Month: January 2011

  • While some Himalayan glaciers retreat, others are growing

    Some Himalayan glaciers are advancing despite an overall retreat, according to a study on Sunday that is a step toward understanding how climate change affects vital river flows from China to India. A blanket of dust and rock debris was apparently shielding some glaciers in the world’s highest mountain range from a thaw, a factor…

  • Berlin protests over dioxin scandal

    Thousands of German protesters marched in Berlin on Saturday to demand a change in farming methods and vent their anger at a food scandal in which cancer-causing dioxin was found in some eggs, poultry and pork. The scandal, caused by contaminated animal feed, has outraged consumers, triggered international health alerts and hit sales of German…

  • Stratospheric Warming linked to our weather

    Meteorologists at Freie Universität have found a correlation between warming in the stratosphere and cold or warm winter periods. They observed that there is an increased number of stratospheric warmings, when the heat flow from the North Atlantic into the atmosphere is increased. Trends for winter temperatures can be derived from these new findings. “This…

  • New from From BBC Earth: Challenges at birth

    Cute, cuddly but immediately plunged into a life and death situation, it’s not easy for the grizzly bear cubs that are born at this time of year. So not so grisly to start with, the cubs have to become hardened to the harsh winter, lack of food and other aggressive bears of Alaska and British…

  • The Detroit Auto Show: Sure Looks Green to Me

    I’ll bet many of you have heard rumblings from friends and relatives or colleagues at work about the premature death of the green movement, and how the economic recovery must first occur before we even address climate change. I just returned from the Detroit Auto Show, and there was one overwhelming, over-arching headline that was…

  • New hope for rare lemurs in Madagascar

    A survey of a remote forest area in Madagascar turned up seven new groups of silky sifaka, a critically endangered lemur threatened by habitat destruction. The finding raises hope that the species—which is listed as one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates—is surviving in Marojejy National Park despite an outbreak of illegal rosewood logging…

  • A Bright Idea: Introducing ESL Light Bulbs from Vu1

    When changing out incandescent light bulbs for energy efficiency, there are usually two options, CFL and LED. However, the start up company Vu1 is adding another light bulb option (not to mention acronym) to the mix, the Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) bulb.

  • Better Wind Mills

    A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or pumping water, the device…

  • Thatcher Chemical fined for violations of Clean Air Act Risk Management regulations

    The federal Clean Air Act requires facilities that have on site more than specified quantities of chemicals which could be hazardous to offsite communities to develop Risk Management Plans (RMP) to address ways to safely acquire, store, and use these substances in ways that assure that they are safely used, that employees are appropriately trained,…

  • CO2 Ocean Sequestration

    Carbon sequestration is “The process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir.” When carried out deliberately, this may also be referred to as carbon dioxide removal, which is a form of geoengineering. The term carbon sequestration may also be used to refer to the process of carbon capture and storage,…