The environment thread

[Jenksismyhero]

Seriously, it's ridiculous at times. Mind if I ask what plant you were at?

 

Braidwood. Also was just at Waukegan's coal plant not too long ago. Same idea though with just crazy safety reminders everywhere.

[StrangeSox]

Wolf hunting to re-start in the Rockies

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog...cies-protection

A two-year effort to ban wolf hunts in the Rocky Mountain states has ended, with the federal government lifting its protection for the animals.

 

The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, said wolf populations in the Rocky Mountains had rebounded to sustainable levels.

 

Federal protection for wolves is also on the way out in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, he said.

 

"Like other iconic species such as the whooping crane, the brown pelican and the bald eagle, the recovery of the grey wolf is another success story of the Endangered Species Act," Salazar said. "From a biological perspective, they have now recovered."

 

Why this might be a bad idea

 

[NorthSideSox72]

Wolf hunting to re-start in the Rockies

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog...cies-protection

 

Why this might be a bad idea

First of all, that Guardian article is poorly written and gives a very false impression. Federal protection is not ending in "The Rockies", its ending in Montana and Idaho. Its still in place in WY, CO, and WA that all have current grey wolf populations, its still in place in AZ and NM where Mexican Wolves are present, and they remain endangered in states where they are likely to begin populating soon like IT and OR.

 

Second, it seems like the populations are healthy enough for hunting, and that the problem isn't that - its the LEVEL of hunting that is at issue. And there I agree that it seems like killing off 40% a year is a stupid number for any species. Likely that number will be challenged in court, and possibly (hopefully) reduced.

 

[Balta1701]

A record number of billion-dollar weather disasters for so early in the year

The U.S. has already had five weather disasters costing more than a billion dollars this year, which has set a record for the most number of such disasters so early in the year. We've already beat the total for billion-dollar weather disaster for all of 2010 (three), and with hurricane season still to come, this year has a chance of beating 2008's record of nine such disasters. The billion dollar weather disasters of 2011 so far:

 

1) 2011 Groundhog Day's blizzard ($1 - $4 billion)

2) April 3 -5 Southeast U.S. severe weather outbreak ($2 billion)

3) April 8 - 11 severe weather outbreak ($2.25 billion)

4) April 25 - 28 super tornado outbreak ($3.7 - $5.5 billion)

5) Mississippi River flood of 2011 ($2+ billion)

 

Losses from the on-going Texas drought and wildfires are already at $180 million, and this is likely to be a billion-dollar disaster by the time all the agricultural losses are tallied.

Link

[StrangeSox]

Second, it seems like the populations are healthy enough for hunting, and that the problem isn't that - its the LEVEL of hunting that is at issue. And there I agree that it seems like killing off 40% a year is a stupid number for any species. Likely that number will be challenged in court, and possibly (hopefully) reduced.

 

It's kinda f***ed up that the first move after spending a significant amount of time and money and effort to re-introduce wolves after we slaughtered them all to a stable population level is to start hunting them again at really high levels.

 

And yeah, the whole "unsustainable hunting levels based on seriously flawed assumptions" is the point of "why this is a bad idea." Just like over-fishing.

[Balta1701]

I'm sure the Republicans will respond to this by finally passing a program to work towards clean energy and cut emissions.

Reporting from Washington—

President Obama will open Alaska's national petroleum reserve to new drilling, as part of a broad plan aimed at blunting criticism that he is not doing enough to address rising energy prices.

 

The plan, unveiled in Obama's weekly radio address Saturday, also would fast-track environmental assessment of petroleum exploration in some portions of the Atlantic and extend the leases of oil companies whose work in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean was interrupted by the drilling moratorium after last year's BP oil spill.

Right?

[StrangeSox]

Remember when we argued that Obama was a weak president who gave in to Republican demands as the starting point of any negotiation and never pushed for any real progressive agenda?

[Balta1701]

Remember when we argued that Obama was a weak president who gave in to Republican demands as the starting point of any negotiation and never pushed for any real progressive agenda?

Remember when I responded by noting that your vote would help the rest of Alaska get torn up, and as such you have no right to complain?

[StrangeSox]

Remember when I responded by noting that your vote would help the rest of Alaska get torn up, and as such you have no right to complain?

 

Yeah, I remember that being a pretty terrible argument!

[Balta1701]

Yeah, I remember that being a pretty terrible argument!

And I remember a pretty terrible 8 years after enough people in Florida didn't listen to it.

[StrangeSox]

I just don't get how you can keep unquestionably supporting them when they just stab you in the back. This is a perfect example.

[Balta1701]

If anyone's up for an enormous read on flood control in Louisiana, here's a 25 year old New Yorker article that will be totally worth the time if you have it to spare.

[BigSqwert]

Mizzou Professor says nantenna solar sheet soaks up 90 percent of the sun's rays, puts sunscreen to shame

Photovoltaics suffer from gross inefficiency, despite incremental improvements in their power producing capabilities. According to research by a team led by a University of Missouri professor, however, newly developed nantenna-equipped solar sheets can reap more than 90 percent of the sun's bounty -- which is more than double the efficiency of existing solar technologies. Apparently, some "special high-speed electrical circuitry" is the secret sauce behind the solar breakthrough. Of course, the flexible film is currently a flight of fancy and won't be generating juice for the public anytime soon. The professor and his pals still need capital for commercialization, but they believe a product will be ready within five years. Take your time, guys, it's not like global warming's getting worse.

[BigSqwert]

Wasn't sure where else this belonged:

Cell phones signals really are killing the bees, study shows

[StrangeSox]

The article doesn't say what the range actually is. Most bees are working in managed orchards/groves/farms/etc., so there won't be thousands of cellphones around.

 

edit: still, pretty interesting, I'll see if I can dig up the paper later.

edit2: ADD to the rescue! Paper here.

 

A cellphone left in a hive for 10 days caused total colony collapse. I've been loosely following the collapsing bee population story and there's a lot of interesting work being done.

Edited May 17, 2011 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

My brother works at a nuclear power plant in SW Michigan and is involved in some of the security design and some of the stories you hear about what you have to go through just to get into the plant is pretty ridiculous, along with some of the work he is doing for defense against certain terrorist attack scenarios.

 

His company even pulled his supervisor from the electrical design team he is on to form an advisory committee that's sole focus is to answer questions that stem from the Japan Nuclear events.

 

Nuclear power plants are some of the most regulated buildings in the world, and the sad part is that some of the new technology that would increase efficiency (and sometimes safety) can't even be implemented because of regulations in the new nuclear plants being built (primarily in the south I believe).

 

 

Cook or Palisades? He probably knows the company I work for if he's involved in security design.

[bigruss]

Cook or Palisades? He probably knows the company I work for if he's involved in security design.

Cook. Im not too sure how involved he is in security design, he's an electrical engineer and was involved in a project dealing with antiterrorism.

 

Although, my family's cottage is right next to Palisades, you can literally walk onto the beach that is owned by Palisades (and get stopped by security in a jiffy).

Edited May 18, 2011 by bigruss22

[Balta1701]

Not that it would have gotten through the House, but may as well point it out. The Senate yesterday voted to add $2 billion a year to the deficit by filibustering a Democratic-led proposal to remove those subsidies from oil companies.

[Balta1701]

Emergency vents that American officials have said would prevent devastating hydrogen explosions at nuclear plants in the United States were put to the test in Japan — and failed to work, according to experts and officials with the company that operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.

 

The failure of the vents calls into question the safety of similar nuclear power plants in the United States and Japan. After the venting failed at the Fukushima plant, the hydrogen gas fueled explosions that spewed radioactive materials into the atmosphere, reaching levels about 10 percent of estimated emissions at Chernobyl, according to Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency.

 

Venting was critical to relieving pressure that was building up inside several reactors after the March 11 tsunami knocked out the plant’s crucial cooling systems. Without flowing water to cool the reactors’ cores, they had begun to dangerously overheat.

 

American officials had said early on that reactors in the United States would be safe from such disasters because they were equipped with new, stronger venting systems. But Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, now says that Fukushima Daiichi had installed the same vents years ago.

Link

[StrangeSox]

If the emergency power systems had worked, this all would be a non-issue. US regulations on back-up power are much more stringent and generally decades ahead of where the Japanese were.

[BigSqwert]

This isn't alarming.

[BigSqwert]

Fascinating article on Chicago and climate change.

[Y2HH]

Fascinating article on Chicago and climate change.

 

Good, I hope it gets warm and stays warm.

[NorthSideSox72]

Good, I hope it gets warm and stays warm.

anticipatory strike here... please no one feed the troll. He's looking for a reaction.

 

[BigSqwert]

This will be the Logan Square Farmer's Market in 2075: