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U.K. throws party for world’s biggest offshore wind farm

by CarriNDQ Posted on July 5, 2013

U.K. throws party for world’s biggest offshore wind farm

By John Upton

While Americans were celebrating their independence from Britain on Thursday, the British were celebrating a major project that is reducing their dependence on fossil fuels.

The beginning of operations at the world’s biggest offshore wind energy plant was belatedly celebrated along an estuary near the mouth of the Thames River. There, 175 turbines have been producing enough power for nearly 500,000 homes since April.

London Array

Part of the world’s biggest offshore wind power plant.

British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Thames Estuary site Thursday with his climate minister to ceremonially cut the ribbon at the London Array. From The Guardian:

The London Array has taken the crown of the world’s largest offshore windfarm from the 500MW Greater Gabbard project off the East Anglian coast. The UK currently has more than 3.6GW of offshore wind power capacity, but is expected to have around 18GW by the end of the decade.

America, by contrast, currently has one functional offshore power turbine — a prototype capable of powering four homes. But that is set to change in the coming years, with roughly a dozen offshore wind projects planned.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.K. throws party for world’s biggest offshore wind farm

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In win for fish, oil companies allowed to abandon old rigs

by Unacoomt Posted on June 28, 2013

In win for fish, oil companies allowed to abandon old rigs

By John Upton

For all the harm that the oil and gas industry inflicts on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, it does offer the marine ecosystem at least one big benefit. Offshore oil-drilling rigs serve as artificial reefs, providing shelter for animals and an anchor for plants, coral, and barnacles. Yet once a well is tapped, the federal government has required the drilling company to uproot its rig to help clear clutter that could obstruct shipping.

Following complaints from fishermen and conservationists, however, the Obama administration is easing those rules. It announced this week that it is making it easier for states to designate abandoned drilling infrastructure as special artificial reef sites.

Chris Ledford, © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

A barracuda hanging out at a Texas oil rig.

The move is a win-win. Fish, turtles, and other wildlife get to keep their underwater metropolises — and drilling companies can save on the costs of rig removal. From Fuel Fix:

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has revised the policies to encourage participation in its rigs-to-reefs program, which allows operators to leave non-producing platforms deep in the Gulf as artificial homes for underwater creatures.

So, um, thanks to all the penny-pinching oil companies out there that don’t want to pay to clean up their crap?

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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No, we’re not running out of people

by John Grit Posted on June 17, 2013

No, we’re not running out of people

By Lisa Hymas

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No shortage in sight.

Every few months we see a spate of “news” stories warning that population growth rates are declining in the U.S. and/or the world, potentially leading to a shortage of babies and outright “demographic disaster.” In an extreme (and extremely stupid) example from January of this year, one Slate writer warned that if trends continue over the long term, “we could be looking at the literal extinction of humanity.”

Well, you can strike that worry off your list, according to the latest stats from the U.N.

The Associated Press sums up the news:

The United Nations forecast Thursday that the world’s population will increase from 7.2 billion today to 8.1 billion in 2025, with most growth in developing countries and more than half in Africa. By 2050, it will reach 9.6 billion. …

The report found global fertility rates are falling rapidly, though not nearly fast enough to avoid a significant population jump over the next decades. In fact, the U.N. revised its population projection upward since its last report two years ago, mostly due to higher fertility projections in the countries with the most children per women. The previous projection had the global population reaching 9.3 billion people in 2050.

So those are the global figures, but what about the United States? Are we headed for a domestic baby shortage? Again, nope.

The U.S. population currently stands at 316 million. That figure is expected rise to 351 million by 2025, and then 401 million by 2050, according to the U.N.’s medium-range projections. That’s right in line with the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection.

“The right wing’s fevered vision of a planet populated only by tumbleweeds and wolves is not in the offing,” says John Seager, president of the nonprofit Population Connection.

So you can file away those fears about a demographic winter and worry instead about a really hot summer.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

by Sang N. Jones Posted on June 13, 2013

Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

By John Upton

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Yum, genetically engineered corn and cotton.

That isn’t what most people would think. (Especially the cotton bit. And especially the GMO bit.)

But a growing number of pests appear to share this sentiment. They’ve developed immunity to corn and cotton crops genetically engineered to contain the pesticide Bt, so they’re now munching away with impunity.

As of 2010, five of 13 major pest species had become largely immune to the Bt poisons in GMO corn and cotton, compared to just one species in 2005, scientists write in a paper published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

“Three of the five cases are in the US, where farmers have planted about half of the world’s Bt crop acreage,” reports Business Standard. “[The study] indicates that in the worst cases, resistance evolved in 2 to 3 years; but in the best cases, effectiveness of Bt crops has been sustained more than 15 years.”

The scientists, who analyzed 77 studies conducted on five continents, also found that other species appear to be developing resistance.

Perhaps as alarming as the growth in the number of Bt-resistant species is the growth in the amount of land upon which Bt crops are planted. From the paper:

Nature Biotechnology

Click to embiggen.

So not only are farmers wasting money on GMO seeds that don’t perform as advertised, but they are then spraying their crops with more insecticides to help overcome bugs’ growing resistance. Meanwhile, nobody really knows what those Bt genes are doing to other animals that eat them. Such as pigs. And us.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Five pest species now immune to GMO corn and cotton

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France looks at America, says non to fracking

by Margherit Posted on June 7, 2013

France looks at America, says non to fracking

By John Upton

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France’s vineyards are safe from frackers.

France’s energy minister looked at the destruction being wrought on America’s environment by hydraulic fracturing and said “non, merci” to the latest push by her country’s business lobby to make fracking legal.

Fracking was banned in France in 2011, and it looks like it’s going to stay banned. From Bloomberg:

France’s ban on hydraulic fracturing should not be eased because the oil and gas drilling technique is causing “considerable” environmental damage in the U.S., according to a government minister.

“We have to have our eyes wide open about what is going on in the U.S.,” Environmental and Energy Minister Delphine Batho said during a radio debate. “The reality is that the cost of producing gas doesn’t take into account considerable environmental damage.”

Earthquakes, aquifer pollution, heavy metal contamination, increased truck traffic and damage to the countryside are consequences of fracking, the minister said. …

“The U.S. has invented environmental dumping,” Batho said today. “Gas prices in the U.S. don’t take into account the cost of environmental damage that future generations will have to pay.”

Exactement.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Crappy solar panels threaten industry growth

by p555nf Posted on May 29, 2013

Crappy solar panels threaten industry growth

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Faulty solar panels threaten to darken the solar industry’s future.

As the solar sector explodes, some of the solar panels it produces are fizzling out.

The New York Times reports on the problem of faulty panels and says nobody knows how pervasive it is because nobody keeps track. Fingers are being pointed at corner cutting by manufacturing firms in China. From the Times article:

Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting [quality] problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption. …

The quality concerns have emerged just after a surge in solar construction. In the United States, the Solar Energy Industries Association said that solar panel generating capacity exploded from 83 megawatts in 2003 to 7,266 megawatts in 2012, enough to power more than 1.2 million homes. Nearly half that capacity was installed in 2012 alone, meaning any significant problems may not become apparent for years.

“We need to face up to the fact that corners are being cut,” said Conrad Burke, general manager for DuPont’s billion-dollar photovoltaic division, which supplies materials to solar manufacturers.

The solar developer Dissigno has had significant solar panel failures at several of its projects, according to Dave Williams, chief executive of the San Francisco-based company.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, but I think quality poses a long-term threat,” he said. “The quality across the board is harder to put your finger on now as materials in modules are changing every day and manufacturers are reluctant to share that information.”

Most of the concerns over quality center on China, home to the majority of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity.

Some industry leaders say it’s time to start shaming the companies that are producing bad products:

[Stuart] Wenham, [the chief technology officer of Suntech], said manufacturers needed to be held accountable and advocated creating testing labs not beholden to the industry that would assess quality.

“We need to start naming names,” he said.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who

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Facebook

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blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

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Entomologists: “Stop feeding corn syrup to honeybees.” Duh.

by rikkiqlyons Posted on May 7, 2013

Entomologists: “Stop feeding corn syrup to honeybees.” Duh.

By John Upton

Shutterstock

It’s time to share more honey with the honeybees that make it.

If you want to a kill a honeybee hive’s buzz, take all its honey away and feed the bees a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup.

Believe it or not, apiarists have been doing just that since the 1970s — feeding HFCS to their colonies as a replacement source of nourishment for the honey that gets taken away from them to be sold.

And believe it or not, HFCS, which is bad for humans, is also bad for honeybees. It’s especially bad for those that are exposed to pesticides, which these days is a high proportion of them.

It’s not that HFCS contributes to honeybee diabetes, nor does it result in honeybee obesity. But it weakens their defenses. And right now, the bees need all the defenses they can get in order to survive.

When honeybees collect nectar from flowers, they also gather pollen and a substance called propolis, which they use to make waxy honeycombs. The pollen and propolis are loaded with three types of compounds that University of Illinois entomologists discovered can help the bees detoxify their cells and protect themselves from pesticides and microbes.

“The widespread apicultural use of honey substitutes, including high-fructose corn syrup, may thus compromise the ability of honey bees to cope with pesticides and pathogens and contribute to colony losses,” the scientists wrote in a paper reporting their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

From Phys.org:

The researchers aren’t suggesting that high-fructose corn syrup is itself toxic to bees, instead, they say their findings indicate that by eating the replacement food instead of honey, the bees are not being exposed to other chemicals that help the bees fight off toxins, such as those found in pesticides.

Cutting the crappy sweeteners from honeybees’ diets and allowing them to eat a bit more of their own honey won’t necessarily save them in a world doused in pesticides. But it might give bees back some of their natural defenses against the poisons they encounter every day.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

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You’re forking out $9,000 a year to own your car

by Myrna Posted on April 16, 2013

You’re forking out $9,000 a year to own your car

By Lisa Hymas

Forget, for a moment, the environmental costs of driving a car. The financial costs alone should be enough to shock you into walking, biking, busing, and sharing.

From USA Today:

The average owner of a sedan has to shell out nearly $10,000 a year to own and operate that car, according to auto club AAA.

A new AAA report shows, on average, the cost of driving 15,000 miles a year rose 1.17 cents to 60.8 cents per mile, or $9,122 per year. Overall, that’s a roughly 2% increase on the cost of operating a car last year.

And from CNN:

The costs vary a lot according to the type and size of vehicle, though. It costs about $7,000 a year to own a small car in the United States but about $11,600 to own a four-wheel-drive SUV, according to AAA.

The study factored in costs such as fuel, maintenance, insurance, tires and depreciation.

As we pointed out a couple of years ago, owning a car is basically like having a second mortgage. OK, a second mortgage on a small house in a cheap area. But still!

Transit pass, anyone?

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on

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All U.S. nuclear reactors are too dangerous, says former nuke-safety chief

by Anatoleia3 Posted on April 9, 2013

All U.S. nuclear reactors are too dangerous, says former nuke-safety chief

By John Upton

Thomas Anderson

Beware.

Right on the heels of troubling news from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, here comes troubling news about nuke plants in the U.S.

From The New York Times:

All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday. Shutting them all down at once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their lives.

The position of the former chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, is not unusual in that various anti-nuclear groups take the same stance. But it is highly unusual for a former head of the nuclear commission to so bluntly criticize an industry whose safety he was previously in charge of ensuring.

Asked why he did not make these points when he was chairman, Dr. Jaczko said in an interview after his remarks, “I didn’t really come to it until recently.”

“I was just thinking about the issues more, and watching as the industry and the regulators and the whole nuclear safety community continues to try to figure out how to address these very, very difficult problems,” which were made more evident by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, he said. “Continuing to put Band-Aid on Band-Aid is not going to fix the problem.”

The nuclear power industry, you won’t be surprised to hear, disagrees with Jaczko’s assessment.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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blogs about ecology

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Tar Sands Blockade wins sponsorship deal from Kryptonite bike locks

by AshleaMelina844 Posted on April 1, 2013

Tar Sands Blockade wins sponsorship deal from Kryptonite bike locks

By Susie Cagle

Disturbed by the recent tar-sands spills in Minnesota and Arkansas, Kryptonite lock company has decided to step up its efforts to protect the planet.

Today, the company offered corporate sponsorship to any of the Keystone XL pipeline protesters who raised the bar by chaining themselves to tar-sands equipment over the last year. (Needless to say, they’ve been burning through a lot of locks.)

Laura Borealis

“The people at Kryptonite have a pure passion for creating the best security in the world. And that includes creating security for the planet,” the company said in a statement. “We recognized the blockaders for their creative use of our product, and we wanted to encourage more of their important work. Plus, Kryptonite’s reinforced, anodyzed steel design resists removal 50 percent longer than competitors and is guaranteed to frustrate law enforcement.”

They may seem like odd bedfellows, but Kryptonite’s products have already helped activists disrupt energy conferences and slow down pipeline construction.

The blockade reported that they were happy to have the power of so many locks behind them. Unconcerned about backlash over a corporate sponsor, the blockade emphasized the greater good. “Kryptonite U-locks protect our bikes from being re-liberated on city streets every day — why shouldn’t they protect our planet too?” activists said in a statement.

“We will use the master’s tools to lock down the master’s house.”

No word yet on whether the makers behind Gorilla Glue might consider making a similar donation.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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