Solar Cell Research

Here in the USA, private and federal funding for research into solar and other green energy technologies is the critical component in fast-tracking our transformation from a gluttonous, fossil fuel burning nation into a leader in alternative energy production. Here's an article on one such research effort into the development of more commercially viable solar cells.
STORY
The downside of this story is that developing a working prototype will take years. Maybe the newly elected Democratic Congress can cancel the funding of "The Bridge to Nowhere" and other me-first, pork-barrel programs and put the money where it will make a difference.

The Nordic countries, including Norway, Finland and Denmark have organized their research efforts to keep their commercial production of solar energy products at the forefront of the industry. LINK
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Global Warming & National Security

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of global warming skeptics out there spewing their "scam science" drivel. One way to difuse some of that "oil-based economy" vitriol is to introduce the proposition that the burning of fossil fuels is a growing threat to national security. Even if some in-denial-dolt still doubts the mountains of scientific evidence piling up on the impending global warming problem, they will undoubtedly warm to the idea that we should cut our dependence on middle-eastern oil and get out of bed with the unstable, volatile countries that control it. Yes, they may spout some blather about pumping more black gold out of our reserves in wildlife sanctuaries and offshore domestic oil fields, but ultimately it will dawn on them that cutting consumption and developing new, cleaner energy technologies is more productive than investing in some new pork-barrel weapons system and/or waterboarding thousands of suspected Jihadists.
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Deep Ocean Bottom Trawling to Continue

The United Nations has once again proven why it is really nothing more than an ineffective "nice idea", with no practical enforcement power or influence. In a system set-up to fail, where any one nation on the committee can halt progress on regulation, Iceland, Russia, China and South Korea, resisted a proposed ban on deep sea ocean trawling that had the backing of President Bush (yes that president Bush) and U.S. allies, Britain, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. The measure before the committee would have regulated bottom trawling, a fishing method that catches orange roughy, blue ling and other bottom fish while smashing coral reefs and creating clouds of sediment that smother sea life.

Nations are left to regulate themselves, and we all know how well that works.
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Birds and Property Rights

If you were to own shore-front property in Maine, how would you feel if you couldn't build within 250 feet of the high tide line? That's a question the state of Maine is revisiting after enacting just such legislation earlier this year. Fragile nesting and roosting areas need protection from human foot and vehicular traffic. Wildlife is to be enjoyed by the many, sometimes at the expense of the few. Perhaps a grandfather clause that might protect current property while prohibiting future construction might be the compromise answer to this one.

Sections of beach along the eastend of Long Island have restricted access when plover's are nesting and people, particularly fishermen with four-wheel beach access permits, have gotten used to it. Bottom-line, you have to protect the wildlife, even if it's an inconvenience (work on that tan somewhere else), or hurts economically.
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Personal Recreational Vehicles

American's love their ATVs, jet-skis and snowmobiles. Most of these "toys" are designed for two or less riders, and provide thrills and pleasure for the few while disturbing the many. While there are practical, utilitarian uses of ATVs and snowmobiles, a vast number users just want to ride them as fast and dangerously as their skill allows. Unfortunately, these vehicles create a tremendous amount of air and noise pollution and environmental destruction. Aided by Federal laws on the books dating back tho the 1800's there is vehicular access to much of our Federal parks system. In the entire National Forest system - covering more than 190 million acres in 155 forests - only 2 forests, the Hoosier in Indiana and the Monongahela in West Virginia, do not allow off-road vehicle use. Use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park is up for review and it looks like they will be allowing some 750 snowmobiles a day to access the park. Towns like Easthampton on Long Island have regulations banning jet-skis from most public beach areas to protect the many from the few.

I'm not advocating eliminating off-road vehicles from the American landscape (it would never happen); but there has to be controls on their operation, noise and air emissions and terrain access. I have a home in a developing rural area, the Catskills, and I have seen mountain hiking trails turned into rock and bare root- strewn, mud-streams. Anyone hiking or living anywhere near an ATV or dirt bike enthusiast can attest to the disruption of nature and serenity that accompanies their use. Many states do not require any type of a license, permit or insurance to operate these vehicles and helmet laws are few and far between. I see 10-year-old kids blasting through the woods at 30 mph without a care in the world...and have had the same ATV novices pull out in front of my car on my road -- cluless that my car could accidentally crush them (they can't hear a thing).

Ultimately, large areas of our national parks and wilderness should remain accessible only by foot - to prevent the introduction of non-native plant species tracked in by vehicles used in other eco-systems, and to allow nature to exist as it should - undisturbed by mechanized intruders. Let specific areas and terrain be designated for off-road toys and let regulations reflect their hazardous characteristics and operation. Rant over.
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There's always another study...

Science is always coming up with a study that debunks or disagrees with widely held presumptions. Sometimes someone sees something that no one else has considered. In the case of global warming, consensus and the vast preponderance of data are the tools to be used in making a valid analysis of the issue. There will always be studies that create doubt on, if and how, something contributes to global warming. A case in point, forest fires. A recent study of one northern hemisphere fire indicates that the net global warming impact from a forest fire in northern forests may be close to net neutral. The study brings into question the firmly held scientific belief that carbon dioxide and ash created by forest fires is a significant contributer to global warming. The study found that sunlight reflected back into space from the newly de-nuded landscape reflects back out into space lessening the heat generated, and thus, the impact of the carbon dioxide created by the fire. As with evolution and a lot of science, global warming causes and solutions, though not totally proven and far from black and white - are logically apparent and obviously a big problem. Skeptics point to natural climate cycles that can take thousands, or millions, of years to manifest themselves, as a potential explanation for our current warming. That would make for one long scientific study and I am confident mankind will be toast long before the tally is in. There's no denying there will be consequences to our pumping millions of tons of crap into the atmosphere, so let's get on with the job at hand while science comes up with some more fascinating studies of the issue.
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Getting greener - a beginners guide

Let's try to get a little greener today, nothing painful, start with something simple.
Why not get a little Green Peacie and harass that neighbor illegally burning those leaves...
Actually separate those recyclables and put them in the right containers...
Plant a tree, it can be a small one...
Buy something organic, start small, like milk...
Don't sit in an idling car while you wait for the kid after soccer practice (or detention) shut that thing down...
Relax, don't mow that lawn every five minutes. Those little 2 cycle engines pollute like hell...
Use paper instead of plastic and recycle it...
Conserve a little water, take a 5 minute shower instead of that 20 minute gropefest...
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Is More Air Pollution the Answer?

Is global shading a practical antidote to global warming? Could more particulate matter splooged into the atmosphere protect the earth from harmful ultra-violet rays? Do we need to face the fact that we can't reduce our production of emissions so we should create more? Is smog laden L.A. really a model city in the fight against global warming?

Nobel Prize winning scientist, Paul J. Crutzen, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry presented just such a proposal to a U.N. conference on climate change. "If they don't take action much more strongly than they have in the past, then in the end we have to do experiments like this." CNN STORY
Crutzen made the proposal to increase particulate pollution in the atmosphere, partly for shock value in reaction to a "grossly disappointing international political response" to global warming.

Scientists are actually discussing this type of solution to a global warming problem that is spiraling out of control and unchecked. This weekend at Moffett Field, California, NASA's Ames Research Center hosts a closed-door, high-level workshop on the global haze proposal and other "geoengineering" ideas for fending off climate change.

Kofe Annan is stating global warming is a great a danger and as immediate a problem as Weapons of Mass Destruction.
LINK

Can this ship get turned around?
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OneManBandwidth

Please explore our new renter's blog, OneManBandwidth, which is published by an American professor teaching in China. Humor abounds - and you benefit from an expat's firsthand experience of China. I particularly like today's post, "Addicted to Mediocrity II, A monkey with a hat on...", a concept and feeling which I can fully embrace.

Please click on Lonnie's thumbnail.
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Deep Sea Destruction

Deep-sea trawling is doing irreparable harm to the deep ocean fish and coral populations of undersea mountains. Commercial fishing operations have exhausted many in-shore and traditional fishing grounds which has necessitated their move to deeper unregulated waters. The United Nations may take action.
STORY
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The winds of change are a blowin'.....

Oye vey!
Barbara Boxer is taking over for my favorite dipstick, Senator James "that ain't global warming I just left the stove on" Inhofe, as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Could we actually see some new emissions standards or at the very least enforcement of the old ones? Stay tuned for G.W.'s reaction to the first piece of environmental legislation that hits his desk.
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An issue of values...

As global warming starts to impact ocean levels, ice packs and global weather patterns... and portions of Africa, Asia the Middle-East and other impoverished regions face flooding, disease, drought and crop failures, it becomes more and more apparent that developed nations, particularly the United States, must rapidly enact legislation to fight emissions and robustly fund programs to develop alternative energy technologies. The U.S., the #1 emitter of green house gases, must move proactively to take the lead on the global warming issue. Stop denying the science just because the economic challenges are extreme. The other major source of greenhouse gases, China, will only react to the global warming issue when it begins to directly impact their population and people start dying, conversely, the United States, with a supposed ideological edge over our communist competitors, should stop dodging the issue and take the ethical high ground. It's the right thing to do.
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Climate change ratings

Is it surprising that the U.S. ranks near the bottom of the list of countries fighting greenhouse gas emissions? Of the 56 nations that are ranked by the Climate Action Network-Europe, Sweden is ranked #1 while the U.S. wallows around at #53. Ouch!

Christoph Bals, political director of Germanwatch, said policy had an enormous effect on the rankings. "The U.S. could move up 30 spots if its policies were akin to the U.K.'s", he said. Time for a change. (USA Today)
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First signs of Congressional Compromise

Congressional policy regarding oil drilling expansion looks to turning green. The lame duck Republican House will revisit its bill for virtually unlimited drilling expansion in the face of the incoming Democratic Congress. A Senate bill restricting drilling expansion to offshore areas in the Gulf of Mexico may now gain Republican support. The Bush administration and oil and gas interests are now pushing for passage of the Senate bill to get it to the President before the new Congress is sworn in. Compromise is a beautiful thing.
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Global Carbon Emissions Spiral Up

The Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of researchers warned yesterday that global carbon emissions are spiralling out of control. Much of the increase can be attributed to the expansion of the Chinese economy and the resulting increased burning of fossil fuels to generate power and energy.

The rate of increase of emissions suggests it may soon be impossible to avoid the most catastrophic scenarios. Josep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project. "On our current path, we will find it extremely difficult to rein in carbon emissions enough to stabilise the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at 450ppm, and even 550ppm will be a challenge," he said. "At some point in the near future, we will miss the boat in terms of achieving acceptable levels." In other words we're going to be in deep do-do.
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Keeping NYC Afloat

Much of New York City, which is home to 8 million people, is only 10 feet above sea level. This poses a grave threat of flooding when you anticipate the 30-foot storm surge accompanying a Category 3 hurricane, a disaster that could flood portions of all five burroughs. Studies are underway to create plans to mitigate the damage of just that type of disaster, as sea levels rise and ocean temperature increases provide the energy for bigger more dangerous storms. Power outages, tunnel and subway flooding, sewage back-up, water supply contamination and vast flooded portions of downtown are all potential consequences of ignoring the threat. In an ironic nod to NYC's Dutch heritage, the city that never sleeps may end up looking a lot more like Holland than it does now.
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Boxer takes on the environment....

Maybe I've been a little cynical about the impact of the current shift of power in Congress. Senator Barbra Boxer is now chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee replacing the frequently insane Senator James Inhofe, a man in total global warming denial. Boxer said she intends to introduce legislation to curb greenhouse gases, strengthen environmental laws regarding public health and hold oversight hearings on federal plans to clean up Superfund sites across the country.

On global warming, Boxer said she would model federal legislation after a California law signed this summer by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. That law imposes the first statewide cap on greenhouse gases and seeks to cut California's emissions by 25 percent, dropping them to 1990 levels by 2020.

The White House signaled Thursday that the administration would work with Boxer. We'll see.
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Shark Extinction

Bio-diversity and the integrity of the ocean's food chain are being gravely threatened by over fishing of many shark species. One-third of the more than 500 shark species are threatened with extinction or are close to being threatened, said Sarah Fowler of the World Conservation Union. China is a major consumer of all things shark and shark-fin soup happens to be a Chinese delicacy. The booming Chinese economy has made various delicacies available to China's vast populous with the resulting increase in the consumption of shark-fin soup.
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What's Next?

It's election night and it looks like the Democrats will probably take back the House, if not the Senate. What will this mean for those with environmental concerns? Probably not a helluva lot. The Dems are not the bosom buddies of Arab oil concerns that the Bushies are so that is a positive. The Dems will attack Big Oil tax breaks and probably not get much traction, but it will sound good. Dems will push for a stop payment on Big Oils blank check on oil drilling and exploration, but any progress in protecting Federal Wildlife preserves and preventing offshore drilling will be mitigated by increases in the price of gas at the pump. There may also be an investigation of the White House meddling with the EPA and the muzzling of some of the Feds global warming scientists.

The harsh reality is that Democrats are politicians very similar to the ones that they may chase from office, they just need a little time to get those lobbyists phone numbers programmed into their speed dialers before they can fully enjoy their newfound benefits as elected representatives of the American people. A Democrat controlled Congress will definitely help, but we can't kid ourselves. The mandate for change on environmental issues will have to be massive for the suits from either party to do the meaningful work that needs to be done. The battle has just begun.
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White House Muzzles Enviro-docs...

Is it possible that the Bush administration has muzzled and squashed unwanted global warming info? LINK

In a harbinger of what may become a pattern with a Democratic Congress, two Federal agencies are investigating whether the Bush Administration tried to block government scientists from speaking freely about global warming while censoring their research, Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Wednesday.

Could it be that info from within U.S. government agencies is cynically manipulated to fit the current administration's policies (see Iraq)?
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Ocean Fish Populations Face Collapse

A recent study has found that the decline in ocean biodiversity may eventually lead to the collapse of wild fish populations within our lifetime and the degradation of ocean eco-systems in general. "It's a gloomy picture," says lead author, the unfortunately named, Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. There is hope. On a positive note, closing fisheries and establishing protected areas can boost the number of species in these protected waters by 23 percent on average and increase catch-per-unit effort four-fold in nearby waters, although overall yield does not increase significantly. The report was published on Science Express.
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Jatropha

The economics of alternative energy will ulimately determine how quickly we transform from an oil engorged society into one based on conservation and planet-friendly practices.

Jatropha, a common tree in arid and semi-arid countries in the third world, may provide a source of bio-diesel fuel and economic relief for underdeveloped nations in Asia and Africa. The jatropha tree produces oil-rich nuts which can be processed into bio fuel. The tree, which originated in Latin America, grows quickly, producing seeds within four or five years and continuing to do so over its thirty to forty year life span. India has embarked on a program to replace 5% of its diesel fuel consumption within 5 years with jatropha based bio-diesel. Poor farmers and the agri-industry being subsidized to cultivate more land with jatropha trees. African countries, like Zimbabwe and Mali, are also embarking on programs involving jatropha which is drought resistant, a source of soap, fuel and fertilizer and a deterrent to crop damage because it's leaves and seeds are toxic to live stock and animals.
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