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Environmental News Network

The Environmental News Network (ENN) is one of the oldest, and most unbiased sources of online environmental news on the web. ENN has consistently earned the loyalty of the most respected insiders like the heads of sustainability at Fortune 500 companies, government leaders or leaders of the largest non-profits.

Water & Conservation

The EPA Confirms the Climate Is Changing

written by Environmental News Network

In another display of the sea change that has occurred at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the current, Obama administration, a new report was issued yesterday regarding indicators of climate change. The report, “Climate Change Indicators in the United States,” measures 24 separate indicators showing how climate change affects the health and environment of U.S. citizens.

The report represents another step in a series of actions and statements taken on the climate change by the EPA. This EPA has proved to be more active than during previous administrations on this issue. It has labeled CO2 as a gas that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act as a significant greenhouse gas.

New vehicle emissions standards have been established as well as greenhouse gas standards for such vehicles. On April 15, the EPA published the National U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The Climate/Energy Bill currently working its way through the Senate has been heavily influenced by EPA actions and consultations. And now a report is issued regarding the indicators of climate change.

04/28/2010 1 comment

Renewable Energy

What Computers Share in Common with Biological Machines

written by Environmental News Network

The brain, in some ways, is simply the biological device that keeps a body running and the mind thinking. In that way it is like a computer. An international team of scientists has discovered striking similarities between the human brain, the nervous system of a worm, and a computer chip. The finding is reported in the journal PloS Computational Biology Monday.

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as jellyfish and starfish have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all.

Brains can be extremely complex. The cerebral cortex of the human brain contains roughly 15 to 33 billion neurons, perhaps more, depending on gender and age, linked with up to 10,000 synaptic connections each. Each cubic millimeter of cerebral cortex contains roughly one billion synapses.

04/28/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy Water & Conservation

Where Offshore Wind Power Remains Far from Reach

written by Environmental News Network

To date not a single offshore wind turbine been built in the United States. Meanwhile Europe, China and Japan are far along in developing a water-based wind power industry. All one needs is a strong and steady wind as well as a relatively easy way to connect o the power grid so as to transmit the power gained from the wind. Most people think of wind power from various land based operations. However, it can be done by basing the wind turbine in the sea.

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used for production of electric power. Individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage power collection system and communications network. At a substation, this medium voltage electrical current is increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to the high voltage transmission system.

Near shore turbine installations are on land within 5 miles of a shoreline or on water within ten miles. These areas are good sites for turbine installation, because of wind produced by convection due to differential heating of land and sea each day. Wind speeds in these zones share the characteristics of both onshore and offshore wind, depending on the prevailing wind direction.

04/27/2010 1 comment

Clean Transportation Renewable Energy

Michigan, the Saudi Arabia of Wind Energy?

written by Environmental News Network

The first regional Wind Energy Conference, sponsored by the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, took place in Detroit April 20 and 21. Bringing together for the first time under one roof, the major players from government, utilities, universities, and private enterprise everyone had a chance to focus on what the experts had to say about the state of the art in wind energy production and the role it will play in the transformation of Michigan’s economy.

A highlight of the intensive two-day Michigan Wind Energy summit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm stated in a keynote speech that the goal of her efforts was to make Michigan the “Saudi Arabia of wind energy.”

In her enthusiastic ‘let’s get serious’ attitude about making change, Gov. Granholm reiterated that no one is hungrier for change and the jobs that ‘going green’ will create than Michigan.

04/24/2010 2 comments

Recycling & Waste Mgmt.

Four New Jersey Cities to Clean Up Contaminated Sites

written by Environmental News Network

The New Jersey cities of Trenton, Jersey City, Newark, and Camden are set to receive a total of $2.3 million dollars from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help them assess and clean up contaminated and abandoned sites. The funding will be channeled through the EPA’s Brownfields Program. The clean up projects will help revitalize commercial and industrial properties by removing the toxic pollution that has hindered their redevelopment.

A brownfield site, or brownfield as it is commonly called, is a piece of land that was formerly used for industrial or commercial purposes, but is now abandoned or underused. Brownfield sites are perceived to be contaminated with low concentrations of hazardous waste, but have the potential to contain high concentrations of such waste. The pollutants are usually petroleum products often leaked from underground storage tanks or buried drums, but may include a number of toxic chemicals and organic compounds.

The Brownfields Program has been in existence since the EPA designated its first brownfield site in 1993 in Cuyahoga County in Ohio. Brownfields hold a special status because even though they are contaminated, they are not quite so bad to be included on the EPA’s National Priorities List, otherwise known as Superfund. The Brownfields Program does have a number of benefits including the following:

04/23/2010 0 comment

Clean Transportation

Celebrate with NASA as Earth Day Turns 40

written by Environmental News Network

One of the benefits we noted when humanity first was able observe the earth from above our atmosphere, from outer space, is that it enabled us to gain a new perspective on how very special our planet is. Viewed from a distance, it is obvious that we are all living in one global environment. And from a distance, this environment doesn’t look as vast as it does from our vantage point on earth.

The land looks more precious, the seas less like unlimited places to discharge our wastes, and the atmosphere, less like a place to emit air pollution at night so no one sees it, to the fragile envelope which, more than anything, makes earth the special place it is.

Indeed, it is the atmosphere that permits life as we know it to flourish on earth. And we owe most of this new knowledge to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration!

04/20/2010 0 comment

Energy Efficiency

Energy the Greatest Economic Opportunity Since WWII, Bill Clinton Says

written by Environmental News Network

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton got a warm welcome from the mixed American and Canadian audience that paid up to $175 to hear his keynote speech at the first Essex County Enviro-Expo.

The former president spoke to a nearly full house of 3,000. Citing a myriad of world challenges; hunger, water, terrorism, climate change, and global economics, Clinton said all solutions point to the development of sustainable energy on a global scale.

Few people attain a global perspective on world events as “citizen” Clinton. As a disaster relief expert, Clinton mentions a litany of environmental catastrophes, natural and man made, that have involved his personal intervention. He has seen first hand the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunami’s and in each case he advocates opportunities to rebuild in an earth friendly and sustainable way. The plan to rebuild Haiti is such an example.

04/20/2010 0 comment

Clean Transportation

Carbon Emissions Dropped with Fuel Consumption, Report Says

written by Environmental News Network

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the15th annual U.S. greenhouse gas inventory report, which shows a drop in overall emissions of 2.9 percent from 2007 to 2008.

The downward trend is attributed to a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption.

An emissions inventory that identifies and quantifies a country’s primary anthropogenic1 sources and sinks of greenhouse gases is essential for addressing climate change.

04/16/2010 0 comment

Clean Transportation Energy Efficiency

Ships to Embrace Energy Efficiency Not Bunker Fuel

written by Environmental News Network

Ships are responsible for 2.7% of world carbon dioxide emissions. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates that these emissions could increase by 150-250% by the year 2050 in line with the expected continued growth in international seaborne trade. So how does one reduce such emissions since ships are international in nature and there are over a hundred different nations with different rules. How can one be fair and be green?

04/07/2010 1 comment

Clean Transportation Renewable Energy

Tech Breakthrough: Underwater Robot Runs on Ocean Thermal Energy

written by Environmental News Network

NASA, U.S. Navy and university researchers have successfully demonstrated the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy. Though not quite a perpetual motion machine it is close to that.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a novel thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths.

04/07/2010 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Do Wind Farms Harm the Climate?

written by Environmental News Network

Wind energy has been a fast growing sector of the overall energy market. It is renewable energy that can be produced on an industrial scale that can rival the older established energy sources of coal, gas, oil, hydro, and nuclear.

Now, it accounts for only two percent of the whole energy market, but government officials expect wind to produce one fifth of the total electricity supply in the United States by 2030. Proponents claim wind power can reduce the threat of global warming.

However, a recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that the opposite is true. Mass produced wind farms can actually affect climate in a negative way.

04/06/2010 5 comments

Renewable Energy

Round-the-World Trip to Map Air Quality Takes Off

written by Environmental News Network

Once upon a time a trip around the world made major headlines. Now it is a commonplace and a convenient way to measure air quality around the world by plane. A plane outfitted to measure greenhouse gases has taken off from Colorado on the first leg of a 24 day mission that will take it back and forth across the Pacific Ocean from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

The mission is part of a three year project designed to determine when and where the gases enter and leave the atmosphere. That in turn could help policymakers as well as scientists on how to handle and measure climate change.

The scientific questions that this study is focused on are (1) understanding the global sources and sinks for CO2, CH4, and other carbon cycle gases, and more broadly (2) determining large scale rates of tracer transport in the atmosphere. In other words what are the seasonal ups and downs of these gases and where do they increase (sources) and where do they decrease (sinks).

03/30/2010 2 comments

Renewable Energy

Greenhouse Gas Permitting System Powers Forward

written by Environmental News Network

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the timing for major sources of greenhouse gases to revise their permits, or to obtain new permits under the new greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting and permitting regulations.

The first stationary sources will be required to get Clean Air Act permits that cover greenhouse gases in January, 2011.

The EPA is trying to balance what it sees as its mandate to protect Americans’ health and welfare, and to provide time for large industrial facilities and state governments to put in place cost-effective, innovative technologies to control and reduce carbon pollution. The permitting requirements will be effective on January 2, 2011.

This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases and it ensures that we don’t push this problem off to our children and grandchildren,” said EPA Administrator Jackson. “With a clear process in place, it’s now time for American innovators and entrepreneurs to go to work and lead us into the clean energy economy of the future.”

03/30/2010 0 comment

Water & Conservation

Vulnerability of Water Supplies Hidden Underground

written by Environmental News Network

The Earth is truly a blue planet; 70 percent of its surface is covered with water. Unfortunately 97.5 percent of that is salt water, unusable for humans. Fresh water accounts for the other 2.5 percent, however, about two thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and in the icy poles. That leaves humans (and every other living creature on land) only about one percent of all the water on Earth to use.

If we break this down even further, we see more limitations. Of the one percent usable water, only one percent is actually on the surface and can be easily accessed. This includes lakes, rivers, and swamps. The rest is underground. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the actual quantities in cubic miles for water distribution on Earth and is as follows:
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03/27/2010 0 comment

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