Andres Gutierrez/AP

Meet 'photoswitches,' a breakthrough set of materials that act as their own batteries, absorbing energy and releasing it on demand.

theatlantic.com - by Todd Woody - April 15, 2014

The next big thing in solar energy could be microscopic.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard University have devised a way to store solar energy in molecules that can then be tapped to heat homes, water or used for cooking.

The best part: The molecules can store the heat forever and be endlessly re-used while emitting absolutely no greenhouse gases.

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Nature Chemistry - Templated assembly of photoswitches significantly increases the energy-storage capacity of solar thermal fuels

Image: Fracking site. (Credit: Jim Parkin/Shutterstock)

salon.com - April 16th, 2014 - Lindsay Abrams

Fracking sites at Pennsylvania’s natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale are releasing way more methane than we thought — somewhere on the order of 100 to 1,000 times EPA estimates, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Flying about seven well pads in a plane equipped to measure greenhouse gas emissions, researchers found that, on average, the sites emitted 34 grams of methane per second. The EPA’s estimate: between 0.04 and 0.30 grams of methane per second.

The problem, the researchers were surprised to discover, begins before the controversial process of fracking even gets started.

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Image: Infographic: Social media's impact on natural disasters

thedrum.com - April 14th, 2014 - Ishbel MacLeod

Tsunami warnings were issued over the weekend following an earthquake on the Solomon Islands, leading to over 15,000 tweets mentioning the warnings. So, how does social media impact weather warnings?

Last year, Twitter launched an alerts system, which allows users to get notifications directly to their phones during emergencies whenever a credible organisation account - such as police or the fire brigade - marks a tweet as an alert.

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reuters.com - April 11th, 2014 - Edward McAllister

Recent small earthquakes in Ohio were likely triggered by fracking, state regulators said on Friday, a new link that could have implications for oil and gas drilling in the Buckeye State and beyond.

In the strongest wording yet from the state linking energy drilling and quakes, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) said that injecting sand, water and chemicals deep underground to help release oil and gas may have produced tremors in Poland Township last month.

The statement, in which the department announced stricter rules for oil and gas exploration in areas where seismic activity has occurred, comes after a steep rise in earthquakes in Ohio and other areas where intense drilling has taken place.

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A new car-share system could change the urban landscape William Lark, Jr., MIT Media Lab

newsweek.com - by Jillian Rose Lim - April 16, 2014

Traffic congestion, limited space and air pollution are a few of the many plagues of urban life. But what if a network of svelte electric cars were waiting at hubs in your city, charging up their batteries until their next drivers come along?

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csis.org - by Kathleen H. Hicks, Ernest Z. Bower, Heather A. Conley, Jennifer G. Cooke, Andrew C. Kuchins, Carl Meacham, Richard M. Rossow - April 8, 2014

In December 2013, the Pew Research Center released data suggesting that Americans’ views of U.S. power and prestige abroad had reached a 40-year low. That poll came in the wake of the first releases of National Security Agency (NSA) documents by Edward Snowden and the August 2013 Syria crisis and amid heated battles in Washington over the federal budget. More recently, controversy over the adequacy of defense funding in the President’s FY2015 Budget Request and Russia’s annexation of Crimea have renewed concern about how the United States is perceived beyond its borders.

nwf.org

Environmental campaign group finds ongoing symptoms of oil exposure in 14 species – from oysters to dolphins

theguardian.com - by Suzanne Goldenberg - April 9, 2014

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused dangerous after-effects to more than a dozen different animals from dolphins to oysters, a report from an environmental campaign group said on Tuesday.

Four years after the oil disaster, some 14 species showed symptoms of oil exposure, the report from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) said.

"The oil is not gone. There is oil on the bottom of the gulf, oil washing up on the beach and there is oil in the marshes," Doug Inkley, senior scientist for NWF, told a conference call.

In this Oct. 2008 photo provided by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation is a little brown bat with fungus on its nose in New York. Michigan and Wisconsin wildlife officials said Thursday, April 10, 2104 that tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats in the U.S. and Canada. The disease has now been confirmed in 25 states following today's announcements in Michigan and Wisconsin. (AP Photo/New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Ryan von Linden)

ap.org - by JOHN FLESHER and TODD RICHMOND - April 10, 2014

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A fungal disease that has killed millions of North American bats is spreading and now has been detected in half of the United States, officials said Thursday. . .

. . . "It doesn't affect people or other animals" . . . but "bats save the agricultural economy $22.9 billion a year by gobbling crop-damaging insects and reducing the need for pesticides. They also eat mosquitoes, some of which carry West Nile virus."

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(illustration: FoodDemocracyNow.org)

huffingtonpost.com
by Elizabeth Kucinich, Policy Director, Center for Food Safety
April 2, 2014

How much would the draft Chemicals in Commerce Act recently proposed by Illinois Rep. John Shimkus (left) protect public health? Not much.

huffingtonpost.com - by Elliott Negin - April 4, 2014

Americans have long been unwitting subjects in an uncontrolled experiment.

For decades, U.S. manufacturers -- with the federal government's blessing -- have been producing tens of thousands of untested, potentially toxic chemicals, many of which wind up in our bodies. These substances include suspected neurotoxins, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, and thousands of other chemicals for which there is little or no information.

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STUDY - The Lancet Neurology - Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity

Shimkus Unveils Discussion Draft of Chemicals in Commerce Act

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Trees, Trash, and Toxics: How Biomass Energy Has Become the New Coal (81 page .PDF report)

The report found that although wood-burning power plants are often promoted as being good for the climate and carbon neutral, the low efficiency of plants means that they emit almost 50 percent more CO2 than coal per unit of energy produced.

pfpi.net - by Partnership for Policy Integrity - April 2, 2014
ecowatch.com - April 4, 2014

Biomass electricity generation, a heavily subsidized form of “green” energy that relies primarily on the burning of wood, is more polluting and worse for the climate than coal, according to a new analysis of 88 pollution permits for biomass power plants in 25 states.

ncfpd.umn.edu - Friday, April 4, 2014

Under the dynamic conditions of rapid climate change and broader global changes, resilience and sustainability are not being achieved through traditional emergency management and humanitarian approaches alone. While community-based resilience networks are now beginning to emerge in a race to stabilize New York City's coastal communities significantly impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, many impacted neighborhoods are still trending toward greater vulnerability plaguing recovery and preparedness for the next wave of potentially larger storms.

10amCT / 11amET (One hour long)

Presented By: 
Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.
Chairman, Global Resilience Inititatives
Executive Director, Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc.

Facilitated By:
John T. Hoffman, Col., USA, Ret.
Senior Research Fellow, National Center for Food Protection and Defense

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

submitted by Mike Kraft

wjf.org - April 2, 2014

“Disasters pose questions of who [is helped] first and who...last,” said Sheri Fink, MD, PhD, a correspondent for The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, to more than 1,000 attendees of the 2014 Preparedness Summit  in Atlanta this week. Fink is the author of Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital, about the response by health providers, first responders, volunteers, patients and family members who rode out the storm in a hospital that lost power in the early hours of the hurricane. Fink was the headline speaker for the first plenary session of the Summit.

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Image: Crews manage the pipeline spill. CREDIT: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency

thinkprogress.org - March 25th, 2014 - Kiley Kroh

20,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a damaged pipeline into a nature reserve in southwest Ohio — double the initial estimates — according to officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The leak was discovered by Gary Broughton as he was driving on March 17 and smelled a “fuel, oily smell,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“It’s absolutely terrible,” Broughton told the 911 dispatcher. “It made me sick when I saw it.”

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A sampling of maps from the new government website

greenbiz.com - by Christina DeConcini and C. Forbes Tompkins

As communities across America continue to experience increasing climate impacts in the form of rising seas, heat waves and extreme weather, local and federal leaders are starting to roll up their sleeves.

Last week, the White House unveiled the Climate Data Initiative, a project aimed at arming local leaders across the country with information they need to plan for climate impacts while building more resilience. The initiative provides a key tool for helping those at the frontlines of climate change — America’s local communities.

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NOAA - IBTrACS