Recently in Environment Category

Hearst, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, announced on Friday that it has developed an electronic reader for newspapers and magazines,

Besides the environmental factor of making paper, inks, recycling and buring fossil fuel to transport and recycle, this would cut down about 50 percent of the cost to circulate a periodical.
cnet.com

Something engineered and produced in the United States, not petroleum based, that uses our own raw materials.

Genomatica, is a start-up that that enables the production of sustainable chemicals through a BioProcess Engineering Platform to transform low cost feedstocks into high-value chemicals. The company invents replacement chemicals for commonly used industrial chemicals now produced with petroleum.

Sustainable Chemicals are those designed and manufactured using efficient, effective, safe and more environmentally benign raw materials and processes according to their website.

On Thursday, the company announced that they have bioengineered a microbe that ingests sugar and water and produces MEK without the toxic byproducts and environmental risks that come from making petroleum-based industrial chemicals. The invention can be harnessed using plants that currently produce corn based ethanol.

MEK is used in large volumes in the production of plastics and textiles, like vinyl films and as a cleaning agent. it is also used in the manufacture of paraffin wax, paint remover, and glues.
cnn.com

Cell phone makers Tuesday pledged to introduce a universal charger for handsets by 2012.

Under the scheme, phone makers have pledged that a majority of new handset models will include the universal charger by January 1 2012. The planned device will use a micro USB plug.

Last year an estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold, according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by the GSMA, of which handsets accounted for between 50 and 80 per cent. That equates to between 51,000 and 82,000 tonnes of chargers.

The GSMA hopes the initiative will slash the greenhouse gases that result from the manufacture and transport of chargers by 13.6 and 21.8 million tonnes each year. cnn.com/tech

The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. washingtonpost.com

• Increased burning of coal in developing countries to make consumers cheap goods and larger corporate profits without environmental standards. An increased western standard of living world wide.


• Arctic permafrost melting which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon and methane into the atmosphere. Methane is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.


• Warmer weather is driving stronger winds that are exposing deeper layers of water, which are already saturated with carbon and not as able to absorb as much from the atmosphere


• Carbon is making the oceans more acidic, which also reduces their ability to absorb carbon.


• More vegetation-covered land in northern latitudes appears and absorbs much more of the sun's heat than snow-covered terrain making the surface hotter rather than reflecting heat.


• Fires such as the recent deadly blazes in southern Australia have increased in recent years, and that trend is expected to continue. Wildfires contribute about a third as much carbon to the atmosphere as burning fossil fuels

Mike Martin plans to stack used tires on his garden plot in York to grow potatoes. The stacked tires are filled with soil and the potatoes planted.

The potatoes grow down through the tires and when the it's time to harvest, the stacked tires are torn down and potatoes extracted.

Mike Martin planted a community garden last year and gave out 1400 pounds of food to those who need it in his neighborhood. He's planting it again this year, aiming for 2,000 pounds of food, and he's adding a second garden for the food bank.

Students from the River Rock Academy, an alternative school in Spring Grove, were helping Martin prepare the garden for Spring this week,

Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase year over (American Wind Energy Association).

In contrast, the coal industry employs about 81,000 workers. (2007 U.S. Department of Energy report)

Coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it's down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the de-industrialization of the past two decades.
cnnmoney.com/greenwombat

Nolt's Excavating, of Lancaster County, has begun slowly dismantling the 146-year-old Felton Mill on Main Street in Felton, Pennsylvania. The project should take one month.

Josh Nolt said that "there is alot of value in the wood that's here, and material, and we are going to save as much as possible rather than sending to the salvage yard or put it to waste"

The borough, which has owned the building since 2001, was forced to vacate the former grist mill three years ago when officials learned the historic landmark was structurally unsound.

The Holiday Art Tree is back in town at the intersection of Philadelphia and Beaver Streets in York. This year's theme is winter sports. Donated articles will be cleaned and given to charity when the tree comes down.

The tree brings awareness to recycling and tends to evolve over the holiday season as people take and leave items.

In previous years, the tree hosted junk dredged from the Codorus Creek and recycled Christmas gifts.

As local artist Pat Sells says it's mostly to "make people smile".

Dave Rudolph, the city's electrical bureau superintendent, said 3,000 LED lights will be placed on the tree. That's 500 more than what was used last year.

The city switched to the more efficient lights to save money on its electric bill, Rudolph said. Last year, the city saved about $700.

It also used to cost the city $300 a season for replacement bulbs. The LED bulbs have a ten year lifespan

Greenmesh commenter JO passed along a Wall Street Journal blog posting,
Not So Green: Voters Nix Most Environmental State Ballot Measures

Measures flopped in a sea of complication and fear of the unrealistic, other than one in Missouri that sets out to gradually increase the use of renewable energy to 15% by 2021

Forced government mandates served up in politically manipulated environment of an election are the doom of renewable energy.

People have to want to innovate starting with their own life.

York County's single ballot question for the Nov. 4 election asks voters to approve a $400 million bond for water and sewer infrastructure improvements.

Do you favor the incurring of indebtedness by the Commonwealth of $400,000,000 for grants and loans to municipalities and public utilities for the cost of all labor, materials, necessary operational machinery and equipment, lands, property, rights and easements, plans and specifications, surveys, estimates of costs and revenues, prefeasibility studies, engineering and legal services and all other expenses necessary or incident to the acquisition, construction, improvement, expansion, extension, repair or rehabilitation of all or part of drinking water system, storm water, nonpoint source projects, nutrient credits and wastewater treatment system projects?

Trinity United Methodist in New Freedom, Pa., has exchanged its natural-gas-fired boiler for a geothermal heating system drawing energy from 450 feet underground. The system should reduce the church's energy costs by an estimated 70 percent.

"Why not use what's in God's Earth to heat and cool his house?" said Anne Duff, a Trinity member

And just in time as a 6% rate increase has been approved by Columbia Gas customers has been approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission beginning tomorrow.

Typically, it takes four to eight years to recoup the investment, depending on the type of the existing system, according to R.R. Kling & Sons.

A geothermal system works like an air conditioning system. However, instead of transferring energy with the outside air, energy is transferred with the ground.

The ground temperature remains 53 degrees in southcentral Pennsylvania year round. This means that when the temperature is 90 or 20 degrees outside, the geothermal system can transfer heat to and from the ground more efficiently. A standard heat pump that transfers energy to the outside air becomes less efficient as the temperature outside drops.

The earth provides a stable temperature for maximum efficiency.
original story from inyork.com/ydr

I have received quite a few responses to my last post:
Tap water vs. bottled water

There are different requirements and different government agencies for bottled water and municipal supplies.

And while a municipal supply is a bricks and mortar entity where we can determine the source of water, know who owns it, request an analysis; bottled water is more of a free market item where you cannot as easily determine the source (has anyone seen water imported from China yet?), eats oil in transportation and creating bottles, and creates a waste recycle stream.

Because water is such an abundant resource, there is a greater potential to fool the consumer through bottling rather than piping unless the bottling industry is highly regulated and the consumer is throughly informed

Interesting Environmental Working Group study:
Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants

From the report:

• Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts.


• Two of 10 brands tested, Walmart's and Giant's (this appears to not be the Pa. Giant chain) store brands, bore the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment -- a cocktail of chlorine disinfection byproducts, and for Giant water, even fluoride. In other words, this bottled water was chemically indistinguishable from tap water.


• Typical cost of bottled water is $3.79 per gallon, 1,900 times the cost of public tap water.

Bottled water is poorly regulated and 1,900 times the cost of tap water, what a deal.

York Water Company's 2008 water quality report for tap water.

Rev. Ann Seitz-Brown packs up her bike at Saint Paul Lutheran Church in West Manchester Township to head head home to Paradise Lutheran Church, in Paradise Township, Wednesday.

Area churches met for an Energy Conservation for York County Congregation program sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition on Energy.

Seits-Brown said that her congregation is considering a community garden next year to help members with food prices and reduce the amount of oil used to transport fuel. She adding, that instead of paying someone to mow grass they can grow food.

The minister also said that she has taken to her bike instead of driving to the gym for exercise.

Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles (PZEV) are vehicles that came about due to California emission standards dating back to the early 1990's. This technology has trickled over into the 50 state market.

The designation means a near pollution free vehicle without the hybrid hype and warrantied at that level for 150,000 miles. It doesn't necessarily mean that the vehicle gets good gas mileage. Some PZEV might not necessarily have high gas mileage.

• PZEV pollute as much as 90% less than other new cars.
• Fifty percent of pollution comes from the oldest 10% of cars. One 1970's car equals the pollution of hundreds of PZEV vehicles.
• 600,000 PZEV's are already on California roads.

The technology crosses over into all 50 states in some cars. I tried researching a comprehensive list and it got confusing. For example: A 2008 Prius is 50 PZEV compliant, Subaru offers PZEV in Legacy and Outback, but doesn't extend the warranty beyond California. PZEV vehicles have been build by manufacturers from Chrysler to Hyundai.

Continue reading to learn the specifics of how Subaru make it's 2.5 boxer engine a PZEV

It Broke !

I went on break, came back and the IR tubes wouldn't relight. I have been careful not to shock them. I called the company that markets The Silent Paint Remover and they offered free replacement of the tubes with a 2 day turn around. I am not sure if it's a fluke or the nature of using a fragile heating element in a tool that moves around all day.

There is another IR paint remover called the Speedheater and it uses tiny shock springs on the tubes and sockets, and costs $300 more than my unit with some tools thrown into the package.

I only have a 3'.3' square left to strip of a 30'x10' porch floor.. ug.

Previous Infrared Paint Remover entry

I have been avoiding stripping paint on an old house construction project. Actually, the porch I rebuilt 16 years ago on my last old house construction project needs to be stripped first.

Paint formulation in the past few years has been going though a transformation as volatile compounds are removed in favor of water based mixtures. I use water based paint for everything, except porch floors where the latex substitute just doesn't seem to work well.

So now I have several layers of different formulations of paint on some really sound red pine that needs to be stripped.

I have been eying this really overpriced infrared paint remover for some time and a week of vacation and perpetual procrastination seemed like a tipping point to cough up the money.

Chemical Paint removers wind up in landfills and soak the wood with stuff that may retard a lasting finish

Sanding is really time consuming and makes alot of dust possibly making lead airborne and takes away the wood.

This device works by heating the paint with infrared light allowing it to be easily separated with a pull scraper. And it works.

The unit operates below the vapor point of lead so it isn't burned off into your lungs like may occur with a heat gun. The lower temperature of the unit also lowers fire risk over a heat gun.

Energy-wise it uses alot of electricity (1100 watts) that maybe produced by coal or some other non-renewable resource. For argument sake, I will be optimistic and say my electrons came from nuclear or the York Haven Hydro Station, which has quietly and cleanly been producing power since 1904.

( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)

The York County Solid Waste Authority's Resource Recovery center was the first waste-to-energy plant in the state. Now there are about five, said Ellen O'Connor, the manager of the community services division.

By recycling trash to energy, York County saves 13 acres of landfill space each year. The plant generates enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

The idea is that eating some foods, like meat, uses more fossil fuel than driving a car, so a bicyclist consuming food uses more fossil fuel than driving a car. bicycleuniverse.info

I don't know where a sedentary person who gorges on meat and drives a full-sized SUV fits into all of this...

• Meat requires much more fossil fuel to produce than vegetables and grains; about 145 times more for beef than for potatoes.


• If the entire world ate the way the U.S. does, the planet's entire petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 13 years


• The typical American could save almost as much gas by going vegetarian as by not driving.

Shipping grapes from Chili or strawberries from California takes alot of energy.

Because industrial farming draws on the economy of scale, our food is increasingly grown in concentration in specific areas of the country. This is so common that it has shaped much of our country's geographic identities--the western Plains are wheat country, the Midwest is the Corn Belt--but it has reached extremes. For instance, approximately ninety percent of all the fresh vegetables consumed in the United States are grown in California's San Joaquin Valley.xix

This national-scale system is possible only because it uses large quantities of fossil fuels to transport food products to the consumer. It is now common practice to ship food not just around the country, but around the world. (In 2005, more than $120 billion of agricultural products crossed U.S. borders as imports and exports.)xx As a result, the average American foodstuff travels an estimated 1,500 miles before being consumed. sustainabletable.org

York is surrounded by local produce growers and this time of year produce is plentiful.

Jump to the extended entry for a list of local suppliers of produce.

The steeple of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, on South George Street in York is getting a new lead coated copper roof.

There was a time when copper roofs were the longest lasting roof next to slate, however acid rain can reduce the life of a copper roof in some parts of the country to under a decade. The lead coating is resistant to acid rain.