Geocentric Universe

Our planet, among other dimensions

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Bugs

I returned from the salubrious and low-news northern lands, where only the steady $2.75/gallon at the gas station assured that few major regime changes were being reported. The Milky Way was still above, and I read about Cairene gang wars, Maldive coral construction, and other highlights of the 14th century. The summer had been warm and dry, and the mosquitos were sparse and slow and generally not in top form, but wandering swarms of stable flies could be noxious. The big local issue was an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer, which is hitching north on firewood.

Yahoo has an interesting story on possible indoor lighting applications of LEDs, which are becoming cheaper and, as purely electronic devices, can be programmed to turn on and off precisely. Their low power consumption also makes them a natural choice in a renewable energy society.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Brokering

Another article on carbon trading, this time from the London Times, covers the run-up in European carbon emissions allowance prices this year, in part due to power generators wanting to switch to burning coal because natural gas is too expensive.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Dying

Detroit's abandoned real estate is the subject of musings, including plans to convert some of it back to farmland, as some groups are already doing on a small scale. The neat thing about having a declining population is that there's lots of space. (via PeakOil)

Elsewhere, environmentally friendly cemeteries are slowly growing. They'll put you in a wood casket, dispense with the stone monuments, and let you rot, just like in the old days. "They are vying for the millions of baby boomers who are expected to die by 2040."

Friday, August 12, 2005

Old, new and trashy

A reanalysis of satellite measurements of the microwave radiation that the earth emits corrects some claibration problems and finds more warming over the last quarter-century, making these measurements more consistent with surface observations of warming. (See also RealClimate.)

Increasing demands for water in the suburbs, even in Wisconsin, are putting more pressure on the Great Lakes. Happily, their defenders are staunch.

There's also an interesting article on how big grabage management companies are stuffing garbage into landfills ever more efficiently, delaying the need for new landfills and reducing cities' garbage disposal costs.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Climbing

The NY Times has an interesting article on the progress of a demonstration vegetated roof for a Long Island movie studio. Apparently, such roofs are much more common in downtown Chicago, where the city government has been encouraging them.

In arboreal news, German groups have identified two new lemur species, bringing the total to 49.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Roundup

Happily, the Discovery landed safely after a delay attributed to weather. The NY Times also reports on a study that finds that most of the increase in US melanoma diagnoses in the last couple decades can be attributed to more intensive screening, which makes sense given that there's little sign that most people are spending more time in the sun.

Maariv is taking gleeful notice of a group of California girls that's bringing sex appeal to promoting a vegan diet.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Forest power

The BBC reports on a German town named Schönau whose residents, motivated by anti-nuclear sentiment, brought out the local utility and are converting their electric grid to rely on solar, biogas and hydro generation. According to the story, they've formed a nonprofit that aims to expand to other parts of Germany.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Waiting room enlightenment

US News has an article on the Chicago Climate Exchange, a trading board for greenhouse gases founded by an economist from Northwestern. While some US companies and cities have been participating in it voluntarily, CCX is also moving into Europe, where because the Kyoto protocol is in force carbon trading is a much larger market.

The NY Times says that the supply of solar cells isn't keeping up with demand, especially in anticipation of California's Million Solar Roofs program. A big bottleneck is the supply of silicon crystals, which suggests substantial opportunities for people using alternate materials as well as thin silicon cells, such as those made by Heliovolt and Evergreen respectively.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Ozone

Interesting feature in the NY Times on air pollution here in southern Califronia, its health effects (unfortunately without enough detail on the evidence) and regulatory efforts to reduce it over the last 50 years. They focus on pollution from ships and trucks in the Long Beach - San Pedro port complex, which they note is downright hazardous to locals.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Age

The science section of the New York Times (free subscription required) covers a novel application of radiocarbon dating -- a Swedish group has measured in people's tissues leftover radioactive isotopes from the big 1960s nuclear tests to figure out how fast cells are rebuilt.

The sorry saga of the shuttle continues. It makes you yearn for the good old days of the Mir, when duct tape sufficed to keep the craft in working order. I hope that the astronauts return safely, and that we have enough sense to let the junkyard claim these flying deathtraps.