Tag Archives: source

Teslas drive L.A. to N.Y. in three days, guzzle no gas

by ElissaStrock Posted on February 3, 2014

Teslas drive L.A. to N.Y. in three days, guzzle no gas

By

Tesla

In the wee morning hours on Thursday, just a few days after Tesla had installed its 70th Supercharger (it’s pretty much what it sounds like — an electric-car charger that works super fast), a team of the company’s employees departed from Los Angeles for an epic drive to New York City.

By Sunday morning, despite snow and freezing conditions, both Tesla Model S electric sedans had reached their destination.

The Tesla team was aiming to break a world record — not a record for speed, but for shortest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the U.S. Guinness officials have yet to rule on whether the team succeeded. While awaiting that verdict, Tesla found other things to brag about.

“By normal standards, most people would have considered the conditions that the Model S cars faced [on] Day Three as extreme,” the company wrote on its blog. “Heavy snowfall turned to sleet; morning ice gave way to afternoon slush; fog restricted visibility. In Ohio, the cars sped on in driving rain. In all cases, the Model S prevailed with ease, as did the newly installed Superchargers along the way in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio.”

Maybe Consumer Reports was right.


Source
Cross Country Rally, Tesla
Cross Country Rally: Day Three, Tesla
Tesla stays chill to finish 3-day cross-country rally, CNET

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

,

Living

More here:

Teslas drive L.A. to N.Y. in three days, guzzle no gas

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Teslas drive L.A. to N.Y. in three days, guzzle no gas

Bees exposed to neonic pesticides suck at gathering pollen

by Hermine73K Posted on January 31, 2014

Bees exposed to neonic pesticides suck at gathering pollen

By

Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel

First plant STDs, and now this? Bees these days just can’t catch a break: New research shows that bumblebees that have been exposed to neonic pesticides are hopeless when it comes to gathering food.

British scientists reared commercial bumblebees for two weeks on sugar and pollen laced with imidacloprid, which is one of the world’s most commonly used insecticides. The pesticide concentration mimicked that found in farmed oil seed rape, which is grown for biofuel, vegetable oil, and animal feed. Similar colonies were fed pesticide-free sugar and pollen.

After the colonies were released into Scottish gardens to forage for their own food, the scientists monitored how much pollen and nectar the bees gathered and brought back to their hives. When it came to pollen, which is the main part of the bees’ diet, the differences between the pesticide-fed bees and those from control hives was striking. From the paper, published this month in the journal Ecotoxicology:

Whilst the nectar foraging efficiency of bees treated with imidacloprid was not significantly different than that of control bees, treated bees brought back pollen less often than control bees (40 % of trips vs 63 % trips, respectively) and, where pollen was collected, treated bees brought back 31 % less pollen per hour than controls.

This study demonstrates that field-realistic doses of these pesticides substantially impacts on foraging ability of bumblebee workers when collecting pollen. …

Pollen is the main protein source for bumblebees and is particularly important for the rearing of young to replace older workers. It has been suggested that foraging for pollen is more challenging than foraging for nectar, and it is usually restricted to dry, sunny weather, whereas nectar can be collected in most conditions except heavy rain, so that pollen rather than nectar shortages are more likely to limit colony success

The research was conducted on buff-tailed bumblebees — not on the more familiar honeybees. It’s “quite likely” that neonics have similar effects on the pollen-gathering ability of honeybees, researcher Dave Goulson told Grist. “But, obviously, we can’t say for sure.”

Previous research has shown that honeybee behavior is also affected by neonics — and scientists fear that those behavioral changes could be linked to the growing problem of colony collapse disorder. “Nonlethal exposure of honey bees to thiamethoxam (neonicotinoid systemic pesticide) causes high mortality due to homing failure at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse,” French scientists wrote in a paper published in the journal Science.


Source
Field realistic doses of pesticide imidacloprid reduce bumblebee pollen foraging efficiency, Exotoxicology
A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees, Science

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: Food

Original source: 

Bees exposed to neonic pesticides suck at gathering pollen

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Ringer, Springer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bees exposed to neonic pesticides suck at gathering pollen

Nuclear plant leak patched up near Lake Erie

by ColemanPermewan Posted on January 23, 2014

Nuclear plant leak patched up near Lake Erie

By

NRC

A valve leak was discovered Monday at Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio, causing the release of radioactive tritium into groundwater near Lake Erie. Fortunately, it was patched up by Wednesday, according to plant owner FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. It’s not known when the leak sprung nor how much tritium it released.

Here’s more from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Engineering crews have repaired the reactor coolant leak at the Perry nuclear power plant that deposited an unknown amount of radioactive tritium in groundwater near the leak. …

Samples of water taken from a monitoring point in the under-drain system outside of the building revealed tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of a little over 12 years. No heavier and more dangerous nuclear isotopes were found.

Other groundwater monitoring stations throughout the plant property showed no tritium, [FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer] Young said.

The valve was repaired using a clamp and some sealant, and company officials say they are confident it will hold until next year, when a replacement is scheduled.

Tritium atoms are nothing like heavy uranium or plutonium atoms — they are among the tiniest and lightest molecules in the universe. But they can still be absorbed into animal tissue easily and cause cancer.


Source
Perry nuclear power plant tritium leak fixed, The Plain Dealer
Perry nuclear plant leak fixed, WKSU

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

This article – 

Nuclear plant leak patched up near Lake Erie

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Nuclear plant leak patched up near Lake Erie

Pesticide in frozen food sickens hundreds in Japan

by DelilahRichards Posted on January 9, 2014

Pesticide in frozen food sickens hundreds in Japan

By

Rebecca Siegel

Some of the food that’s been sold out of freezers in Japan recently has had a strange smell to it — a fishy odor that has nothing to do with seafood.

It’s the smell of malathion, an insecticide.

More than 1,000 people have been sickened so far by eating frozen foods laced with the pesticide, according to some media reports. From the BBC:

[Food company Maruha Nichiro Holdings] is recalling at least 6.4 million food packages manufactured at a factory in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo.

It started the food recall last week, recovering more than one million packages so far.

“The products will have a strong smell and eating them may cause vomiting and stomach pain,” Maruha said in a notice to consumers.

How did the insecticide end up in pizza, chicken nuggets, and the like? That’s something the nation’s law enforcers are desperately trying to figure out. Bloomberg reports that police are interviewing hundreds of factory workers:

The matter was referred to police after prefectural health officials found no evidence of contamination during production at the facility where the food was made. …

“The company is partly to blame because they weren’t testing,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, which manages about $3 billion in assets. “You’ll see a big drop in sales of the food.”

Calls to mind this classic moment from the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Maybe there was malathion on his sushi?


Source
Hundreds report symptoms amid Japan food pesticide scare, BBC
Over 1,000 ill as Japan tainted food scandal widens: report, Agence France-Presse
Japan Police Query Workers in Tainted Food Investigation, Bloomberg

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

,

Food

Link to article:  

Pesticide in frozen food sickens hundreds in Japan

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Pesticide in frozen food sickens hundreds in Japan

Wind power boom could see British factories operating at night

by BerndHugg Posted on January 8, 2014

Wind power boom could see British factories operating at night

By

Shutterstock

Factory workers in the U.K. might be put onto graveyard shifts in a bid to make the most of the country’s wind energy supplies.

The National Grid, the power transmission network in the U.K., is considering paying factories and other big customers to operate through the night and during other quiet times. That would shift some commercial electricity demand from peak times to periods when demand is normally lowest but wind continues to blow. Here’s The Telegraph with an explanation:

The Grid said this could be “cheaper than constraining the generation” through so-called ‘constraint payments’, which compensate wind farm owners for switching them off when National Grid’s electricity transmission cables are unable to cope with the level of power the turbines are producing, such as when it is unusually windy.

Wind farm operators were paid [$12.5 million] in 2012-13 in constraint payments, but that total has already risen to [$45.9 million] so far for 2013-14, as more wind farms are built.

It’s an interesting idea — as long as some of the savings are passed on to the workers to compensate them for adopting onerous nocturnal lifestyles.


Source
Factories could be paid to operate at night to cut wind farm compensation, The Telegraph

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

Visit source:

Wind power boom could see British factories operating at night

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wind power boom could see British factories operating at night

McDonald’s will shift (very slowly) to sustainable beef

by AntoineRuggles Posted on January 7, 2014

McDonald’s will shift (very slowly) to sustainable beef

By

rob_rob2001

We aren’t suggesting that you try this, but should you venture into a McDonald’s a few years from now and order a hamburger, some of the beef you end up eating may have come from a sustainably raised cow.

The fast-food giant’s first planned purchases of frozen beef patties from “verified sustainable sources” will begin in 2016, the company announced today. That’s an important step because McDonald’s is a huge international dealer in beef — it sells more than $5 billion a year worth of Big Macs and less iconically branded hamburgers. Here’s more from Joel Makower at GreenBiz:

“Our vision is to buy verifiable, sustainable beef in the future for all of our beef,” said Bob Langert, McDonald’s vice president, global sustainability. “We have achieved internal alignment and energy around that aspirational goal, which is a big task,” he told me during a November visit to the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.

Langert says McDonald’s isn’t yet ready to commit to a specific quantity it will purchase in 2016, or when it might achieve its “aspirational goal” of buying 100 percent of its beef from “verified sustainable sources.” (The company will only say that, “We will focus on increasing the annual amount each year.”) Realistically, it could take a decade or more to achieve the 100-percent goal.

But what is sustainable beef, exactly? (Is it ground off the hide of an ever-suffering but immortal cow, perhaps?) There is no clear definition, so McDonalds is working with other food giants and the World Wildlife Fund to try to figure that out. They’re collaborating through a group known as the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Again from GreenBiz:

The group developed six draft principles that the membership is currently considering, along with multiple criteria within each of those principles. The principles cover people (human rights, safe and healthy work environment), community (culture, heritage, employment, land rights, health), animal health and welfare, food safety and quality, natural resources (ecosystem health) and efficiency and innovation (reducing waste, optimizing production, economic vitality).

This is part of a bigger push by McDonald’s to be more green and socially responsible:

Beef isn’t the only sustainability issue the company is looking at. For years, the company has been addressing the environmental and social impacts of its supply chain, one ingredient at a time. The company’s Sustainable Land Management Commitment, unveiled in 2011, requires suppliers to gradually source food and materials from sustainably managed land, although there are no specific timelines, and it is initially focusing on beef, poultry, fish, coffee, palm oil and packaging. Notably missing for now are pork, potatoes and other produce.

There’s plenty more that is notably missing, including a willingness to pay workers a living wage.

Still, the beef shift should bring some real environmental and climate benefits. Watch for more on that from GreenBiz later this week, in parts 2 and 3 of its series on McDonald’s and beef.


Source
Exclusive: Inside McDonald’s quest for sustainable beef, GreenBiz

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

,

Food

Excerpt from – 

McDonald’s will shift (very slowly) to sustainable beef

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on McDonald’s will shift (very slowly) to sustainable beef

Another ship gets stuck in Antarctic ice, and it still doesn’t disprove global warming

by HolleyN22wck Posted on January 7, 2014

Another ship gets stuck in Antarctic ice, and it still doesn’t disprove global warming

By

Arctic Climate Change, Economy and Society

The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, before it got stuck.

We told you last week about a Russian icebreaker trapped in Antarctic sea ice, and how this event doesn’t mean climate change is magically not happening.

Now a Chinese icebreaker sent to rescue the Russian icebreaker is also stuck in sea ice, and this still doesn’t mean climate change is magically not happening.

We’ve explained previously that the relatively thin crust of Antarctic sea ice appears to be growing, even as glaciers and ice sheets in the Antarctic melt and as Arctic sea ice turns to seawater. The “paradox of Antarctic sea ice” might, counterintuitively, be linked to climate change.

But the current sea-ice strandings cannot be blamed on climate change, nor on the lack of climate change. Rather, the unusual sea-ice conditions in this area of the Antarctic appear to be the result of a collision in 2010 between an iceberg and the edge of a glacier, according to Chris Turney, head of a scientific team that was rescued from the Russian icebreaker last week by helicopter.

Turney writes in The Guardian:

Let’s be clear. Us becoming locked in ice was not caused by climate change. Instead it seems to have been an aftershock of the arrival of iceberg B09B which triggered a massive reconfiguration of sea ice in the area.

Now an American icebreaker, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, is heading to the area with the intention of freeing the Russian and Chinese vessels. Let’s hope it doesn’t get stuck as well — but even if it does, it won’t tell us a damn thing about climate change.


Source
Antarctic expedition: ‘This wasn’t a tourist trip. It was all about science – and it was worth it’, The Guardian

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

Source: 

Another ship gets stuck in Antarctic ice, and it still doesn’t disprove global warming

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Another ship gets stuck in Antarctic ice, and it still doesn’t disprove global warming

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

by JEVLinwflsatfe Posted on January 3, 2014

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

By

iirraa

Hey, mainstream media — welcome back to the depressing climate-reporting party!

The Daily Climate, a nonprofit news organization, keeps tabs on articles published about climate change and related topics, and as 2014 dawns it brings us some encouraging news:

Coverage of climate change issues jumped in 2013, fueled by reporting on energy issues — fracking, pipelines, oilsands — and a heavy dose of wacky weather worldwide.

The climb, 30 percent above 2012 levels, marks the end of a three-year slide in climate change coverage and is the first increase in worldwide reporting on the topic since 2009, based on analysis of The Daily Climate’s aggregation database.

Last year The Daily Climate aggregated 24,000 news articles, opinions and editorials on climate change from “mainstream” media outlets globally. That’s well above the 2012 low of 18,546 stories, but still below the highs from 2007 through 2009, when the Daily Climate aggregated an average of nearly 29,000 a year.

The Daily Climate says that climate reporting increased at major news outlets around the world from 2012 to 2013, with one notable exception: The New York Times, which did away with its environment desk and Green blog last year:

Bloomberg News was up 133 percent, the Globe and Mail doubled its reporting, USA Today boosted its effort 48 percent and stories in the Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Post each were up 40 percent, according to The Daily Climate’s archives.

Of the world’s news outlets, Reuters led the pack in climate change coverage, with almost 1,100 news stories. Associated Press was second, with 1,030, followed closely by The Guardian, with 1,025.

The New York Times, having dismantled its “green desk” in early 2013, was the only major publisher worldwide to see coverage drop in 2013, dipping 10 percent from 2012′s level to 883.

Here’s hoping that the trend continues — and that the bosses at the Times take notice of their competition.


Source
Climate coverage soars in 2013, spurred by energy, weather, The Daily Climate

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

View the original here – 

Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate coverage ballooned last year, except at The New York Times

China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

by Nathanmlm Posted on December 23, 2013

China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

By

Shutterstock

Genetically modified strains of corn not authorized for sale in China have been showing up in cargoes exported from the U.S., prompting China to reject them.

And we’re not talking about trifling amounts here. In November and December, the country rejected more than 500,000 tons of American corn that had been genetically modified by Syngenta to repel caterpillar pests.

It’s hard to conceptualize that much corn, but it works out to more than a dozen shipments, or nearly a third of the corn shipped from the U.S. to China this year. Another way to think about it: The rejected shipments weighed more than 100,000 elephants.

Here’s the latest from the BBC:

An unapproved strain called MIR162 was found in 12 batches of corn, China’s product safety agency said. …

The agency called on US authorities to tighten controls to ensure unapproved strains are not sent to China. …

China has already approved 15 varieties of genetically-modified corn for imports and MIR162 is awaiting approval.

“The safety evaluation process [for MIR162] has not been completed and no imports are allowed at the moment before the safety certificate is issued,” said China’s vice agricultural minister, Niu Dun.

The rejections follow similar problems for wheat and alfalfa growers and exporters earlier this year, when supposedly GMO-free fields were found to contain strains that had been developed by Monsanto.


Source
China rejects US corn on fears over genetic modification, BBC
China rejects 30 pct of corn shipped in from U.S. this year, Reuters

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

,

Food

Credit: 

China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

Russia begins offshore drilling in Arctic

by MargaretteFAOC Posted on December 23, 2013

Russia begins offshore drilling in Arctic

By

Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace

The Greenpeace activists who scaled Russia’s first Arctic offshore oil rig during a September demonstration have been given amnesty, but Russia is extending no such courtesies to the Arctic environment or the climate.

The rig that the Arctic 30 helped bring to the world’s attention has begun pumping oil. From Agence France-Presse:

The landmark announcement marked the formal start of Russia’s long-planned effort to turn the vast oil and natural gas riches believed to be buried in the frozen waters into profits for its ambitious government-run firms. But it also outraged campaigners who see the Arctic as one of the world’s last pristine reserves whose damage by oil spills and other disasters would be enormously difficult to contain. [State-owned oil company] Gazprom made its announcement in a statement that stressed the company also had rights to 29 other fields it planned to exploit in Russia’s section of the Arctic seabed. …

[B]oth Gazprom and the Kremlin view [this drilling endeavor] as a stepping stone in a much broader effort to turn the Arctic into the focus of future exploration that makes up for Russia’s declining oil production at its Soviet-era Siberian fields.

Greenpeace reminds us that this is a dangerous gamble. From a press release:

The offshore Arctic is the most inhospitable operating environment imaginable. Freezing temperatures, thick ice, months of perpetual twilight, giant storms and hurricane-force winds pose a unique technical risk to any oil company. There is no proven way of cleaning oil spilled in ice and even a small accident would have devastating consequences on the Arctic’s fragile and little-understood environment.

To realise its goal of opening up more of the Arctic to oil exploration, which Russia aims to turn into its “resource base of the 21st century,” Gazprom has signed an exploration deal with Shell that will provide it with new capital and much-needed expertise in offshore drilling, even though Shell’s own attempts to drill in the Alaskan Arctic were hit by repeated accidents and embarrassing safety blunders.

Shell is providing “expertise”? Seriously? “Repeated accidents and embarrassing safety blunders” is putting it kindly.


Source
Russia pumping oil at Arctic rig, Agence France-Presse
Gazprom begins first production at Arctic 30 oil platform, Greenpeace

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

Source: 

Russia begins offshore drilling in Arctic

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, oven, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Russia begins offshore drilling in Arctic