Fight Over Anti-fracking Measure P in Santa Barbara County
Video: Dear Governor Brown: Don't Frack Santa Barbara
*Visit Food And Water Watch
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Anti-fracking Measure P in Santa Barbara County
Video: Dear Governor Brown: Don't Frack Santa Barbara
*Visit Food And Water Watch
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Where Did All the Oil Go?
Geology Page has a great article on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You might think you have heard it all regrading this disaster, but you haven't.
Excerpts from the article, Where Did All the Oil Go?
Due to the environmental disaster's unprecedented scope, assessing the
damage caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico
has been a challenge. One unsolved puzzle is the location of 2 million
barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean.
UC Santa Barbara's David Valentine and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and UC Irvine have been able to describe the path the oil followed to create a footprint on the deep ocean floor. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Based on the evidence, our findings suggest that these deposits come from Macondo oil that was first suspended in the deep ocean and then settled to the sea floor without ever reaching the ocean surface," said Valentine, a professor of earth science and biology at UCSB. "The pattern is like a shadow of the tiny oil droplets that were initially trapped at ocean depths around 3,500 feet and pushed around by the deep currents. Some combination of chemistry, biology and physics ultimately caused those droplets to rain down another 1,000 feet to rest on the sea floor."
Excerpts from the article, Where Did All the Oil Go?
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| Controlled burning of surface oil slicks during the Deepwater Horizon event. Credit: David Valentine |
UC Santa Barbara's David Valentine and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and UC Irvine have been able to describe the path the oil followed to create a footprint on the deep ocean floor. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Based on the evidence, our findings suggest that these deposits come from Macondo oil that was first suspended in the deep ocean and then settled to the sea floor without ever reaching the ocean surface," said Valentine, a professor of earth science and biology at UCSB. "The pattern is like a shadow of the tiny oil droplets that were initially trapped at ocean depths around 3,500 feet and pushed around by the deep currents. Some combination of chemistry, biology and physics ultimately caused those droplets to rain down another 1,000 feet to rest on the sea floor."
Monday, October 13, 2014
Creating A Global Water Crisis
Sara Gutterman, co-founder and CEO of Green Builder Media, addresses the water crisis the world faces today. Here are some excerpts from her article:
Water: it is a common agenda for all of us, for every walk of life. It’s our planet’s most valuable resource. Nations are powered by it. Life depends on it. And soon, we’ll be fighting over it.
We are creating our own global crisis—whether we realize it or not, water scarcity is here. If
current usage and population trends continue, global demand for water in 2030 will outstrip
supply by 40 percent.
The full article is available below via Environmental Leader.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Farmers Generate Energy from Coffee Wastewater
A new article posted by the Environmental Leader shows proclaims:
"It is possible to generate energy, tackle climate change and protect water resources by treating discharges from coffee mills, according to project findings by UTZ Certified."
Excerpts from the article:
The Energy from Coffee Wastewater project was launched by UTZ Certified in 2010 in Central America with the goal of addressing environmental and health problems caused by the wastewater produced in the coffee industry.
As part of the project, custom-made coffee wastewater treatment systems and solid-waste treatment mechanisms were installed in coffee farms in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Results of the project included:
Read the full article here: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/08/29/farmers-generate-energy-from-coffee-wastewater/
"It is possible to generate energy, tackle climate change and protect water resources by treating discharges from coffee mills, according to project findings by UTZ Certified."
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| Photo Credit: Coffee via Shutterstock |
The Energy from Coffee Wastewater project was launched by UTZ Certified in 2010 in Central America with the goal of addressing environmental and health problems caused by the wastewater produced in the coffee industry.
As part of the project, custom-made coffee wastewater treatment systems and solid-waste treatment mechanisms were installed in coffee farms in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Results of the project included:
- Generation of a significant amount of biogas which was used to power households and coffee mills
- Water reduction of over 50 percent in coffee processing
- Prevention of greenhouse gas emissions
- Prevention of local deforestation of native trees
- Treatment of essentially all water used in coffee processing
Read the full article here: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/08/29/farmers-generate-energy-from-coffee-wastewater/
Thursday, August 28, 2014
The New Water 'Normal' via Environmental Leader
Californians understand drought better than most Americans.
According to Klaus Reichardt, founder and CEO of Waterless Co. Inc, usage and waste are not the only issues that need addressed in the state —and elsewhere.
"Estimates are that the total amount of drinking water lost each year due to leaks is in the neighborhood of 200 billion gallons..."
Leaks! Let me get this straight, 200 billion gallons of water are lost each year due to leaks? Where's the outrage, folks?
Excerpts from the article:
With water restrictions now enforced in California after three years of
drought, more and more commercial facilities are looking for ways to
reduce water consumption without impacting building user satisfaction.
However, there is a much more significant step that the state and facility managers could be taking that might reduce water consumption by as much as 10 percent, if not more. That step, very simply, is to start plugging leaks.
Water leaks can often be reduced by simply lowering the amount of pressure in pipes. Water typically leaks from joints, seams of the pipes, and other “points of failure”; with less pressure going through with the use of advanced water management systems, there is less pressure on these points of failure.
Plus – and we have heard this before – investing more in water infrastructure is of critical importance. The fact of the matter is much of the water and sewer infrastructure in the US is decades old.
We have a challenge before us. Hopefully, it will not take more water main breaks in more parts of the country before we realize that something must be done.
Read full article here via Environmental Leader: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/08/28/the-new-water-normal/
According to Klaus Reichardt, founder and CEO of Waterless Co. Inc, usage and waste are not the only issues that need addressed in the state —and elsewhere.
"Estimates are that the total amount of drinking water lost each year due to leaks is in the neighborhood of 200 billion gallons..."
Leaks! Let me get this straight, 200 billion gallons of water are lost each year due to leaks? Where's the outrage, folks?
Excerpts from the article:
 |
| Klaus Reichardt, founder and CEO of Waterless Co. Inc. |
However, there is a much more significant step that the state and facility managers could be taking that might reduce water consumption by as much as 10 percent, if not more. That step, very simply, is to start plugging leaks.
Water leaks can often be reduced by simply lowering the amount of pressure in pipes. Water typically leaks from joints, seams of the pipes, and other “points of failure”; with less pressure going through with the use of advanced water management systems, there is less pressure on these points of failure.
Plus – and we have heard this before – investing more in water infrastructure is of critical importance. The fact of the matter is much of the water and sewer infrastructure in the US is decades old.
We have a challenge before us. Hopefully, it will not take more water main breaks in more parts of the country before we realize that something must be done.
Read full article here via Environmental Leader: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/08/28/the-new-water-normal/
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Choking The Oceans With Plastic - NYT
The New York Times ran an Opinion page article by Charles J. Moore on August 25, 2014. This is a must-read article on Moore's return visit to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
"I was utterly shocked to see the enormous increase in the quantity of plastic waste since my last trip in 2009," writes Moore.
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| by Alec Doherty |
Excerpts from the article:
The world is awash in plastic. It’s in our cars and our carpets, we wrap it around the food we eat and virtually every other product we consume; it has become a key lubricant of globalization — but it’s choking our future in ways that most of us are barely aware.
Plastics are now one of the most common pollutants of ocean waters worldwide. Pushed by winds, tides and currents, plastic particles form with other debris into large swirling glutinous accumulation zones, known to oceanographers as gyres, which comprise as much as 40 percent of the planet’s ocean surface — roughly 25 percent of the entire earth.
The reality is that only by preventing synthetic debris — most of which is disposable plastic — from getting into the ocean in the first place will a measurable reduction in the ocean’s plastic load be accomplished. Clean-up schemes are legion, but have never been put into practice in the garbage patches.
Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/choking-the-oceans-with-plastic.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Monday, August 25, 2014
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