Jul 19 2010

Floating Glaciers

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Glaciers are massive sheets of ice, sliding slowly down a mountain and carving enormous grooves in the land. They flow down to the lowest point where gravity can take them, often into the ocean. The normal school of thought for these "tidewater glaciers" said that due to their weight and compaction to the earth's surface, they were grounded on the sea floor, only to arise once disintegrated. However, there is one glacier that extends into the water, floating intact on the ocean waves.
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Jul 19 2010

Food industry’s green efforts may hit price wall

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The European food and drinks industry is finalising plans to measure its environmental performance but increasingly price-aware consumers might derail their efforts, the European Commission cautioned. A European round table bringing together the food industry, farmers and consumer groups has drawn up a series of 10 guiding principles to assess the environmental impact of food and drink products during their entire life cycle.
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Jul 19 2010

Engineers detect seepage near BP oil well

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Engineers monitoring BP Plc's damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico detected seepage on the ocean floor that could mean problems with the cap that has stopped oil from gushing into the water, the government's top oil spill official said on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, BP officials had expressed hope that the test of the cap which began Thursday could continue until a relief well can permanently seal the leak next month. Oil gushed from the deep-sea Macondo well for nearly three months until the new cap was put in place last week. But late on Sunday, the U.S. government released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley from retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that referred to an unspecified type of seepage near the mile-deep (1.6 km-deep) well along with "undetermined anomalies at the well head." "I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen wrote.
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Jul 18 2010

BP well tests look good so far

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BP Plc extended for another 24 hours a critical test of its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well that so far has shut off the huge oil leak, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Saturday. The British energy giant, which cut off the flow of oil from the deep-sea well on Thursday when it began the test to gauge its structural integrity, expressed growing confidence that the well was intact. Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production, said there was no evidence of any leaks. "We're feeling more comfortable that we have integrity" in the well, Wells added, in what would be an important step toward permanently plugging it.
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Jul 17 2010

President Obama Focuses on Advanced Battery and Electric Vehicle Manufacturing

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As part of the Economic Recovery Act, Obama administration officials fanned out across the nation this week in a series of ribbon-cutting and ground-breaking ceremonies to highlight their commitment to renewable energy, especially projects that are creating jobs in advanced battery manufacture. Senior Administration officials will travel to eight Recovery Act advanced battery and vehicle project sites nationwide where work has begun constructing new manufacturing plants, adding new manufacturing lines, building electric vehicles, and installing electric vehicle charging stations. This series of events was emphasized by President Obama on Thursday, July 15th, at Compact Power, Inc. where he officially "broke ground" on a new advanced battery manufacturing factory in Holland, Michigan. After brief introductions by Peter Ban-Suk Kim, Chief Executive Officer of LG Chem Ltd., Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and Holland Mayor Kurt Dykstra, the president spoke for about fifteen minutes reiterating his progress in advance battery manufacturing and job creation.
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Jul 17 2010

Russia swelters in heatwave, many crops destroyed

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Soaring temperatures across large swathes of Russia have destroyed nearly 10 million hectares of crops and prompted a state of emergency to be declared in 17 regions. On Friday the state-run Moscow region weather bureau said it expected the heatwave, which has gripped the country since late June and is estimated to have already cost the agricultural sector about $1 billion, to continue into next week. Saturday could see temperatures in Moscow hit 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), which would break the previous record of 36.6C. set in 1936. "It looks like tomorrow could just break the record," the weather bureau's Moscow head Yelena Timakina said.
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Jul 16 2010

Beneath the Surface: A Survey of Environmental Risks from Shale Gas Development

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Washington, D.C.- Improved drilling techniques have unlocked vast new reserves of shale gas, a resource that could be large enough to displace significant amounts of coal, and an energy source that emits less than half the carbon dioxide. But growing shale gas development has raised both environmental questions and public controversy. A new independent assessment by the Worldwatch Institute concludes that improved adherence to drilling best practice and better regulatory oversight are essential to assure environmental and public protection as shale gas production continues to expand.
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Jul 16 2010

EPA Requires 800 million Gallons of Biodiesel in the U.S. Domestic Market in 2011

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WASHINGTON, DC – - Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would require the domestic use of 800 million gallons of biodiesel in 2011. This is consistent with the renewable goals established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which expanded the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) and specifically requires a renewable component in U.S. diesel fuel.
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Jul 16 2010

Brain Cells

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The brain has always been a bit mysterious. How does it all work so that a human being can live, breathe and talk. The brain is composed of two broad classes of cells: neurons and glia. These two types are equally numerous in the brain as a whole, although glial cells outnumber neurons roughly 4 to 1 in the cerebral cortex. Glia come in several types, which perform a number of critical functions, including structural support, metabolic support, insulation, and guidance of development. Astrocytes (brain cells named after their characteristic star-shape) that were previously thought to act only as the glue between neurons have a central role in the regulation of breathing.
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Jul 16 2010

BP stops flow of oil into Gulf of Mexico

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Oil is no longer spewing into the Gulf of Mexico -- at least temporarily -- as BP Plc said it choked off the flow from its undersea well that ruptured in April and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. BP said it stopped the leak on Thursday with the tight-sealing containment cap installed three days earlier atop its blown-out well, and awaited on Friday the results of tests on whether the well remains intact. That's a key issue as the British energy giant moves to plug the leak permanently with a relief well intended to intersect the ruptured well -- which extends 2.5 miles under the seabed -- and seal it with mud and cement next month.
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