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The Modern Mom is Counting Her Chickens

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March 18, 2010 – 10:07 am

woman and chicken Four Bay Area women — none of whom actually know one another — are building chicken coops in their backyards. They all raise organic produce. Berkeley, California is the capital of locavorism, the church of Alice Waters. Kitchen gardens are as ubiquitous in Berkeley as indoor plumbing. But chickens? Well this means business.

All of these chicks with chicks are stay-at-home moms, highly educated women who left the work force to dedicate their time to kith and kin. The omnivore’s dilemma has provided an unpredicted out from the feminist predicament, a way for women to embrace homemaking without becoming “Betty Draper”. A smart gift for the family is a true gift for her…good for her.

On the unnamed and unhappy rigmarole of so many working moms, the “problem that had no name” was as much spiritual as it was economic: a dissatisfaction which overtook middle-class housewives trapped in a pickle of schlepping and shopping and shopping and schlepping.

That’s where the chicken coop comes in.

Femivorism is grounded in the same principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment which drove women into the work place in the first place. Given how conscious everyone has become about the source of their food, it also confers instant legitimacy. Femivores expand the limits of their forte: feeding their families clean and flavorful food, reducing their carbon footprints and producing sustainably instead of consuming pigishly.

There is also an economic argument for choosing the literal nest egg over the figurative one. Femivores claim that knowing how to feed and clothe yourself regardless of circumstance, to turn less into more is an equal safety net. At the end of the day, who is really better equipped to weather this economy, the high-earning woman who loses her job or the prudent homemaker who can count her chickens?

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Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is Right

March 16, 2010 – 9:23 am

A new finding shows that the theory of gravity proposed nearly a century ago by Albert Einstein is able to explain the dance of galaxies around one another just as well as it may model the motion of planets around the sun. The finding suggests that dark matter and the mysterious force known as dark energy are not just figments of the imaginations of physicists.

For centuries Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation explained gravity on Earth. But astronomers eventually saw discrepancies in the way larger objects such as planets interacted.

Published in 1916, Einstein’s general theory of relativity proposed that gravity works on large scales because matter warps the fabric of space and time, also known as space-time.

This notion is used to explain phenomena in our solar system, such as the slight alterations in Mercury’s orbit around the sun, which Newton’s gravity could not account for.

The existence of dark matter and dark energy is based on the assumption that Einstein’s gravity is affecting galaxies located billions of light-years from Earth in the same way that it affects objects in our solar system.

Based on general relativity, scientists think dark matter exists because some cosmic objects behave like they have more mass than we can actually see.

Although until now, tests of general relativity on galactic scales have been inconclusive.

In the new study, appearing this week in the journal Reinabelle Reyes and colleagues examined data gathered from more than 70,000 bright, elliptical galaxies.

The team found that the galaxies, located up to 3.5 billion light-years from Earth, are clustered together in just the way that general relativity predicts.
“From the galaxies’ positions, we can tell how clustered they are. That gives us information about how gravity acts, because that’s what gravity does—it pulls things together,” says Reyes, of Princeton University.

By combining measurements of the galaxies’ clustering with other properties, like the galaxies’ movements relative to one another and the way they bend each other’s light, Reyes’s team calculated
EG, a quantity which physicists use when looking at objects’ expected interactions.

General relativity predicts that EG should be around 0.4 – the value of EG measured in the study was 0.39.

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Tribute to a Green Pioneer

March 15, 2010 – 7:18 am

Since taking the job as UC San Diego’s first director of strategic energy initiatives in September 2008, Byron Washom has worked to turn the 1,200-acre campus into a model of sustainability, a “living laboratory” he calls it.

This includes renewable energy, greenhouse-gas reduction, energy management, energy storage systems and greening the campus transportation fleet. The university impressively generates 80% of its own electricity.

“The only thing we’re looking at, at the campus, are quantum improvements…It’s not just to install the next incremental step; it’s to put in the next breakthrough. What I’m doing with my colleagues is going to have a global impact…I’m so anxious to put the different pieces of the puzzle together…Learning patience is the only negative part of the job.”
Though born in Maryland, Washom was raised in Hawaii and on the isolated Midway Atoll. His father, a retired naval officer, went into the electric-supply business distributing utility products and his mother worked as an account executive for a newspaper agency.

Living in the middle of the Pacific on a bird and marine sanctuary roughly the size of UC San Diego was for him a firsthand education in sustainability. The 400 residents of the atoll relied on a monthly supply ship, diesel generators and a desalination plant. With only two passenger cars, most people rode on bikes. “Using renewable systems was a way of life…You lived within your means. It was a radically different world.”

Washom, now 60, graduated from Honolulu’s Punahou School in 1967, more than a decade before Barack Obama graduated from the same school. He left for USC just as Hawaii was opening its first freeway. He earned a bachelor’s degree in management and finance (with a minor in oceanography) in 1971, and then an MBA the next year. In 1976, he completed his postgraduate studies in ocean engineering at MIT.

After working on solar energy for Fairchild Stratos Corp., Washom founded Advanco Corp. in 1980. Four years later, Advanco set the world record for the most efficient rate of converting solar energy to electricity, using a technology that NASA later considered using to power the International Space Station.
In 1989, Washom founded the energy and environmental technology consultant firm Spencer Management Associates and served as president for 20 years.

He has also advised the World Bank, the Energy Department and the International Finance Corp.

An avid surfer since childhood, Washom credits this sport for his risk-taking business style:

“That’s when my greatest genius comes out, at the end of the branch of a tree…It’s a culture to me. The element of risk was also combined with the grace and athleticism of surfing a wave, so you were scared and performing at the same time.”

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Coca-Cola Co. Pleases Taste Buds and the Planet

March 15, 2010 – 7:07 am

New Coca-Cola Vending Machine Coca-Cola Co. seems to be saying “Love Mother Earth” with their new vending machine that chills soft drinks and the planet at the same time.

Most vending machines, you see, rely on a certain type of refrigerant known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), you may have learned about these little devils in high-school. They are a chemical with power to cool the air, but they can also be 1,430 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide.

For this, Coca-Cola’s new refrigerant of choice is CO2 indeed.

The publication of the Velders Report in 2009, predicted a dramatic rise in HFC use due to steady growth in the refrigeration industry. The report mentions natural alternatives, including CO2, ammonia, and hydrocarbons (propane and isobutene).

CO2 removes heat from the air; this makes it a natural refrigerant. As it evaporates, it also absorbs the heat, chilling the air inside the machine. CO2 must be used at a much higher pressure than other refrigerants, necessitating stronger pipes.

After Coca-Cola realized that the largest part of its carbon footprint, 40%, came from its refrigeration equipment, it started testing HFC-free technologies debuted its first climate-friendly machine in 2002.

PepsiCo also installed 35 new, HFC-free vending machines in Miami just before the Super Bowl. These use hydrocarbons — like propane and butane — refrigerants which are already popular in Europe. The Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company is launching its own version of this technology at stores in the Washington, D.C., and Boston areas. Also, General Electric is seeking approval to sell home-use refrigerators in the U.S. using a hydrocarbon refrigerant.

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Bellyful of Chinook: Sea Lions on Death Row

March 10, 2010 – 7:59 am

Wildlife officials have tried everything to keep sea lions from eating endangered salmon, dropping bombs that explode under water and firing rubber bullets and bean bags from shotguns and boats. Now it has come to issuing death sentences to chronic offenders.

A California sea lion last week became the first salmon predator to be euthanized this year under a program that has been denounced by those who say there are far greater dangers to salmon, like the series of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia.

The program has been administered for two years by wildlife officials in Oregon and Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Last year, 11 sea lions were euthanized. Another four were transferred to zoos or aquariums.

The sea lions represent a massive headache each year as chinook salmon begin arriving at the Bonneville Dam east of Portland, congregating in large numbers on their return from the ocean. Sea lions have become aware that the dam is a great spot to feast on salmon, easy pickings for them as they wait to go up the dam’s fish ladders.

Officials are tracking 63 additional sea lions listed as repeat offenders. They are identified by scars or by numbers which were branded on them by researchers.

Sea lions have eaten salmon forever. But the numbers have soared recently, as has the number of sea lions cruising upriver to dine on the salmon at Bonneville Dam. Frustrations are peaking as well, especially among fishermen who have watched sea lions snatch salmon right out of their gill nets.

The sea lions are protected by a 1972 federal law, however an amendment leaves open the possibility that some can be captured or killed if the states request it. Oregon and Washington did in 2006 with the support of Indian tribes and sport and commercial fishing groups.

Two years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized Oregon and Washington officials to first attempt to catch the sea lions that arrive at the base of Bonneville Dam and hold them for 48 hours to see whether an aquarium, zoo or similar facility will take them in.

Supporters say the program is successful. The numbers of sea lions at the dam have dropped, although the 4,489 salmon they ate last year was the highest since tracking began in 2002.

The Humane Society says that fishermen catch three times as many salmon as sea lions eat.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission this year has begun tracking the sea lions’ movements with acoustic transmitters and cameras placed along the river. Instead of just reacting to the sea lions, the data might help authorities plan a more successful campaign.

The aggravation comes as experts predict the largest spring chinook run since 1938. Thanks to good ocean conditions for young salmon, a projected 470,000 fish will head up the Columbia River, compared to 169,300 in 2009.

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Adding Salt to the Wound

March 9, 2010 – 8:41 am

Mountains of salt are spread on snowy roads in North America every winter, despite the fact that environmentalists have been warning against it for years. Well, studies are piling up, indicating indeed that the cost may be too high. Adding Salt to the Wound

Martin Mittelstaedt reports in the Globe and Mail about a new study of Frenchman’s Bay, a lagoon off Lake Ontario by University of Toronto Geologists. The conclusion drawn:

“Our findings are pretty dramatic, and the effects are felt year-round,” said Nick Eyles, a geology professor at the university and the lead researcher on the project.

“We now know that 3,600 tonnes of road salt end up in that small lagoon every winter from direct runoff in creeks and effectively poison it for the rest of the year.”

In the community of Pickering, to the east of Toronto, they apply 7,600 tons of salt. Half of that goes into the groundwater, and the other half goes right into Frenchman’s Bay.

The salt water “knocks out fish,” said Dr. Eyles, adding that in the most contaminated areas, only older fish can survive, while younger ones move to areas of the lagoon closer to Lake Ontario and its fresher water.

A University of Minnesota study recently studied 39 lakes and three major rivers, and they found that 70% of the road salt ended up in the watershed. According to Science Daily:

“Nobody has asked the question of where the salt ultimately goes after the winter season is over…Our study has been concerned with that question in particular.”

The effects of salt include decreases in biodiversity, reduction in fish numbers and types, and higher mortality rates among organisms that rely on marine life for food.

Well, don’t you know, the sad part of this story is that salt is completely unnecessary. It only works within a few degrees of the freezing point so where it is really really cold, people must learn to drive properly in the winter with properly equipped cars.

Road salt destroys roads, shortens the lives of cars, kills vegetation and now, we KNOW that it harms watersheds. Some alternatives are reducing speed limits in winter, making snow tires mandatory as they do in Quebec, and provide better public transit and other alternatives to driving, instead of destroying the environment to satisfy the need for speed.

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Ian McEwan Reflects Copenhagen Failure in His New Novel

March 8, 2010 – 7:37 am

Ian McEwan Reflects Copenhagen Failure in His New Novel The British novelist Ian McEwan, inspired by the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks, changed the finished manuscript of his new book about a scientist working on a technology to address global warming.

The end of the book is set in summer 2009, and McEwan introduced a new scene, in the last few pages, in which Michael Beard, the chief protagonist and a Nobel-prize winning physicist, receives an email that invites him to address a meeting of foreign ministers at the coming summit. McEwan said:

“I just slipped something in to reflect the spirit of sadness…Everything has collapsed around him [Beard] and he knows that Copenhagen will be just the place for him. It is where he would be heading to add his confusion to everybody else’s.”

Had the summit produced a successful deal, as McEwen was so rooting for, Beard and his failures would not have fitted in:

“I would not have wanted my man anywhere near it,” said the author. “I didn’t want him there, believe me.”

McEwan said that he had spent four years gathering material for the book, though he had wanted to write about climate change since the mid 1990s:

“I couldn’t see a way in. A subject so weighted with moral and political value is not helpful to a novel. I couldn’t see a way of making it come alive.”

That all changed during a visit of artists and scientists to the Arctic in 2005, when he said he was struck by the contrast between the idealistic evening discussions of global warming and the chaos of the equipment room.

“Clothes and equipment there to save our lives, which we should have been able to look after very easily would go missing, and I thought, for all the fine words and good intentions, maybe there was a comic inadequacy in human nature in dealing with this problem.”

McEwan said he was “baffled” by the media storm over the emails released from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the mistake made in the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

“I think those involved, in the UEA press office and the IPCC, need to get a little more nimble. These things just surge across the blogosphere.”

He said that he was happy to class himself as “warmer” — a term increasingly used by climate skeptics to describe those who agree with the scientific consensus that human activity drives warming:

“Though I am quite tempted sometimes to be a calamatist. There is something intellectually delicious about all that super-pessimism.”

McEwan added that his research on the climate had forced him to reconsider opposition to nuclear power:

Author Ian McEwan

“We just don’t have anything else that can run our cities on a windless night in February…It is rare that virtue and necessity collide. Sooner or later we’re going to have to find a new energy source for mankind.”

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Katrina Victims Sue Gas Companies

March 7, 2010 – 11:15 am

Katrina Victims Sue Gas Companies Victims of Hurricane Katrina are moving to sue carbon gas-emitting multinationals for helping fuel global warming and boosting the tragic 2005 storm.

The class action suit brought by residents from southern Mississippi, which was ravaged by hurricane-force winds and driving rains during the storm, was first filed just weeks after Katrina hit in August of 2005.

The documents say:

“The plaintiffs allege that defendants’ operation of energy, fossil fuels, and chemical industries in the United States caused the emission of greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming…[The increase in global surface air and water temperatures] in turn caused a rise in sea levels and added to the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina, which combined to destroy the plaintiffs’ private property, as well as public property useful to them…”

More than 1,200 people died in Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans in Louisiana when levees gave way under the weight of the waves.

The suit, which is claiming compensation and punitive damages from multinational companies including Shell, ExxonMobile, BP and Chevron, has already passed several key legal hurdles, after first being knocked back by the lowest court.

Three federal appeals court judges decided in October 2009 that the case should be heard. But in February the same court decided to re-examine whether or not it could be heard this time with nine judges.

Other companies named in the suit include Honeywell and American Electric Power, with the residents saying that:

“the defendants’ greenhouse gas emissions caused saltwater, debris, sediment, hazardous substances, and other materials to enter, remain on, and damage plaintiffs’ property.”

They allege that companies had a duty to:

“avoid unreasonably endangering the environment, public health, public and private property.”

The district court, which originally rejected the case, ruled that it was:

“a debate which simply has no place in the court.”

The court argued to Congress that what needs to be done is to enact legislation:

“which sets appropriate standards by which this court can measure conduct.”

Mississippi residents must now wait for the appeals court to fix a new hearing date.

A decision will be due by the end of 2010, and both sides could also then take the case to the Supreme Court.

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Staying Clean, Green and Everything In Between

March 4, 2010 – 9:22 am

Using moisturizers and lotions made from natural plant-based in the stead of petroleum-based ingredients, is not only healthier for you, it also keeps non-renewable resources out of your medicine cabinet. That’s huge!

Many lotions include ingredients which are derived from non-renewable petroleum or natural gas which have a wide assortment of health effects. 12 types to avoid are:
Antibacterials
coal-tars
diethanolamine (DEA)
1,4-dioxane
Formaldehyde
Fragrance
lead and mercury
nanoparticles
parabens
petroleum distillates
p-phenylenediamine
hydroquinone

Third-party certification of personal care products is rare and actually does not necessarily ensure a completely chemical-free product, or potentially hazard chemical-free product, however the following certifications below provide additional guarantees for animal welfare and ingredient purity. Among the most common are:
The Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA)
Ecocert
BDIH
USDA Certified Organic
Leaping Bunny label

Be sure to keep an eye out for misleading terms, such as fragrance-free, hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic, and cruelty-free. These labels may sound reassuring, but these labels are not defined by the government or by independent third-parties.

Try to avoid hot water. You can always wash with warm water instead.

Try to keep your bathing and showering brief.

Be sure to use a mild soap.

Apply moisturizer to your skin immediately after bathing, that is while your skin is still moist.

And drink the recommended six to eight glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration.

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Flying on the Sun

March 3, 2010 – 6:29 am

First, man-kind was bedazzled to walk on the moon. Now, we could be flying on the sun; on the sun’s energy, that is. Think I’m crazy? Well, let me explain:

It simply does not make reasonable business sense, physics sense, or otherwise, to try and fly an airplane on solar power.

Not yet, anyhow.

With the state of technology, and given how relatively young the solar sector is – such an endeavor would be considered impracticable by today’s standards – forget 2003, when Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, the co-founders of technology firm Solar Impulse, announced that they would be designing a solar-powered aircraft to fly around the world.

It would be a statement about global dependence on fossil fuels and the untapped promise of blossoming green technologies. The Swiss pilot-entrepreneurs were on a dream of “perpetual flight”: a plane that could climb to 9,000 feet and fly on the sun’s energy by day, while descending below cloud cover to lower altitudes, where it would cruise on its stored battery power by night.

A long shot to say the least. Well, seven years of interesting innovation later, the 70-person team at Solar Impulse is nearing its goal:

Borschberg said:

“We were intrigued by this notion of perpetual flight…we wanted to be totally independent of any fuel…forget hybrid planes, or the biofuels fixating most of the sustainable aviation sector today; Piccard and Borschberg are purists. No fuel, no CO2, no pollution. It could fly almost forever, assuming good weather…”

By November of last year, test pilot Markus Scherdel, formerly of DLR German Aerospace, the NASA of Germany, if yo will, was climbing into the cockpit of the completed prototype to taxi down the Dübendorf runway for the very first time. And soon after that, Scherde was back in the cockpit, this time guiding the plane as it shot up into the air for a series of successful “flea-hop” mini-flights over the tarmac.

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