Tag Archives: attra

Image of Hindenburg Haunts Hydrogen Technology

by Myrna Posted on October 29, 2013

One of the strongest psychological impediments to hydrogen fuel cell technology is the searing image of the Hindenburg catching fire and crashing in 1937. Read original article: Image of Hindenburg Haunts Hydrogen Technology ; ;Related ArticlesU.S. Says It Won’t Back New International Coal-Fired Power PlantsHow Does a Tick Do Its Dirty Work? Research Video Offers a ClueNational Briefing | Midwest: Ohio: Worrisome Carp Are Found in a Tributary of Lake Erie ;

Credit:

Image of Hindenburg Haunts Hydrogen Technology

Posted in ALPHA, ATTRA, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Image of Hindenburg Haunts Hydrogen Technology

The Sriracha Factory Could Get Shut Down. Panic?

by julyye56 Posted on October 29, 2013

Photo: cookbookman17

In Irwindale, California, nose-y neighbors, sick of the supposedly strong chili smell emanating from the factory where Sriracha hot sauce is made, want the Huy Fong Foods factory shut down unless the odor can be abated. The city has filed a public nuisance lawsuit, says the Associated Press, “seeking temporary closure of the factory until Huy Fong submits a plan to minimize the smell.” CBS:

“The odors are so strong and offensive as to have caused residents to move outdoor activities indoors and even to vacate their residences temporarily to seek relief from the odors,” according to the suit.

Living next to a food processing plant is always a scented existence, and Huy Fong Foods has denied there’s a problem. But if the injunction goes through, it could spell bad news for hot sauce lovers everywhere.

The factory in Irwindale where Sriracha is now made opened within the last year. At 650,000 square feet, says Quartz, the company can pump out up to 7,500 bottles of hot sauce each hour. Huy Fong Foods was started 33 years ago by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, and the company, says Quartz, has never raised its wholesale prices. If the Sriracha factory is shuttered, supply and demand may do what Tran never did. Canada might have a strategic maple syrup reserve, but if Sriracha goes out of production, there’s no emergency warehouse waiting to be tapped.

If the price of Sriracha skyrockets, where will the heat-seeking foodie turn? For the New Yorker, Lauren Collins details how chili sauces have grown into a massive industry.

Chilis have become an attractive business. According to a report by IBISWorld, a market-research firm, hot-sauce production is one of America’s ten fastest-growing industries, along with solar-panel manufacturing and online eyeglass sales.

Unfortunately, it seems, based on Collins’ account, the so-called “chiliheads” driving the hot sauce boom have been in a bid to best each other on one metric alone, Scoville units, a measure of hotness. With manufacturers racing to abandon taste for sheer burn, we can only hope the city of Irwindale and Huy Fong Foods can work out their differences before our bottle is empty.

More from Smithsonian.com:

How a Vietnamese Refugee Built the Multi-Million Dollar Sriracha Hot Sauce Empire

See the original post:

The Sriracha Factory Could Get Shut Down. Panic?

Posted in alo, ATTRA, FF, GE, Smith's, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Sriracha Factory Could Get Shut Down. Panic?

Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

by Myrna Posted on October 29, 2013

A 24-year-old conservation cropping experiment in rural Australia has become a test case for capturing carbon. rach2k/Flickr As the Blue Mountains burned last week, a grumble of local farmers gathered in Harden, on the south-west slopes of New South Wales. I met them in the middle of a wheat crop, hunched against the cold wind. It had been snowing in the ski fields as the state’s rural fire service chief, Shane Fitzsimmons, predicted catastrophic bushfire conditions in greater Sydney area. While Tony Abbott and Christiana Figueres traded blows about the origins of the early bushfire season, I joined the farmers to hear about a 24-year-old conservation cropping experiment in a paddock not far from my home. Every day, farmers deal with the pointy end of the climate debate. There is nothing like having some skin in the game to focus the mind on the facts behind climate science. Get it wrong and you will, eventually, starve. To keep reading, click here. View this article:  Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up ; ;Related ArticlesWATCH: One Year After Sandy, Breezy Point RebuildsThe County Council Election That Could Make or Break Big CoalThe Science of Tea Party Wrath ;

Continue reading here: 

Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Posted in ALPHA, ATTRA, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, OXO, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Carbon Farming: It’s a Nice Theory, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Sun-powered water purification system created by Purdue scientists

by Myrna Posted on October 28, 2013

Water disinfecting system uses UV radiation to kill microbes. Visit site –  Sun-powered water purification system created by Purdue scientists ; ;Related ArticlesMonsanto’s agrochemicals are poisoning Argentines, Monsanto blames victims for misusing productsMonsanto’s agrochemicals are poisoning Argentines, but Monsanto blames victims for misusing productsA call for Canada to import fewer seeds ;

Link: 

Sun-powered water purification system created by Purdue scientists

Posted in Accent, alo, ATTRA, Casio, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sun-powered water purification system created by Purdue scientists

Turbine tourism: Bus tours of a wind-energy park are a big hit

by pwbqczv Posted on October 22, 2013

Turbine tourism: Bus tours of a wind-energy park are a big hit

By

Tina :0)

A wind turbine on a Michigan farm.

Michigan now has nearly 900 wind turbines, and that lit a lightbulb in the entrepreneurial mind of retired teacher Gene Jorissen. Last summer, he started leading hour-long bus tours of the turbine-dotted Lakes Winds Energy Park in the western part of the state. From Livingston Daily:

The bus stops 1,000 feet from a turbine, and passengers get out. “People want to know, how noisy are they? So, we sit and listen. We talk about various concerns people have about them,” he said.

Then, the bus stops at his cousin’s house. The cousin has one of the turbines on his property. The cousin lets Jorissen bring his tourists right up to the turbine and stand under its massive 476-foot height to get a feel of just how big it is.

“You can walk around it. But you can’t climb it. You can touch it. But you can’t go inside,” Jorissen said.

This summer, buses were full, and there often were waiting lists, said Jorissen, who is continuing tours through Saturday.

Tours “have become a big hit,” added Dan Bishop, Consumers Energy spokesman. “Eco-tourism, right here in Michigan.”

We told you in April that some Lake Winds neighbors were suing to block construction of new wind turbines. It’s good to hear that others in the area appreciate these revolutionary devices — and are finding novel ways to make a buck off them.


Source
Wind turbines new Mich. tourist attraction, Livingston Daily

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.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Continued: 

Turbine tourism: Bus tours of a wind-energy park are a big hit

Posted in Anchor, ATTRA, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Turbine tourism: Bus tours of a wind-energy park are a big hit

How Green Is Cory Booker?

by Norman87Pdk Posted on October 18, 2013

Mother Jones

This story first appeared on the Grist website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

When Cory Booker’s name is mentioned in the same sentence with “green,” it’s usually in reference to the money he attracts. Still, in his six years as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, he’s been no slacker on the environmental front.

Tooting his own horn on his website, Booker credits himself with an impressive list of green achievements, among them creating “the largest parks and green-space expansion in Newark in over a century,” building hundreds of green affordable housing units, securing $1.5 million to reduce urban heat island effect, and creating “acres of urban farms” that benefit underserved neighborhoods.

Booker, who just trounced his tea party challenger, Steve Lonegan, in the race to succeed longtime Sen. Frank Lautenberg, now takes this experience, along with his state’s deep tradition of environmental justice advocacy, to Washington, DC. But when it comes to environmental policy, Booker has huge ECCO sandals to fill, and not everyone is as impressed with his green chops as he seems to be.

When Lautenberg passed away in June, Congress lost not only one of its most liberal members, but also one of its greenest. Lautenberg gave so much of his life to public transit that after his funeral his casket was transported via Amtrak, the train service he fought to keep alive. He pledged the same support for ferry service, which has also shown signs of decline lately.

Beyond that, Lautenberg was a primary sponsor of chemical labeling and safety legislation—a favored cause of celebrity actresses Jessica Alba and Jennifer Beals—and routinely scored at the top of his congressional class on report cards issued by food policy, parks conservation, and clean water advocacy groups (alternately scoring at the bottom among conservative advocacy and business interest groups).

Continue Reading »

Continue reading – 

How Green Is Cory Booker?

Posted in alo, ATTRA, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How Green Is Cory Booker?

Can Methanol Save Us All?

by au87rr Posted on October 11, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

In the Wall Street Journal today, George Olah and Chris Cox suggest that instead of venting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, where it causes global warming, we should use it to create methanol:

Thanks to recent developments in chemistry, a new way to convert carbon dioxide into methanol—a simple alcohol now used primarily by industry but increasingly attracting attention as transportation fuel—can now make it profitable for America and the world to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

At laboratories such as the University of Southern California’s Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute (founded by George Olah, one of the authors here), researchers have discovered how to produce methanol at significantly lower cost than gasoline directly from carbon dioxide. So instead of capturing and “sequestering” carbon dioxide—the Obama administration’s current plan is to bury it—this environmental pariah can be recycled into fuel for autos, trucks and ships.

….In Iceland, the George Olah Renewable Methanol Plant, opened last year by Carbon Recycling International, is converting carbon dioxide from geothermal sources into methanol, using cheap geothermal electrical energy. The plant has demonstrated that recycling carbon dioxide is not only possible but commercially feasible.

Olah has been writing about a “methanol economy” for a long time, and he skips over a few issues in this op-ed. One in particular is cost: it takes electricity to catalyze CO2 and hydrogen into methanol, and it’s not clear how cheap it is to manufacture methanol in places that don’t have abundant, cheap geothermal energy—in other words, most places that aren’t Iceland. There are also some practical issues related to energy density and corrosiveness in existing engines and pipelines. Still, it’s long been an intriguing idea, since in theory it would allow you to use renewable energy like wind or solar to power a facility that creates a liquid fuel that can be used for transportation. You still produce CO2 when you eventually burn that methanol in your car, of course, but the lifecycle production of CO2 would probably be less than it is with conventional fuels.

I haven’t kept up with the details of this lately, so I don’t know what Olah means when he talks about “recent developments” in chemistry. Does he mean stuff that’s been in the pipeline over the past decade, or something that’s genuinely new over the past year or two? I’m not sure. I’d be interested in reading a response from a neutral expert, though.

And why did this appear on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, not a place that’s famous for its concern over climate change? Because Olah and Cox are arguing that for methanol to compete in the marketplace, we need to stop subsidizing ethanol unfairly. I’m all for that, and I guess the Journal is too. I’m also on the lookout for anything non-shutdown related to write about. Any port in a storm.

Read this article:  

Can Methanol Save Us All?

Posted in ATTRA, FF, GE, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Can Methanol Save Us All?

America’s Chinatowns Are Disappearing

by ztx6uu6c Posted on October 11, 2013

Image: Dan Nguyen

When was the last time you took a trip to Chinatown? You might want to head there soon, because they might not be around for much longer. According to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education fund, Chinatowns all over the United States are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas due to gentrification. At Wired‘s Map Labs blog, Greg Miller breaks down this break-down. Based on the maps, Boston has it the worst:

According to Census records, the percentage of the population that claims Asian heritage in Boston’s Chinatown dropped from 70 percent in 1990 to 46 percent in 2010. New York and Philadelphia’s Chinatowns did not see big change either way by that measure during the same time period, but in all three cities the proportion of homes inhabited by families and the proportion of children in the population dropped considerably. To Li that suggests that multigenerational immigrant homes are breaking up — or moving out.

To figure out the composition of these Chinatowns, volunteers went out and surveyed what types of restaurants, businesses and residential properties were in the area. Restaurants in particular are good barometers for a neighborhood’s service to immigrants. In other words, more Asian restaurants means a more robust Chinatown. But as the survey found, other restaurants and shops are moving in quickly.

The very existence of Chinatowns are a product of discrimination—immigrants created these communities to live in because they were excluded from pre-existing ones. And that tradition continues today, according to Bethany Li, author of the report. But with pressure from condominiums and high-end shops from all sides, many Chinatowns are slowly shrinking. While communities are fighting back, Li’s report says that without help they’ll be pushed out again:

Without the fights against unfettered development led by members from groups like the Chinese Progressive Association in Boston, Chinese Staff & Workers’ Association in New York, and Asian Americans United in Philadelphia, these Chinatowns would likely contain even more high-end and institutional expansion. City governments removed and replaced working-class immigrant residential and commercial land uses in each of these Chinatowns.

Bonnie Tsui at Atlantic Cities breaks down what some of those actions might be:

What’s to be done? Recommendations include allocating public land and funds for low-income housing development and retention at a more reasonable proportion to current high-end development; supporting small, local businesses to offset rising rents, given the symbiotic relationship with residents; prioritizing public green spaces; and engaging community organizations, residents, and the larger satellite communities to maintain Chinatowns as shared cultural history and home to working-class immigrants.

For many, Chinatowns are an attraction to a city, and many cities boast about their robust cultural neighborhoods. But they might not be around for much longer.

More from Smithsonian.com:

The Many Chinatowns of North America
San Francisco’s Chinatown at night

Link to original:  

America’s Chinatowns Are Disappearing

Posted in ATTRA, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, Smith's, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on America’s Chinatowns Are Disappearing

College Students Compete to Create Best Solar-Powered Home

by silownie_zewnetrzne_krone Posted on October 10, 2013

Phil Horton of the Arizona State University and University of New Mexico team gives a tour of the SHADE house at the Solar Decathlon 2013, held at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif. Photo: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

They may not sprint, throw a javelin or pole vault, but an accomplished group of students is showing that they’re decathletes ready to go the distance — in the sport of creating solar-powered homes, that is.

They’re currently in the midst of the 2013 Solar Decathlon, organized by the U.S. Department of Energy biennially since 2002. The competition challenges teams from colleges across the U.S. — and a few from abroad — to design and build a solar-powered home that’s affordable, energy efficient, marketable and attractive.

The 20 entries this year include features like edible walls, a walkway that heats your home, digital art, siding that converts smog to nitric acid and even movable units to create a private backyard. Like a traditional decathlon, there are 10 contests that make up the Solar Decathlon — the houses are judged on everything from architecture and market appeal to affordability and how well the designs accommodate the pleasures of living, such as sharing meals with friends and family, watching movies in a home theater and surfing the Web. In other words, it’s about style and substance — who can create the most innovative overall package.

Next page: Preparing for the competition

earth911

Excerpt from:  

College Students Compete to Create Best Solar-Powered Home

Posted in alo, ATTRA, FF, G & F, GE, Omega, ONA, organic, Oster, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on College Students Compete to Create Best Solar-Powered Home

Jon Stewart Roasts Kathleen Sebelius, Calls Her a Liar

by qdj9iiiej Posted on October 8, 2013

Mother Jones

From First Read:

If you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost Jon Stewart, you have a problem. And that’s exactly what happened when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius went on the “Daily Show” last night to talk about the glitches with the Obamacare website. “As the secretary sat down to begin the segment, Stewart opened a laptop on his desk. ‘I’m going to attempt to download every movie ever made, and you’re going to try to sign up for Obamacare, and we’ll see which happens first’”….We said it yesterday and we’ll say it again: The last thing you ever thought would happen is that Team Obama would have a website issue. These were the folks who pioneered how campaigns interact with voters over the internet.

Obamacare’s website issues are obviously serious, but at the same time: give me a break, folks. I’m pretty sure the First Read team is well aware that Obama wasn’t allowed to just call up his favorite web guru and tell him to get the old campaign team together and set up the Obamacare site. It had to go through the usual government procurement and bidding process, and was designed and created by whichever outside consultants won the job.

The NBC news team knows this, right? So why do they act like they don’t?

As for Stewart, I’m not sure what to say. I watched his interview last night, and I thought Stewart was easily as big a problem as Sebelius. He decided to ask about the conservative talking point that it’s unfair to delay the empoyer mandate while leaving the individual mandate in place, and Sebelius clearly tap danced a bit. But the big problem, as near as I can tell, is that Stewart was his usual unprepared self for this interview. Frankly, I couldn’t tell throughout the interview if he even understood what the employer mandate was. This happens all the time, usually with conservatives knocking Stewart around because they know what they’re talking about and he doesn’t. This time it happened to be a liberal, but the result was the same: an incoherent interview in which he couldn’t drive home his point because he wasn’t really sure what his point was.

Following the interview, he made a gag about still not understanding what was going on, and then suggested that maybe Sebelius had been lying. That was really beneath him. Sebelius didn’t do a great job of answering the question, but I sure didn’t catch her in any lies. She basically told him that the employer mandate applied only to businesses with more than 50 employees (true); that most of these businesses already offer their employees health coverage (true); and that the number of people affected by the delay of the employer mandate was pretty small (true). RAND estimates that the delay will affect 1,000 firms and 300,000 people, about 0.2 percent of the population.

Now, is delaying the mandate fair? That’s hardly a question with a factual answer, so I’m not sure what kind of reply Stewart expected to get in the first place. This was just another example of Stewart on his high horse again, and it’s always been his least attractive persona, regardless of whether it’s prompted by liberal or conservative outrage. Sebelius obviously tried to put the best face on the Obamacare rollout, just as all politicians do, but she didn’t lie.

POSTSCRIPT: And why was the employer mandate delayed? The truth is that we’ve never gotten a definitive explanation. The basic answer is that the regulatory requirements turned out to be more complex than anticipated. The deeper answer is roughly the one that Sebelius gave: it was possible to grant the delay because the effect was tiny and didn’t affect anything fundamental about Obamacare. Conversely, the individual mandate isn’t especially complex and does fundamentally affect Obamacare. It can’t be delayed without doing serious damage to the entire law. This answer might or might not be satisfying, but it’s roughly the truth.

Original source:  

Jon Stewart Roasts Kathleen Sebelius, Calls Her a Liar

Posted in ATTRA, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Jon Stewart Roasts Kathleen Sebelius, Calls Her a Liar