Monday, May 09, 2005
Pollution...
Dung Power...
The zoo in Syracuse, NY wants to use it's animal waste to produce energy. Fine, but why on earth is this news? I worked on a project to do this in the 1970's! It is not quite as straightforward as it seems. Burning dung without processing is exceptionally dirty. Usually it is digested to produce methane and the methane is burned, but then you end up with concentrated dung you have to dispose, in only slightly less volume than what you began with. The only place this has proven even remotely cost effective is on a farm where the concentrated dung can be used s fertilizer, but the system has to be carefully balanced in terms of acreage under the plow and head of livestock or you end up with too much something, and your cost efficiency goes to pot. I wish the zoo luck.
Just Silly
While we are talking global warming, check out this article.
I want.. No, I want...
So much of what passes for "environmentalism" these days is really territorialism. People wnated to protect what they like. This story is a classic example.
The zoo in Syracuse, NY wants to use it's animal waste to produce energy. Fine, but why on earth is this news? I worked on a project to do this in the 1970's! It is not quite as straightforward as it seems. Burning dung without processing is exceptionally dirty. Usually it is digested to produce methane and the methane is burned, but then you end up with concentrated dung you have to dispose, in only slightly less volume than what you began with. The only place this has proven even remotely cost effective is on a farm where the concentrated dung can be used s fertilizer, but the system has to be carefully balanced in terms of acreage under the plow and head of livestock or you end up with too much something, and your cost efficiency goes to pot. I wish the zoo luck.
Just Silly
Japan's normally strait-laced politicians are getting ready for a tieless look this summer to combat global warming but the idea has left fashion mavens cold.In the first place lower electrical consumption may or may not result in lower greenhouse gas emissions, depends on how the power is generated locally. Compared to how much total greenhouse gas emissions there are, the saving that will be recognized here are insignificant -- this is just silly.
Government workers and politicians are being encouraged to dress down between June 1 and Sept. 30 so that air conditioner thermostats can be set higher to save energy.
While we are talking global warming, check out this article.
Our planet's air has cleared up in the past decade or two, allowing more sunshine to reach the ground, say two studies in Science this week.Don't you just love it?
Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent.
That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming.
I want.. No, I want...
So much of what passes for "environmentalism" these days is really territorialism. People wnated to protect what they like. This story is a classic example.
A plan to provide an alternative form of energy in Wisconsin is pitting two sets of environmentalists against each other. Some favor cleaner air, others want to protect nearby wildlife.While we are dealing with competing goods, check this one out.
Each pig's death brings conservationists one step closer to their goal of saving the tiny Santa Cruz fox (search), an endangered species found only on this 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara. Experts believe it's the best way to mend the island's delicate ecological web, which was torn when domesticated pigs escaped from now-abandoned ranches as early as the 1850s.That is so speciesist. When does an animal "artificially" introduced in to an "eco-system" (go ahead, I dare you to define the boundaries of one of those things it's worse than defining a species.) become a part of that eco-system. When it happened outside of living memory? Outside of written history? When you like the artifically introduced animal? When it's cuter?
