http://www.enn.com/ ENN RSS News http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40999 A new Chinese government survey of the country's environmental problems has shown water pollution levels in 2007 were more than twice the government's official estimate, largely because agricultural waste was ignored. The data, presented by Vice Environment Protection Minister Zhang Lijun, revives persistent questions about the quality of Chinese official statistics and the effectiveness of a government push for cleaner growth after decades of unbridled expansion. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40993 Wind and solar technology made up over half of Europe’s new electricity generating capacity in 2009, as the number of new coal and nuclear facilities fell More wind capacity was installed in Europe during 2009 than any other electricity-generating technology, according to statistics released today by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). Wind accounted for 39 per cent of increased European energy capacity, ahead of gas (26 per cent) and solar (16 per cent). In contrast, the nuclear and coal power sectors decommissioned more megawatts of capacity than they installed in 2009, with a total of 1,393 MW of nuclear and 3,200 MW of coal decommissioned. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40984 With congressional action on climate legislation in doubt, two House committee chairmen have filed a bill to block the government from regulating greenhouse gases under its own power. The lawmakers say Congress, not "unelected bureaucrats," should set environmental policy. Congress has squabbled for months over a comprehensive climate change bill. Some members say the best bet is to encourage renewable energy production. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40983 A new independent film from Gregory Kallenberg, Haynesville is being released by Three Penny Productions. Kallenberg’s background is in film and writing, with a focus in journalism and television. His credits include Eating Levi, an internationally successful film about Levi Oliver and his quest for competitive eating fame. Mark Bullard is the producer of Haynesville. ENN was provided a copy of Haynesville to review since energy and environmental aspects are key to the film. Haynesville provides interesting insights into the future role of natural gas in meeting the country’s energy needs. It is essentially two movies intermingled into one. It deals with both the impact of selling gas exploration rights on three parties in northern Louisiana and the promise and pitfalls for an expanded role for natural gas in the US. It can often become a bit confusing as the movie jumps between these two themes. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40981 Pyrethroids, which are among the most widely used home pesticides, are winding up in California rivers at levels toxic to some stream dwellers, possibly endangering the food supply of fish and other aquatic animals, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Illinois University. A pyrethroid is a synthetic chemical compound similar to the natural chemical pyrethrins produced by certain flowers(such as Chrysanthemum). Pyrethroids now constitute a major proportion of the synthetic insecticide market and are common in commercial products such as household insecticides. In the concentrations used in such products, they may also have insect repellent properties and are generally harmless to human beings but can harm sensitive individuals. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40977 Do you remember CRTs(Cathode Ray Tube) TVs? Nowadays every thing seems to be Plasma or LCD. Where do the old CRT's go? A new MIT study reports that demand for these CRT devices is still greater than the supply of old discarded CRTs, whose glass is recycled to make new ones. The demand comes mostly from the world’s developing nations, where inexpensive TV sets using CRTs are one of the first luxury items people tend to buy as soon as they have a little bit of disposable income. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40970 The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to tighten the ozone standard for smog will have an unfortunate side effect: Because of a quirk of atmospheric chemistry, those measures will hasten global warming. There's no question that smog is a hazard that deserves attention. Lydia Wegman of the EPA says the new ozone limits would have significant health benefits. Less smog means fewer asthma attacks, fewer kids in the hospital, fewer days of lost school, "and we also believe that we can reduce the risk of early death in people with heart and lung disease," she says. Here's the tough part: The way many states and localities will reduce smog is by cracking down on the chemicals that produce ozone. And those include nitrogen oxides, or NOx. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40961 China still faces a serious threat from pollution despite recent government efforts to clean up, the Cabinet said on Wednesday, adding the country would step up investment in environmentally friendly industries. While noting some progress at closing outdated factories, cleaning up dirty rivers and increasing access to clean drinking water, the State Council, or Cabinet, warned against any resting on laurels during a regular meeting. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40959 Carbon dioxide is the gas we most associate with global warming, but methane gas also plays an important role. For reasons that are not well understood, methane gas stopped increasing in the atmosphere in the 1990s. But now it appears to be once again on the rise. Scientists are trying to understand why — and what to do about it. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40956 The US EPA recently proposed new Ozone standards to protect health and environmental values. These standards will apply to the lower atmosphere, to the air we breathe. In the upper atmosphere, Ozone is good. The "hole" in the Ozone layer over Antarctica has worried scientists for years since Ozone in the upper atmosphere protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. According to research at the University of Leeds, the hole in the ozone layer is now steadily closing. This is a concern, since its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, the scientists at Leeds conclude. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40955 Banks are pulling out of the carbon-offsetting market after Copenhagen failed to reach agreement on emissions targets Banks and investors are pulling out of the carbon market after the failure to make progress at Copenhagen on reaching new emissions targets after 2012. Carbon financiers have already begun leaving banks in London because of the lack of activity and the drop-off in investment demand. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40949 A barge collided with a tanker on Saturday in the port of Port Arthur, Texas, sending thousands of gallons of crude oil into the water, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The tanker was carrying crude oil to Exxon Mobil Corp's refinery in Beaumont, Texas, located north of Port Arthur. The waterway, through which tankers carry oil to four refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, remained shut on Saturday night. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40948 The world is showing only lukewarm enthusiasm for a "Copenhagen Accord" to curb climate change, with no sign so far of deeper-than-planned 2020 curbs on greenhouse gas emissions before a January 31 deadline. In Brussels, a draft European Union letter on Friday showed plans for the 27-nation bloc to reiterate a minimum offer of a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020 below 1990 levels, pleasing industry, and a 30 percent cut if other nations act comparably. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40945 California has issues with federal attempts to weaken new vehicle pollution standards, but the state backed away on Wednesday from a report that it was threatening to pull out of a deal with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. The California agency responsible for implementing the state's global-warming law and vehicle-pollution standards said in a November letter that federal agencies must address two issues "to ensure California's continued support for the national program." http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40944 How good or how bad is a product from a green carbon footprint point of view? Several well known corporations like Airbus, Levi Strauss & Co., 3M, DuPont, and Kraft Foods are volunteering to road test a full life cycle greenhouse gas analysis on a wide range of products from blue jeans to manufactured steel. A life cycle analysis studies all the potential contributions to a carbon footprint and includes supplier, transportation, production and disposal. This concept is also related to environmental sustainability. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40943 Ever wonder how the western US has high ozone levels when the winds usually blow in off the Pacific Ocean? Did you think it was all from the cars clogging the freeways? Turns out, it is caused in part from emissions of ozone generating air emissions from Asia. A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising, primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is most significant when the air originates in Asia. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40939 A warning that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40934 In a recent survey published by Eurostar, travelers in the UK were asked to select factors that were important in choosing their holiday or short break destination. "Cost of getting there" was selected seven times more often than "Carbon footprint," which ranked well below other factors as well, like "Going somewhere new." This is not an uncommon experience. How we get to where we want to go is overwhelmed by other factors. Even this in mind the greening of travel continues. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40927 Agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigating possible air-pollution violations spent two days searching Chevron-owned oil facilities in Alaska, company and government officials said Thursday. Agents searched the facilities on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He declined to provide further information. Chevron spokesman Mickey Driver said the searches occurred at the company's Trading Bay production facility and Granite Point tank farm on the western side of Cook Inlet. EPA is investigating air-emission compliance at those facilities, Driver said in an email. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40925 The parties to a lawsuit challenging New York State’s participation in, and its rules to implement, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative have reached a settlement. On December 23, 2009, a proposed consent decree in the matter of Indeck Corinth, L.P. v. Paterson, No. 5280-09, was filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Albany. The litigation, which commenced on January 29, 2009, was brought against Governor Paterson, various State entities, and Consolidated Edison by Indeck Corinth, the operator of a gas-fired energy co-generation facility that held a long-term contract with ConEd. Two other gas-fired energy co-generation facilities with long-term ConEd contracts later intervened in support of Indeck. As described in the proposed consent decree, Indeck alleged that New York’s participation in RGGI was outside the scope of the State's lawful authority and unconstitutional, and that the rules implementing RGGI were arbitrary, capricious, and not supported by a proper record. Indeck contended that its long-term contract prevented it, unlike other generators without such contracts, from passing on to ratepayers the costs of complying with New York's rules implementing RGGI. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40924 Scientists are reporting that biochar, which is a material that the Amazonian Indians used to enhance soil fertility centuries ago, has the potential in the modern world to help slow global climate change. Mass production of biochar could capture carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Their report appears in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a bi-weekly journal. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40920 Coal tar based seal coat, which is the black, shiny substance sprayed or painted on many parking lots, driveways, and playgrounds, has been linked to higher concentrations of the contaminants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in house dust. Apartments with adjacent parking lots treated with the coal-tar based seal coat have house dust with much higher concentrations of PAHs than apartments next to other types of parking lots according to new research released today on-line by Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T). The main purpose of using a quality sealer is that the sealer coats the asphalt surface protecting it from harmful ultra violet as well as road salts and engine oils which dissolve the asphalt and create soft spots. If untreated areas are ignored, deterioration will occur and you will end up spending much more money trying to patch and repair the asphalt than if you properly maintain it. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40916 Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius was Japan's best-selling car last year, the first time a hybrid has topped annual sales. The Japan Automobile Dealers Association reported nearly 209,000 Prius cars sold in 2009, with buyers willing to wait up to six months for deliveries. Hybrids make up about 10 percent of new vehicle sales in Japan. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40914 The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing the strictest health standards to date for smog. Smog, also known as ground-level ozone, is linked to a number of serious health problems, ranging from aggravation of asthma to increased risk of premature death in people with heart or lung disease. Ozone can even harm healthy people who work and play outdoors. The agency is proposing to replace the standards set by the previous administration, which many believe were not protective enough of human health. Ozone pollution is created when chemicals from cars, power plants, and factories mix with sunlight. That's why ozone tends to be higher in sunnier climates or during hot weather. It is a main part of smog, that brownish-yellow haze sometimes seen hanging over cities on the horizon. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40908 The University of South Florida finds that use of cell phones may have a positive health impact. Contrary to most studies of cell phone use that looked at possible negative impacts, this study was highly controlled to permit the investigators to isolate the possible effects of cell phone electromagnetic radiation from other potential factors like diet and exercise. The study, led by University of South Florida researchers at the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. "It surprised us to find that cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer's symptoms," said lead author Gary Arendash, PhD, Research Professor at the Florida ADRC. "It was even more astonishing that the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer's mice."