Scientific American Topic - Green Technology

Can Scrap Paper Save Haiti's Remaining Forests?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:05:00 EST

Two years ago, the Carrefour Feuilles (pronounced "kar-ah-fur fay") neighborhood was considered too dangerous for U.N. peacekeepers who were not protected by armored vehicles. And even today, a dozen or so Sri Lankan troops garrisoned here nervously stand watch behind heavy fortifications.

But Carrefour Fueilles has turned out to be perfect for an experimental solid waste processing and recycling plant set up by people who live in the neighborhood.

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Natural Gas Drilling Produces Radioactive Wastewater

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:20:00 EST

As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It's radioactive. And they have yet to say how they'll deal with it.

The information comes from New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation , which analyzed 13 samples of wastewater brought thousands of feet to the surface from drilling and found that they contain levels of radium 226, a derivative of uranium, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.

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Recreational Boat Motors Get Greener with New EPA Emission Standards

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that hybrid engine technology is now being used to power boats. What’s happening with that? --D. Smith, Portland, ME [More]

Colliding White Dwarfs May Mimic Supernovae Used to Gauge Astronomical Distances

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST

Stellar explosions known as type Ia supernovae have proved invaluable to astrophysicists as markers of cosmic distance. Their brightness and consistency in observed properties allow astronomers to use them as "standard candles" to determine distances to objects in the sky. Just a decade ago type Ia supernovae took center stage when researchers harnessed them as evidence that the universe is accelerating in its expansion under the sway of a previously undiscovered influence known as dark energy. [More]

What will it take to force political action on climate change?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:21:00 EST

As utilities fire up their "clean coal" machines and international negotiators haggle over the precise definition of a tree , only one entity has the courage to stand and deliver the hot air the world so desperately craves on climate change: the U.S. Senate. After a hectic couple of weeks, filled with Republican walkouts and Democratic intransigence, the Senate's Environment and Public Works committee has pushed a bill to the Senate floor that would cut carbon dioxide. [More]

First Look at Carbon Capture and Storage in a West Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plant [Slide Show]

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:01:00 EST

NEW HAVEN, W.Va.--A 100-story smokestack belches a roiling, white cloud of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other leftover gases after burning daily as much as 12,000 tons of coal at the Mountaineer Power Plant --a total of 3.5 million tons a year. The facility just outside the town of New Haven boasts a single 65-meter-high boiler capable of generating enough steam to pump out 1,300 megawatts of electricity--enough to power nearly one million average American homes a month--continuously. And now roughly 1.5 percent of the CO 2 billowing from its stack is being captured in an industrial unit rising from the concrete in its shadow and then pumped underground for storage. In case you were wondering, this last phase is called "clean coal". [More]

Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite: Pest Management Proves More Effective Than Pesticides

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:04:00 EST

In a large apartment building, it’s impossible to avoid the neighbors. You can hear the Bruce Springsteen that the tenant in 7B cranks while vacuuming, the kids in 8A directly above tromping around, and if someone decides to paint, the fumes reach everyone on the floor. So when a building supervisor notified owners in a sixty-unit co-op building in Brooklyn that one of the apartments had a bedbug infestation, Eddie Rosenthal feared that it was only a matter of time until the bugs spread to his home. [More]

Can Closing the Ozone Hole Also Help Combat Climate Change?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:31:00 EST

Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse culprit in human-generated global warming , most scientists agree, but CO 2 itself, and a handful of other substances, are now being promoted as good alternatives to commonly used refrigerants that threaten Earth's atmosphere and climate. [More]

Being Green: 10 Earth-Friendly Habits You Can Adopt

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:27:00 EST

A Bus with Legs Remember the good ol’ days when kids walked to school? Those treks weren’t as rough as some people recall them--five miles through the snow, uphill both ways!--but they did burn calories instead of fossil fuels. Today kids need more opportunities for exercise, but many parents feel it’s not safe for them to walk alone. One simple solution is to organize a “walking school bus” or “bicycle train” for your neighborhood, with one or more adults supervising a group of children traveling together. It’s a good way to build muscles and communities. For details on how to get started, see www.walkingschoolbus.org . [More]

Capturing Carbon Dioxide

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:08 EST

That's the sound of clean coal. Well, cleaner coal. A relatively small unit attached to the smokestack at the Mountaineer Power Plant in West Virginia is capturing some 1.5 percent of the carbon dioxide the coal-fired plant would otherwise belch into the sky.

The loud thrum comes from the whirring of fans that cool the flue gas and the jostling of an agitator that keeps things moving in the tower where the reaction to actually capture the CO 2 takes place. There’s also the chug of the compressor, which turns the odorless, colorless greenhouse gas into a milky liquid at 1,400 pounds per square inch (psi).

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Is the World Outsourcing Its Greenhouse Emissions to China?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: Has China been making any progress reducing its output of global warming gases, and/or in tackling other environmental problems? --Bill W., Saugus, MA [More]

Al Gore advocates for gender equality, political action to slow climate change

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:20:00 EST

Slowing climate change is neither inevitable nor impossible, former Vice President Al Gore said in a speech Tuesday night in New York City. Gore, who was launching his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis , said that he has "absolute conviction that we have all the tools to solve [several] climate crises." [More]

Buying Green: 9 Goods for Sustainable Living [Slide Show]

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:13:00 EST

With the holiday shopping season around the corner, don't forget the eco-lover on your list. [More]

Government Incentives Can Help Finance Energy-Efficient Home Improvements

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: Since Obama took office, have any new incentives been put in place for homeowners looking to increase energy efficiency and reduce the overall environmental footprints of their homes? --Rob Felton, Little Rock, AK [More]

The Future of Cars (preview)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

For a glimpse into what automobiles will be like 20 years from now, contributing editor Stuart F. Brown conducted a group interview with executives at General Motors, Tesla Motors and Toyota and also spoke separately with a program manager at the Electric Power Research Institute. The interviewees, whose comments have been edited for length, foresee increased communication among cars and a combination of vehicle types. Some, like Tesla’s current sports cars, will draw their energy from a battery pack. Others, in common with today’s Toyota’s Prius and the 2010 Chevy Volt, will be hybrid designs, relying on both electric motors and small internal-combustion engines. Many forthcoming hybrids will charge batteries by plugging into the electric grid, and hydrogen fuel cells might be a reality. But that is not all that the participants see. Read on. --The Editors

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Wireless tech taking a toll on Earth science and astronomy

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:35:00 EST

Nearly lost amidst the breathless anticipation of all things wireless--whether it's the latest smart phone, free Internet hot spot or GPS navigation system--is the potential impact these gadgets may have on scientific instruments that likewise need access to the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet the proliferation of wireless technologies, licensed and otherwise, grabbing increasingly more spectrum bandwidth is interfering significantly with scientists' ability to monitor radio emissions from the Earth and space that "yield vital information" about our planet and its place in the universe, according to a report released Monday by the National Research Council's Scientific Use of the Radio Spectrum committee . [More]

Mining for Algae: Could Abandoned Mines Help Grow Biofuel?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:21:00 EST

Backers of algae-based biofuels tout the simplicity of their feedstock. Sunlight and water are all that's needed to convert carbon dioxide into fuel.

Now, some scientists are testing the notion that sunlight might be optional.

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Calling all solar enthusiasts: Tell me about your system!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:16:00 EST

Editor's Note: Scientific American 's George Musser will be chronicling his experiences installing solar panels in Solar at Home (formerly 60-Second Solar). Read his introduction here and see all posts here .

Have you installed a grid-connected solar array on your home? If so, I'd love to hear about your experience! I'm planning to pull together a series of blog posts that surveys the variety of projects out there to see what common themes emerge. Please contact me offline at solarathome@sciam.com and summarize what you've done: the size of the system, its performance, your location, the subsidies (if any) you've taken advantage of, any problems you encountered, whatever. If you're blogging about it, include the URL and I'll link to it.

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Joining the Energy Underground: Residential Geothermal Power Systems

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: I'd like to know the relative electricity cost of utility-scale solar and wind plants versus rooftop residential solar. In other words, how can I know whether to subsidize my utility's alternative-energy plant or renovate my own home? -- Randy Wilson, Flagstaff, AZ

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A Clunker of a Climate Policy

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

The Cash for Clunkers program offers a cautionarytale for the future of climate change control. The federal program paid individuals up to $4,500 to replace their “clunker” automobiles with new, higher-mileage vehicles. Part of the purpose was to give a lift to the ailing auto industry. Another part, at least it was claimed, was to mitigate climate change by getting old high-carbon-emissions vehicles off the road. But billions of dollars were spent quickly without clear answers on what we were getting for our money.

The broad principle of climate change mitigation is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the combustion of fossil fuels, to target levels at the minimum net cost to society. There are many ways to reduce emissions: drive more efficient or electrically powered vehicles; produce electricity with renewable energy sources; capture CO 2 from power plants and store it geologically; restart the nuclear power sector; weatherproof homes to reduce energy for heating and cooling.... The list is long, with different time horizons, costs and uncertainties.

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