Concern about toxic chemicals in the environment has erupted into the mainstream media again, with new reports tying pesticides to disruption of male hormones, birth defects and cancer. Andres Carrasco, head of the molecular Embryology Lab at the University of Buenos Aires and chief scientist at the National Council for Science and Technology, linked glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup, to escalating rates of animal birth defects — including cyclopia, where a single eye is present in the center of the forehead), infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages and ... Read More
Think Biomass, Not Natural Gas
February 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The framework of energy supply and use by any country is confoundingly complex. Now try to speculate what it might be 40 years from now, assuming a drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Not so easy, eh? But there are people doing it: going to work each day, considering myriad energy sources, conjuring up possible configurations for the future. It’s an undertaking many might find intriguing, but … understanding all the technologies, constantly crunching the numbers, seeing a big picture that is as complex and immutable as a monotone jigsaw puzzle, butting up against obstacles ... Read More
Empower Your Appliances with the Smart Grid
January 21, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Despite strong financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy and increasing utility interest, smart grid remains a blurry concept among electricity consumers. That it could transform how we use energy and usher in an era where the term “peak load” — its nemesis — is relegated to similar obscurity. The smart grid overlays advanced information technologies on the electrical grid, allowing consumers to use energy in ways or at times that avoids drawing power at peak-load times and decreases use overall. One example is a yearlong demonstration project by the Pacific Northwest ... Read More
Viewing Poisons at Our National Parks
September 6, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
America's national parks are heralded as pristine pockets of natural beauty, but that news hasn't stopped airborne pollutants from accumulating at alarmingly high rates in parks in the West. Eight years ago, spurred by reports of contaminants found in alpine and polar ecosystems far from where the pollutants originated, National Park Service leaders assembled an interdisciplinary team of researchers drawn from experts at several universities, government agencies and research groups. Their effort was dubbed the Western Airborne Contaminant Assessment Project. The team collected data on ... Read More
Mopping Up: From Hairballs to Penguin Transit
May 14, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
As the crude continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico from the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil well disaster, observers are barraged with snapshots of past cleanup tactics tried, tested or hopeful. So far, response to this disaster has tended more toward hope over help, as BP and U.S. Coast Guard efforts to date — using fire, dispersants, booms, absorbents and a massive dome designed to siphon the oil into a tanker sitting more than 5,000 feet above the wellhead — have not worked to any extent. Meanwhile, 40 percent of the nation’s wetlands lay in the oil slick’s path, to say nothing ... Read More
A Rising Green-Tech Tide Will Lift All Boats
March 19, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
As energy legislation stacks up in the U.S. Congress, those who would limit carbon emissions and boost green technology see a new line of attack. It's time to think in terms of an "Earth Race," they say, pointing to reports of large, targeted investments in green-tech by several Asian countries. Advocates of green-tech funding, including the Breakthrough Institute (see Miller-McCune.com Q&A with Teryn Norris), see a Chinese ascendancy in green tech. Losing confidence in the United Nations' efforts to curb carbon emissions on a global scale, these proponents frame the debate in ... Read More
Throwing the Race for Green Energy
March 18, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
A few years ago, the news was that China was adding two new coal plants a week to its energy grid. Last year the narrative shifted: China was erecting wind turbines at the rate of one turbine a week. In 2010, yet another narrative is at work: China, Japan and South Korea are pouring lots of money into research and development of green technologies (not that China has abandoned coal, which provides about 80 percent of its electricity). Because of these strategic investments, China is positioned to emerge as a global green tech leader, gaining first-mover advantage and diminishing the United ... Read More
Poor Deer Season Spurs Chemical Concerns
March 15, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
When the latest harvest of white-tailed deer during a six-week hunting season in western Montana was half the five-year average, wildlife managers looked around for causes and culprits. Some speculated that the usual suspects — wolves and mountain lions — harvested the deer before Montana hunters could. Other possibilities also were no surprise: little snow on the ground and relatively warm temperatures. No mention was made of the genital abnormalities wildlife rehabilitator Judy Hoy has documented over the past 15 years in several species. She suspects a chemical contaminant is ... Read More
History and Health Cooperatives
February 12, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
When the U.S. Senate Finance Committee was wrangling to draft a health reform bill last summer, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) suggested pushing aside the controversial public option in lieu of a system of health cooperatives. Many heads were raised: What was a health cooperative and could it address the myriad problems and complexities of patient care in the 21st century? Despite a bevy of criticism and doubt from many Democrats leaning more to the left than most members of the Finance Committee, health cooperatives were included in the committee draft and survived the final cut of the Senate ... Read More
