During the 2006 World Planners Congress in Vancouver, delegates raised an important question during a round-table talk on sustainable urbanization. They asked, if we have policies to recycle items as small as pop bottles and tin cans, why don't we have strategies to reuse or recycle items as large as buildings and even whole parts of cities?*
 
It is a vital question. It's also a good starting point for this issue of Alternatives because discussion on sustainability has largely neglected the environmental implications of decisions to demolish old buildings. .

Every brick in a building required the burning of fossil fuel in its manufacture, and every piece of lumber was cut and transported using energy. As long as the building stands, that energy is there, serving a useful purpose. Trash a building and you trash its embodied energy too. Furthermore, we burn new fuel to replace the structure. It has been estimated that the embodied energy that is lost with the demolition of a typical small urban house is equivalent to the energy saved by recycling 1.34 million aluminum cans. .

 

Exposure to the chemicals perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) harms development in animals, senior author Dr. Lynn R. Goldman, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues note.

 

Whether this holds true in humans, however, was unclear. To investigate, the researchers tested cord blood samples from 293 pregnant women for PFOA and PFOS and then examined the levels in relation to pregnancy outcomes.

In adjusted analyses, cord blood levels of both chemicals were inversely related to birth weight and head circumference.

Previous reports have shown that these chemicals can alter blood lipid levels, which could adversely affect fetal development, the authors note. However, in the present study, the association between PFOA and PFOS exposure and birth weight or size was independent of cord blood lipid levels.

Further research is needed to verify the findings and better understand if the relationship is causal, the authors conclude.

 

The corn harvest is expected to be up 24 percent to meet ethanol goals.  That takes lots of fertilizer.  The summer dead zone off Louisiana's coast, caused by farm runoff, is spreading down the Texas coast; the price of corn is pushing up the price of beef; and hunger grows in poor areas of Mexico where corn tortillas are a staple. Found at http://www.bobpark.org

 

Found at http://www.bobpark.org

So, it's OK for Portland to complain about Chinese mercury in the Willamette River (via treehugger), yet we are all downwind of the chemical soup we're all spewing.

When we islanders send our WalMart money to China for cheap goods, we also get their coal dust. How's that for a feedback loop » original news

"We pay firefighters to be brave and to protect us, but we don't want them to be reckless. And we don't want them to die saving a piece of property."

Editorial, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, on Fed-OSHA's report on the deadly 2006 Esperanza fire

Go to the full article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

US EPA Sees Little Economic Impact from CO2 Cuts
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43285/story.htm

Lieberman also said the EPA analysis found that his plan would hold US carbon dioxide levels below 500 parts per million by the end of the century, a key level that international scientists say will allay the worst global warming impacts.

The EPA analysis also found that US gasoline prices would rise by 26 cents a gallon in 2030 and 68 cents a gallon by 2050, and electricity and natural gas prices would rise slightly.

Cap-and-trade regimes envisioned in many legislative proposals in Congress would create a multi billion-dollar market for trading emissions credits.

If the McCain-Lieberman bill is enacted, the EPA found the market for credits and offsets would be US$25 billion in 2030 and US$57 billion in 2050.

---

Haase Comments: I am not sure where this "analysis" is getting numbers.... a simple inflation model will put the price of gas nearly double that with just cost of living increases???

I can also prove with very solid data, electricity and natural gas prices will also double in the same time frames (2030).

Simple math: In 23 years (2030) $3 dollar a gallon gas will be $6 (Double) and by 2050 a gallon of gas should be $19.

I am not sure why they are minimizing the cost of environmental protection or the MASSIVE impact of what our energy demands will cost the U.S. in just ten years.

My guess is that a lot of people are planning to line pockets on the $25-50 BILLION dollar Cap-and-trading racket.

After this report, I hardly think I would let the this EPA analyst run my 401k.

While there is currently enough federal funding is in place to resolve that vast majority of Environmental problems in the U.S. .... I have know idea how bad the energy wars will get, but it will be much worse that the 70's and at a minimum quadruple our current energy costs by 2020.

I would bet my 401k on that ;-)

I have not posted a whole lot the last few months here or on the hugg.com.

While most of us could excuse ourselves out of existence. I have no excuses just a lot of work.

The same goes for ESS, where we were nominated again for this years presidential green chemistry award (but eluded us again).

People are always amazed when they meet us and see were only a "handful of guys changing the world".... However, it takes a lot of hours to pull it all off.

In the next few months I will be posting details on the revolutionary projects ESS and I have been hard at work on.

So stay posted and thanks for reading.

I use www.gostats.com counters on several of my sites and love it.

While my various servers have great logs.... all the traffic it is nearly impossible to view day to day activity.

The odds that my site stats disappear while my stat company is visiting the same site appeared suspicious and at best a 1 in a billion chance.

 

 

"Solar Power Wins Enthusiasts but Not Money" "The trade association for the nuclear power industry recently asked 1,000 Americans what energy source they thought would be used most for generating electricity in 15 years. The top choice? Not nuclear plants, or coal or natural gas. The winner was the sun, cited by 27 percent of those polled. ... But for all the enthusiasm about harvesting sunlight, some of the most ardent experts and investors say that moving this energy source from niche to mainstream -- last year it provided less than 0.01 percent of the countryAEs electricity supply -- is unlikely without significant technological breakthroughs. And given the current scale of research in private and government laboratories, that is not expected to happen anytime soon." One reason is that the government, while spending big bucks to subsidize research on ways to use fossil fuels and nuclear energy, is spending comparatively little on solar research. Andrew C. Revkin and Matthew L. Wald report in the New York Times 7/16/07.

 

VIA - lifehacker.com

Overlooked and difficult to find, there are hundreds of thousands of U.S. government web sites that can help you accomplish a variety of tasks. At the right federal .gov destination you can locate historical documents, keep tabs on Congressional happenings, view presidential paperwork, and a whole lot more. Keep reading for the most useful U.S. government web sites out there.

For sheer accessibility, USA.gov wins hands-down as the U.S. government's official portal on the Web. You can find all sorts of goodies here: grant information, hundreds of online services (drivers' license renewal, shop government auctions, contact elected officials, etc.), the latest government news, and a ton more.

Related: For more government Web portals, check out FedWorld, Students.gov, Health.gov, or one of the coolest sites I've ever seen - the New York City Maps Portal.

 

GPO Access

GPO Access, part of the U.S. government printing office, offers you official information from all three branches of the federal government. A few links to note: core documents of U.S. democracy, a huge catalog of government publications, and an A-Z list of federal databases.

Related: You also don't want to miss the GPO's cache of congressional records, public presidential papers, or Ben's Guide.

 

Library of Congress

I could (and frequently do) get lost in the stellar Library of Congress. For instance, you can access state and local government information, browse the gigantic American Memory collection, or view current and historical legislative info courtesy of THOMAS.

Related: The National Archives is a good place to start your historical/genealogical research - you can also view actual scanned-in archival documents, such as the Document for Today.

 

CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook provides detailed information for (most) every known country, territory, and province in the world. You can also download a printable version.

Related: Find stats at the U.S. Census Bureau, federal data from FedStats, or view the National Atlas.

 

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Forget wasting time sluffing through pages of spammy job search information - the Occupational Outlook Handbook is the real deal. You can find state by state job market information, employment projections, even an A-Z occupations index that will give you an idea of what you should be making in your chosen field.

Related: Don't forget the Social Security Administration or the IRS.

 

Science

Since I have a budding geology buff in my house, science sites rank high on my list of most useful, and the United States Geological Survey is at the top. You can find all sorts of interesting information here, such as worldwide earthquake updates or the largest earth science library in the world.

Right next to the USGS is NASA, the home of the U.S. space program. This site is so gigantic that it's a bit difficult to summarize; however, my favorite spots have to be the image gallery, the archive of past missions, and the index of NASA World Book encyclopedia articles.

There's also the National Weather Service, the GrayLit Network, the Life Sciences Data Archives, and Science.gov, a portal for all kinds of scientific information.

 

And that's not all

As previously mentioned, there are literally hundreds of thousands of government web sites that are extremely useful, yet manage to fly somewhat under the radar....these picks are just the tip of the iceberg. What are your favorite government sites? Please share in the comments.

Wendy Boswell, Lifehacker's Weekend Editor, enjoys getting lost in the maze of government web sites. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

By Chris Nelder  (w w w . g r e e n c h i p s t o c k s . c o m )

Last week was just full of unpleasant surprises for natural gas supply.

Chris Nelder was researching the issues and it looks like we have some serious supply issues on our hands, starting now and growing worse over the next 20 years or more.

He also have prepared a detailed free report on it, which you can find here But here's the short version.

First, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a warning that it's very concerned about an impending supply gap for natural gas.

This is important because about one quarter of our electricity in the U.S. is generated from natural gas, a share that is expected to increase along with demand.

But he does believe that share can be increased. And that spells "higher grid electricity" prices for this country, and an even better outlook for solar and wind generation.

Apparently, receding horizons, massive cost increases, and lack of construction materials and skilled labor have all contributed to delays and cancellations in new power plant construction. It's just not a friendly environment for investing in new plants.

STOP POISONING YOURSELF WITH THE HEALTHY SWEETENER...

• Did you know the FDA refused to approve this best-selling sweetener for 16 years...?
  
• Until one powerful politician called in a favor which finally got it legalized...?
  
• And now it's been linked to brain cancer, memory loss, impaired vision, hearing loss, joint pain, asthma, coma, seizures...?

Aspartame, the sweetener being used in everything from sodas to salad dressing, may be making us sicker and fatter than good old sugar ever could!

Now, discover how this "healthy option" could actually kill you... plus learn more real medical truths that could save your life!

 This story could easily be filed under Conspiracy Theory, Oil Company-Based. But is it deserved? "The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday that farmers nationwide planted 92.9 million acres of corn this year - 19 percent more than last year and 3 percent more than the government had projected in March. The demand for ethanol led U.S. farmers to plant the most corn since 1944. But that extra corn acreage means that farmers planted 15 percent less land to soybeans. The price of soybean oil is "almost to the point where it's not economically feasible to make biodiesel," said Dan Holesinger, manager of Clinton...

 

MADISON – Wisconsin's updated fish consumption advisory booklet, "Choose Wisely, A Health Guide for Eating Fish in Wisconsin," arrives as studies show mixed trends in contaminant levels in sport-caught fish and the people who eat them.

• A Department of Natural Resources study analyzing statewide data from 1982 to 2005 found that mercury levels in walleye decreased 0.5 percent per year in northern lakes but increased 0.8 percent in southern lakes, and remained constant in middle latitudes of the state, according to Candy Schrank, a DNR toxicologist. The study found mercury generally increased with fish length but that relationship varies among lakes and other variables such as season, gender, lake area, and alkalinity are also important. The study will be published in the journal Ecotoxicology. A similar study by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission also found that walleye mercury decreased in northern lakes . This study was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology.
• A Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services survey found that PCB levels in the blood of Great Lakes charter boat captains and anglers decreased by 30 percent between 1994 and 2003. This decline reflects a gradual decline of PCB levels in the environment and in local sportfish. PCB production ended in the United States in 1977. However, these chemicals are still found in older appliances and electrical equipment.

"While these results show that exposure to some contaminants may be less in some parts of the state compared to the 1980s, further reductions will likely depend on mercury emission controls and PCB remediation efforts," Schrank says.

SOURCE - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

A recent report out of Europe indicates that tackling air pollution, contaminated drinking water and other environmental risks could save 13 million lives annually around the globe. Released by the World Health Organization, the report shows that Angola, Burkina Faso, Mali and Afghanistan to be among the countries most affected by environmental risk factors including noise pollution, hazardous working conditions, problematic agricultural methods, and climate change. Interestingly, in 23 of the 192 countries on which the report focused more than 10 percent of deaths can be traced to just two factors, unsafe drinking water and indoo...

 

 

 

 

 

Picture & source VIA Treehugger

 

 

Click here to read the full press release.

 

 

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: CONFLICTING RESULTS ON THE FIVE SECOND RULE

HAROLD McGEE, NY TIMES, 2007 - Accompanied by six graphs, two tables and equations whose terms include "bologna" and "carpet," [a new study from Clemson University provides] a thorough microbiological study of the five-second rule: the idea that if you pick up a dropped piece of food before you can count to five, it's O.K. to eat it. . . Findings: --Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor. --Cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli. --And, if you drop your food on a floor that does contain microorganisms, the food can be contaminated in 5 seconds or less. Connecticut College seniors and cell and molecular biology majors Molly Goettsche and Nicole Moin took two food samples - apple slices and Skittles candies - to the Connecticut College dining hall and snack bar. They dropped the foods onto the floors in both locations for five, 10, 30 and 60 second intervals, and also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse. They then looked for any rogue bacteria that might have attached to the foods. The researchers found no bacteria were present on the foods that had remained on the floor for five, 10 or 30 seconds. The apple slices did pick up bacteria after one minute, however, and the Skittles showed a bacterial presence after remaining on the floor for five minutes. The results prove, according Goettsche and Moin, that you can wait at least 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and more than a minute to pick up dry foods before they become contaminated with bacteria.