Snippets from the Interwebs 2 - the sequel

Yikes! This snippet is scary. I mean really scary. If you don’t think it sounds scary, then you don’t understand the world we live in. The amount of phytoplankton - tiny marine plants - in the top layers of the oceans has declined markedly over the last century, research suggests.
Writing in the journal Nature, scientists say the decline appears to be linked to rising water temperatures. The decline - about 1% per year – 40% over the last 60 years - could be ecologically significant as plankton sit at the base of the marine food chain. An additional cause could be ocean acidification or, in actuality, reduction of ocean alkalinity (to shut up the deceivers and nit pickers). Obviously CO2 dissolves into the top layers of the ocean, which is where the phytoplankton hang out. Land plants are very sensitive to the ph (hydrogen ion concentration, aka acidity) of soil. As any good gardener knows, changing the ph of your soil can have dramatic effects on how well or badly various plants grow. It doesn't take much to upset the plankton balance and good old Homo Sapiens has recklessly stepped up to the plate again and done it. And is carrying on doing it.

Worse, phytoplankton sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, particularly species such as the coccolithophores so this could be a positive feedback loop in action. N.B. some coccolithophores actually grow better in water with increased CO2 so, as always, things are more complicated than they, at first, appear. Read this blog about the plunge in phytoplankton.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A new federal report out very recently finds there’s a 40-percent chance that the Pacific walrus, a species imperilled by loss of sea ice due to global warming, will be on a pathway to extinction by the end of the century. Scientists with the Center for Biological Diversity say even that estimate is far too optimistic because the U.S. Geological Survey relied on modeling that underestimates the effects of climate change.
story follows here:
pacific-walrus-09-10-2010
Also a hair raising picture (from last years ice melt) of the mass “shore invasion” of walruses (walri?) which re-emphasises the current accelerating loss of multi-year ice in the Arctic. The walruses are suffering from the reduction in sea ice which they would normally be on or around.


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An ice island four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland

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Lloyds of London, the insurance market makers have warned of "catastrophic consequences" for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy. Their report repeats warnings from Professor Paul Stevens, a former economist from Dundee University, at an earlier Chatham House conference that lack of oil by 2013 could force the price of crude above $200 (£130) a barrel. Peak oil featured on Newsweek with Paxman a few weeks ago so reality is seeping into the public arena.
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A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) argues that Europe and North Africa can achieve complete independence from fossil fuels by 2050, and that all the technologies necessary for such a transformation are already in place.
renewable-energy-europe-2050
The 100 percent goal could be reached even without nuclear energy or carbon-capture and storage technology, two controversial elements of the renewable energy debate, according to the report.
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Portugal will get 45% of their electricity from renewable sources this year NY times - renewable Portugal
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Germany could get all of its electricity from renewables by 2050 the country's Federal Environment Agency said very recently
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China has probably surpassed the US in installed renewable energy or, if not, they will have by the end of the year.
greening China surpasses America
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News from the Desertec plan to build large solar concentrating (mirrors) power plant in the Sahara desert. In June, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced that Europe will start importing solar energy from the Sahara within the next five years.
solar energy from Sahara will be imported to Europe within 5 years
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In 2009, Earth Overshoot Day was reached on September 25.
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This New Scientist article is about a microbe that converts CO2 into methane using electricity. Well, what’s the use of that you might ask - apart from the coolness of the discovery?
Using some renewable energy for supplying the grid is not as reliable as, say, coal fired stations because sometimes the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. Any grid system with a significant proportion of the load supplied by renewables would work much better with the ability to store energy for short periods and this is where this microbe may come in. At times of high availability of renewable energy (strong winds and sunny days) the surplus energy, if this research pans out, can convert CO2 into methane, at an efficiency of around 80%, which can be injected straight into extant natural gas pipelines or stored locally. Methane, of course, is a very useful source to supply domestic level fuel cells which can act as distributed microgeneration.
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Bike Powered Cell Phone Chargers in Kenya

Half of Kenya’s inhabitants own a cellphone but many lack access to the necessary electrical infrastructure to charge their phones, forcing them to travel great distances and pay steep prices to juice up their phones at charging stations (around $2 a charge). Here’s news of a bike dynamo powered phone charger
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Here’s a Newsy collection of items about global examples of zero waste aspirations to generate no non-recyclable or compostable waste.



Newsy.com is a good place to see the same story from multiple media viewpoints and various countries as they present snippets gathered from many sources.
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Environmental action documentary/movie The Cove. Flipper meets The Bourne Identity. An elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embark on a covert mission to penetrate a remote and hidden cove in Taiji, Japan, shining a light on a dark and deadly secret.
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Superweeds and super bugs. Monsanto invented the GM crops that had resistance to glyphosate (Roundup). Nature fought back. The RoundupReady gene is present in approximately 90% of the soy and 70% of the corn and cotton grown in the U.S. Now it’s in the weeds too. The “superweed” problem is bad and getting worse: according the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, there are now 348 different herbicide-resistant weed biotypes, 19 of which are specifically impervious to glyphosate. Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts President Andrew Wargo, III told the New York Times that superweeds are the “single largest threat to production agriculture we’ve ever seen”
Here’s an ABC news video about superweeds
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Snippets from the Interwebs

When I used to write the Jersey Friends of the Earth newsletter in the 90’s, I would have a feature called Snippets whereby I would highlight lots of different stories in shortened form. There really is too much to keep up with environmentally nowadays so I will be doing the same “feature” every now and again. Here is the first.
Snippets Snippets Snippets Snippets Snippets Snippets
Champagne Charlies will notice a difference soon! Champagne bottles are going to be slimmed down for the environment. The bottles are as heavy as they are to contain the high pressure of the CO2 gas inside but they are being redesigned to lose excess glass and thereby lighten up.
link to triplepundit.com article about champagne bottles
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Genetically modified crops are touted as a saviour for global food production by increasing food yields, reducing pesticide use etc.
The India Times reports that the cotton boll worm has already developed resistance to Monsanto’s BT cotton.  Monsanto are now pushing BT cotton 2 – the sequel -  so yet another treadmill of increasing tech “solutions” and subsequent failure is born –they are even criticising the farmers! Ironically cotton yields are falling and pesticide use is increasing which is exactly what GM crops were promised to do – not!
Technology probably won’t be enough to stave off the forthcoming  difficulties in feeding the world. Initial successes of the “Green revolution” are looking  a bit jaundiced now.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/26/stories/2009092658910100.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/22food.html?th&emc=th
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Just for those who say there is no point in the West doing anything about CO2 emissions because China is building a new coal plant every week… When you know the other side of the story, that the denialists “accidentally” leave out, you might not be so cocky.
Also this story and this one show that those voices in America who argue against investing in renewables as pointless because “China will never do it” are dangerously misled/misleading. China will get to a sustainable energy supply system far in advance of the USA, not to mention a huge competitive advantage.
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Plastics used in food containers often contain Bisphenol-A – a plastic additive that has got a lot of bad press recently. This latest research report might sound the death knell for the routine widespread use of this substance which is so prevalent in plastic bottles, food cans etc.
I was caught out myself because my beloved Sigg water bottle has a lining that proved to contain Bis-A. Sigg have apologised and have set up a “return and replace” initiative. Their new water bottles do not contain this chemical.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/human-placental-cells-die-after-bpa-exposure/
As if that wasn’t enough, Bis-A might have a hand in the tidal wave of obesity that assaults us in every other reality TV programme out there. This Newsweek article suggests that hormone mimicking chemicals, such as Bis-A, might engender excess fat cells in the very young. Tributyltin may also be an “obesogen” that causes more fat cells. So too some phthalates (used to make vinyl plastics, such as those used in shower curtains and, until the 1990s, plastic food wrap), and perfluoroalkyl compounds (used in stain repellents and nonstick cooking surfaces).
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Things that make you go hmmm…
Extract from Simple Earth media blog follows:
“Now tobacco may be able to redeem itself by producing solar cells, according to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.  By infecting tobacco plants with a genetically engineered virus, scientists have been able to “produce artificial photovoltaic and photochemical cells” which are biodegradable and may end up being “more environmentally friendly than traditional methods of making solar cells”.”
Grow your own solar cells - tobacco now healthier!
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Annie Leonard is the face and voice of “The Story of Stuff” which I’ve linked to and talked about several times before. It’s simply great. Here she is live at Bioneers 2009
 
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There are very significant moves afoot for companies to clean up their environmental act and become more sustainable.Here’s some links to how some of the biggest are getting on.
How a Subaru plant achieved a zero landfill status

Walmart sustainability summit (2007)
“The main event was a speech by CEO Lee Scott in which he stated in no uncertain terms that Wal-Mart is in this for the long haul, and expects its suppliers to be in it for the long haul too. Scott pointed out that while his company is aiming for zero waste and 100% renewable energy, this still only accounts for 8% of its footprint, and that Wal-Mart must green its supply chain if it has any chance of becoming sustainable”
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Just in case anyone still believes that global warming is all a hoax or something cooked up by Al Gore to make money, just see how far back the warnings went.
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Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed a “joie de vivre” index to complement/replace GDP. Like Bhutan’s happiness index and similar indicators, from such as the New Economics Foundation, these initiatives posit that simply measuring GDP is a very poor (sometimes literally) way of measuring what people really value. A lot of political effort is expended on improving GDP figures because that is the current measure of “economic” success unfortunately the consequences that follow often conflict with peoples’ sense of well being.

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There are moves to tax sugary fizzy drinks in the States – Coca Cola watch out!
http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/10/tax-on-soft-drinks-could-relieve-states-budget-woes/
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Algae as a productive source of biofuel is now being seriously investigated.  Like much research in renewable energy, we have lost 3 decades worth of time because of the yuppy/Republican years  when the world ignored what was necessary and went on a consumerist binge literally fuelled by cheap oil.
This story shows that algae was being investigated as far back as the Jimmy Carter years before subsequent political developments pulled the funding plug which caused some of the genetic legacy of suitable candidate organisms to be lost in the subsequent Bush type administrations, although Clinton bears some responsibility.
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Do compact fluorescents use more energy than incandescents if manufacturing is taken into account? Life cycle analyses show that both LED and compact fluorescent bulbs are not even close. Both technologies use much less energy in total.
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Insurance companies throw in the towel
Taken from the greenlivingideas.com website
Property insurance may no  longer be available in the future if we can’t get control of climate change, says Nick Starling, the Director of General Insurance and Health for the Association of British Insurers. Climate change could end the continuing availability of property insurance.
The insurance industry might be overwhelmed by losses and  no longer be able to pay out for property losses with increased climate change, the Association of British Insurers announced this week.
Having examined scientific research commissioned by the British Meteorological Office, the ABI found that even the minimum of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit rise in global average temperatures (2 C) would increase annual British property losses to $77 million from inland flooding and windstorms.
A global average temperature rise of 10.8 F (6 C) was also played out in scenarios, along with  average global rise of 7.2 F (4 C) as well. At those levels the Director of General Insurance and Health for the Association of British Insurers said property insurance would simply no longer be possible for the insurance industry, which depends on actuarial history to determine risk.
Humanity is now moving completely outside of risk levels associated with human history.
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Magnus Larsson: Turning dunes into architecture

This is a somewhat wacky, but highly creative idea, which involves forming desert sand dunes into buildings. A liquid is injected in a 3D pattern which solidifies the sand into a sort of concrete. Loose sand is removed and Bob’s your Uncle! Spectacular buildings
 

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Reprinted from the wonderful Inhabitat – design will save the world – website
Scientists at Genomatica Inc. recently announced (click for original article) that they have developed strains of bacteria that are able to produce plastic without the use of oil or natural gas. The sustainable process utilizes little more than sugar and water to produce butanediol (BDO), which can be manufactured into everything from plastics and fibers to pharmaceuticals. Genomatica estimates that within a year the energy-efficient process will cost less than current hydrocarbon-based processes – a revolutionary development since close to 3 billion pounds of BDO are manufactured each year.
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Peak oil – we’re probably there already. The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency/print

Here's a link to an abstract of a paper by Kuwaiti scientists which gives peak oil production in 2014. They also estimate world oil reserves are being depleted at 2.1% per year using current extraction techniques.
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New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus in Sweden, which is expected to cut the nation’s emissions from food production by 20 to 50 percent, reports the New York Times.
http://www.sincerelysustainable.com/food/sweden-requiring-co2-emission-labeling-on-food
http://foodbizdaily.com/articles/93652-global-new-products-database-gnpd-presents-elovena-oat-flakes.aspx
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Laws of Physics Persist: In Crashes, Big Cars Win

These links are to MIT’s Technology Review which reports on a study that shows that even though small cars such as Minis and Smart cars do well in standard “crash into a wall” crash tests, they do less well in “real world” collisions with bigger vehicles because of conservation-of-momentum physics. The actually experienced crash forces on people in the smaller vehicles in head-on impacts are much greater. Click for article - In Crashes, Big Cars Win 

This is interesting. Locally, we already hear people defending their purchase of large 4x4s because they “feel safer”. This study suggests that in certain situations they are right.  This might lead to an “arms race” whereby people, in pursuit of safety for themselves, purchase ever bigger and heavier vehicles.

click for video of crash testing

The problem is, they are purchasing extra safety for themselves at the cost of reducing safety for others who either choose to drive smaller vehicles for environmental reasons or cannot afford a larger one.

In a totally free market which couldn’t care less about the climate one could see that Jersey’ites would all end up driving giant Hummers at enormous cost to our carbon footprint. Surely this new information strengthens the case for the authorities to introduce measures to steer people away from purchasing vehicles which not only use more fossil fuel to do the same job as smaller vehicles (horse box owners and towable boat owners get a free pass on this), but also expose more responsible people to extra risk?

I can’t resist cross posting this comment on the article from “Malkmus”! Watch out X5s and Cayennes!

“If, as the study suggests, large cars present a bigger hazard to other road users, why not restrict the speed of all cars to the same damage potential instead of the same speed. As the example in the study shows, a heavy car at 27 mph would pose the same threat to others as a light car at 50 mph. Hence a speed limit of 30mph for the heavy car and 50 mph for the light car should make them about equally dangerous for other road users. Since speed limits are presumably there for the safety of all road users, tying speed limits to vehicle weight seems a sensible system. Incidentally since fuel consumption is related both to vehicle size and speed this would reduce the consumption of fuel more efficiently by slowing down those cars that consume most fuel. Another thought: If heavy cars inflict larger damages to other road users, shouldn't the insurance premium on those cars reflect this. In particular on a crash where the weight of one of the cars was instrumental in causing harm to the occupants of the other vehicle shouldn't the heavier car be partly responsible for the damages, regardless of the cause of the accident itself. This would be a little like other liability cases where buying and using a product that increases the risk to others makes the user partly liable for damages when they occur”.