Monday, August 20, 2012

About Time !
Bill Gates invests in solar-powered toilet
Toilet that uses little or no water is expected to improve sanitation in the developing world.

Professor Michael Hoffman's design toilet is solar powered, generating hydrogen gas and electricity [EPA]
US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates is investing in a solar-powered toilet for the developing world that will use little or no water.

The need for a new type of toilet is an important part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's push to improve health in the developing world, officials familiar with the project said.

Last year the foundation, named after the Microsoft co-founder and his wife, gave grants to eight universities around the world to help create a hygienic toilet that is safe and affordable and can transform waste into energy.
The project challenged inventors to come up with a toilet that operated without running water, electricity or a septic system.
It needed to operate at a cost of no more than five cents a day and would ideally capture energy or other resources.

Open defecation leads to sanitation problems that cause 1.5 million children under five to die each year.
The eight universities, led by Professor Michael Hoffman, designed a toilet that generated hydrogen gas and electricity. They won a $100,000 prize.
Waste to electricity
At the Reinvent the Toilet fair, hosted in Seattle this week, designs included a lavatory that used microwave energy to turn human waste into electricity.
Another turned excrement into charcoal, while a third used urine for flushing.
In total 28 designs were shown off at the fair and the winner was a team from the California Institute of Technology.
Gates said toilet technology had not fundamentally changed since the invention of the flush toilet in 1775.
"Imagine what's possible if we continue to collaborate, stimulate new investment in this sector, and apply our ingenuity in the years ahead," Gates said at his foundation's Seattle headquarters.
"Many of these innovations will not only revolutionise sanitation in the developing world, but also help transform our dependence on traditional flush toilets in wealthy nations."
Gates' foundation announced $3.4m in new funding on for toilet projects being worked on by various organisations, bringing total investment in its "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" to about $6.5m.
About 2.6 billion people - or 40 per cent of world's population mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia - lack access to safe sanitation and are forced to defecate in the open, according to Gates.

from aljazeera

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Saturday, August 18, 2012

More of the deadly same----Lake Erie has most mercury pollution in Great Lakes




 






Lake Erie has most mercury pollution in Great Lakes

Filed by Evan Goodenow June 9th, 2012 in Top Stories.
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Lake Erie receives the most mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants of the five Great Lakes, according to a report released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental watchdog.
Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 50 percent of emissions of mercury — a toxic substance that can damage the brain, heart and lungs, and cause brain damage in children and fetuses — according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
With 2,865 pounds emitted per year, Ohio accounts for 21 percent of annual mercury emissions, the most of the eight Great Lakes states, according to the report, which relied on EPA statistics.
The report also said the Genon power plant in Avon Lake had the seventh-highest mercury emissions in Ohio. The 732-megawatt, coal-fired plant — the No. 1 air polluter in Lorain County in 2010 with 2.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted — has been slated for closure in 2015.
The report, “Poisoning the Great Lakes,” supports the stricter mercury safeguards recommended by the federal EPA for 2015, which would reduce 90 percent of current emissions.
Report authors Cindy Copeland, Vicki Stamper and Megan Williams, identified as having a combined 40 years of experience in working on air pollution issues, said national standards are essential because states such as Ohio have waited for federal standards for power plants rather than implement their own.
“None of the top mercury emitters in Ohio have installed control technology specifically to reduce mercury,” the report said. “Given that 20 percent of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants are deposited locally, it is clear why Lake Erie is the most affected by mercury deposition from power plants.”
Thom Cmar, a council attorney, said that all of Ohio’s 22 coal-fired power plants are supposed to have their operating permits renewed every five years, but all of them expired many years ago. Cmar said the Ohio EPA has been slow to up to renew the permits, which require updated pollution controls.
“Whether it’s a question of lack of resources or lack of political will, and I think it’s probably a little bit of both, Ohio EPA has been far behind,” Cmar said in an interview.
Todd Taylor, an Ohio EPA spokesman, wouldn’t comment on the criticism.
The safeguards, which will cost $9.6 billion to implement, will prevent 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks annually, the federal EPA estimated.
However, the new standards are being challenged in the courts and Congress.
Companies, including American Electric Power and FirstEnergy Corp., which have plants in Ohio, are suing over the rules. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has sponsored a bill to stop the protections, which he contends would kill jobs.
Some Avon Lake leaders are also unhappy about the Genon plant closing, which was announced after news of the enhanced safeguards.
City officials estimate losing about $77,000 in income tax revenue and $140,000 in property tax money annually. Avon Lake Schools officials estimate that the closure will cost the district close to $4 million annually.
However, the report said the annual health benefits in 2016 will be between $37 million and $90 million. And a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal economic think tank, found the rules will create 84,500 new jobs nationally, primarily from pollution abatement and control investments.
Josh Mogerman, a council spokesman, said criticism of the stricter safeguards was an industry scare tactic He said the closing of aging power plants like the Genon plant, whose largest unit was activated in 1970, was a business decision that had little to do with the safeguards.
“It’s a shame that they’re trying to blame that business decision on regulations that are being brought forth to protect the public health,” Mogerman said.
Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.
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Monday, July 9, 2012

The green stuff is coming ! (mildly)

The green stuff is coming ! (mildly)





Toxic algae predicted to be mild in Lake Erie

Posted: Jul 09, 2012 9:42 AM EDTUpdated: Jul 09, 2012 9:44 AM EDT
By Lisa Strawbridge - email
PORT CLINTON, OH (TOLEDO NEWS NOW ) - Scientists are predicting the toxic blue-green algae bloom in Lake Erie will be mild this summer for the first time in five years.
The lack of rain this year appears to be a big factor.
A public forum is being held Tuesday on efforts to keep Lake Erie healthy and free of the harmful blooms.The forum takes place at 4 p.m. at the Lake Erie Regional Welcome Center in Ottawa County.
State Representative Randy Gardner, sponsor of the Healthy Lake Erie Fund, will host the forum with invited guests Director Jim Zehringer of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Director David Daniels of the Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio EPA Director Scott Nally.
"No issue is more important to the environmental and economic health of our region than protecting Lake Erie," Gardner said. "The new Healthy Lake Erie Fund can be an important next step in helping to solve the algal bloom problems that have been getting worse in recent years. This is an opportunity for the public to become additionally involved in being part of the solution."
Reservations are not necessary to attend the forum, but those wishing to provide suggestions to Representative Gardner and members of the Governor's cabinet are asked to provide written comments.
Copyright 2012 Toledo News Now. All rights reserved.
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Thursday, May 10, 2012

A very interesting story from the Pacific. From The Guardian.


Pacific 'garbage patch' changing insect mating habits

Study on vast area of rubbish in north Pacific ocean finds it is beginning to impact on ecosystem
Plastic Trash Altering Pacific Ocean Habitats, Scripps Study Shows : SEAPLEX researchers
Seaplex researchers Matt Durham and Miriam Goldstein encounter netting and plastic in the Pacific. Photograph: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Marine insects in the Pacific Ocean are changing their reproduction habitats in response to environmental changes from the accumulating amount of rubbish in the north Pacific subtropical gyre, also known as the great Pacific garbage patch, according to researchers.
The patch has increased in size 100 times since the 1970s, including its swath of microplastic particles of less than 5mm diameter. The marine insect Halobates sericeus, a species of water skater, is now using the microplastic debris as a surface to lay its eggs, said a study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego, published on Wednesday in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
"This paper shows a dramatic increase in plastic over a relatively short time period and the effect it's having on a common North Pacific Gyre invertebrate," said graduate student and lead author Miriam Goldstein, in a statement released by Scripps. "We're seeing changes in this marine insect that can be directly attributed to the plastic."
Goldstein was part of a graduate student team, the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (Seaplex), which travelled to the patch to study its environmental impact in 2009. The study compared the group's findings to data from the early 1970s.
The Seaplex team found that water skaters typically lay their eggs on floating objects like seashells, bird feathers and pumice, but the change to plastic could have "ecosystem-wide consequences". The insects are an important link on the marine food chain, plus predators like crabs rely on their eggs as a source of food.
Increased quantities of microplastic could also mean population growth of the water skaters, and more pressure on their prey zooplankton and fish eggs, according to the study.
Debris from the patch has had an impact on other marine life, including ingestion by fish and invertebrates at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tonnes per year, according to Scripps. It also transports pollutants and has introduced alien species into new areas.
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