Daily Planetsaver -

65 Million Square Feet of Solar Rooftops: Powering 162,000 Homes

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

In an ambitious move, a Californian utility plans to create a massive, distributed “powerplant” by installing a total of 2 square miles of solar cells on the roofs of businesses. Southern California Edison plans to install 250 megawatts’ worth of solar power, generating enough electricity to power 162,000 homes.

Green Wombat reports:

It’s a potentially game-changing move, one that could lower the cost of solar cells as manufacturers ramp up production to meet the utility’s schedule of installing a megawatt-a-week of arrays until it reaches the 250-megawatt target. That alone is more than United States’ entire production of solar cells in 2006 and will generate as much electricity as a small coal-fired power plant, albeit with no greenhouse gas emissions.

The $875 million initiative also marks the first big foray into so-called distributed energy by a major utility. Instead of building a centralized power station and the expensive transmission system needed to transmit electricity to the power grid, Edison will connect clusters of solar arrays into existing neighborhood circuits. A significant hurdle for the massive megawatt solar power plants planned for California’s Mojave Desert is the need in some cases to build multi billion-dollar transmission systems through environmentally sensitive lands to bring the electricity to coastal metropolises.

“Organic” Milk Lawsuit in Court Today

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

Attorneys representing 52 consumers in a lawsuit against Boulder, Colorado-based Aurora Organic Dairy and some of the nation’s largest retailers will face off in court today at the federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri, Judge Richard Webber, presiding. The consumers allege that the milk they purchased, although labeled as “organic”, did not meet federal organic standards. Their attorneys will argue claims including breach of contract and of implied warranty, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and also claims under the consumer protection and deceptive trade practices statutes of several states.

Besides Aurora Dairy, the plaintiffs include Quality Assurance International (QAI), an organic certifier, dairy operator Case Vander Eyk, Jr.*, and the retailers Costco Wholesale Corporation, Safeway Inc., Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and Wild Oats Market, Inc.

Today’s scheduling conference is the culmination of 17 class-action suits recently filed against Aurora consolidated into a single lawsuit by a seven-judge Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in February. The panel added a related case against Target Corp. to the docket last week.

The defendants argue that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has primary and “exclusive jurisdiction” in the case, and will ask for the case to be dismissed on “jurisdictional” grounds. On this basis, they said it would be “inappropriate and unnecessary’ for “discovery” to proceed in the case, which would allow the plaintiffs to force disclosure of documents relating to business operations by the defendants.
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World’s Most Powerful Particle Smasher Not a Threat

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

Campaigners in the US are attempting to delay the start-up of the world’s most powerful particle smasher with a lawsuit claiming it could spawn dangerous particles or mini black holes that will destroy the entire Earth.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is nearing completion at CERN, the European centre for particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists hope it will begin operations in mid-July.

On 21 March, Luis Sancho, from Spain, and Hawaii resident Walter Wagner filed a lawsuit in Hawaii’s US District Court against CERN and US contributors to the project demanding that they do not operate the LHC until they prove it is safe. The US contributors named are the Department of Energy (DoE), the National Science Foundation and Fermilab, an accelerator laboratory near Chicago.

New Implications for Financial Future of Hydrogen Energy

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2008) — Using hydrogen as an energy vector and in fuel cells may provide solutions to the specific energy challenges of the 21st century. Hydrogen production is currently based on the catalytic properties of “noble” metals such as platinum. For the first time, researchers at the joint Laboratoire de chimie et biologie des métaux (metal chemistry and biology, CEA-CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, CEA’s Grenoble site) have succeeded in producing hydrogen with a molecular system that doesn’t require a noble metal catalyst. This outcome has important implications for the financial future of hydrogen energy.

Research to improve hydrogen production is based largely on chemical reactions observed during photosynthesis in plants. More specifically, certain micro-organisms produce hydrogen from water with the help of light. To reproduce and adapt these processes, researchers have developed molecular systems capable of both photosensitisation, which captures light energy, and catalysis, which uses the energy collected to liberate hydrogen from water.

To date, all the technological systems developed to produce or use hydrogen rely on noble metals₍₁₎ such as platinum. But platinum reserves are limited. The metal’s scarcity and cost are obstacles to the long-term financial prospects of hydrogen technologies, despite efforts to reduce the quantities used in electrolysers and fuel cells. Current research focuses on alternatives to platinum, by developing catalysts based on metals which are naturally more abundant and less expensive, such as those used by natural organisms (iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese).

New System Aims To Efficiently Convert Biomass To Ethanol

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2008) — Iowa State University researchers are developing an integrated system of thermochemical and catalytic technologies to efficiently produce ethanol from plant biomass.

“Increasing supplies of renewable energy and using more energy efficient technologies must continue to play an indispensable role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the rapidly growing demand for energy,” said Samuel Bodman, the U.S. secretary of energy.*

Victor Lin, a professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Catalysis, will lead the Iowa State project. The project also includes Robert C. Brown, the Iowa Farm Bureau Director of the Bioeconomy Institute; George Kraus, the director of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology; Marek Pruski, a scientist for the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory located at Iowa State; and Justinus Satrio, a project manager at the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies.

They’re working to develop a biomass-to-ethanol system that would work like this: Plant biomass such as corn stalks and switchgrass would be broken down by fast pyrolysis, a process that uses heat at 900 degrees Fahrenheit in the absence of oxygen to convert biomass into a bio-oil. The bio-oil would be gasified with steam and/or oxygen at 1,100 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit to produce a synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and short-chain hydrocarbon gases. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the synthesis gas would be reacted with a nanotechnology-based catalyst to produce ethanol fuel.

China Recalls Contaminated Milk After Children Fall Ill

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

BEIJING (Reuters) - Officials in southern China sealed more than 4,000 boxes of possibly contaminated milk and the manufacturer recalled another 2,700 boxes after children became sick on drinking the product, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

A total of 119 children, some in day care centers, fell ill on drinking the milk and 75 of them were hospitalized for two days, China’s official news agency said.

China has been waging a battle to improve product quality after a series of scandals at home and abroad involving substandard toys, fake medicines and food, as well as tainted pet food.

A total of 258 people died from food poisoning last year, up nearly 32 percent on 2006, the ministry-published Health News said. There were also 11 cases in which more than 100 people fell ill from food poisoning.

BMW Hydrogen 7 is Awesome

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2008) — Independent tests conducted by engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory on a BMW Hydrogen 7 Mono-Fuel demonstration vehicle have found that the car’s hydrogen-powered engine surpasses the super-ultra low-emission vehicle (SULEV) level, the most stringent emissions performance standard to date.

“The BMW Hydrogen 7’s emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured,” said Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer who leads Argonne’s hydrogen vehicle testing activities. “Moreover, the car’s engine actively cleans the air. Argonne’s testing shows that the Hydrogen 7’s 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car’s engine.”

It was not an easy task to measure the Hydrogen 7’s emissions. “A gross polluter is easy to measure, but the cleaner the car the harder it is to test,” said Don Hillebrand, director of Argonne’s Center for Transportation Research. “Most labs test at the SULEV level. Argonne’s vehicle testing facilities are unique in that they are able to detect even trace levels of emissions. In this case, it was near-zero emissions.”

After an extensive evaluation by BMW, “Argonne’s Advanced Powertrain Research Facility was found to be the only public test facility in North America capable of testing hydrogen vehicles at these low emissions levels,” said BMW’s Wolfgang Thiel, manager, operating support emissions analysis. “Zero is a very small precise number — we are pushing the boundaries of emissions testing.”

Australia for Earth Hour 2008

March 31st, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Lights at Sydney’s iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge were switched off on Saturday, along with lights in many high-rise office blocks and restaurants around Australia for Earth Hour 2008.

As many as 30 million people are tipped to switch off lights and televisions around the world to help fight climate change with around 370 towns and cities in more than 35 countries taking part in the event, organizers say.

Australians held candle-lit beach parties, played poker by candle light, floated candles down rivers and dined by candle light during Earth Hour.

One pub in southern Victoria state was offering free beer to anyone who came with a black balloon, to symbolize every individual’s carbon footprint.

During the first Earth Hour in Sydney in 2007, more than 2 million businesses and households turned off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about climate change.

This year Earth Hour has gone global, with cities including Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Manila, Ottawa, Dublin, Vancouver, Montreal, Phoenix and Tel Aviv joining Sydney by switching off their lights.

Don’t Try This At Home: Sushi

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

TOKYO (Reuters) - As Japanese sushi conquers restaurants and homes around the world, industry experts are fighting the side-effects of the raw fish boom: fake sushi bars, over-confident amateurs, poisoned consumers.

Once a rare and exotic treat, seaweed rolls and bites of raw tuna on vinegared rice are now familiar to most food fans. So familiar, in fact, that many hobby cooks in Europe and the United States like to make them in their own kitchens.

But chefs and sushi experts at an international restaurant summit in Tokyo warned of a lack of awareness in handling raw fish among amateurs and some restaurateurs who enter the profitable industry without sufficient training.

“Everybody thinks: ’sushi is so expensive — I can buy cheap fish, fresh fish, I can make it at home.’ It’s not true. Not every fish is suitable to eat raw,” chef and restaurateur Yoshi Tome told Reuters.

Tome’s restaurant, “Sushi Ran” in Sausalito, California, was awarded a Michelin star and he often advises customers on preparing Japanese food.

He sees himself as an educator as well as a chef, and believes that more and better training opportunities are needed to prevent food scandals that could hurt the entire industry.

Restoring Tanzania’s Ecosystems

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

Degraded land in western Tanzania is gradually being reclaimed — two decades after work began to rehabilitate the declining ecosystems.

Once a thriving and diverse woodland environment, western Tanzania supported the livelihoods of local communities without difficulty.

But policies implemented in the 1920s to convert the rich woodland areas into agricultural land led to overgrazing, and by the 1980s there was concern that the damage was irreversible.

Fortunately, these concerns have been proved wrong with the work of an award-winning regional development programme known as HASHI. Scientists working on the programme identified and implemented several traditional land management techniques to stabilise the area.

Memory-foam Mattress Pad Comfortable and Toxic

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

Susan Greenfield and her girlfriend Llina Kempner couldn’t wait for their new memory-foam mattress top to arrive. For months, they’d heard friends rave about how the high-tech material molds itself to your body. But when they unwrapped the three-inch-thick pad in their Manhattan apartment, they noticed a strong, acrid odor. “My nose and my lungs were miserable,” recalls Greenfield. For the two nights Kempner slept on the mattress top, she felt nauseated. After Greenfield, who is chemically sensitive, had an asthma attack in the middle of the night, the couple returned the mattress pad. But its stench lingered in the apartment for weeks.

Reactions like Greenfield’s are relatively rare, but you, too, might lose some sleep when you find out what’s really inside your mattress-memory foam or not. The place where you spend one-third of your life is chock-full of synthetic materials, some potentially toxic. Since the mid- to late ’60s, most mattresses have been made of polyurethane foam, a petroleum-based material that emits volatile organic compounds that can cause respiratory problems and skin irritation. Formaldehyde, which is used to make one of the adhesives that hold mattresses together, has been linked to asthma, allergies, and lung, nose, and throat cancers. And then there are cotton pesticides and flame-retardant chemicals, which can cause cancer and nervous-system disorders. In 2005, Walter Bader, owner of the “green mattress” company Lifekind and author of the book Toxic Bedrooms, sent several mattresses to an Atlanta-based lab. A memory-foam model was found to emit 61 chemicals, including the carcinogens benzene and naphthalene.

There is no proven health risk from the substances in mattresses, however, mostly because tracking their long-term effects is virtually impossible. Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke University, says there’s simply not enough data to determine whether low levels of these chemicals will eventually make people sick. “It’s the dose that makes the poison,” she says. “If they’re not getting out, maybe it’s not a problem-but we don’t know. There are plenty of lab studies that show that these compounds are harmful. It’s just a question of what levels people are exposed to.”

Global Warming: The More You Know the Less You Care?

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — The more you know the less you care — at least that seems to be the case with global warming. A telephone survey of 1,093 Americans by two Texas A&M University political scientists and a former colleague indicates that trend, as explained in their recent article in the peer-reviewed journal Risk Analysis.

“More informed respondents both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming,” states the article, titled “Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the USA.”

The study showed high levels of confidence in scientists among Americans led to a decreased sense of responsibility for global warming.

The diminished concern and sense of responsibility flies in the face of awareness campaigns about climate change, such as in the movies An Inconvenient Truth and Ice Age: The Meltdown and in the mainstream media’s escalating emphasis on the trend.

The research was conducted by Paul M. Kellstedt, a political science associate professor at Texas A&M; Arnold Vedlitz, Bob Bullock Chair in Government and Public Policy at Texas A&M’s George Bush School of Government and Public Service; and Sammy Zahran, formerly of Texas A&M and now an assistant professor of sociology at Colorado State University.

Kellstedt says the findings were a bit unexpected. The focus of the study, he says, was not to measure how informed or how uninformed Americans are about global warming, but to understand why some individuals who are more or less informed about it showed more or less concern.

U.S. West Heating Up at Nearly Twice the Rate of the Rest of the World

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. West is heating up at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world and is likely to face more drought conditions in many of its fast-growing cities, an environmental group said on Thursday.

By analyzing federal government temperature data, the Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that the average temperature in the 11-state Western region from 2003-07 was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.94 degrees Celsius) higher than the historical average of the 20th century.

The global average increase for the same period was 1.0 degrees Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius).

In the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to big and fast-growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Denver, the average temperature rose 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.21 degrees Celsius), the U.S. group said.

Most of the river’s water comes from melting snow in the mountains, and climate scientists predict hotter temperatures will reduce the snowpack and increase evaporation, the NRDC said in a

Green Schemes: Sustainable Urbanism in Garfield Park

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — The University of Illinois at Chicago’s City Design Center has produced a 96-page electronic publication illustrating ideas for green development in East Garfield Park as a case study for use by Chicago neighborhoods and individuals.

“Green Schemes: Sustainable Urbanism in Garfield Park” presents 80 concepts such as filtration gardens, narrowed roadways, and an elevated bikeway adjacent to the Green Line tracks. Graduate students and faculty in urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture conceived the schemes in five studios taught at UIC’s City Design Center.

Their designs for urban agriculture, public ways, building technology, manufacturing, transportation and other planning elements address four scales of development: building, street, neighborhood, and the two-square-mile community.

The designers chose East Garfield Park as a mixed-income neighborhood with many underused properties. They describe the area’s current and potential assets, including winding boulevards, Victorian housing, a business district primed for revitalization, industrial buildings, a rapid transit line, the City of Chicago’s Center for Green Technology, and Garfield Park — one of the city’s largest parks, featuring a restored botanical conservatory.

Solutions Brewing for Growing Water Crisis

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — As growing demand for clean water stretches even the resources of the world’s largest industrialized nations, scientists and engineers are turning to new technology and novel ideas to find solutions.

Mark Shannon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign joined a slate of world leaders in water resource research to address this crisis in a review paper in the March 20, 2008, issue of Nature.

“As dire as the growing problems are with a lack of enough clean water in the world, I have a great deal of hope that many of these problems can be solved by increasing research into the science and technology of water purification,” said Shannon, who also serves as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS).

With an emphasis on environmentally friendly tools for killing microbes, membrane bioreactors, nanoscale filtration, and a host of other advanced technologies, the review paper addresses how these systems can be used for disinfection, decontamination, reuse and reclamation, and desalination of water supplies across the globe.

“Clearly, a coordinated, multi-faceted approach is needed to deal with complex water issues,” said Geoffrey Prentice, the NSF program director supporting the WaterCAMPWS center and currently on detail to the U.S. Mission to UNESCO in Paris.”

Evolution Of New Species Slows Down As Number Of Competitors Increases

March 28th, 2008 by Noelle dEstries

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — The rate at which new species are formed in a group of closely related animals decreases as the total number of different species in that group goes up, according to new research.

The research team believes these findings suggest that new species appear less and less as the number of species in a region approaches the maximum number that it can support.

In order for new species to thrive, they need to evolve to occupy their own niche in the ecosystem, relying on certain foods and habitats for survival that are sufficiently different from those of other closely related species.

Competition between closely related species for food and habitat becomes more intense the more species there are, and researchers believe this could be the reason for the drop-off in the appearance of new species over time.

Dr. Albert Phillimore, from Imperial College London’s NERC Centre for Population Biology, lead author on the paper, explains: “The number of niches in any given region is finite, and our research supports the idea that the rate of speciation slows down as the number of niches begins to run out.