sacred bird » environment

if this doesn’t work, maybe they’ll get a grammy

180 — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:39:59 +0000

the senators of louisiana passed a resolution proclaiming sunday, june 20 as a day of “divine intervention” to stop the oil spill in the gulf. about the resolution, stephen adley said “Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail…it is clearly time for a miracle for us.”

as i said, if this doesn’t work, maybe they’ll get a grammy, musicians in all genres of music always thank the lord for their win. stranger things have happened (like this and this), right?

[fox news]

slush

180 — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:49:44 +0000

iron eyes cody would be balling his eyes out right now if he were around to see that mess that is the gulf of mexico. more bad news came today that the 98 ton box with the dome on top that was lowered over one of the cracks gushing oil and polluting the gulf has hit a little bit of a road bump. response crews found that “dome’s opening was becoming clogged with gas hydrates — crystal structures that form when gas and water mix and are found in the low temperature and high pressure at the ocean floor…The hydrates accumulated into a kind of slush that clogged the opening through which the oil was to be funneled to the surface.” it’s going to take bp amoco a couple days to figure out what to do next.*

those socialist swedes have offered to lend a hand by sending a few “skimming boats capable of 50 tons of oil per hour from the sea and hold about 1,000 tons at a time.” they’re currently on standby and once they’re activated, it’ll take several weeks to get to the gulf.**

maybe it’s just me but it seems like they (bp, the feds) could raise the urgency level around this mess. it’s like they’re trying to pass a health care bill or something.

* reminder: the oil rig that sank on april 22nd, at the time of this article, it’s may 8th.

** in other words, the boats won’t arrive before memorial day if “activated”

maybe it uses the energy produced by a star

180 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:59:42 +0000

which is a LOT.

a secret federal investigation revealed that many products labeled with the energy star logo aren’t in fact energy efficient., “In a nine-month study, four fictitious companies invented by the accountability office also sought EnergyStar status for some conventional devices like dehumidifiers and heat pump models that existed only on paper. The fake companies submitted data indicating that the models consumed 20 percent less energy than even the most efficient ones on the market. Yet those applications were mostly approved without a challenge or even questions, the report said.”

for example, one such product, labeled an energy efficient air purifier was an electric heater with a feather duster affixed to the top–it received the stamp. the crack team at the government revealed that the automated system that hands out the stamps acts as an “initial screen” for products but they really only ’spot check’ certain items.

of course, the government says they’ll get right on this to make sure that the products that are certified energy star are indeed energy saving and good for the consumer and the environment. let’s just hope that when they hold the meeting to discuss the problem, some angry senator doesn’t designed to end the meeting because it happens after the sun goes down.

greenlit

180 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:11:25 +0000

tonight’s 60 minutes finally blew some air on the fire surrounding bloom energy– a clean energy company that for years has been rumored to hold the key to our clean energy future. bloom energy’s fuel cell has caught the eye and captured the investment dollars (in the neighborhood of $400M) of silicon valley venture capitalists like john doerr of heavy hitter kleiner perkins (doerr is an original investor in little companies that could like amazon and google). the fuel cell is made from baked beach sand and is painted with green and black ink (a proprietary formula). some are hopeful but skeptical that this can take over the world –market watcher michael kanellos editor-in-chief of greentech media is cautiously optimistic but others are ready to give it a try– fedex, ebay, and walmart, google already own the bloom box (the container that holds modules of the fuel cells) and depend on the energy generated from the boxes to run critical business operations. bloom energy founder, k.r. sridharsee has big dreams and hopes to see a box on the lawn of the white house sitting next to the organic veggie garden. watch the clip below to learn more.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

it’s in the bag

180 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:04:59 +0000

cvs is launching a green program that pays off big when compared with other programs. if you enroll in the program for $.99 you’ll get $1 on every fourth trip you don’t use one of their plastic bags. the program will roll out at all 7,000 of their stores (they’re almost as ubiquitous as starbucks these days) and some of the money raised by the program will be donated to environmental causes. this program is catching a buzz because of the value delivered to customers. when you go to the supermarket and bring your bags, you’re most likely to get $.05 or $.10 but that’s about it.

this could make a major dent in that huge plastic island that’s the size of texas we told you about growing up north.

photo courtesy of strangelv

no longer just a classic song by radiohead*

180 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:03:03 +0000

a forest of 100K artificial trees may flourish in the united kingdom according to this story**. the united kingdom’s institution of mechanical engineers think that the faux trees could be an answer to the global warming problem. the trees “operate a form of carbon sequestration that catches co2 from the air in a filter and holds it in storage…the co2 would then be removed from the filter and stored.” in plain speak i think it means the trees would suck the c02 out of the air and store it in them. the trees would have to be accompanied by some kind of storage and removal system.

and the trees don’t seem to be far from reality. dr. tim fox, the author of the institute’s article describing the faux trees said “artificial trees are already at the prototype stage and are very advanced in their design in terms of their automation and in the components that would be used…they could, within a relatively short duration, be moved forward into mass production and deployment.” again, in plain speak, they could be coming to a park near you soon–in 10 to 20 years.

i think they’re going to have to make them a little prettier, but all in all, i like the idea.

* fake plastic trees is one of radiohead’s most classic songs. take a look and listen here.

**thanks to loyal reader hambutt for bringing our attention to this story

earth hour 2009

630 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:08:50 +0000

what are you going to be doing tomorrow night at 8:30pm? hopefully, it’s not something that requires electricity. march 28th is the third annual earth hour where people all across the globe are asked to turn off their power for an hour starting at 8:30pm local time. the earth hour website goes so far as to say if you leave your lights on during earth hour, you’re voting for global warming.

first conceptualized by the world wildlife fund as a symbolic gesture against global warming, over 80 countries and 1,200 cities will participate this year. some cities have turned it into a celebration offering candlelit dinners and concerts in the dark. if you’re in the athens, make sure you check out the concert at the acropolis.

is it just me or is there some irony here?

630 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:43:06 +0000

everyone is going green these days, even hunters. there’s a small, but growing, movement to use “green” bullets rather than the traditional lead bullet which contains lead. scientists, environmentalists, public health officals as well as a small number of hunters say the lead bullets pose a public health risk. environmental cleanups in many military training grounds are underway due to lead contamination. california has banned lead bullets in an endangered bird habitat because the condors have been feeding off meat left behind from hunters causing them to get lead poisoning. in one instance, 50 of the 100 samples of venison shot by hunters tested positive for lead but blood test conducted by the north dakota department of health on those who regularly eat meat shot with lead bullets were not conclusive. although hunted meat eaters did have slightly higher levels of lead in their blood, those levels were within the normal range.

the national shooting sports foundation (nss) and the national riffle association (nra) are claiming that it’s just another from the anti-gun attempt movement. copper bullets, the leading alternative to lead bullets, are more expensive.

photo courtsey of trondelarius

what do they do with the bottle caps?

630 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:10:14 +0000

if you live in a state where you receive a nickel or dime for the return of your empty soda bottles, you might want to save up and build yourself a boat. in an old pier building in san francisco, david de rothschild is taking old soda bottles and building himself a 60 foot catamaran. builders take the empties and wash and strip the labels. then the two liter soda bottles are filled with dry ice powder. the carbon dioxide from the dry ice makes the bottle rigid so the plastic is reusable. except for the metal masts, all the parts will be made of recycled plastic. de rothschild is planning on sailing his boat from california to austrila in april when construction is complete.

because we don’t have enough problems here on earth

630 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:04:32 +0000

massive amounts of metal are flying around space at over 660 feet per second thanks to two satellites colliding earlier this week. the satellites, one an old nonfunctional russian satellite and the other a privately owned satellite, ran into each other in orbit somewhere over serbia causing the crash. apparently, this type of thing has happened before in space but this is the largest of them yet. the space folks don’t think there’s any immediate concern but there is a small possibility that one of the loose pieces of metal floating around will hit the international space station. what is more likely to happen is the debris will crash into one of the many other satellites in the area.

this of course brings up all kinds of issues and have got tons of people riled up on what we send to space and how we monitor them. check out the depiction below from the european space operations centre of the trackable objects in orbit around earth. a little scary.