A new method of storing bicycles (I am not sure this will ever become widespread because of: 1. Complications related to the use of underground space in large cities; and, 2. The negative environmental impact associated with the use of the motors in the parking unit, which offsets at least part of the benefits of riding a bicycle.):
Improved delivery of ketchup and mustard:
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
August 18, 2009
July 29, 2009
More articles.
1. "In Battle, Hunches Prove to Be Valuable" - This NYT article attempts to explain why, both physiologically and psychologically, some soldiers in war zones are significantly better than most at detecting dangerous situations (e.g. soldiers who are known for their ability to identify IEDs before detonation).
2. "In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin" - This NYT article discusses a study of truck drivers (based on eighteen months of taped observation) that shows that texting while driving increases the risk of a crash by up to twenty three times. The authors claim the pattern extends to non-commercial drivers as well. The research is currently undergoing peer review.
3. "Should Thursday be the New Friday? The Environmental and Economic Pluses of the 4-Day Workweek" - Scientific American discusses the potential benefits of four-day workweeks (e.g. four days of ten hours each instead of five days of eight hours each), citing Utah as an example of the savings that can be had: "Local governments in particular have had their eyes on Utah over the last year; the state redefined the workday for more than 17,000 of its employees last August. For those workplaces, there's no longer a need to turn on the lights, elevators or computers on Fridays—nor do janitors need to clean vacant buildings. Electric bills have dropped even further during the summer, thanks to less air-conditioning: Friday's midday hours have been replaced by cooler mornings and evenings on Monday through Thursday. As of May, the state had saved $1.8 million."
2. "In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin" - This NYT article discusses a study of truck drivers (based on eighteen months of taped observation) that shows that texting while driving increases the risk of a crash by up to twenty three times. The authors claim the pattern extends to non-commercial drivers as well. The research is currently undergoing peer review.
3. "Should Thursday be the New Friday? The Environmental and Economic Pluses of the 4-Day Workweek" - Scientific American discusses the potential benefits of four-day workweeks (e.g. four days of ten hours each instead of five days of eight hours each), citing Utah as an example of the savings that can be had: "Local governments in particular have had their eyes on Utah over the last year; the state redefined the workday for more than 17,000 of its employees last August. For those workplaces, there's no longer a need to turn on the lights, elevators or computers on Fridays—nor do janitors need to clean vacant buildings. Electric bills have dropped even further during the summer, thanks to less air-conditioning: Friday's midday hours have been replaced by cooler mornings and evenings on Monday through Thursday. As of May, the state had saved $1.8 million."
July 01, 2009
Snake eyes, everyone loses.
The above photo shows the aftermath of a fight between a 13' python and a 6' alligator in Florida's Everglades in 2005. Apparently the python swallowed the alligator whole and began to digest it, inspiring the alligator to claw at the insides of the snake. In the end both animals were dead, and as can be seen in the picture above, the hindquarters of the alligator were sticking out of the python. (In case the image is too small to be meaningful: the scaly thing sticking toward the lower-right corner of the picture is the alligator's tail, while the other two points are the ends of the torn-in-half python. This just adds another item to each of two lists: 1. Reasons no one should live in Florida until they are old enough that they can't leave the house; and, 2. Reasons I am not cut out for any kind of wilderness adventure.
June 16, 2009
Clouds.
A new class of cloud was discovered this week: asperatus clouds (above). In honor of this surprising find I decided to completely take a posting from New Scientist and bring it over here! Check out the nine interesting cloud formations below (original post is here and includes descriptions of how each forms).Fallstreak hole:
Roll cloud:
Pink UFO (altocumulus lenticularis):
Cap cloud:
Wave cloud:
Virga:
Mammatus:
Kelvin-Helmholtz:
Horseshoe vortex:
June 06, 2009
Reshaping Earth.
Using images from NASA's Earth Observatory, Wired has created time-lapse views of regions of the world undergoing significant changes.
The disappearance of the Amazon rainforest:
The draining of the Aral Sea:
The urbanization of Dubai:
The disappearance of the Amazon rainforest:
The draining of the Aral Sea:
The urbanization of Dubai:
May 18, 2009
Americans are the best...
...at killing the planet through consumption! The 2009 National Geographic Greendex survey, "[...] a comprehensive measure of consumer behavior in 65 areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods" (Greendex Highlight Report.pdf), has, for the second consecutive year, given the US the worst overall score. (This must be qualified in just a few ways: the survey is only in its second year, only includes 17 countries (14 in 2008), and is based entirely on Internet-based polling data.)
A bit more about the approach: The survey measures "[...] energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability, and knowledge of environmental issues" (Greendex: Survey of Sustainable Consumption), in order to give each respondent a score in each of the four main categories listed above (housing, transportation, food, and consumer goods). Based on performance in these categories each respondent is given an overall Greendex score.
One more thing: Brazil's Greendex score went down from last year to this year, so they are clearly gunning for our position at the top. We must waste as much as possible in the coming year in order to keep our crown. I hope each of you will do your part.
March 10, 2009
Planet, Public Information in Peril
I am in the early stages of trying to restart the green initiative in my office. That the public, even the intelligent and well-educated, is poorly informed on global warming is not surprising to me. Friday night, however, I found myself at a trivia event organized by one of my coworkers and attended by many. When fewer than one-in-five was able to identify "The three Rs of recycling" (reduce, reuse, recycle) I realized the problem was much more grave than I thought.
I'm going to put together a presentation, and I know I'll be facing an audience that is, generally, skeptical. If you have information that might be helpful, I'd love to have it. I'm thinking of things like Wikipedia saying that there is no longer any scientific body that disputes global warming (although I find their citation of this statement insufficient) or like a report I saw that said something along the lines of "The 2007 IPCC report's claims were so extreme they were considered ignorable; however, all data thus far on the effects of global warming has exceeded the report's projections." Basically - evidence that might not be the most persuasive, but at the very least is nearly indisputable.
I put this post together in many pieces so it might be incoherent but should still be understandable. I know this is a chore but any help you can give is appreciated, and keep in mind that I'll have an audience of about 50, at most 10 of whom go about their lives any differently than they would were global warming not an issue, so in terms of impact, your efforts might be getting more bang for their buck than almost anything else you do.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - the impetus for this post coming right now was this article, which claims that even under best case scenarios, we're down to a coin flip at saving the planet.
I'm going to put together a presentation, and I know I'll be facing an audience that is, generally, skeptical. If you have information that might be helpful, I'd love to have it. I'm thinking of things like Wikipedia saying that there is no longer any scientific body that disputes global warming (although I find their citation of this statement insufficient) or like a report I saw that said something along the lines of "The 2007 IPCC report's claims were so extreme they were considered ignorable; however, all data thus far on the effects of global warming has exceeded the report's projections." Basically - evidence that might not be the most persuasive, but at the very least is nearly indisputable.
I put this post together in many pieces so it might be incoherent but should still be understandable. I know this is a chore but any help you can give is appreciated, and keep in mind that I'll have an audience of about 50, at most 10 of whom go about their lives any differently than they would were global warming not an issue, so in terms of impact, your efforts might be getting more bang for their buck than almost anything else you do.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - the impetus for this post coming right now was this article, which claims that even under best case scenarios, we're down to a coin flip at saving the planet.
February 12, 2009
Articles!
A quick article dump to start the day’s blogging activities.
”Sarah Palin's $159,050 Conflict of Interest” - Todd Palin is currently racing a “snow machine” 1,971 miles across Alaska, during which his “Arctic Cat's powerful two-stroke engine will emit the same amount of hydrocarbons as an automobile driving from Chicago to San Francisco and back 150 times.” Fantastic. And it only gets trashier and more polluting. First, the pollution: “[During the race] Todd Palin will release as many cancer-causing and smog-forming pollutants as a Chevy Malibu driven around the Earth at its equator 28 times.” Now, the conflict of interest: the race is sponsored by “[…] the petroleum giants Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips; State Farm, Wells Fargo, Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines and the Alaska First National Bank.” You may be saying, “But you are not being fair. Maybe the Palins do not get a shady benefit from this.” Well, Todd is an annual competitor (seemingly surprising for a race with a field of 40 people willing to do this kind of evil to the environment) who has only one four times. “Once after Sarah was elected to the Wasilla City Council, once after she was elected mayor, the year she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, and the year she was elected governor.” Okay, okay, maybe I jumped the gun. Sorry for trying to shame such an upstanding family.
“Video Games Are Good For Children – EU Report” - Nothing too surprising here, but it is nice to have confirmation of something I believe: An EU panel determined that "’video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society.’" Yay! An excuse to play more video games!
Unemployment as stimulus -
“A Novel Approach: Using Unemployment Benefits as a Means for Stimulus” – An interesting plan to maximize the benefits created by unemployment payments: instead of paying out cash to an unemployed person for a set amount of time provide that person with a voucher that subsidizes them as an employee. For example, assume Mr. Doe is unemployed and receives $200 each week in unemployment payments ant that were anyone to hire Mr. Doe it would cost that firm $500 each week, a (made-up) prohibitive amount. The likely outcome here is that he remains unemployed. But if Mr. Doe can suddenly walk into an interview and say, “Instead of costing you $500 each week I will only cost you $300 each week and the money that would have been my unemployment check is now paying the other $200 of the salary.” Obviously this has limitations (e.g. what happens when Mr. Doe’s salary is no longer subsidized?), but in the short term this plan creates a greater overall income, implying a greater overall level of consumption, for the same government investment. At the same time it increases the overall production level of the economy.
“Big Satellites Collide 500 Miles Over Siberia” – This story seems pretty ridiculous at first, though it does highlight the very real concern of the volume of junk orbiting Earth. Apparently a non-functional Russian satellite launched in 1993 and described as “[…] out of control” crashed into a commercial satellite launched in 1997, creating thousands of particles that will now orbit Earth waiting to smash into other man-made satellites. I can’t help but think of this as a case of modern space zombies in which each zombie (read: smashed satellite) spends the rest of its time trying to create more zombies (read: smash other satellites). For perspective on the dangers we are facing from orbiting junk only fifty-two years into man’s era of sending crap into space: “[…] orbital debris is now the biggest threat to a space shuttle in flight, surpassing the dangers of liftoff and return to Earth.” I will now officially swear off space flight until we have orbiting Roombas keeping me safe.
“Letting Scientists Off the Leash” - This is an interesting article written by a researcher at Stanford University who discusses the flaws in the way money for research is distributed. His main point is that the typically conservative review boards that approve funding for grant proposals do not fund very imaginative or risky research. This leads to a situation where most of the ideas we are pursuing are those that we are already sure we can turn into a profit, not those that could have a substantially larger impact but at the same time carry larger risks (in that they are more likely than the boring projects to have an outcome different from that discussed when the grant was proposed). I don’t know too much about this, but I do support the idea of devising a more efficient means of identifying and funding riskier and more creative research.
”Sarah Palin's $159,050 Conflict of Interest” - Todd Palin is currently racing a “snow machine” 1,971 miles across Alaska, during which his “Arctic Cat's powerful two-stroke engine will emit the same amount of hydrocarbons as an automobile driving from Chicago to San Francisco and back 150 times.” Fantastic. And it only gets trashier and more polluting. First, the pollution: “[During the race] Todd Palin will release as many cancer-causing and smog-forming pollutants as a Chevy Malibu driven around the Earth at its equator 28 times.” Now, the conflict of interest: the race is sponsored by “[…] the petroleum giants Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips; State Farm, Wells Fargo, Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines and the Alaska First National Bank.” You may be saying, “But you are not being fair. Maybe the Palins do not get a shady benefit from this.” Well, Todd is an annual competitor (seemingly surprising for a race with a field of 40 people willing to do this kind of evil to the environment) who has only one four times. “Once after Sarah was elected to the Wasilla City Council, once after she was elected mayor, the year she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, and the year she was elected governor.” Okay, okay, maybe I jumped the gun. Sorry for trying to shame such an upstanding family.
“Video Games Are Good For Children – EU Report” - Nothing too surprising here, but it is nice to have confirmation of something I believe: An EU panel determined that "’video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society.’" Yay! An excuse to play more video games!
Unemployment as stimulus -
“A Novel Approach: Using Unemployment Benefits as a Means for Stimulus” – An interesting plan to maximize the benefits created by unemployment payments: instead of paying out cash to an unemployed person for a set amount of time provide that person with a voucher that subsidizes them as an employee. For example, assume Mr. Doe is unemployed and receives $200 each week in unemployment payments ant that were anyone to hire Mr. Doe it would cost that firm $500 each week, a (made-up) prohibitive amount. The likely outcome here is that he remains unemployed. But if Mr. Doe can suddenly walk into an interview and say, “Instead of costing you $500 each week I will only cost you $300 each week and the money that would have been my unemployment check is now paying the other $200 of the salary.” Obviously this has limitations (e.g. what happens when Mr. Doe’s salary is no longer subsidized?), but in the short term this plan creates a greater overall income, implying a greater overall level of consumption, for the same government investment. At the same time it increases the overall production level of the economy.
“Big Satellites Collide 500 Miles Over Siberia” – This story seems pretty ridiculous at first, though it does highlight the very real concern of the volume of junk orbiting Earth. Apparently a non-functional Russian satellite launched in 1993 and described as “[…] out of control” crashed into a commercial satellite launched in 1997, creating thousands of particles that will now orbit Earth waiting to smash into other man-made satellites. I can’t help but think of this as a case of modern space zombies in which each zombie (read: smashed satellite) spends the rest of its time trying to create more zombies (read: smash other satellites). For perspective on the dangers we are facing from orbiting junk only fifty-two years into man’s era of sending crap into space: “[…] orbital debris is now the biggest threat to a space shuttle in flight, surpassing the dangers of liftoff and return to Earth.” I will now officially swear off space flight until we have orbiting Roombas keeping me safe.
“Letting Scientists Off the Leash” - This is an interesting article written by a researcher at Stanford University who discusses the flaws in the way money for research is distributed. His main point is that the typically conservative review boards that approve funding for grant proposals do not fund very imaginative or risky research. This leads to a situation where most of the ideas we are pursuing are those that we are already sure we can turn into a profit, not those that could have a substantially larger impact but at the same time carry larger risks (in that they are more likely than the boring projects to have an outcome different from that discussed when the grant was proposed). I don’t know too much about this, but I do support the idea of devising a more efficient means of identifying and funding riskier and more creative research.
January 21, 2009
It's not that easy being green...
Environmental Working Group just released a report on the efficiency and green-ness of CFL light bulbs. As it turns out many CFLs are not as great as the companies producing them may argue. Skipping the boring stuff, here is EWG's list of the seven best CFLs. There are also some tips for cleaning up broken CFLs, which contain mercury and are therefore poisonous.
December 10, 2008
Homework
OK I need your help. I've basically got the go-ahead to implement some sort of voluntary office competition, in which whoever reduces their utility bills the most wins a prize.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to out-do all of the logistical complications. First, you obviously have to go by percentage since we don't all live in the same-sized houses. But do you go month-by-month? If so, I could write off every other month by putting my heat on 85 degrees and easily winning the following month. And creating a baseline represents difficulties ... ideally we would compare all the bills for 12 months of 2009 to 12 months of 2008, but that's too administratively complex.
So I'm throwing my hands up. Ideas?
Unfortunately, I have not been able to out-do all of the logistical complications. First, you obviously have to go by percentage since we don't all live in the same-sized houses. But do you go month-by-month? If so, I could write off every other month by putting my heat on 85 degrees and easily winning the following month. And creating a baseline represents difficulties ... ideally we would compare all the bills for 12 months of 2009 to 12 months of 2008, but that's too administratively complex.
So I'm throwing my hands up. Ideas?
October 27, 2008
Darcy Burner for Congress, indeed
Darcy Burner (D) is trying to unseat two-term Congressman Dave Reichert in what is possibly the closest House race of the year. So there I am on TerraPass's website looking into getting my office to buy carbon offsets, and right there on their list of partners is "Darcy Burner for Congress," which has apparently offset 19 metric tons of carbon. Good job, Darcy!
October 13, 2008
New Pollan article
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but this week the NYT Magazine leads with an article by Michael Pollan about what the next president should do with regards to food in the USA.
October 10, 2008
Interesting side-effect of adaptation
New Scientist published a blurb that discusses the impact on climate of placing reflective greenhouses in arid parts of Spain. Obviously not the be-all, end-all of global warming, but a nice surprise.
September 23, 2008
Environmental News
You may or may not be aware that I am the environmental czar for my company's St. Louis office. Here is a copy of the email I sent out in that capacity today:
As you probably know, polar ice caps play a very significant role in models and simulations relating to the effects of global climate change. Ice on the earth’s surface helps the planet reflect solar heat instead of absorb it, the same way wearing a white t-shirt keeps you cool in the summer time. Additionally, this melting changes the salinity of our oceans. The effects of this have been linked to global weather patterns and are thought to contribute to extreme weather conditions, such as the intensity of hurricanes. And all of this is in addition to the fact that melting ice caps mean sea levels rise, resulting in potential catastrophes for coastal cities near sea level.
It is imperative, then, that we take note of any reasonable evidence available regarding changes in the polar ice caps.
The tribulations of polar bears are now well documented, with the
What we must take away from this, however, is that the desperation inherent in a major species’ shift toward cannibalism is indicative of much larger problems. The rate at which the ice caps are melting is now more serious than in many previous scenarios and should resonate as a call for action on the issue of climate change. In the coming weeks the Green Team here will be ratcheting up its efforts to help the office go green and increase awareness of actions we can take to be better stewards of our environment. Please continue the things we’ve already started and keep on generating ideas so that we can combat this problem as swiftly and strongly as possible, so that we can prevent this crisis.
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