Jan 22 2011

Stratospheric Warming linked to our weather

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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 could mean that in Europe there will increasingly be periods lasting several decades with predominantly colder winters alternating with periods of warmer winters," says Semjon Schimanke, who led the research, reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The meteorologists expect that in the long term their research will help weather forecasters make more accurate predictions.
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Jan 21 2011

New from From BBC Earth: Challenges at birth

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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 Columbia fast. Thousands of bear families emerge from hibernation under the snow in January and February every year. They have had nothing to eat during this time and will initially survive on their mother’s milk. It is this fat-rich milk and the mother’s warm body to snuggle against that helps the cubs grow from their tiny initial weight of one pound. They are also blind for three weeks after being born. There are normally two cubs to every litter, and whether they live or die depends largely on the annual salmon run, which we’ve written about here.
Categories: News
Jan 21 2011

The Detroit Auto Show: Sure Looks Green to Me

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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 in your face, anywhere you looked: the green movement in personal transportation is just beginning.
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Jan 21 2011

New hope for rare lemurs in Madagascar

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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 in 2009 and 2010.
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Jan 21 2011

A Bright Idea: Introducing ESL Light Bulbs from Vu1

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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.
Categories: News
Jan 21 2011

Better Wind Mills

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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 is called a windmill or wind pump. Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air into power. To help steer wind farm owners in the right direction, Charles Meneveau, a Johns Hopkins fluid mechanics and turbulence expert, working with a colleague in Belgium, has devised a new formula through which the optimal spacing for a large array of turbines can be obtained.
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Jan 21 2011

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

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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, and that first responders and nearby residents are informed of the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals which, if released to the environment, could require evacuation or sheltering in place for offsite residents. As part of its compliance enforcement activities, the EPA has an audit program to visit facilities to assess their level of compliance with the RMP program. EPA reported this week that it conducted compliance inspections of Thatcher Chemical's Salt Lake City facility in February and April of 2010 to assess compliance with the RMP regulations.
Categories: News
Jan 20 2011

CO2 Ocean Sequestration

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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, where CO2 is removed from flue gases, such as on power stations, before being stored in underground reservoirs. The term may also refer to natural biogeochemical cycling of carbon between the atmosphere and reservoirs, such as by chemical weathering of rocks. Using seawater and calcium to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) in a natural gas power plant's flue stream, and then pumping the resulting calcium bicarbonate in the sea, could be beneficial to the oceans' marine life or states a new research report.
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Jan 20 2011

NOAA Rescues Entangled Whale in the Open Sea

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Earlier this month, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) managed to save a North Atlantic Right Whale which entangled itself in ropes around its mouth and flippers. They sedated the mighty creature in order to get close enough to cut the ropes. This marks only the second time in which an entangled whale has been sedated in open sea.
Categories: News
Jan 20 2011

Algeria plans rapid green energy ramp-up

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[ALGIERS] Algeria is aiming to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, energy minister Youcef Yousfi has announced. About 60 renewable energy projects will be launched to give a capacity of 3,000 megawatts, hetold a press conference held to announce the strategy (2 January).
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