be voluntary, as companies aim to improve energy efficiency in their building portfolios.

At the same time, building automation systems are becoming more intelligent. Increasingly, controls are not designed to be "set and left" but are connected to a building management system (BMS) that continuously monitors data streams from building controls and feeds them into energy displays that help facilities managers and other decision-makers gain visibility into how their buildings are performing. This is enabled by the convergence of IT with building controls, a process that, despite arriving later to the building industry than to other industries like telecom, is now transforming the way energy is managed in buildings. Controls were originally imagined as standalone devices that would to some extent take control of building energy out of occupants' hands to "make sure the lights got turned off." The new wave of intelligent controls, ironically, aims to put control over controls back in the occupants' hands, albeit under the guidance of sophisticated BMS and building energy management systems.

These advances in building automation technology are occurring just as demand for higher levels of energy efficiency is rising. As a result, Pike Research expects the market for building automation systems to grow to $146 billion in 2021 - a near doubling of the market today. Much of this growth will come from rapid construction activity in China, where 2 billion square meters of new space are added every year, and where much of that new space will integrate sophisticated controls over time. The fastest growth categories will be those that relate directly to energy efficiency, such as lighting controls. As these devices are rolled out, they will usher in a new generation of intelligent buildings that are less expensive to operate and easier to manage than ever before.

Eric Bloom is a green building and renewable energy analyst for Pike Research.

Turning Tons of Food into Energy

Cleantechnica — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:12:00 -0700

by Jake Richardson

American River Packaging in the Sacramento, CA area will soon begin using an anaerobic digestion system to convert 7.5 tons of daily food waste into 1,300 kWh of renewable energy per day. About 37 percent of the company's electricity will be generated by the waste-to-energy technology. Converting the large amounts of food waste will also divert about 2,900 tons of waste from landfills each year.

Bacteria are used in anaerobic digestion to break down biodegradable waste into energy in the form of biogas. Components of this fuel source are methane, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. Other useful byproducts are compost, water, and natural fertilizer.

Anaerobic digestion begins when a group of microorganisms converts organic material, so other organisms can form organic acids. Then anaerobic bacteria utilize these acids, so the decomposition process can be completed.

The anaerobic digestion system being used at American River Packaging is the result of ten years of research by Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor of biological and agricultural engineering. Her technology has been licensed by the start-up Clean World Partners. They focus on providing waste management systems employing anaerobic digestion to help generate energy and to attempt to divert some of the millions of tons of organic matter currently going into landfills.

"I applaud Professor Zhang for this tremendous accomplishment," said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. "Scientists like Professor Zhang are helping UC Davis address the most pressing global problems of our time. Her work brings us a giant step closer to the sustainable future we all hope for."

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica

Only 1 in 10 Americans is a Global Warming Denier, Report Finds

Ecopolitology — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:07:00 -0700

by Timothy Hurst

Turn on the TV news tonight and in the (unlikely) event you see any coverage of global warming you are likely to come away with the belief that Americans are evenly divided about the issue and what we should do about it. But a fascinating new report by researchers at Yale University and George Mason University found that Americans are not evenly split on the issue. In fact, only 10 percent are in the camp that believes global warming is absolutely not happening and that human actions have no impact on global temperature change.

Published last month by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, the report (pdf) shows that Americans are far less polarized about global warming than is commonly believed. Among other things, the report also found strong support for government action to address global warming, including support for a revenue neutral carbon tax, regardless of political party preference.

Researchers found that a strong majority of Americans (72 percent) believe global warming should be a political priority and they want their elected officials to do something about it. An even stronger majority (92 percent) think that developing clean energy should be a political priority. The survey also showed a majority of Americans think that protecting the environment actually improves economic growth and creates jobs.

So why do Americans have a skewed vision of the public's opinion on global warming? According to Anthony Leiserowitz of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University, one of the report's principal investigators, a media bias for controversy combined with an extremely vocal minority of "Dismissers" are the driving forces behind the perceived polarization.

Lieserowitz identifies "six Americas" (see chart above), to describe the range of opinion on global warming. Ranging from Alarmed, Concerned and Cautious on one side of the spectrum, to Disengaged, Doubtful and Dismissive on the other side, the report paints a more nuanced picture of public opinion in America than that which is commonly perceived by the public.

"These [Dismissive] are people who are firmly convinced it's not happening, not human-caused and many of them are what we would lovingly call conspiracy theorists," said Leiserowitz on NPR's Science Friday. "They say it's a hoax, it's scientists making up data, it's a UN plot to take over American sovereignty, it's Al Gore and his friends trying to get rich..."

But while this group makes up only 10 percent of the population, they are a mobilized, outspoken minority.

"They are quite vocal, very engaged. Given the opportunity they will talk a lot about this issue," said Leiserowitz. "They're only 10 percent and yet they appear much larger because they tend to dominate much of the public square..."

All of the credit should not be given to the skeptics and their adept communications, however, Leiserowitz rightly points out.

In the mainstream media, "There's a basic imperative, especially in commercial media, that controversy sells," he says. "Which would you rather see? somebody who is methodically and deliberately spelling out the science of climate change or two people yelling at each other?"

Photo by o5com/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from Ecopolitology

Graphene Might Have a Plastic Cousin

Cleantechnica — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:57:00 -0700

by Tina Casey

Shake the family tree of a decidedly weird material like graphene and you never know what might fall out. In the most recent development, researchers in Spain have found that they can replicate a distinctive feature of graphene simply by drilling a pattern of holes in a sheet of plastic.

The discovery of a plastic "cousin" is significant because graphene has tantalizingly unique properties that could spark a new generation of smaller, lighter, more powerful and less energy-sucking electronic devices, but it is a notoriously finicky material.

Plastic, on the other hand, is - well, plastic.

Dirac cones and graphene

The key to the outstanding electronic properties of graphene is the "unusual relationship" between the two points of a double-cone feature called Dirac cones. Electrons accelerate to high speeds as they move up the cone, and that accounts for the incredibly fast movement of electrons through graphene.

Loosely speaking, the Dirac phenomenon is similar to those change-donation stations at museums, where a penny dropped into the wide end of an inverted cone gathers speed as it whirls toward a small hole at the bottom.

If Dirac cones can be identified in other, more stable materials, that could lead to more cost-effective ways of mass producing foundational materials for next-generation electronics.

A plastic version of graphene

The new study was published in Physical Review Letters by two researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Daniel Torrent and Jos� S�nchez-Dehesa.

As a stand-in for graphene, they used a compound called methyl methacrylate, which in the form of poly methyl methacrylate is more commonly known as Plexiglass.

They drilled a pattern of cylindrical holes in the plastic sheet to mimic the lattice structure of carbon atoms in graphene, which resembles honeycomb or chickenwire. Each hole represented a carbon atom.

When exposed to carefully calibrated sounds from a loudspeaker, the surface of the plate produced acoustic waves that varied in relation to the depth and radius of the cylindrical holes.

According to the researchers, this phenomenon is analogous to the way that the lattice structure of graphene produces electronic waves.

As described in a recent article at physicsworld.com by editor Hamish Johnston, the researchers identified analogs to Dirac cones at about 22kHz, confirming their theoretical modeling.

The next step, according to Johnston, is to confirm that the acoustic waves also travel unimpeded across the sheet.

Applications for plastic "graphene"

Though practical applications for an acoustic Plexiglass version of graphene appear somewhat limited, the finding could be significant at the research end.

In its natural state, graphene comes in sheets of carbon only one atom thick. The researchers who discovered graphene in 2004 fabricated it by literally lifting a layer of carbon atoms from a chunk of graphite, a technique that is obviously lacking in quality control. Fabricating quantities of graphene with a consistent quality has bedeviled the field ever since.

With a cheap, easily manipulated material like Plexiglass at hand, researchers could use the acoustic analog as an initial step in graphene research, to predict the behavior of electrons under varying conditions.

Scientists at Columbia University have been working along these lines to create a simplified form of "artificial graphene" that could be used as a research tool in lieu of natural graphene.

Other graphene variants are under investigation at the University of Erlangen-N�rnberg in Germany, where researchers are using

computer models to detect Dirac cones in graphynes, which are atom-thick carbon sheets that depart from the honeycomb structure of graphene.

At Manchester University, researchers are also tweaking graphene with hydrogen atoms to develop a sort of nano-sandwich called graphane, which could be cut into strips or ribbons for commercial use.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica

How to Dry Your Hands with Just One Paper Towel

Sustainablog — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:01:00 -0700

by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg

OK, hand drying really isn't a necessary activity: I try to remind myself whenever I'm washing my hands in a public restroom that I'm not really drying my hands; I'm just drying them faster. They'll dry without any aids. But if you really don't want to walk out of the restroom with damp hands, you've got better options than the typical fistful of paper towels. You could carry your own microfiber towel, or you could make more efficient use of the available paper towels.

Attorney Joe Smith shows us just how to do the latter in his TEDxConcordiaUPortland talk above... and reminds us that if we all just used one less paper towel per day, we'd collectively save a lot of paper.

Photo by SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from Sustainablog

Kyocera Buildings Cool Off with Edible Green Curtains

Cleantechnica — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:13:00 -0700

by Zachary Shahan

Kyocera is well known for its solar panels. But the Japanese company greens up its own buildings in more ways that with solar. The company also grows "Green Curtains" on trellises around its buildings "to shade windows and outer walls of manufacturing and office buildings at 19 locations in Japan."

This, of course, cuts energy use in the buildings, since it keeps them cooler in hot summer months when people might be tempted to turn on or turn down energy-demanding air conditioners. Also, it just looks nice, doesn't it? And I imagine it helps air quality around the building a bit, as well.

On top of the energy-saving benefit of these green curtains, they also feature healthy edibles!

"The goya (bitter gourd; a traditional summer vegetable of Okinawa), cucumbers and peas that form the Green Curtains are harvested by Kyocera employees and commonly served as part of a special lunch menu in employee cafeterias," Kyocera writes. "Goya, which is rich in nutrients, is widely used as an ingredient for the prevention of fatigue in the hot summer months in Japan. Moreover, the employees enjoy watching the plants grow and harvesting the vegetables."

And, taking the awesomeness one step further, the company has a Green Curtains website that shows people how to grow their own green curtains.

Cool stuff. It's really just common sense stuff like this the world needs more of.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica

Poland to Get Recyclable Subway Cars

Cleantechnica — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:21:00 -0700

by Zachary Shahan

Warsaw, Poland is to get recyclable subway cars for its Metro Warszawskie this Fall, according to Siemens. The metro cars are being developed by Siemens and BMW Group DesignworksUSA, an independently operating BMW Group subsidiary. Metro Warszawskie will get the first cars, 35 of them, this Fall.

Other than being 97.5 percent recyclable, the subway cars are extremely lightweight, making them more energy efficient than typical subway cars, and "additional energy-saving systems, such as those that control air conditioners with carbon-dioxide sensors or utilize energy-efficient LED lighting systems."

And, my favorite part style-wise, the vertical handrails have a tree-like form - looks both cool and useful.

Of course, while the subways cars are almost entirely recyclable, that doesn't mean they won't be used for long - the expected lifespan is 40 years.

How are they making the cars so light, you ask? Well, in many ways.

Numerous measures were undertaken to reduce the weight of the Inspiro. The front end of the cars alone, which houses the couplings, weighs 500 kilograms less than before. Its design is based on the use of light aluminum profiles. To identify areas in which fewer materials could be used without limiting functionality, the entire car body was computer analyzed by means of the finite element method. Certain components in the cars themselves were made as multifunctional as possible - for example, parts of the ceiling also serve as cable ducts. In a further effort to reduce weight, air ducts are made of light textiles rather than the metal previously used, while a new type of cork-aluminum floor weighs 30 percent less than before, acts as a noise dampener, and also provides better heat insulation.

"The first 10 trains will be built in Germany, while the remaining 25 will be constructed in Poland," Karen MacKay of Crisp Green notes. "Forty percent of the components will be sourced in Poland."

Despite living in Poland for nearly 4 years now, I've never made it to Warsaw. Maybe these super-green subway cars will finally pull me over there.

This isn't the first green move the Warsaw Metro has made. As I wrote in November, it is working on a project with ABB to capture and reuse the braking energy of some its trains.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica

Why Alaska Might Be the Best Place for Electric Cars

EarthandIndustry — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:07:00 -0700

by Timothy Hurst

Let me first preface this piece by saying Alaska may not, in fact, be the best place to own and operate an electric car. Confused? Let me explain. A new study (pdf) by the Union of Concerned Scientists explores the often asked but rarely answered questions surrounding the issue of whether some geographic regions may be better than others for electric cars in terms of their environmental impact.

The study confirms what many assumed all along but had little in the way of comprehensive empirical research to back up their claims: the charging of electric cars generally emits less greenhouse gas than does the comparable amount of gasoline needed to power cars for the same distance traveled. And while the amount of these emissions is substantially greater in some regions over others, the amount of these emissions varies significantly based on the mix of energy sources used to power a region's electricity grid. In other words, the greater the proportion of clean energy on an electric grid, the less greenhouse gas operating an electric car charged on that grid will emit.

What does Alaska have to do with those findings?

According to the UCS study, the electricity on the Juneau, Alaska power grid, which is mostly generated by hydroelectric power plants, makes it one of the "greenest" places to operate an electric vehicle in the country. Alaska Electric Light and Power's Snettisham Hydroelectric Project pumps 78.2 MW of electrical power to the Juneau power grid.

That said, an underdeveloped charging infrastructure combined with the under-studied impact of sustained cold temperatures on electric car batteries, may make owning and operating an EV in Alaska a little less rosy than the study would indicate.

Generally speaking, the study found that electric cars plugged into grids in coastal states in the eastern and western U.S. have smaller carbon footprints than those plugged into the grids of the coal-reliant interior. [This pattern is indicated in the map above which shows the greenhouse gas footprint of EV charging in a range of blues, with the smallest footprint in light blue and the largest footprint in dark blue].

But the most important finding of the study may be that operating an electric car almost always generates less greenhouse gas than operating a gasoline-powered vehicle. "Nearly half of Americans live in regions where driving an electric vehicle means lower global warming emissions than driving even the best hybrid gasoline vehicle available," the authors of the study write, noting that, "Over the lifetime of an EV, the owner can save more than 6,000 gallons of gasoline-a significant contribution to U.S. energy security."

Even in Alaska.

Reprinted with permission from Earth & Industry

T. Boone Pickens Calls Koch Brothers Biggest Deterrent to U.S. Energy Policy

SustainableBusiness.com — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:59:00 -0700

It's pretty amazing to think that just 2 men are responsible for holding an entire country - the US - back from being able to implement a responsible energy policy.

Even Mexico and Peru have one, but not the US.

In an interview this week with Yahoo's Daily Ticker, T. Boone Pickens says his biggest concern right now is that the US doesn't have an energy policy and he points directly at the Koch Bros as the reason.

"The biggest deterrent to an energy plan in America is Koch Industries," he says. "They do not want an energy plan for America because they have the cheapest natural gas price they've ever had, and they're in the fertilizer business and they're in the chemical business. So their margins are huge. And they do not want you to have an energy plan, because if you had a plan, then natural gas prices would come up."

Germany, on other other hand, can decarbonize with renewables because "We Don't Have the ... Koch Brothers," said a German State Minister. He referred to their lobbying for fossil fuels and against clean energy, and its spending on climate science disinformation through the front group Americans for Prosperity. They have outspent even ExxonMobil.

Meanwhile, another Koch Bros-backed group, The Heartland Institute, has launched one of the most offensive billboard campaigns in U.S. history, reports the Guardian.

It compares people who accept the facts of climate science, including journalists who report on it accurately, to Charles Manson, the Unabomber, and Osama Bin Laden.

Heartland is holding a Climate Change "Reality" Conference later this month in Chicago to further spin their misinformation campaign.

General Motors and AT&T pulled their support of Heartland, but State Farm and Microsoft, along with many others are still there including Eli Lilly & Co., GlaxoSmithKline, Nucor, Pfizer, and Time Warner Cable.

Why did Heartland feature Charles Manson, the Unabomber, and Osama Bin Laden.these people on its billboards?

Here's their answer (which is on the conference website along with the billboard proudly displayed):

Because what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the "mainstream" media, and liberal politicians say about global warming....

The point is that believing in global warming is not "mainstream," smart, or sophisticated. In fact, it is just the opposite of those things. Still believing in man-made global warming - after all the scientific discoveries and revelations that point against this theory - is more than a little nutty. In fact, some really crazy people use it to justify immoral and frightening behavior.

The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.

Wow - you can't make this stuff up!!

Photo by Steve Jurvetson/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from SustainableBusiness.com

Department of Interior Releases Draft Fracking Rules

Blue Living Ideas — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:45:00 -0700

by Heather Carr

Today the U.S. Department of the Interior released draft rules governing hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking. The new rule covers federal lands and Indian lands.

The draft rule has three main requirements:

1) Drilling companies must publicly disclose the chemicals used in fracking on public and Indian lands. The disclosure would occur after fracking operations have been completed. Having records of what chemicals were injected into the rock will allow later tracking of any contamination.

Drilling companies had been concerned that disclosing the fracking chemicals before drilling would delay the permitting process. This concession will allay those fears.

Several states already require companies to post a list of their chemicals to an online database, FracFocus, which is available to the public. Companies drilling on public and Indian lands might use the same site.

2) Before fracking, drilling companies will need to submit information showing they have tested the well and the cement casing has shown sufficient integrity to withstand fracking pressures. Testing the well is standard procedure with most companies and should not be a problem.

3) A water management plan will be required. During fracking, some of the water and chemicals injected into the ground comes back up through the well. This water will be stored in enclosed tanks or in lined pits.

Many drilling companies already follow the required procedures and keep the necessary documentation. The new rule was designed to be in accord with state regulations already in existence.

The rule applies to all "usable water', which is not limited to fresh water, but includes water used for industrial and agricultural purposes.

The additional costs of the regulation is estimated at approximately $15,000 per well, or 0.3 percent of the cost of a well.

The Department of the Interior will accept public comments for sixty days before issuing the final rule.

Reprinted with permission from Blue Living Ideas

Concentrated Solar Power Market Set to Double by 2020

EarthandIndustry — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:04:00 -0700

by Silvio Marcacci

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) may trace its roots to when Leonardo da Vinci first conceived a parabolic mirror concentrator to heat water, but the technology's future may be brighter than ever. According to a Pike Research study, the market as a whole will more than double from $2.1 billion in 2012 to $4.8 billion in 2020.

Like many other forms of renewable electricity generation, CSP projects have been slowed by austerity measures across the world. But Pike researchers say the current CSP surge, which began in earnest around 2004, is merely paused at the moment, and global capacity will double by 2013.

Several policies have fueled the current market, including California's renewable portfolio standard and several European feed-in-tariff systems. 2008's global economic crisis didn't immediately impact the CSP market because multiple projects were already underway, notably 14 utility-scale plants that brought 667 new megawatts (MW) online in Spain between 2008-2010.

However, as austerity measures kicked in the pipeline began to close and Spain, once the global leader in CSP technology, currently has zero projects under construction. The same trend is seen in the United States, where stimulus funding helped fund five CSP projects. These projects represent 1.5 gigawatts (GW) currently under construction, although nearly 6.9GW have been awarded.

As in Spain, though, when government funding and incentives dried up, so did new project starts. 745MW of projects have been cancelled or delayed, and 3.4GW of projects are uncertain to move forward.

Beyond austerity measures, Pike also sees the plummeting price of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules as a serious threat to the technology. PV modules have dropped beyond 50 percent from their 2008 peak, and PV is more attractive to investors due to its established track record. To wit, 1.2GW worth of CSP projects in the U.S. have been replaced with PV.

But, CSP may overcome austerity measures and PV competition by reducing project costs through three avenues: increasing project scale, hybridization with fossil fuel plants through Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC), and utility-scale energy storage.

"The most promising opportunity in the near term is to link CSP with thermal energy storage, thereby increasing the value of clean electricity in a cost-effective way that solar PV cannot replicate," said Peter Asmus, Pike Research senior analyst.

Industry growth is likely to be concentrated in areas like Europe and northern Africa, according to Asmus. "There are clearer market signals to develop large amounts of bulk renewables due to carbon mandates and corresponding investments in bulk power transmission to serve EU markets."

Photo by Paul Carroll/flickr/Creative Commons

Reprinted with permission from Earth & Industry