Known for its bull fights and flamenco dancing, Spain has also been receiving notoriety lately for its push to become a leader in renewable energy use. In fact, because of generous government subsidies, Spain now has some 50,000 units of solar panels generating 3,500 megawatts of electricity. Sounds good, right?
Rare earth elements like neodymium, dysprosium, and turbium may not be household words, but they are critical ingredients in the strong magnets that are vital to everything from wind turbines to auto engines. But with the future supply of such elements in question due to political and economic factors, it appears nanotechnology could be coming to the rescue. According to Popsci.com, researchers have devised a way to use nanocomposite materials to boost the magnetism in alloys, meaning less rare earth materials need to be used. Since these magnets are also smaller and lighter to boot, this sounds like, dare [...]
To reduce pollution known as ground-level ozone, or smog, the Bush administration’s EPA tightened the ozone standard in 2008 down to 75 parts per billion. But according to an article by policy expert Steven Milloy, the Obama EPA now wants to tighten it further down to 60 or 70 parts per billion, even though it would be enormously expensive and provide no real benefits. Milloy notes the EPA recently produced some very questionable studies which greatly exaggerate typical ozone exposure to back up the call for tighter standards. But while the health effects would be negligible, the price tag [...]
If you heard that a crosswalk was being proposed over a major interstate highway, you would assume it was for pedestrians. But out in Colorado, one proposed overpass is for pedestrians of a more furry nature, namely moose, elk, and other wildlife. According to Environment and Energy Daily, one stretch of I-70 near Vail has been particularly deadly to various species, so plans are underway to design a wildlife overpass. North America has many underpasses, but only a handful of overpasses, and one in Canada has been used by animals nearly a quarter of a million times, dropping wildlife-vehicle [...]
The EPA’s new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions to address alleged man-made global warming issue have stirred controversy for purportedly sidestepping congress. Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, explains this concern: “The environmental protection agency is putting in place regulatory architecture to limit the production and use of carbon-based fuels — fuels that supply 85% of American’s energy needs. The EPA is doing so without a congressional mandate, and indeed despite Congress’s recent rejection of the less restrictive cap-and-trade plan. Unless stopped, the EPA’s power grab will make a mockery of our claim to be [...]
With global warming already suffering from serious public mistrust, a new report from the Science and Public Policy Institute is now casting doubt on temperature records from two major US agencies. According to the report, temperature data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been significantly tampered with to show greater warming in recent years. Data from the 1930s-1950s were readjusted downward; temps in the last decade were artificially increased three tenths of a degree Fahrenheit, and readings for Arctic areas were simply invented where no stations exist. Following on the heels of the Climategate scandal, [...]
You’ve heard of snakes that can eat rodents, but how about ones that gobble up ocean waves? Well according to New Scientist magazine, a new, giant rubber snake, aptly named “Anaconda,” has recently been designed that can harness the power of wave energy and turn it into renewable electricity. The 8-yard long test snake allows water to pass through it and create bulges in its interior. When these bulges slide down the length of the snake’s body, they eventually reach turbines which are kept spinning to generate electricity. This prototype snake is just a baby version of what scientists [...]
A new report from the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee examines the damage caused by EPA regulations. Senator James Inhofe, a long-time leader of this committee, has this to say: "I think everyone is aware of the huge cost to the American taxpayer on these huge bills that the Democrats are trying to push through, but they're not as aware of the cost of over-regulation. These regulations are the EPA, having to do with industrial boilers, having to do with ozone requirements, the endangerment finding. They would lose hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the cost is [...]
Without a doubt, one of the more pressing environmental challenges deals with the issue of sewage treatment. This is because, as noted by the National Center for Policy Analysis, sewage systems in some 770 cities are outdated, with many having been built more than a century ago. Thus to meet new clean water standards, many communities - which have in the past simply dumped untreated waste into rivers during heavy rainfall - must now build new facilities or massive underground tanks to hold their sewage, and the costs for this are simply extravagant. Since the federal government once subsidized [...]
What would life be like without cars? Well for residents of Vauban, Germany, living without cars is a reality – as the town has now become a showcase for the latest utopian vision of suburban planners. In Vauban, there is no more parallel parking or squeezing your car into a garage bursting with lawn equipment and bicycles. That’s because over 80 percent of those living in Vauban have no cars! Now city officials do give people the option of car ownership – if they don’t mind paying a $40,000 dollar permit fee. They are also denying permits to businesses [...]
When the first Earth Day took place in 1970, environmentalists believed that the key to solving many of the pressing problems with air and water pollution was to limit economic activity and the living standards of people everywhere. They even had a formula for this taught in colleges, I=PAT, or environmental impact equals population times affluence times technology. But columnist John Tierney of the New York Times notes that many of these early notions were misplaced, as experience soon revealed that wealth actually fuels investment in environmental protection. Thus, maybe to the surprise of these Earth Day activists, a [...]
Could a warming of the ocean lead to the destruction of our world’s coral reefs? Well such is the assertion of global warming advocates, but according to the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide, such contentions regarding coral are pitted with many small holes. Among them is a recent study in India, where researchers examined coral reefs experiencing a significant warming trend. While they observed a nearly 50 percent bleaching of the reefs initially, within a couple years the corals began to quickly recover - and today the successive incarnations of coral reefs are even more resistant to [...]
You’ve heard of warning labels on things like beer and cigarettes, but how about automobiles? Well believe it or not, a British Parliament member, Collin Challen, recently proposed placing warning labels on cars to inform consumers of their impact on, you guessed it, global warming. According to the UK Guardian, such warnings might include highlighting the auto’s contribution to sea level rise, increasing deaths, species extinctions, food and water shortages, and heightened regional conflicts and wars. These warnings would vary depending on the emissions from each vehicle, according to the British MP, with the worst gas-guzzlers carrying the most [...]
Once populous throughout the Colorado River and Grand Canyon, a fish known as the humpback chub began declining in numbers throughout the 1990's. But now, after 13 years of restoration activity, it appears efforts to save the fish are no longer swimming upstream. This, according to Environment and Energy’s Land Letter, which reports that experimental water releases from the Glen Canyon Dam that mimic historic changes in river flow, coupled with efforts to control competing non-native fish species, have resulted in a 50 percent increase in humpback chub numbers over the past six years. With the chub population climbing [...]
You’ve heard of electricity produced by coal, natural gas and even wind, but how about chicken poop? Well as strange as that may sound, a company in North Carolina called Fibrowatt plans to build three power plants that run on such droppings from our egg-laying friends. But not everyone is clucking with excitement about the project. According to the Charlotte Observer, air quality officials believe the plant would likely produce more nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particle pollution than a conventional coal plant. This understandably has health officials worried as well. Time will tell whether coal or chicken poop [...]