Help Greensburg, Kansas Re-Plant

Last year, a massive F5 tornado destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kansas. Discovery Channel has been running a series about the rebuilding of the town and the decision of the community's leaders to rebuild in a sustainable, green way (kind of appropriate, given the town's name).

But just rebuilding the buildings isn't enough. The tornado also destroyed 95% of the trees in Greensburg, and the townspeople need money to re-plant as well as rebuild. Discovery Channel and Sun Chips are sponsoring a fund-raising drive to help the community raise enough money to re-plant all of its trees.

They've already raised about 30% of the money they need, but that's only a start. Help the people of Greensburg out and, if you get a chance, watch the show. It's pretty interesting. By watching real people going through what these people went through during and after the tornado destroyed their community, you get a sense that the human spirit is enough to pull us through almost anything.

Environmental Effects on Puberty

Kids. They grow up so fast these days. But that may not just be colloquially true; it appears that youngsters actually are reaching puberty at an earlier age than they used to, according to reports.

Part of the reason may be sedentary lifestyles. I know my son, for example, spends most of his time sitting around on the couch playing video games or chatting/text-messaging with his friends. My niece is pretty much the same way, spending all of her time on a computer. It turns out physical activity increases melanin in the body, and melanin—among other things—can act to delay puberty.

Other studies have shown that teens in the U.S. hit puberty a year earlier than Danish counterparts, or that wealthy South African girls reach full puberty a year later than their poorer counterparts. From these studies, scientists have concluded that perhaps synthetic chemical factors in industrialized countries and regions are interfering with the endocrine system, causing children's bodies to start the puberty process earlier than they would otherwise.

How much of a problem is this, really? Well, studies have shown that girls who go through puberty earlier have higher incidence of breast cancer, drug abuse, violence, unintended pregnancies, problems in school, and mental health issues. If you don't think those are problems... well, you need to have your head checked.

You can't do much about the chemical factors, unfortunately. But you can get your kids out and get them exercising. Get them in shape. You'll not only be improving their overall health, you may be delaying puberty for them and reducing the amount of time you have to deal with their "teen issues."

Ice Melting Faster Than Expected

Scientific American has an interesting article about the accelerating rate of ice lost in the arctic and antarctic. It seems we've warmed the air and sea enough now that ice in Antarctica is melting, even though it's currently the middle of winter there.

Ice near the poles, especially on the western Antarctic Peninsula, as melting faster than any climate scientists or advanced climate models predicted, suggesting the possibility that global warming alarmists have not been over-hyping the situation, but possibly the opposite.

As the floating ice shelves break up and drift out to sea, the massive glacial ice on land becomes free to flow toward the water. According to Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, within a year or two of an ice shelf breaking up, glaciers that it previously held back could be moving toward the ocean up to four times faster than when the ice shelf was in place. That could (and most likely will) result in more ice flowing into the oceans at a faster rate than expected, and that will raise sea levels.

Another suggestion that we have perhaps underestimated the effects of warming on our ice, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center has warned that the North Pole could be free of ice in the summer—not in forty years, as previously predicted, but as early as this year.

Chicago Making Alleyways Greener

This is kind of cool. The city of Chicago is embarking on a process to re-pave its 1900 miles of alleys with a new type of concrete that is better for the environment, according to CNN. This concrete is porous, allowing rainwater to seep through to the soil underneath and, eventually, to an aquifer that feeds into Lake Michigan. Better still, the concrete is created in such a way that it filters the water, cleaning out pollutants as it makes its way back into the environment. Embedded in the concrete are microbes that feed on fertilizers, oil, and other substances.

In addition, the concrete has a higher albedo than normal, reflecting some of the sun's light back instead of absorbing it. That will allow the 3500 acres of paved alleys in Chicago absorb less heat, allowing the city to be somewhat cooler in the summer. And if that's not enough, the pavement of the alleys is made from recycled materials and new lighting in the alleys is designed to direct light downwards to reduce light pollution.

So far the city has completed 40 of the alley makeovers, with 48 more scheduled to be completed this year.

PopSci Environmental Reports

Popular Science has several environmental features that were posted late yesterday, including Five Ways You're Killing the Planet, 10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet, and Five Looming Eco-Disasters.

As for their Five Ways You're Killing the planet, it is true that the five things they identify are bad for the environment, but the reality is that these five things are each a relatively small part of the bad we're doing to our environment. Driving SUVs and burning coal for our electricity are far worse, overall, than the fact that you live in a suburb and leave your computer on (although turning your computer off when you're not using it is not only better for the environment, it's better for your finances in terms of your electric bill). Plus, I don't do most of the things they highlight... I haven't flown anywhere in about three and a half years, I turn my computer off every night, and I live in the city, not the suburbs. Plus, I recycle my electronics and plastic.

On their Ten Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet... well, let's just say that "audacious" doesn't begin to cut it. Solar power satellites? Maybe in about two hundred years. There are so many drawbacks, such as the massive cost to put them in orbit, that launching them isn't justified. Plus, while the article highlights the dangers of one of the satellites accidentally missing its rectennas on the ground, what happens when some militaristic nation decides to intentionally turn the microwave beams on enemy targets?

The idea of bioengineering all of our crops to be more "hairy" in order to reflect more infrared light is just pretty unrealistic and would again take many, many decades to become viable. Plus, nobody know whether the bioengineering changes could lead to greater problems in the long run. Trapping liquid CO₂ in giant plastic bags on the bottom of the ocean? Okay... what happens when the bags leak, and we end up with acidic oceans that kill off a lot of the plant life that is currently absorbing CO₂ from our atmosphere? Harnessing a tornado for energy? An interesting idea—and definitely audacious—but I'd rather the first several attempts were built well away from my home (or any other populated area).

Some of the ideas, though, I thought were pretty interesting, if not so audacious. Capturing sewer gas to power buses? Okay. Collecting pig urine to make plastic? Eew, but okay, call Mike Rowe and let's get started. I especially like the idea of capturing the heat given off by pedestrians' bodies to heat nearby buildings and the idea of making beer using a more energy efficient steam process. As long as my dunkel still tastes the same, if it can be more environmentally friendly, I'm all for it.

And the Five Looming Eco-Disasters includes one that is a favorite pet peeve of mine: biofuels. Corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel will never, ever make even a small dent in our petroleum needs here in the U.S., and between creating them and using them, they give off more emissions than gasoline. Rain forests are being cut down for farmland to grow crops for biofuels, because they've driven the crop prices so high that there's too much money in farming now (especially in the U.S. where we subsidize everything farmers do so heavily that our food prices are going crazy).

Other looming eco-disasters include the massive new Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant being built in India and the Japanese plan to start harvesting methane hydrate from the ocean floor. But both of those projects, at least, have some merit. Tata Mundra has 13 percent fewer emmissions than normal coal-fired plants, and if the Japanese plan turns out to be able to safely harvest methane hydrates it could provide a new, cleaner energy source and possibly reduce the risk of a major catastrophy.

The report also highlights a Russian plan to create a floating nuclear reactor to visit energy-starved Arctic communities. Apparently Popular Science is unaware that we've had ocean-bound nuclear reactors producing energy for decades in the form of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, and we've had a tremendous safety record with them (in fact, if those vessels used diesel fuel, the cost to the environment would be extremely high).

So all in all, some interesting information in these environmental reports from Popular Science, but I think some more thought (and science) could have gone into the reporting.

McCain Proposes $300 Million Prize for Better Auto Batteries

UPDATE: Alan Boyle has more information.

John McCain wants the government to offer a $300 million prize to whoever can develop an automotive battery that far surpasses existing technology. His goals for the battery include delivering power for 30 percent of the current cost with better size, capacity, cost, and power. Doing so, he says, will help propel plug-in hybrid or fully-electric autos.

For a price of $1 for each man, woman, and child in the U.S., this project could propel us toward an economy in which petroleum-based fuels are a thing of the past. Prize-based competitions such as this (and the X Prize) generally produce gains far outstripping their costs, because a large number of competitors vie for the prizes, but only one wins. And in the case of the Ansari X Prize, the winning team at Scaled Composites spent approximately $30 million on R&D before winning the $10 million prize. And that doesn't include what other teams spent. And that $10 million helped launch the sub-orbital tourism flight industry.

In addition to getting better auto batteries for consumers, the prize money will allow the winning company to make presumably massive amounts of money either selling their new batteries the world over or licensing the technology to other battery companies. Either way, that money will provide industrial growth within the U.S. and create American jobs and American wealth. Jobs will be lost in the oil industry, sure, but the U.S. economy will be better off, and so will the environment.

Environmentally-Friendly Explosives

From C|Net's News.com comes a report that German scientists are developing more-environmentally-friendly bombs. Yep, you read that right... green bombs.

The idea is that by creating explosives that are nitrogen-based (instead of traditional carbon-based explosives), the scientists can create explosives that are more stable (i.e., less prone to explode from mis-handling) as well as not giving off toxic gases. Now people who are being blown up can be safe in the knowledge that their surroundings are not going to be polluted by toxic gases after their dead.

And, it turns out, the new explosives may actually be more powerful than the same volume of conventional explosives.

Texas Oilman Bets on Wind

T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire Texas oilman, thinks that the U.S. needs to reduce its dependence on oil. That's why he's putting billions of dollars of his own money into building down in Texas what will be the largest wind farm in the world.

Pickens is starting with 600 wind turbines from GE which will be capable of producing a gigawatt of energy. This is the first stage of a massive project to build a four gigawatt network of wind turbines by 2015.

In some areas, people object to wind turbines because they think they are ugly and detract from the natural beauty. Personally, I like them, as I see them as a sign of progress and advancement. For the local farmers down in Texas, though, Pickens plan brings something better... money. Each wind turbine that a farmer puts on his or her land brings in approximately $20,000 per year in royalties.

My favorite part of this CNN story is the last paragraph, where Pickens says, "But we are going to have to do something different in America. You can't keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil."

It's clear to me that this Texas oilman gets it.

Global Warming "Is Three Times Faster Than Worst Predictions"

An article in the UK's Independent newspaper highlights our difficulties in predicting global warming:

...emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.

Not good news, and something we absolutely need to do something about, in spite of what NASA Administrator Mike Griffin seems to think.

Another Simple Step to Help the Environment

Thanks to this Reuters article, I've read about another very simple step you can take to help fight global warming. It was pretty obvious when I read about it, but sometimes the obvious things are the things we take most for granted.

The suggestion was to put less water in your kettle. Any time you're trying to boil water for anything (like, say, making tea or boiling pasta), you use energy to boil that water. The amount of energy is directly proportional to the volume of water you are trying to heat. So, if you use less water, it takes less heat to make it boil.

Again, it seems pretty obvious, but it's something I hadn't thought of. I don't make pasta very often (I'm on a diet and trying to lose about 30 more pounds), but when I do, from now on, I'll use less water to do it.

51 Things: No Left Turn

Number 45 on TIME Magazine's list of 51 Things We Can Do to only make right turns while driving. It sounds strange at first, but when you think about it, it starts to make sense. How much time do you spend sitting at green lights waiting for your chance to turn left? While you sit idling, your car is burning fuel, which wastes your money and contributes wasteful carbon to the global warming problem.

According to TIME, in 2004, UPS announced that its drivers would avoid making left turns. In metro New York, UPS has reduced CO2 emissions by 1,000 metric tons since January. Today 83% of UPS facilities are heading in the right direction; within two years, the policy will be adopted nationwide.

So plan your routes ahead of time to avoid making left turns. You could save yourself some money and do your part to fight global warming at the same time.

51 Things: Plant a Fence

Number 26 on TIME Magazine's list of 51 Things We Can Do to fight global warming now is to plant a bamboo fence. Bamboo makes an attractive fence, and it consumes more carbon than many other plants when allowed to grow.

Most homeowners have to restrict its growth, lest it get out of control. Do this, however, and you reduce bamboo's capacity as a carbon sink. Only large-scale plantings, which absorb CO2 faster than they release it, can favorably tip the scales.

Planting a fence also saves on the carbon production that would have gone into manufacturing a fence from wood, metal, or plastic.

If you have a homeowners' association, make sure you check with them before planting your fence.

51 Things: Let Employees Work Close to Home

Number 13 on TIME Magazine's list of 51 Things We Can Do to fight global warming now is to let your employees work closer to home. Gene Mullins, a software developer in Seattle, created a program that helps firms slash the time employees spend driving by matching them with work closer to home.

By spending less time driving, employees use less fuel (and spend less time commuting). Using less fuel saves the employees some money and reduces the amount of pollutants going into the atmosphere.

Of course, an even better solution is to let employees work from home, and that's exactly what the Federal government is considering.

Do Your Part to Fight Global Warming

I stumbled today on a website, Carbonfund.org, that offers information and action steps for reducing your personal or family carbon footprint. In addition, the site runs a carbon offset service whereby you can pay (donate) money to Carbonfund.org to offset your personal or family carbon footprint.

The money donated is used by Carbonfund.org on offset programs such as helping support alternative energy programs and buying (and retiring) carbon offsets on global and regional trading markets. When you make your contribution to their program, you get a choice of how you want your donation to be spent, including options such as alternative energy, energy efficiency, and re-forestation.

Improving the environment starts with individuals like you and me, and making a donation to Carbonfund.org is an excellent first step. In addition, Time Magazine has a list of 51 things you can do to personally help in the fight against global warming. I'm going to be highlighting some of the ones I find more interesting over the next week or two, so stay tuned here.