Original article – Transforming the game one bag ban at a time Related Articles Connecting more deeply with our supporters Connecting more deeply with our members Treating the beach like an ashtray
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We’re doubling down, increasing communications with supporters. Visit site: Connecting more deeply with our supporters Related Articles Connecting more deeply with our members Treating the beach like an ashtray A modern shoe made from ocean plastic
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The venture will develop Vestas’s 8-megawatt offshore turbines, each of which can power roughly 8,000 households. See more here – Vestas Joins With Mitsubishi for Offshore Turbines ; ;Related ArticlesSunday Routine | Cristián Samper: A Break From the Wildlife, With FamilyThe Texas Tribune: It’s Not the Rare Birds They Mind So Much. It’s the Watchdogs.National Briefing | New England: Massachusetts: Fishery Group Limits Herring Catch ;
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The trail to Fukushima.
Two and a half years ago, the Fukushima Daiichi power facility was knocked out by a tsunami and earthquake. Myriad troubles ensued. Then this week it was hit by a typhoon, flooding, and another earthquake. Can’t a nuclear plant catch a break?
On Monday, Typhoon Man-yi smacked into Japan, causing flooding in some parts of the country, and new troubles at Fukushima. From Agence France-Presse:
The operator of the leaking Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it dumped more than 1,000 tons of polluted water into the sea after a typhoon raked the facility. …
The rain … lashed near the broken plant run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), swamping enclosure walls around clusters of water tanks containing toxic water that was used to cool broken reactors.
Then, early Friday morning, the Fukushima Prefecture was rocked by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have done any additional damage to the already crippled plant. From the AP:
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck early Friday at a depth of about 13 miles under Fukushima Prefecture and about 110 miles northeast of Tokyo. …
The Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., observed no abnormality in radiation or equipment after the quake.
Even before this latest earthquake, Japan’s government was clearly fed up with the perpetually beleaguered nuclear facility. “Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday ordered TEPCO to scrap all six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and concentrate on tackling pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water,” the AP reports.
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: Climate & Energy
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A country struggling to cope with an ongoing nuclear disaster might not seem the obvious choice to host the Olympics.
But Japan on Sunday was awarded the right to host the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
How did Japan’s leaders win the support of the notoriously corrupt International Olympic Committee? In part by playing down the seriousness of the Fukushima disaster’s lingering effects. From The Guardian on Friday:
Hiroshi Hase, an MP and former Olympic wrestler, told reporters in the Argentinian capital that contamination from Fukushima was “not even an issue” for the health of people in Tokyo, located 150 miles south of Fukushima Daiichi.
With the IOC decision imminent, Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s nuclear regulation authority, criticised Tepco for inflating fears around the world by releasing misleading data about the water leaks. …
Tanaka said reports that the water leaks represented another catastrophe at the plant had been overblown, adding that the quantity of radiation leaking into the Pacific Ocean would have “no meaningful effect” on the environment.
From wire reports published in The Japan Times on Saturday:
Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, at his final news conference before the selection of the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics, blasted media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and said people should not believe scare stories. …
“So much rumor has been conveyed by the media.” …
The government whitewashing was not appreciated by Japanese citizens whose lives have been upturned by the nuclear meltdown and ensuing troubles:
Residents in Fukushima Prefecture have reacted angrily to remarks by Tokyo’s Olympic bid chief in the city’s final pitch to host the 2020 Games, saying he made light of their plight.
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: Climate & Energy
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Japan played down nuclear troubles as it fought for Olympic hosting rights
A 3-D image of Tamu Massif on the sea floor. Photo: Will Sager
A massive volcano the size of New Mexico or the British Isles lurks deep beneath the Pacific, about 1,000 miles east off the coast of Japan. Called the Tamu Massif, scientists just confirmed that it is not only the world’s largest volcano (sorry, Manua Loa) but also one of the largest documented volcanoes in the solar system.
Researchers began studying the Tamu Massif, which is part of an underwater mountain range, about 20 years ago. But until now, they couldn’t determine whether it was a single giant or a cluster of multiple smaller volcanoes. A team from Texas A&M University (“Tamu”—get it?) confirmed the Tamu Massif was a single volcanic entity by studying its past patterns of lava flows and analyzing geochemical samples from the volcano.
National Geographic describes what we know about the volcano:
Tamu Massif is a rounded dome that measures about 280 by 400 miles (450 by 650 kilometers), or more than 100,000 square miles. Its top lies about 6,500 feet (about 2,000 meters) below the ocean surface, while the base extends down to about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) deep.
Made of basalt, Tamu Massif is the oldest and largest feature of an oceanic plateau called the Shatsky Rise in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The total area of the rise is similar to Japan or California.
Luckily for us, the volcano was only active for a few million years, NatGeo points out, going “extinct” about 145 million years ago.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Underwater Volcano
Volcano Obsession
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An Underwater Volcano the Size of New Mexico Is the World’s Largest
This train goes fast.
It sounds like something from a Japanamated techno-fantasy. But a real-life maglev train in Japan just passed its latest real-life test, levitating using magnets as it surpassed speeds of 310 miles per hour — faster than any other train in the world.
Journalists aboard last week’s 27-mile test run could see on overhead screens how fast the train was traveling, but they said they could barely feel a thing. From Phys.org:
The train does have wheels — it rides on them when the train is at low speed — then rises up above the track when it reaches approximately 93 mph. On the test run, the train reached its peak speed just three miles into the trip, which would suggest riders would feel pushed back into their seats, but those on board reported no such sensation. …
Maglev trains are able to travel very fast all while using less energy than conventional trains because they allow the train to ride on a cushion of air — friction from the wheels on the track is eliminated. Most in the field expect they will require less maintenance costs as well.
The train might be fast, but the project is moving slowly. The first leg of the new railway, between Tokyo and Nagoya, is supposed to open in 2027. The full line between Tokyo and Osaka is scheduled to be completed in 2045, at a cost of $90 billion. From Bloomberg:
Faced with the challenge of tunneling under Tokyo’s skyscrapers and the Japanese Alps, the project is unlikely to be completed on time even as Japan’s population is projected to shrink, eroding travel demand.
“I think it’s going to be finished very, very late,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, which manages about $3 billion in assets. “If the population projections are correct, then the use of the bullet train will go down.”
Meanwhile, America’s first bullet-train project, which is still in the planning phase in California, is getting bogged down in lawsuits. The $68 billion California High-Speed Rail project is expected to link San Francisco with Los Angeles by 2029, carrying passengers at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour.
Why is the U.S. lagging on bullet trains? Slate ponders that very question:
There were once plans for a California-Nevada maglev train, but they never left the station, and the money for planning them ended up being reallocated to a highway project.
Why are we so far behind Japan in transportation technology? The reasons are many, and perhaps the biggest is that the United States has been built around the automobile. Sprawling suburbs make mass transit really difficult. But it’s been clear for years that our McMansion-and-SUV version of the American Dream isn’t sustainable in the long term. And as our cities grow denser and our existing infrastructure ages, it’s just silly that we aren’t making more of an effort to replace it with something better and more futuristic.
The real obstacle today is a lack of political will to plan for the future, especially from the Republicans who torpedoed President Obama’s high-speed rail plans in his first term. Those plans were far from perfect, but they would have been a great start.
The following Reuters video shows the train traveling freakishly fast and Japanese dignitaries on board managing to look stoic and bored:
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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ToyotaThe Toyota Estima Hybrid. The Japanese text translates to “Ha ha, you can’t have one.”
For years, Grist readers have yearned, ached, and virtually begged for a hybrid minivan. Sorry, folks. Keep dreaming.
Toyota has sold its Estima Hybrid minivan (44 mpg) in Japan since 2001, but it has no plans to sell a hybrid or plug-in minivan in the U.S., a spokesperson tells the Chicago Tribune.
Why not? Green-car expert Jim Motovalli explains:
I have brought up the concept of a plug-in hybrid minivan several times to automakers, and they always dismiss it. Their claim: Minivans are big and boxy, and the fuel economy wouldn’t improve that much with a hybrid drivetrain. Plus, they’d be expensive (the Estima is $50,000). Besides, that segment of the market is really not that big, they say.
Tribune writer Robert Duffer speculates that Americans are just too demanding:
We want fuel economy but we want power and the ability to carry a lot of weight. All of these factors would reduce the effectiveness of a hybrid or plug-in on fuel economy. Other speculation on car forums clamoring for the hybrid minivan is that it wouldn’t meet stringent U.S. safety requirements. It would end up weighing about the same as the Toyota Sienna, again reducing the effectiveness of its hybrid gains.
On top of that, “Minivan owners are among the most cost-conscious shoppers, prizing utility and value.” Demanding and cheap.
Plus minivans are totally out now:
According to CNBC in March, minivans are on the decline, making up just three percent of total auto sales. Only 500,000 were sold in 2012. In 2000, there were 1.37 million sold.
Ford and Chevy don’t even make a minivan anymore. … It’s all about the crossover, or CUV, these days. It’s neither minivan nor wagon nor sport utility vehicle, shaking off the stigmas of each into its own hip sub-class. CUVs are more fuel efficient than SUVs, sharper looking than minivans and more versatile in terms of passengers than a wagon.
Car shoppers who want both roominess and efficiency could consider the crossover Ford C-Max Hybrid — “a mini minivan,” as Duffer puts it. Except that Ford just had to lower the car’s fuel-economy numbers this week and send “goodwill” checks to disgruntled customers. D’oh.
Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.
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Is there anything more authentic than a child’s drawing asking us to preserve our oceans?
Photo: WynLok
The cronut combines everything that is delicious and unhealthy about both a donut and a croissant. Created a few months back by a New York pastry chef at the Dominique Ansel Bakery, it consists of flaky, buttery croissant dough, folded into a classic donut shape and deep fried, then—as if that weren’t enough—injected with some sort of luscious cream and topped off with icing. Lines of people desperate to try one have formed two hours before the bakery opened.
Obviously, this pastry bonanza could not remain a secret for long. Asia, the Wall Street Journal reports, is already all over it. Bakeries from Hong Kong to Singapore to Japan to the Philippines have already churned out their own versions of the sugar bomb snack—inspiring their own block-long lines of hungry patrons. Some of these shops added a distinctly Asian flare to the scrumptious dessert:
Different bakeries have infused local flavors into their versions. Wildflour Cafe has a dulce de leche option. Banderole, which is already selling hundreds of its croissant doughnuts each day, has green-tea flavored ones and even one with a kawaii, or cute, smiley face on it. The Sweet Spot’s rendition has crushed peanuts, caramel and custard. The end product resembles a mini-doughnut burger with a custard patty.
Even Dunkin Donuts—at least those in Asia—are jumping on the cronut bandwagon. Here’s Quartz:
In South Korea, an adaptation of Ansel’s recipe is now being offered by a global donut and coffee chain, rather than a local baker or domestic pastry chain. A Dunkin Donuts spokesman told Quartz that the chain introduced the “New York Pie Donut” this past weekend. Dunkin Donuts also launched a “Donut Croissant” in Manila a few weeks ago but has no plans to introduce them in the US right now. In South Korea, the pastries are being sold in the high-end Seoul neighborhood of Gangnam, as well as Jamsil and Myungdong.
The original New York creators aren’t feeling too threatened, the Journal reports, given that most of the competition abroad hasn’t sampled the real deal, meaning their version of the cronut is just visual interpretations injected with some imagination. Technically, imitators aren’t allowed to use the name “cronut” since it’s been trademarked by Dominique Ansel, Quartz points out, though China in particular has never given much heed to copyrights.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Kolaches: The Next Big Thing in Pastries and The Tex-Czech Community Behind Them
Can Starbucks Do for the Croissant What it Did for Coffee?
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