Archive for September, 2007 Page 10 of 11



How EcoFriendly Was The Burning Man Festival?

burningman1.jpgThe green-themed party is almost over in Black Rock desert, Nevada. Festival-goers at the annual Burning Man event are packing up their tents and festivity gear ? think flame throwers and art projects ? today for the last day of this year?s festival. The man might have gone ablaze early this year, but burners had all week to focus on various examples of cleantech and renewable energy technology.

World Changing points out that 87% of the festival generators were supposed to be run on B100 biodiesel (11,000 gallons), while over 50 theme camps are using biodiesel after festival organizers negotiated with local vendors.

How EcoFriendly Was The Burning Man Festival?

An Inconvenient Truth was made "carbon neutral" for $496.80

Co-producer Lesley Chilcott used an online calculator to estimate that shooting the film used 41.4 tons of carbon dioxide and paid a middleman, a company called Native Energy, $12 a ton, or $496.80, to broker a deal to cut greenhouse gases elsewhere. The film’s distributors later made a similar payment to neutralize carbon dioxide from marketing.

An Inconvenient Truth was made “carbon neutral” for $496.80

Solar Bottle solar-powered water purification bottle kills germs dead

 

Water purification is generally an energy-intensive, wasteful operation, but designers Alberto Medo and Francisco Gomez Paz have done a neat end-run around those problems with their Solar Bottle, a portable water bottle that purifies water using the sun. The bottle, which holds just over a gallon of water, uses a purification process called SODIS that takes six hours to kill off a whole host of baddies, including Oregon Trail favorites cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Just a concept for now, but the design has been well-received and won several awards, so hopefully someone will step up and take it into production soon.

Solar Bottle solar-powered water purification bottle kills germs dead

Number of hunters falls, worrying some

I’m a vegetarian, but I’m also a Cornell graduate and I’ve learned that hunting, when done according to the law, definitely helps keep certain animal populations in check (usually due to human interference – construction, deforestation, etc). Trimming over population keeps certain animals (deer, bears, etc.) from starvation and coming into “human” populated areas.

Chart shows number of hunters age 16 and older from 1996 to 2006; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76.2 mmAP – Hunters remain a powerful force in American society, as evidenced by the presidential candidates who routinely pay them homage, but their ranks are shrinking dramatically and wildlife agencies worry increasingly about the loss of sorely needed license-fee revenue.

Number of hunters falls, worrying some (AP)

Hudson River Environmental Monitoring Goes High-Tech

hudson river environmental monitoring system 

Hudson River Environmental Monitoring Goes High-Tech

Pope leads eco-friendly festival

Young people play volley ball as they wait for the arrival of Pope Benedict near Loreto, Italy

The Catholic Church has declared Sunday “Save Creation Day” as Pope Benedict joined about 300,000 young Roman Catholics for an eco-friendly festival.

Nearly everything at the festival is biodegradable or recyclable.

 

We need a decisive ‘yes’ to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible  — Pope Benedict XVI

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Pope leads eco-friendly festival

Agreement reached on greenhouse gas curb (AP)

The dried-up river bed of the Po in Boretto, Italy, in July 2007. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said that Asia-Pacific countries will not agree on binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at a major summit this week.(AFP/File/Giuseppe Cacace)AP – Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world’s biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Agreement reached on greenhouse gas curb (AP)

EPA Bans Most Toxic Chemical Ever Released into World’s Oceans – Forty Years Later

boat hull You’d think that a substance the EPA itself deems one of the most toxic ever released into the world’s waters would’ve been outlawed a long time ago, right? Well, you’d be wrong: only now, several decades after its harmful effects had already been well established, is tributyltin (TBT) expected to be banned. EPA Bans Most Toxic Chemical Ever Released into World’s Oceans – Forty Years Later