Soaking Up the Sun to Squeeze Bills to Zero

In Golden, Colorado the west-facing windows of Jim Duffield's office work as the office building's heating and air conditioning system. As the midwinter sun settles over the Rocky Mountian foothills it works as the heat and air sysems of the 222,ooo square foot office building. Even at 5,300 feet the sun through the windows produces enough heat for every worker to be comfortable. The office building even has speakers in the floor that play a "whoosing" sound such as an air conditioner would make, just so the employees do not have to work in silence. Meanwhile, the photovoltaic roof array has been soaking up the sun and producing more natural energy than the building can even use. Only to be interrupted once by a cloud passing over the sun around noon. Mr. Duffield feels like his building is "sort of a wonderland." He also feels that most offices are divorced, in a way from their beautiful surroundings and they need to be opened up. I agree with Mr. Duffield and i would love to work in a building that sounds so comfortable and is so energy smart. I hope that more offices and buildings take this great idea and use it to everyone's advantage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/science/15building.html?ref=earth

Chinese Wind Turbines

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/07/china_unveils_w.php

Chinese scientists have developed a wind turbine that has no friction. They accomplished this by using magnets to levitate the rotating pieces of the turbine. According to the chief scientist behind the technology, the generator can dramatically lowers operational expenses of wind farms -- by as much as 50 per cent. This, he claims, would drive the cost of wind power to below 5 cents (U.S.) per kilowatt-hour. It can function with wind speeds as low as 1.5 meters per second. the technology is expected to create new opportunities in low-wind-speed areas worldwide such as mountain regions, islands, observatories, and television transfer stations.

Taking a Dive into Acid

Scientists were shocked to find their own climate model predictions were wrong about acidic ocean water.  In fact, it was believed acid in ocean water would not be occurring at least till the end of the century.  However, in the western coast, the first signs of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf.  Not only is this a problem because small animals like mussels will no longer be able to create new shells fast enough to survive, but it’s also going to hurt the food chain as a whole.  The acid in the ocean is caused by carbon dioxide from power plants, cars and factories, which is an aspect of global warming just now being realized.  Acidified ocean water can be fatal to fish and tiny plankton as well as other shell creatures.  Although it may not hurt humans, acidic water has been spotted as close as four miles to shore near California, which is unbelievable to scientists.  However, the problem doesn’t stop there.  Scientists predict that in 50 years, water will rise and be even more acidic than now.  There are creatures that thrive in this sort of water, such as jelly fish, but in the over all scheme of things, this new understanding will only hurt marine wildlife near the continental shelf.  Victoria Fabry, a biological oceanographer at California State University San Marcos says this new discovery is basically a “red flag” for us to start monitoring what’s happing in our oceans.   In my opinion, the only way to really help this situation is to start focusing on the issue at hand with education, so people know it is going on.  When people realize, maybe changes will start to be made to not only erase past problems but hopefully prevent future acidic water reaching our continental shelves.  After the Industrial Revolution, air pollution wasn't the only thing we, as humans, caused.  We also began hurting our oceans and animals.  This is a real issue and should be taken seriously.  So what's stopping us from saving our oceans?  The fact is, the oceans are already hurting with acidic qualities, and to reverse such issues will take a long time.  Time is what's standing in the way of success.  No one can go back in time and change what people have already caused, but we can push for a better tomorrow and pull back on the reigns of pollution.  Our oceans and marine wildlife need us!  The problem is out there, it’s time to try to reverse the effects of humankind since the Industrial Revolution.

Are African Lions heading for the Endangered List

A coalition of conservation groups filed a petition Tuesday to list the African lion (Panthera leo) as a protected species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), citing the American appetite for sports hunting and lion products—such as lion-skin rugs—as major factors in the big cat's decline.

The petition was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Humane Society International (HSI), Born Free USA, Born Free Foundation and Defenders of Wildlife.
Although lions are difficult to count, populations are estimated to have dropped nearly 50 percent in the past three decades, mainly due to unsustainable hunting. Other threats include habitat loss, disease, the bushmeat trade, use of lion parts in traditional African medicine, and retaliatory killings for livestock killed by lions. Current estimates range from 23,000 to 40,000 lions left in Africa, down from an estimated 75,800 in 1980.
According to the groups' petition, at least 5,663 wild lions were traded internationally for recreational trophy hunting purposes between 1998 and 2008, with 64 percent of those trophies being imported into the U.S.
Adding lions to the list of species protected by the ESA would create a ban on the import of hunting trophies. This would "hopefully reduce the threat to lions by eliminating the incentive of bringing back a trophy," Flocken said. Listing the species would also prohibit the sale of commercially traded lion parts such as skins, claws and skulls, which can sell for thousands of dollars each.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/2011/03/groups-petitioning-have-african-lions-placed-endangered-list

Global Warming vs. Tomatoes

So how exactly are the terrors of global warming taking their toll on tomatoes? Well according to this article, they're not. The recent severe cold across North America has had the most drastic affect on the availability of this red delight. However, a battle against the tomato is not the only problem caused by harsh winters, studies suggest that power outages, travel disruptions, and injury are likely to be problematic during the cold season. Now, jokes aside perhaps CO2, the evil atmospheric agent of anthropogenic global warming, is having negative affects on tomatoes...well, no. Not at all, CO2 apparently helps tomatoes grow. Larger dry weight biomasses have been found in CO2 enriched gardens. So it would appear that the tomatoes will win this battle, however we may just have to cut back on tomato consumption until the crop returns to normal.

Mid-Atlantic Beach Erosion

Beach erosion is a problem along the east coast of the United States. Shorelines in the mid-Atlantic region have a high erosion rate than shorelines in the New England area. Mid-Atlantic beaches have a higher erosion rate because they have much sandier surfaces that erode more quickly. Reasons for beach erosion that are caused by human activities include seawalls locking up sand dunes, coastal structures like ports and harbors that prevent longshore drift, dams, and other river management structures. Beaches in the New England area consist of a rocky surface which erodes at a slower rate. This is important because as beaches erode more and more they lose their natural ability to recover from storms. A simple solution to this problem is to add more sand to certain beaches with high erosion rates. The solution would not be very affective because the new sand would eventually erode and the same problem would arise again. Researchers are still gathering information through aerial images, light detection, ranging, to measure shoreline drift at more than 21,000 different locations. These results will be used to measure a variety of coastal management decisons. I think more information needs to be gathered before officials can devise a plan that addresses this problem of beach erosion properly.

http://www.enn.com/business/article/42396

EPA Faces Pesticides, Endangered Species Lawsuit

On February 17, environmental conservation groups filed a lawsuit accusing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of changing the lax pesticide regulations without consulting with the Fish and Wildlife service. This major lack of communication could cause the poisoning of 214 endangered species around the country including the California condor, giant garter snake, California tiger salamander, and many others. The EPA runs a number of tests on pesticides, but hardly ever consults the Fish and Wildlife service. The lawsuit is intended to oblige the EPA to follow the law and to not harm these endangered species. Seeing as the EPA has been using 18,000 pesticides since 1993 and has only consulted the Fish and Wildlife service a few times when using them, the only solution to the problem is to file a lawsuit. Setting laws and regulations for the EPA to follow will ensure the protection of the endangered species because the Fish and Wildlife service could deny the EPA of the use of pesticides if necessary.

http://www.ecoworld.com/animals/epa-faces-pesticides-endangered-species-lawsuit.html