Category: Archive

Italians gasp as rubbish burns

admin /9 January, 2008

Desperate locals in the Italy city and the surrounding Campania region are building bonfires to clear the refuse – and releasing large amounts of feared cancer-causing chemicals, called dioxins, into the atmosphere

	A firefighter tackles burning rubbish (top) and rubbish on a Naples’s street

Five thousands tonnes of stinking rubbish have piled up as a result of closed incineration plants and misused public funds. Incompetent management, crooked politicians and above all, the Neapolitan mafia, have been blamed for the crisis.

But the result is not in doubt. The southern region’s 6m people are now threatened by rising levels of the poisons, which experts warn could remain in the food chain for decades.

Fire-fighters in the region are currently being called out hundreds of times a day as attempts to burn rubbish blaze out of control.

Burning one tonne of refuse can release up to a gram of the deadly dioxins, which are among the most dangerous chemicals known to man. Once released they can persist in the environment, particularly the fatty tissue of animals – and people.

Leading British dioxin expert Professor Alistair Hay of Leeds University said: "This is not good news at all. Burning plastic containers, many of which are found in household rubbish is a particularly rich source of dioxins."

He noted that up to 80 per cent of cancers were linked due to environmental factors, such as toxic chemicals.

Ferocious Storm Punishes Northern California

admin /5 January, 2008

From the New York Times

Heidi Schumann for The New York Times

Saray Puente’s car was a victim of a storm that swept into Northern California before dawn and badly snarled San Francisco.

function getSharePasskey() { return ‘ex=1357275600&en=9700b0985d99b4cc&ei=5124’;} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent(‘http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/us/05calif.html’); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent(‘Ferocious Storm Punishes Northern California’); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent(‘A fierce storm howled into Northern California, bringing blizzard conditions for some and a treacherous mix of hurricane-force winds and torrential rains for millions more.’); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent(‘Weather,Rain,California’); } function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent(‘us’); } function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent(‘National’); } function getShareSubSection() { return encodeURIComponent(”); } function getShareByline() { return encodeURIComponent(‘By JESSE McKINLEY’); } function getSharePubdate() { return encodeURIComponent(‘January 5, 2008’); }

SAN FRANCISCO — A fierce Pacific storm howled into Northern California on Friday, bringing a treacherous mix of hurricane-force winds, torrential rains for millions of residents and blizzard conditions for many others.

China’s emission increase inevitable

admin /5 January, 2008

Although China is doing many of the right things, its pollution levels will inevitably rise says a leading Beijing-based independent energy consultant, Jim Brock.

The reason is simple, he says: "If China introduced the world’s most modern energy saving and anti-polluting devices tomorrow, the absolute level of pollution in the atmosphere would still continue to rise.”

Pollution in China

China has been quite effective in introducing anti-pollution measures, especially compared to other developing areas such as Africa and Latin America, Brock told Finance Asia. But China’s extremely fast growth rate and size means that it will be producing pollution at a rate unparalleled in history.

“China is doing in decades what it took the US to do in hundreds of years,” he points out. One result is that China currently produces and burns two billion tonnes of coal per year. That will double in 15 years and double again 10-15 years after that.

“There is simply no way of knowing how the planet will cope with these levels of pollution,” says Brock.As well as China’s compressed growth curve, China’s intense population concentration heightens the pollution problem.

China, India and Brazil could double gas emissions

admin /5 January, 2008

Without significant gains from energy efficiency efforts,China, India and Brazil within a single human generation (by 2030) will more than double their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in major impacts on global energy markets and climate, a World Bank study warns.

Brazil, China and India land mass. Source: World Bank/UNEP

However, experts estimate that cost-effective retrofits could reduce those countries’ energy use today by at least 25 per cent and advanced technologies could reduce their energy use growth projected through 2030 by at least 10 per cent (and reduce projected CO2 emission growth by 16 per cent).

Obama claims green cred

admin /4 January, 2008

In his two and a half years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has been active — even hyperactive — on matters of energy and the environment. The Democrat from Illinois has introduced or cosponsored nearly 100 eco-related bills on issues ranging from lead poisoning and mercury emissions to auto fuel economy and biofuels promotion. Along the way, he’s racked up a notable 96 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters.

But it hasn’t been all hugs and kisses between Obama and enviros. Some green activists wrinkle their noses at the senator’s overarching emphasis on bipartisan consensus, insisting that real environmental change won’t happen without tough partisan battles against entrenched interests. Enviros have also knocked Obama for his support of corn-derived ethanol and liquid coal, both of which would benefit industries in his home state of Illinois but do little if anything to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Are the criticisms justified? Does this frontrunner have what it takes to tackle the climate crisis and lead America to a cleaner, brighter energy future? To find some answers, I reached Obama by phone in his office in Washington, D.C., between Senate votes.

Arkansas boffins fuel car from fat

admin /4 January, 2008

The rising price of petroleum has accellerated the search for alternate sources of fuel, encouraging researchers to examine all waste products as potential energy sources.

Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated the use of supercritical methanol to convert chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.

High-quality chicken fat is more expensive than feed-grade fat, but both are much less expensive than soybean oil.