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Is Clean, Green Fusion Power In Our Near Future?

by MauriciDoherty Posted on October 15, 2014

Mother Jones

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Fusion is the energy source of the future—and it always will be. That used to be a Unix joke, but in various forms Unix has actually become pretty widespread these days. It runs the server that hosts the web page you’re reading; it’s the underlying guts of Apple’s Mac operating system; and Linux is—well, not really “popular” by any fair definition of the word, but no longer just a fringe OS either.

So maybe fusion is about to break through too:

Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready in a decade.

Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been working on fusion energy at Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works for about four years, but were now going public to find potential partners in industry and government for their work.

….Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet….Lockheed said it had shown it could complete a design, build and test it in as little as a year, which should produce an operational reactor in 10 years, McGuire said.

Over at Climate Progress, Jeff Spross is containing his enthusiasm:

At this point, keeping the world under 2°C of global warming will require global greenhouse gas emissions to peak in 2020 and fall rapidly after that….So by Lockheed Martin’s own timeline, their first operational CFR won’t come online until after the peak deadline. To play any meaningful role in decarbonization — either here in America or abroad — they’d have to go from one operational CFR to mass production on a gargantuan scale effectively overnight. More traditional forms of nuclear power face versions of the same problem.

A WW2-style government mobilization might be able to pull off such a feat in the United States. But if the political will was there for such a move, the practical question is why wait for nuclear? Wind and solar are mature technologies in the here and now — as is energy efficiency, which could supply up to 40 percent of the effort to stay below 2°C all by itself.

Jeez. I get where Spross is coming from, but come on. If Lockheed Martin can actually pull this off, it would mean huge amounts of baseload power using existing grid technology. It would mean cheap power from centralized sites. It would mean not having to replace every building in the world with high-efficiency designs. It would mean not having to install wind farms on millions of acres of land. It would mean not having to spend all our political efforts on forcing people to make do with less energy.

More generally, it would mean gobs of green power at no political cost. That’s huge.

The big question is whether Lockheed Martin can actually pull this off. Lots of people before them have thought they were on the right track, after all. But if they can, it’s a game changer. Given the obvious difficulties of selling a green agenda to the world—and the extreme unlikelihood of making that 2020 deadline with existing technologies—I’ll be rooting for Lockheed Martin to pull this off. Cynicism can be overdone.

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Is Clean, Green Fusion Power In Our Near Future?

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Dot Earth Blog: Nature Talks Back, and Sounds a Lot like Edward Norton

by Myrna Posted on October 14, 2014

Edward Norton, Julia Roberts and other actors give voice to soils, seas and other natural assets. Visit link –  Dot Earth Blog: Nature Talks Back, and Sounds a Lot like Edward Norton ; ; ;

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Dot Earth Blog: Nature Talks Back, and Sounds a Lot like Edward Norton

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With a Forbidden Swim, Shining a Light on a City’s Verdant Waterways

by Myrna Posted on October 12, 2014

Justin Fornal, a.k.a. Baron Ambrosia, attempts to swim the Cooper River along Camden, N.J., in his quest to highlight urban and environmental renewal for the crime-ridden city. Link: With a Forbidden Swim, Shining a Light on a City’s Verdant Waterways

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With a Forbidden Swim, Shining a Light on a City’s Verdant Waterways

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Walmart is the Biggest Corporate Solar User. Why Are Its Owners Funding Groups That Oppose Solar?

by JanTearlelwk Posted on October 9, 2014

Mother Jones

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Walmart loves solar power—as long as it’s on their roof, and not yours.

That’s the takeaway from a report released today by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which found that between 2010 and 2013 the Walton Family Foundation has donated just under $4.5 million to groups like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, which have worked to impede state-level policies that promote clean energy.

The list of groups that have received funding from the Walton Foundation reads like a who’s who of “the groups who are leading the charge against rooftop solar,” said Stacy Mitchell, who authored the report. Rob Walton, who sits on the Foundation board, is also the chair of Walmart’s board; his family are majority shareholders of Walmart and some of the richest people in America.

The funny thing is that Walmart, the world’s biggest company, is also the world’s biggest commercial solar user. Indeed, solar power is a key aspect of its much-touted green makeover. According to data released last year from the Solar Energy Industries Association, Walmart has 89 megawatts of installed solar capacity on its retail rooftops. That’s twice the capacity of second-ranked Costco and more than the total capacity of 37 individual states. Of course, those figures are less impressive when looked at in a light that better reflects the company’s mind-boggling size: Less than 3 percent of the company’s total power comes from renewables—including solar, wind, and biogas—according to EPA data.

Here’s the list of groups receiving funding from the Walton Foundation that have taken positions against state-level clean energy policies, according to the report:

Courtesy Institute for Local Self-Reliance

The dollar figures in the chart above come from the Walton Family Foundation’s last four annual reports. All the groups listed, Mitchell said, have opposed state-level clean energy policies like renewable portfolio standards or net-metering, both of which are key tools in helping more households go solar.

Clearly the groups listed here are involved in a host of conservative and free-market issues beyond energy, so there’s no direct evidence that the Waltons’ foundation donated to these groups because of their opposition to policies promoting renewables. Indeed, a foundation spokesperson said that the report is misleading because it ignores the foundation’s donations to environmental groups and instead “chooses to focus on a handful of grants none of which were designated for renewable energy-related issues.”

But backing groups like this has a direct impact on the growth of clean energy, Mitchell said.

The upshot, she said, is “not that their vision of the future doesn’t include some solar power. It’s just solar power they own and control.”

Walmart declined to comment on the report.

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Walmart is the Biggest Corporate Solar User. Why Are Its Owners Funding Groups That Oppose Solar?

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McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Twitter are selling the green lifestyle on Collectively. Should you buy it?

by MosesWatters Posted on October 8, 2014

McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Twitter are selling the green lifestyle on Collectively. Should you buy it?

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8 Oct 2014 12:41 PM

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Yesterday, the internet witnessed the launch of a new online media platform, Collectively.org, which wants to usher us into a brighter, greener, more sustainable future. Great! Me too! It is part of my job.

The primary force behind Collectively is Jonathon Porritt’s blue-sky-minded nonprofit Forum for the Future, and the content is “curated” by VICE Media’s advertorial arm, VIRTUE (red flag #1, perhaps.) But there’s one weird trick here (if you will): This particular venture is collaboratively — and very publicly — bankrolled by a whole slew of major corporations (McDonald’s! Coca-Cola! General Mills! Twitter!), many of which have played a significant role in building models of unsustainable industry.

The venture does make a valid point: Climate change mitigation is going to be essentially impossible without the cooperation of major corporations, and it’s naïve to think that they should be excluded from the process. But for the perpetual cynic (hi!), Collectively could be seen as a very glossy marketing tool for corporate greenwashing:

From time to time you’ll see stories of sustainable innovation from our partner organizations, but they are selected entirely on the merits of their newsworthiness and potential to create positive change. On Collectively, we’re as excited to talk about the work of a social entrepreneur in Kigali as we are to break the news about a global environmental initiative from Nike.

However, the primary problem with Collectively does not appear to be, at least in these nascent stages of its development, that it’s bankrolled by some of the largest corporations in the world. Rather, its content is both formulaic to the point of bizarreness and largely consumer-focused: A two-year-old video of a cardboard bicycle. A piece on sustainable condoms with a confoundingly cringe-worthy headline. A “news” article about why the climate march — which happened two weeks ago — was so successful. (One section has the heading, “Brands Took on a Bigger Role Than Ever.” Hmm.)

That said, I’m fully aware that Grist also frequently covers the minutiae of green decisions made in our day-to-day lives on an individual level. The difference, I would argue, is that the onus of climate change mitigation is not placed squarely on the consumer.

From the site’s introductory post:

In our articles, we will not only give readers a great story full of useful information, but also something they can do to begin creating the world they want to live in. No action is too small. Each one offers a different way of thinking and living from which we all can benefit.

Sustainability continues to be a term that has to be called out and acknowledged, a set of choices that are somehow differentiated from a “normal” lifestyle. But if we are to survive and our planet is to survive with us, a sustainable lifestyle must simply become our lifestyle. In our collective future that must be the new normal.

And on the topic of a systemic change starting at the individual level, I also found this unbelievably strange PR quote from an article in The Guardian announcing the site’s launch:

Keith Weed, the chief marketing officer and global head of sustainability at Unilever, which is the second largest advertiser in the world, says it is important to create a global movement of change.

“Maybe mother nature has invented a solution by creating the internet so that we can create movements at scale,” he told Guardian Sustainable Business.

Pardon? Is this real life? At what point did Mother Nature (She prefers Her name to be capitalized, Keith) create the internet? On which planet, exactly, can we find the Unilever marketing department?

There’s an argument to be made for the importance of personal lifestyle choices — if the demand for cleaner products isn’t there, then where’s the incentive to produce them? I get it. But I’m not delusional enough to think that the majority of my generation — the target audience for Collectively — is going to look at a video of urban beekeepers in Los Angeles (also, weirdly, two years old) and say, “SIGN ME UP FOR THE COMMUNITY APIARY THIS INSTANT! I WILL ONLY PRODUCE MY OWN HONEY FROM HERE ON OUT!” No. Most of us might, however, be more inclined to look for more sustainably produced honey at the grocery store — and guess which major brands will likely be right there to slap a label on a jar and sell it to us? Cynicism! I know.

To me, reading about how consumers should make more sustainable purchases on a site that is paid for by the exact businesses that are trying to reach those consumers raises the eyebrows at least a bit, despite insistent guarantees that the editorial and branding staff are kept entirely separate. Rather than what I can be doing differently to save the planet, I’m much more interested in what major corporations are doing to fix the emissions mess they started. I mean, I already belong to a community apiary.*

*A complete and utter lie. But hey, at least I’m being up-front with you.

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How Long Does the Ebola Virus Survive in Semen?

by AlvaroZDDysb Posted on October 8, 2014

Mother Jones

Survivors of Ebola often face stigma and fear from community members who worry they might spread the disease after leaving the hospital. These fears are almost entirely misplaced. Once someone has recovered from the virus, they cannot infect others through handshakes, hugs, or kisses. Their sweat isn’t contagious. Even the vomit, urine, and feces of the disease’s survivors has been shown to be Ebola free.

More MoJo coverage of the Ebola crisis.


Liberians Explain Why the Ebola Crisis Is Way Worse Than You Think


These Maps Show How Ebola Spread In Liberia


Why the World Health Organization Doesn’t Have Enough Funds to Fight Ebola


New Drugs and Vaccines Can’t Stop This Ebola Outbreak


We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse by Cutting Down Forests

There are, however, a couple important exceptions. In particular, research into past outbreaks shows that the semen of survivors may carry the virus for weeks, or even months, after they recover.

For instance, a 1977 study of an outbreak in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo found Ebola in the semen of one survivor 61 days after the onset of his disease. And a 1999 study found the virus in an Ebola survivor’s semen 82 days after he first became ill. That study recommended that survivors use condoms for “at least” three months after contracting the disease.

A separate 1999 study, backed by the Centers for Disease Control, identified one woman who tested positive for Ebola but never developed symptoms. The researchers concluded that it was unclear if she ever actually contracted the virus, but that it was “possible” that she was infected by a recovered Ebola patient via his semen.

In a statement issued Monday, the World Health Organization echoed these findings, warning that Ebola “can persist in survivors’ semen for at least 70 days” and that some research even “suggests persistence for more than 90 days.”

The sample sizes for these studies are extremely small, and it’s unclear just how great a risk the semen of surviving men poses in the weeks following their illness. Still, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that they use condoms. And Doctors Without Borders—which has been on the front lines of the current outbreak since its early stages—is distributing condoms to survivors, according to a spokesperson for the group.

Speaking at a United Nations office in Liberia earlier this month, an epidemiologist and WHO consultant from Uganda—a nation that saw its own Ebola outbreak as recently as 2013—said that sexual transmission could make the disease harder to contain. He criticized public health officials for not doing enough to encourage the use of condoms.

And Semen may not be the only bodily fluid through which a patient recovering from Ebola could pass on the disease. In 2000, researchers tested the fluids of a female Ebola survivor whose blood was already clear of the virus. Fifteen days after first falling ill, Ebola was still found in the woman’s breast milk. Her child eventually died of Ebola, though the researchers could not be certain the child got sick from feeding.

“At any rate,” wrote the researchers, “it seems prudent to advise breastfeeding mothers who survive Ebola to avoid breastfeeding for at least some weeks after recovery.”

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How Long Does the Ebola Virus Survive in Semen?

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Why America Is Panicking About Terror—Again

by VonnieU02s Posted on October 7, 2014

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

It happened so fast that, at first, I didn’t even take it in.

Two Saturdays ago, a friend and I were heading into the Phillips Museum in Washington, D.C., to catch a show of neo-Impressionist art when we ran into someone he knew, heading out. I was introduced and the usual chitchat ensued. At some point, she asked me, “Do you live here?”

“No,” I replied, “I’m from New York.”

She smiled, responded that it, too, was a fine place to live, then hesitated just a beat before adding in a quiet, friendly voice: “Given ISIS, maybe neither city is such a great place to be right now.” Goodbyes were promptly said and we entered the museum.

All of this passed so quickly that I didn’t begin rolling her comment around in my head until we were looking at the sublime pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat and his associates. Only then did I think: ISIS, a danger in New York? ISIS, a danger in Washington? And I had the urge to bolt down the stairs, catch up to her, and say: whatever you do, don’t step off the curb. That’s where danger lies in American life. ISIS, not so much.

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Why America Is Panicking About Terror—Again

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How many Nobel Prize-winning physicists did it take to invent the LED lightbulb?

by FSDFreeman Posted on October 7, 2014

Green Light

How many Nobel Prize-winning physicists did it take to invent the LED lightbulb?

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7 Oct 2014 7:05 PM

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In the early 1990s, three physicists figured out how to make white light with a tiny fraction of the energy required to power a standard incandescent bulb. Now they’ve got a Nobel Prize in physics to show for it.

Light-emitting diode lamps, or LED bulbs, are revolutionizing the way we illuminate the world — and shrinking lighting’s carbon footprint every time one’s screwed in. But this low-energy lighting wasn’t a sure thing until the blue LED was invented by the three noble Nobel laureates: Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Wait, how did creating blue light enable white light that’s greener? Dennis Overbye of The New York Times explains:

Red- and green-emitting diodes have been around for a long time, but nobody knew how to make a blue one, which was needed for blending with the others to create white light. … That is where the new laureates, working independently, came in. 

It’s a good thing these super smart guys are so stoked about making semiconductors that produce light. Until the sexy LED bulbs became affordable a few years back, the consensus was that compact fluorescents would be the watt-saving replacement for old-fangled incandescents. But CFL bulbs produce unattractive light, don’t play nice with dimmers, contain mercury, and take a little while to come to full brightness.

Thanks to the innovations of Akasaki, Amano, and Nakamura — and countless others who have steadily improved upon LED technology — bulb buyers no longer need to pick between first-class and eco-friendly.

For anyone who thinks scientists are in it for the money, check out Akasaki’s acceptance speech in the video below:

Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel wanted prizes given to people who “conferred the greatest benefit to mankind,” according to his will. For this reason, systems thinker James Dyke of the University of Southampton imagines that ol’ Alfie would fancy a Nobel Prize for sustainability if he were around these days.

Yet even without a separate category for green discovery, it seems reasonable to expect an environmental bent to near-future winners in the existing fields — medicine and physiology, physics, chemistry, economics, literature, and peace — given that the survival of human civilization depends on learning to interact with nature like we’re part of it.

Source:
2 Japanese and 1 American Share Nobel in Physics for Work on LED Lights

, New York Times.

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The Long Bright Path to the Nobel Prize for LED Lighting

by Myrna Posted on October 7, 2014

A Nobel Prize for the breakthrough behind the LED light bulb honors a long lineage of inquiry. Read article here: The Long Bright Path to the Nobel Prize for LED Lighting

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The Long Bright Path to the Nobel Prize for LED Lighting

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National Briefing | West: California: Water Use Falls in Wake of Restrictions

by Myrna Posted on October 7, 2014

State officials on Tuesday reported the largest monthly decline in water use this year. Read more: National Briefing | West: California: Water Use Falls in Wake of Restrictions

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National Briefing | West: California: Water Use Falls in Wake of Restrictions

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