fidzu : Environmental blogs

A new study published in Nature Climate Change shows that long-distance ocean currents are warming faster than the globe's oceans as a whole (The Register). Many areas of Mexico have been experiencing severe drought and crop failure (NY Times). Endangered...

05 Feb 2012 8:00am GMT

Please see the below call for submissions: The Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law is soliciting articles on a range of topics related to environmental and administrative law for our upcoming volume. Our journal's focus on both environmental law...

05 Feb 2012 2:50am GMT

Earlier this week, Minnesota Senate Republicans voted to oust Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chair Ellen Anderson. Despite the fact that she had voted with the rest of PUC in almost every vote (of 221 votes in which she participated, the...

03 Feb 2012 3:44pm GMT

The story of Yucca Mountain, Nevada-designated as the nation's repository for commercial nuclear waste-is of central importance in the enduringly contentious nuclear power debate. If you've been following the Yucca Mountain controversy, you'll know that both the Department of Energy...

03 Feb 2012 12:00pm GMT

Lately, criticizing the alleged inadequacies of contemporary legal education is all the rage. Judges, law professors, and, perhaps most notoriously, the New York Times all have abundant opinions on what's wrong with or missing from legal education. I think, for...

02 Feb 2012 2:45pm GMT

The idea of fostering environmental literacy among students is important to human well-being. As such, it is promising to learn that public and private schools across the nation have been busy greening both the curriculum and educational facilities. States now...

01 Feb 2012 9:27pm GMT

This upcoming year, I intend to blog periodically about the political players that oversaw the birth of environmental law in the 1970s. John Ehrlichman is mainly remembered for his participation in the Watergate break in. Of course, Watergate was a...

01 Feb 2012 3:24am GMT

At this nifty website, the per capita carbon footprints of different countries can be compared. It shows that the carbon footprint of the average American (that is, a resident of the USA) is about two-and-a-half times larger than the carbon...

31 Jan 2012 9:41am GMT

* President Obama's State of the Union Address and reactions to it involved significant discussion of energy and transition to cleaner sources. * As environmental concerns continue to rise about the recent cruise ship accident off the coast of Italy...

30 Jan 2012 3:17pm GMT

State-level climate change adaptation is "on the radar" in Hawai'i, and like many other academic institutions working in other jurisdictions, the University of Hawai'i has something to do with it. Last week, Hawai'i State Representative Cynthia Thielen introduced House Bill...

30 Jan 2012 6:23am GMT

There are a variety of recently announced job openings that may be of interest: Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Visiting Assistant Professor - UH Energy Law Scholar - Non-Tenure-Track at the University of Houston Visiting professor...

28 Jan 2012 3:39pm GMT

There are enough conferences every year that, if one attended them all, no other work would get done. That said, there is a particularly well put together conference coming up on Thursday, February 9. Electric Power in a Carbon Constrained...

27 Jan 2012 6:55pm GMT

Local governments routinely attach conditions, or "exactions," to development permits in an effort to address the environmental and infrastructural impacts of individual projects. However, presumably to protect landowners from exactions that are either unrelated or disproportionate to the problems caused...

27 Jan 2012 12:41am GMT

Last night, President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union Address. Like last year, he focused on the potential for unity over energy independence, transition to cleaner energy, and energy infrastructure rather than on addressing climate change. He continued...

25 Jan 2012 3:56pm GMT

With the start of the semester, time for doing "things" like taking an evening out for watching a movie has dwindled. However, just before the holiday season provided ample opportunity to watch movies. It was while watching the trailer for...

24 Jan 2012 5:06pm GMT

It has been nearly one year since a massive tsunami and earthquake shook Japan's nuclear plants. Up until that point nations seriously considered nuclear energy as a good alternative to meet growing energy demands and reduce GHG emissions. Government response...

24 Jan 2012 4:55pm GMT

My flame for the small-business and artisan supporting marketplace was re-kindled surfing the 263 items -- from mat bags, to hand-knit yoga socks, calming wall art and more -- made locally in Brooklyn alone.

12 Nov 2011 6:08pm GMT

Ringo Starr lends his oriiginal peace sign artwork to 75 pairs of Timberland boots to support WaterAid.

12 Nov 2011 4:41pm GMT

Traveling exhibit in Turkey prompts audiences to put on their 'climate glasses' and see how floods, fires, and drought in the country are all connected.

12 Nov 2011 4:30pm GMT

The tree that will decorate Rockefeller Center this holiday season was cut down this week - but was it needlessly killed?

12 Nov 2011 1:02pm GMT

USDA gives AquaBounty a financial boost.

12 Nov 2011 1:00pm GMT

Sustainable design awards to pay tribute to innovators

12 Nov 2011 10:40am GMT

Let's not get overly gushy here ...

11 Nov 2011 11:40pm GMT

In an act of public protest, cyclists took to the streets in Mexico to paint their own network of bike lanes outside the city's congress building.

11 Nov 2011 10:30pm GMT

The former president chats with Jon Stewart about how we can create millions of green jobs with smart, simple policies.

11 Nov 2011 9:44pm GMT

A magical video of a flock of starlings has gone viral, and spurred questions from other filmmakers.

11 Nov 2011 8:49pm GMT

The company will build the first of many super-fast-charging stations between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

11 Nov 2011 8:40pm GMT

Advisory committee tries to eliminate loophole that allows company to be paid to dump tires.

11 Nov 2011 8:26pm GMT

A public memorial ceremony will be held in NYC for Wangari Maathai on November 14.

11 Nov 2011 8:25pm GMT

Boulder, Colorado, voted last week to create its own utility to help break away from coal.

11 Nov 2011 8:13pm GMT

British shoppers could save £50 a month if they served sensible portion sizes and learned to store their food safely.

11 Nov 2011 7:57pm GMT

Junked odds and ends find a home in artist Greg Brotherton's brilliant and dystopian sculptures.

11 Nov 2011 6:55pm GMT

A company called WheelTug has devised a way for commercial airplanes to run on electricity at slow speeds, much like a hybrid vehicle does.

The WheelTug system includes a pair of electric motors embedded in an airplane's nose wheel which provide power for backing the plane away from the gate and for taxiing up to 28 mph. The electricity for the motors is provided by the auxiliary power unit of the plane, a small engine located at the back of the aircraft used for running lights and the ventilation system when the main engines are off.

The auxiliary power unit uses only about half a gallon of fuel per minute compared to two gallons per minute for each of the main engines. The WheelTug allows a plane to taxi without use of the main engines and to back from the gate without the help of a diesel-fueled tug, cutting down significantly on fuel use while a plane is on the ground.

Another advantage to creating hybrid jets is that planes will spend less time on the ground since they won't have to wait for a tug. Also, by running the main engines less, engines will sustain less damage.

The company has just signed a deal to outfit 20 El Al jets with the system and hopes to get certification from European and American aviation regulators by early 2013.

via NY Times Green Blog

10 Nov 2011 6:29pm GMT

According to a new report by Environment California, a major solar power milestone has been reached in the state: it is now home to 1 gigawatt's-worth of rooftop solar power. To put that into perspective, only five countries have hit the 1 GW mark in solar power so far: Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy and the Czech Republic.

The electricity produced by rooftop solar power installations in California now equals two coal-fired power plants and could power 750,000 homes.

The solar installations include new and existing homes and commercial buildings, and panels connected to the grid by both large utilities and smaller municipal utilities.

The report gives most of the credit to a statewide rooftop solar incentive program called the California Solar Initiative. The initiative is responsible for 600 MW of installed solar power in the state.

via Mercury News

09 Nov 2011 7:59pm GMT

Facebook, a company that so far hasn't done much in the "green" arena, is incorporating a nice-sized solar power system into their new headquarters.

The cogeneration system, which is being built by Cogenra Solar, will include both solar PV and solar hot water heating and have far greater efficiency than just a solar PV system alone. The 24-module system will reside on the roof of a 10,000 square foot fitness center, providing electricity for the fitness machines and hot water for the showers. The system will have a capacity of 10 kW of electricity and about 50 kW of thermal energy.

Facebook sees this as their initial investment in solar power and hopes to expand the system later on to include powering and heating other parts of the campus, like the cafes.

via Crisp Green

08 Nov 2011 8:34pm GMT

Incorporating solar power onto airships is not an entirely new idea, but we continue to find interesting developments of the concept. The latest is the Solar Ship,a hybrid aircraft that merges bouyant lifting and aerodynamics as well as thin-film solar panels. The combination makes for a long-range vessel that is able to take-off and land on very short airfields.

Earlier studies have been critical of the efficiency of airships, finding that trucks offer a lower overall cost in time and energy. But that presupposes the existence of a network of available roads. While developed areas may be more readily served by trucks, they are less than ideal for many other parts of the world.

The Solar Ship concept was specifically developed for use in areas without a network of roads available. The two areas being focused on at present are to provide medical services in remote areas and to provide cargo transport alternatives to the "ice roads" presently used to move supplies in the high Arctic.

"Solar Ship blends the technologies of aerodynamic lift, aerostatic lift, and solar cells to create a cost efficient, long range, energy efficient cargo carrier for areas with minimal or unreliable infrastructure."

As a heavier-than-air craft, the Solar Ship does not need to have a ground crew to help support the craft at each destination point. The buoyant assitance of helium gives the craft enough help that it is able to use a soccer field as its airstrip. A solar powered Solar Ship will have unlimited effective range, while the hybrid version increases the cargo capacity while still providing great range.

07 Nov 2011 4:31pm GMT

A water treatment plant in New Jersy has gone solar with an unusual floating aray of solar panels. Because the water treatment facility is located on a protected site there was very little land available for construction. Floating the solar panels on the reservoir was the best way to add solar power to the facility.

According to New Jersey American Water, the installation at the Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant is the first solar array on a body of water designed to withstand a freeze/thaw environment. The installation comprises 538 modules on a floating structure that is designed to rise and fall with the water levels in the reservoir.

The panels are expected to provide about 2 percent of the plant's energy needs, resulting in about $16,000 in energy cost savings annually. The company press release notes that this is part of a $1.35 million dollar pilot project undertaken by the utility. That may not be cost effective even in the lifetime of the solar panels. But perhaps the infrastructure investment will help pay off in other long-term benefits.

image: New Jersey American Water (Facebook)

via: Solar Thermal Magazine

07 Nov 2011 3:49pm GMT

Researchers from San Francisco State University and Point Reyes Bird Observatory believe that among the wide array of consequences and adaptations that are occurring with climate change, birds are getting larger and fatter.

The team analyzed data from thousands of birds that were caught and released over the past few decades in the San Francisco Bay and Point Reyes National Seashore area and found that birds, on average, had increased in mass and in wingspan over the past 27 to 40 years.

The researchers believe that climate change could be leading to this super-sizing of the birds in a couple of ways. One is that birds could be storing more fat to survive the harsher winter storms that have become more common as the world warms. The other cause may be that climate change is affecting plant growth in a way that is leading to fatter birds.

While this doesn't seem to be a negative development so far, the researchers say these type of discoveries make it necessary to understand why some plants or animals are getting larger and some smaller and what the real impact of those changes could be.

via Discovery News

03 Nov 2011 9:12pm GMT

The massive Dersertec Initiative, which will include several solar power plants constructed in the Sahara Desert, as well as parts of the MIddle East and Europe, is coming together as planned. The first plant, a 500-MW concentrated solar installation, is now set to break ground next year.

This first plant will be located in Morocco and cost about $2.8 billion and will take two to four years to complete. The first phase of the plant will be 7.4 square miles and have a capacity of 150 MW.

The Dersertec Initiative is being funded by a large consortium of European companies and organizations. The huge project is expected to provide 15 to 20 percent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050, while also providing electricity to the Middle East and Northern Africa.

via CleanTechnica

02 Nov 2011 3:45pm GMT

The West Coast has wasted no time building electric vehicle corridors, but so far the Northeast has lagged behind on electric car infrastructure, especially considering the size of the population there. Luckily, the lagging behind will soon end. A new regional initiative called the Northeast Electric Vehicle Network will bring together 11 states plus Washington, D.C. to build an electric car charging network. The network plans to bring hundreds of chargers online over the next couple of years to encourage adoption of EVs in the region.

The states participating are Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Maine will be represented on a city level instead of statewide. The states will team up with automakers, both large retailers and small shops and charging network companies to work on placing charging stations in the most convenient locations.

Out of the 15,000 EVs currently on the road in the U.S., surprisingly only about 1,000 of them are in the Northeast. These states want to encourage more EV use not just for environmental reasons, but also because it will save them money. The Northeast imports about 25 billion gallons of oil each year, so if all-electric vehicles replaced just 5 percent of conventional ones, the region could save $4.6 billion every year. I'd call that a win-win.

If President Obama's call for one million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015 comes to fruition, based on population, about 200,000 will be hitting Northeastern roads. Good thing those drivers will have a place to charge up.

via Inside Climate News

31 Oct 2011 3:24pm GMT

A couple of high-tech programmable thermostats are starting to draw a lot of attention for raising the bar for both style and user friendliness. Proper use of a programmable thermostat is one of the best ways to control your home energy usage and reduce energy costs, and these new thermostats can make it easier than ever to accomplish this.

Both the ecobee and the Nest thermostats come in stylish packages that offer wireless connectivity, user-friendly interfaces, and online access and mobile apps to let you control your system remotely.

The Nest thermostat is designed to learn and adapt itself over time, so that your house is at the temperature you want when you want it without having to fuss with reprogramming it. The ecobee web interface also gives you energy reports so you can see when you are using energy.

Both thermostats are priced in the range of a few hundred dollars, which is more than the average programmable thermostat, but they offer more features and easier accessability, which presumably should translate into greater energy savings. If using one of these thermostats helps save as much energy as they claim, either one would be well worth the investment, and should pay back its cost with energy savings within a couple of years.

via: p s proefrock architecture

30 Oct 2011 5:44pm GMT

Solar panels can be even greener with the use of the BioSolar backsheet, which recently obtained provisional UL certification which allows for its sale to the general market. This backsheet is made from materials derived from castor beans instead of polyester and Tedlar films.

The backsheet of a solar panel is the the structure that carries the other materials. It also serves as an electrical insulator and a weathertight enclosure on the back side of the panel.

Not only does the bio-based backsheet replace the need for petroleum products, but the thermal performance of the BioSolar material is better than currently used materials, allowing for faster heat dissipation and lower operating temperatures, which improves solar panel performance.

"This new tough bio-based material will be able to offer the durability and environmental characteristics of conventional petroleum-based plastics, such as electromagnetic properties, mechanical strength, dimensional stability, and weatherability required by PV solar applications. "

With petroleum prices rising, the use of bio-based materials offers lower cost and greater price stability. Furthermore, production of the new backsheet material does not require new, proprietary equipment for manufacture, so the technology can be readily adopted without businesses incurring additional capital costs related to choosing to use the new material.

via: Solar Thermal Magazine

30 Oct 2011 4:49pm GMT