Chevron Energy Solutions and the City of Brea today unveiled Orange County’s largest municipal solar installation. The effort is part of a comprehensive energy efficiency and solar project expected to generate an estimated $13 million in net savings over the 25-year project, plus significant environmental benefits. The savings have been immediate and the City has already seen results exceeding expectations. One early example is a 65% reduction in electricity costs at the Brea Community Center for the month of June. At the Civic & Cultural Center the reduction was 35%. By using the sun to generate its own power, the city has projected to reduce its electrical utility costs by an average 40 percent and its carbon emissions by 86,000 metric tons; comparable to removing 16,000 cars from the road. During construction, the project also provided more than 25 local jobs and 125 indirect jobs with an estimated $3 million boost to the local economy.

The risk of contracting cancer is generally thought to be caused by a combination of lifestyle and inheritance. If you decide to smoke too much, drink too much, or eat too much, the risk of cancer goes up. Plus, if your ancestors had a heightened risk of cancer, chances are you contain similar genetics. Now, new research from the University of Oxford has put forward a new theory: taller women are at increased risk of a wide range of cancer. Data has been compiled from over one million individuals which supports this theory. However, the reason why height equates to greater cancer risk remains a mystery.

If you want to avoid becoming a lion’s dinner, keep an eye on the moon. A new study reveals that the big cats are most likely to attack people during the 10 days following the full moon. That’s when it’s darkest during the hours that humans are out and about at night—and when lions are at their hungriest.

Organic produce and pasture based meat and dairy have less of an environmental impact than their conventionally produced counterparts, a recently released report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found. Titled A Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, the report includes lifecycle assessments of 20 popular types of meat, dairy and vegetable proteins. The cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of each food item based on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated before and after the food leaves the farm is included in the assessments.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth,” a review paper that will be published on July 15, 2011, in the journal Science, concludes that the decline of large predators and herbivores in all regions of the world is causing substantial changes to Earth’s terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. The paper claims that the loss of apex consumers from ecosystems “may be humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature.”

The recommendation to drink six to eight glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration “is not only nonsense, but is thoroughly debunked nonsense,” argues GP, Margaret McCartney in this week’s BMJ (British Medical Journal). There is currently no clear evidence of benefit from drinking increased amounts of water, she says, yet the “we-don’t-drink-enough-water” myth has endless advocates, including the NHS.

The Obama administration is evaluating a plan to allow a 200-mile corridor for wind energy development from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico that would allow for killing endangered whooping cranes. The government’s environmental review will consider a permit sought by 19 energy developers that would permit turbines and transmission lines on non-federal lands in nine states from Montana to the Texas coast, overlapping with the migratory route of the cranes. The permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would allow the projects to “take” an unspecified number of endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act, “take” is defined as killing or injuring an endangered species

Phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA) are chemicals that are commonly found in plastics and household products such as solvents and cleaners. Being common in places that people live and eat, they will eventually make their way into the body. A new large study out of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has linked the abundance of these chemicals in the human body with thyroid function. Disrupting the thyroid’s proper functioning can affect many important body systems such as reproduction, metabolism, and energy levels.

Proposed changes to Brazil’s Forest Code will hurt Brazilian agriculture, argues a leading conservationist. Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza, WWF-Brazil’s director for conservation, says the reform bill currently being evaluated by Brazil’s Senate could have unexpected economic implications for Brazilian ranchers and farmers. Scaramuzza says a bill that grant amnesty for illegal deforesters and sanctions expanded destruction of the Amazon rainforest would make Brazilian agricultural products less attractive in foreign markets.

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes soil to release the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, new research published in this week’s edition of Nature reveals. “This feedback to our changing atmosphere means that nature is not as efficient in slowing global warming as we previously thought,” said Dr Kees Jan van Groenigen, Research Fellow at the Botany department at the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, and lead author of the study.