A few weeks ago, Matt mentioned Beijing's possible plans to build a wind farm and run the 2008 Olympics on wind power alone. I commented at the time that, according to Wired magazine, the air quality in Beijing was so bad that there was talk of shutting the whole city down for a while before and during the Olympics.
Well, as part of The New York Times' "Choking on Growth" series, Joseph Kahn and Tim Yardley recently wrote an article about China's pollution reaching deadly extremes. They say that "Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics."
The article is a bit long, but definitely worth checking out when you have some time. Read the article here and the series here, which even has goodies like an audio slideshow and a video report.
By: Emily | Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 12:25 PM | | 
An article in last Wednesday's New York Times chronicles the shift of many small businesses in Washington, DC to green power.
Reporter Shawn G. Kennedy says that nationally, most companies to switch to wind power "have been large electric power customers like universities, hospitals, hotels, government agencies or owners of large office buildings." So the nine "small, independent and mostly food-related businesses on or near U Street" in DC are fairly unusual in that respect.
The businesses in the "wind power consortium" include Ben's Chili Bowl, Boundless Yoga, CakeLove, Love Café, Rumberos restaurant, Coppi's Organic restaurant, Busboys and Poets, Luna Grill & Diner, and the Diner and Tryst, a coffee shop and restaurant.
Check out the article here.
By: Emily | Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 4:54 AM | |
Instinctively, when the topic of nuclear energy is broached, I immediately think in broad terms, of meltdowns, of the tragic and destructive occurrences on at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, of my German friends that were prohibited from playing out of doors for months in 1986 due to wave upon wave of caustic radiation wafting across the European countryside.
And now I think of Finland.
Finland, still a practitioner of nuclear energy, is spearheading responsible strategies in the disposal of nuclear waste, the radioactive material that is produced from nuclear reactors. This material is highly toxic and must be stored safely in order to ensure that its contents don't contaminate the area it is disposed in.
In the city of Olkiluoto, Finland, a disposal facility for Nuclear waste is currently under construction. The facility is being built smartly into the bedrock in a comb-like cavern, one that is comprised of a long cavern with similar, smaller caverns branching off. Construction is to be complete by 2010.
The facility is a clever move for many reasons. Since the nation's tectonic plates are still shifting from the last ice age, the land has been steadily rising out of the sea for hundreds of years, making it impossible for the waste to contaminate the ocean or the groundwater.
And instead of fashionably worrying about Global Warming like most countries, Finland facility is built in order to be impervious to the impending ice age that planet will invariably receive within the next few hundred years. Since radioactive material has a half life of roughly an ice age, this is good thing.
In the wake of the current energy crisis, Nuclear energy is becoming a more viable prospect in addition to solar energy. Currently in the U.S., roughly 20% of all energy is produced in reactors per year.
And in all honesty, it is relatively safe, a few meltdowns aside. Nonetheless, intelligent management of nuclear facilities and radioactive matter is essential if we are to rely in it in the future.
By: Ryan | Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 3:12 PM | |
Grist.org, the popular online environmental news outlet, recently published an interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton, conducted by Amanda Griscom Little, as part of a series called "How Green is Your Candidate?" The series is meant to educate voters on where each candidate stands when it comes to issues surrounding the environment and global warming. Little really asks hard, straightforward questions and gets some very revealing and often articulate answers.
I always try to lean away from the political in my notes on environmental news, but this series is just incredibly interesting, because there is so much at stake in the upcoming presidential election.
Check out the interview or the whole Grist Election '08 Series.
By: Emily | Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 10:05 PM | |
For anyone interested in climate change, here's an article in The New York Times about Heidi Cullen, "the only climatologist with a Ph.D. in the country who has her own weekly show." The show is the Weather Channel's Forecast Earth.
It's interesting to note that Cullen, before being offered the job, "had never even seen the Weather Channel." But she says that she moved to Atlanta and took the job "because they were giving [her] a chance to cover things people need to know more about," such as "global warming, El Niño, energy policy."
Besides her weekly show, Cullen writes for the Forecast Earth blog. One entry discusses "Building a Climate-Proof House."
By: Emily | Monday, August 13, 2007 at 12:14 PM | |
