A while back, I mentioned a new series on The New York Times' website called Choking on Growth, about pollution in China "reaching deadly extremes." Now Part II of that series has been released on nytimes.com.
It's really fascinating to take a look at the video that accompanies the article, and also the interactive graphic. For instance, did you know that there are 489 million people living in water-scarce areas in China? (The next-closest country to that is India, where 221 million people live in areas with insufficient water.) Worse, pollution has rendered much of the water that is available in China unusable.
Anyway, be sure to check out Choking on Growth Part II to find out what China is doing about the water problem.
By: Emily | Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 3:58 PM | | 
Last week, David Pogue published an article in The New York Times that expanded on a CBS News report that aired a couple of Sundays ago. The video is available on CBS News' website, and it's really long and "juicy" (Pogue's word), and just incredibly interesting. When you have some time, you should really check it out. (I recommend pressing the fullscreen button, at the lower right of the embedded video player, to watch.)
By: Emily | Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 9:53 AM | |
This may seem like old news, but...
The New York Times' environmental journalist Andrew Revkin published a story today stating that Arctic ice melt has reached a "particularly striking" level.
According the the article, "The cap of floating sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, which retreats under summer’s warmth, this year shrank more than one million square miles — or six Californias — below the average minimum area reached in recent decades, scientists reported Thursday."
This crisis is yet more evidence of climate change as a result of greenhouse gas buildup in the Earth's atmosphere.
“You can’t dismiss this as natural variability,” said Dr. Mark Sereze, a senior researcher at the National Snow and Ice Center in Boulder, Colo. “We’re starting to see the system respond to global warming.”
By: Emily | Friday, September 21, 2007 at 9:56 AM | |
In 1985, scientists in Antarctica discovered a seasonal breach in the earth's ozone molecules that was linked to the use of synthetic chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons) found in solvents, sprays, etc.
This discovery begot the Montreal Protocol in 1987 which led to ban of 95% of the pollutants that were responsible for the breach in the ozone
Diplomats and enviro-nuts met Sunday for the 20 years anniversary of the Protocol and to gloat over it's successes. Weird, eh?
The anniversary in now being used as impetus by environment groups and even the White House in order to confront the threat of global warming, perhaps using the Montreal Protocol as a model for success.
Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/science/18clim.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin
By: Ryan | Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 2:40 PM | |
Typically, when I think of Amish country, my thoughts travel toward my 10 th birthday when myself and my family went to Sea World in Cleveland. Little did my fledgling mind know that just before killer whales and over priced hot dogs, I would be treated to Adams County, home of the Amish, buggys and the horses they rode in on.
I don't don't remember much about that trip except warm Sunkist and especially fresh cheese.
But the Amish now are much cooler.
Roughly 80% of Amish communities in Ohio rely on Solar energy because it conforms with there efficient and independent way of living.
Read more here:
http://www.thatscrispy.com/index/news-app/story.2136/title.amish-lead-the-way-for-solar-energy
By: Ryan | at 2:34 PM | |
(August 14, 2007)
The BP oil refinery in Whiting, Ind. was supposed to expand in order to refine crude oil from Canada. The expansion would have made this refinery the 4th largest refinery in the United States.
The plant expansion would allow for over 54 more ammonia and other suspended solid pollutants (containing toxic heavy metals) to be dumped into the lake.
That's gross.
But conscioutious residents of Michigan and Illinois successfully thwarted such an expansion.
read more here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13903534
By: Ryan | at 2:28 PM | |
On Monday, a photographer visited the UC Solar House for an article being written in the Cincinnati Enquirer!
Stay tuned for the article!
By: Ryan | at 2:19 PM | |
Nuclear power, while potentially dangerous in cases of meltdown i.e Chernobyl, is relatively safe. Nuclear Power plants, after they are up and running, contribute virtually no greenhouse gases to the already overloaded atmosphere.
However, the carbon emissions already present may be effecting Nuclear Plants as they run currently. Many power stations in Europe, especially in France, have been experiencing dangerously hot summers.
The temperatures of some of the nuclear reactors in France are reaching threatening highs, so that attempts to cool them fail. Typically, the natural water supply that flows into French reactors is cool enough to maintain the reactor's temperature, but in the summer heat, the French Government is beginning to recognize the limits of nuclear power in the face of a sizzling planet.
The French Power Grid relies heavily upon the 58 Nuclear facilities that reside within the country. The French Government considered rationing energy during the height of heatwave season this summer.
By: Ryan | Saturday, September 8, 2007 at 1:02 PM | |
On Thursday, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and President of the University of Cincinnati Nancy Zimpher gathered at the Solar Decathlon house to observe the progress of the ReForm team.
Luke Field, the architecture graduate student that has been spearheading the construction of the house this summer, took the Governor on a tour of the house, explaining the layout of the structure and discussing the sustainable technologies that the house will employ.
Both Mayor Mallory and Governor Strickland expressed their eagerness to have the house displayed in Columbus and later at Fountain Square after the competition is over in October.
By: Ryan | Friday, September 7, 2007 at 12:11 PM | |
Further extrapolating on my theory that everything is better is Europe, the first solar thermal power plant that produces (huh?) only solar energy was recently developed in near Seville, Spain.
The power plant uses concentrated solar thermal, using converted solar energy to run steam turbine engines.
And it doesn't produce a singel greenhouse gas.
Read more here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13826548
By: Ryan | Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 12:21 PM | |
