-
Cellphone radiation levels vary widely, watchdog report says – USATODAY.com
Some cellphones emit several times more radiation than others, the Environmental Working Group found in one of the most exhaustive studies of its kind.
The government watchdog group on Wednesday releases a list ranking cellphones in terms of radiation. The free listing of more than 1,000 devices can be viewed here.
-
Boulder’s Smart Grid City Goes (Mostly) Live : TreeHugger
Xcel Energy has wrapped up infrastructure construction and launched the software needed to get the city’s smart grid operational. It can now claim to be the farthest along of any project currently underway in the world. They aren’t quite finished yet – homeowners need to still be brought on board with home energy monitoring – but they’re getting their fast. All the important infrastructure pieces are now in place.
-
UK lined up to be Europe’s carbon storage capital
Britain could become the carbon storage capital of Europe by selling space beneath the North Sea to bury billions of tonnes of waste gases from the continent’s power stations.
An industry offering carbon storage to the mainland could create as many jobs as North Sea oil and bring £5bn a year into UK coffers by 2030, scientists estimate.
-
Will climate change call time on beer quality? | Leo Hickman | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Famine. Mass migration. Flash flooding. Sea-level rises. Increased malaria. Heat waves. Rapid species extinctions. The implications of climate change are well documented and much discussed. But, due to a curious cocktail of apathy, denial and ideologically fuelled intransigence, some people still choose to play “see no evil”.
Well, maybe this is what it will take to get them to sit up and take notice: climate change is starting to degrade the quality of beer.
-
‘Strong’ evidence linking toxic ship to ICoast deaths: UN expert – Yahoo! News
A UN expert has found “strong” evidence linking at least 15 deaths and several hospitalisations to pollution from a ship that dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast, contrary to claims from the firm that chartered the ship.
-
Measures to protect Mediterranean tuna are failing, report warns | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Measures to protect dwindling stocks of bluefin tuna fish in the Mediterranean have failed to curb illegal fishing practices, leaked papers show.
-
Morocco’s unique vulnerability to climate change | Grist
Morocco’S 3,500km of coastline makes it particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.
With most of its economic activity near the coast, no legislation preventing building in the coastal zone and the government reportedly selling coastal land to developers at notional prices, climate change is a real threat.
-
BP shuts alternative energy HQ
BP has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed budget cuts in moves likely to be seen by environmental critics as further signs of the oil group moving “back to petroleum”.
-
Supplying 200,000 homes, world’s largest offshore wind farm opens in Denmark
The wind farm will supply 200,000 Danish households with electricity. It is the first of its kind to be equipped with a platform where personnel can spend the night.
-
Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic | MNN – Mother Nature Network
It’s not your average science fair when the 16-year-old winner manages to solve a global waste crisis. But such was the case at last month’s May’s Canadian Science Fair in Waterloo, Ontario, where Daniel Burd, a high school student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, presented his research on microorganisms that can rapidly biodegrade plastic.
-
Australian Government: World Killing the Great Barrier Reef
A new report from the Australian government shows that the country’s own proposed carbon emissions target will kill the Great Barrier Reef along with hundreds of marine species and the livelihoods of those communities who depend upon it for survival. The peer-reviewed Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report also states that an average global temperature rise of 2°C will kill off the reef.
-
Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech
Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.
-
Europe Moves Closer to Banning Bluefin-Tuna Trade – TIME
For years, environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have warned that overfishing could cause bluefin tuna to go the way of dinosaurs and dodos. Now the European Commission says it agrees with that grim assessment. In a compromise that unites Europe’s departments of environment and fisheries, the commission lent its support to a proposal that, barring new scientific evidence, would list Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin as an endangered species — and therefore ban its trade — for two years.
-
Microsoft recently opened Redmond Ridge 1, the company’s first purpose-built Research and Development Support (R&DS) facility designed specifically to consolidate computer labs from the main Redmond campus and house servers used in the development and testing of its software products.
-
This site is primarily an index for debunking of various popular media occurrences of climate-related nonsense. Articles are sorted by where they appear (outlet and country), or alphabetically by author. Under each article you will find links to rebuttals of specific arguments and overall critiques of the pieces.
-
Watch out Tesla, here comes the Audi e-tron | Frankfurt Auto Show 2009 – CNET Reviews
The most exciting concept shown at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show is an electric sports car, the Audi e-tron. Borrowing body lines from the Audi R8, it can’t help but look good. And boasting specs like 3,319 pound-feet of torque, it can’t help but make gearheads drool.
Still, less acceleration, lower top speed and not yet in production, I think Tesla can sleep easy for another while!
-
Signs of climate tipping points are growing | Climate Change
Scientists have long warned that climate change is not a linear process: global patterns can chug along looking quite normal for long periods of time even as we continue to pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and then … bam, a tipping point is reached, pushing us into a new “normal.â€
-
Electric Trabant Unveiled at Frankfurt Motor Show
The new Trabant NT concept car has been unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which runs until Sept. 27.
-
When an Electric Car Dies, What Will Happen to the Battery?: Scientific American
In the race to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, another challenge awaits on the other side of the finish line: recycling all of those batteries.
-
A big development in the sustainability business field over the last few weeks was the announcement of the Sustainability Product Index. I applaud Walmart for this program and we have seen that their enormous market power is an effective tool for moving the bar in sustainable business practices.
I thought it would be interesting to take a crack at answering the survey from a Nortel perspective. I want to emphasize that this is not Nortel’s official response to the survey; I have only attempted to scratch the surface and indicate the direction of our response to the survey. We would obviously elaborate further on our programs and results for the October deadline imposed by Walmart.
-
Polar bears run riot as ice melts – environment – 16 September 2009 – New Scientist
As climate change causes sea ice to shrink, the number of “problem” polar bears appears to be increasing.
Hungry bears don’t just lie down – they go looking for an alternate food source. In many cases this brings them into human settlements and hunting camps.
-
Barack Obama and EU ‘clash over climate change’ – Telegraph
The European Union has clashed with Barack Obama’s administration over climate change amid fears negotiations on regulating greenhouse gases could break down, according to reports.
-
The Solar Roadwayâ„¢ is a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panelsâ„¢ that collect and store solar energy to be used by our homes and businesses. This renewable energy replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity. This, in turn, cuts greenhouse gases literally in half.
-
Conflict Materials in Electronics
Would you kill for a shiny, sparkly, top of the line, and brand-spanking-new cell phone, computer, or mp3 player?
Chances are, you actually have. -
Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells – Series – NYTimes.com
There are 41,000 dairy cows in Brown County, which includes Morrison, and they produce more than 260 million gallons of manure each year, much of which is spread on nearby grain fields. Other farmers receive fees to cover their land with slaughterhouse waste and treated sewage.
In measured amounts, that waste acts as fertilizer. But if the amounts are excessive, bacteria and chemicals can flow into the ground and contaminate residents’ tap water.
-
Madrid reverses the chargers with electric car plan | Environment | The Guardian
The rise of the mobile phone has left the streets of Madrid littered with increasingly redundant telephone booths. But these underused installations are now set to play a key role in Spain’s electric car revolution under government plans to make them part of a network of electric charging stations for vehicles.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
GreenMonk: GreenMonk news roundup 09/19/2009 http://bit.ly/IsHcv
This comment was originally posted on Twitter