There’s been all sort of discussion lately about fracking (hydraulic fracturing of shale rock) to access natural gas that was previously thought to be inaccessible. The concern has been over the fluids used in the fracking process, what little we know about them indicates they are toxic and not something we want in our groundwater (the actual ingredients are considered trade secrets and not typically disclosed, though Colorado recently enacted a law to change that). Evidence has shown these fluids can turn up in groundwater. On the other side of the debate though, the industry disputes that claim and says that fracking is safe, that the fluids can’t go from the shale layers to the aquifers. Which side to believe? An article in Scientific American indicates that both sides may be right, depending on your point of view. It’s an interesting and short read and I encourage you to read it in full, but the gist of it is that yes, fracking doesn’t contaminate the water, but the wells that carry the fluids to and from the fracking layers CAN. Cracks in the cement casings of those wells can allow the fracking fluid to escape into the aquifers that the wells pass through to get to the fracking layers. More to the point, this concern would apply to virtually any time of natural gas extraction, not just fracking. So, it’s a bit worse than originally feared! Read more about it here.
Hyperion Solar Updraft Tower
Hyperion Energy is looking to build a gigantic, kilometer tall tower in Australia. Where it really gets interesting is the ‘why’. The base of the two has holes in it. The land around it, for almost fourteen square miles, would be covered, creating an air gap between the ground and the cover. The sun would heat up the air under the cover, and hot air would rise up through the tower, drawing in cool air from the perimeter of the cover. Turbines installed in the base of the tower would be turned by the rising hot air, thus generating electricity. Perhaps the best part is since this operates on a temperature DIFFERENCE between the ground air and the air at the top of the tower, when night falls this will continue to generate electricity as the ground will retain heat while the air above the tower cools down. Natural power storage. So, not only is this clean, renewable energy, but…the plant pictured here would produce about as much electricity as as small nuclear reactor (200MW)! Awesome! They’re hoping to get this build and operational by 2014.
Hyperion Energy from Hyperion Energy on Vimeo.
What to expect from our changing climate
The scientific consensus is clear – humans are responsible for global warming. The political consensus is likewise clear – we’re not going to do what it takes to avoid significant climate change. So, we must face the reality of this world we’re creating. What can we expect? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a report summarizing what our children will have to deal with as they grow up. Things such as stronger storms, hotter and longer heat waves, higher temperatures, and more precipitation.
It’s a shame that we can see this happening around us and see where our current path will lead, yet lack the willpower to alter this course. It will be up to the scientists and engineers to help our society adapt to this changing climate.
Community Solar Garden
SunShare is doing something cool in Colorado Springs…they’re making it really easy for individual homeowners to reap the benefits of solar panels, without having to install solar panels on their own homes. SunShare is building a ‘solar garden’, where individuals can lease a minimum of two solar panels. The electricity from those panels is fed into the city’s power grid, and the leases then get a credit on their electric bill corresponding to how much power their panels produced. You can read more about how it works here.
There’s something similar in Sacramento, CA, with SolarShares. The big difference I can see is that instead of committing to output from a specific number of panels, it’s a less specific monthly fee that you pay the company.
Peak Lumber
Well, not surprisingly, it turns out that lumber is not being harvested in a sustainable manner in the tropics, raising the specter of Peak Lumber in the future, when the demand will exceed supply. The basic problem is one of greed…trees are being cut down faster than they can regrow.
Of course, this just treats forests like a resource to be exploited. The concern about Peak Lumber doesn’t deal with the damage that destruction of habitats this can result in. Logging can be done sustainably, but not when greed is allowed to drive decisions.
Read more about this over at the BBC, or check out Wikipedia for more on sustainable forest management.
iBook Author
Well, Apple has done it again. Today, some people would say they made it easier to put textbooks onto an iPad. I say those people are not seeing the full picture. What Apple has done is to modify the textbook and classroom model that has been essentially unchanged for hundreds of years. They’ve adapted that model to today’s technology, in a way that facilitates creation, access, and usage of this new medium. After poking around it a bit and getting a closer look, I’m convinced that this new approach is far superior to the traditional teaching method.
The question now is, will it be adopted? A resounding ‘yes’, if you ask me. The ONLY downside I see is the cost to equip each gradeschool student with an iPad. However, even before this new textbook concept, some public schools have already been doing just that (like Manitou Springs in Colorado). Even in times of decreasing school funding, the schools are being challenged to be more innovative, more resourceful, more efficient, and more effective…and this presents a very compelling argument for them.
What a fantastic age we live in.
Melting permafrost
The very name ‘permafrost’ implies permanently frozen, but thanks to global warming, that’s changing…the permafrost is melting. Why should you care? Because frozen within is a very, very large amount of greenhouse gasses (methane AND CO2). Scientists estimate that the gasses released from permafrost will eventually be about 15% of that produced by our human activities. So, not exactly mind-blowing, but when you consider that we’re already failing to reduce emissions to the levels necessary to avert catastrophic global warming, this will make it just that much harder for us to do so.
Face it. We, as a species, lack the will power, resolve, and courage to change our habits and avert the global warming that most scientists believe will happen. It’s the sad truth that I’ve become resigned to, unless we can find a source of energy that is so cheap as to make fossil fuels outrageously expensive by comparison. Greed and fear are some of the most basic human motivators; fear of a warming climate is insufficient, so we must appeal to peoples’ greed and provide a clean, renewable, zero emission energy source that is incredibly cheap. Solar and wind are interesting, but both require large capital expense up front so don’t meet the ‘cheap’ criteria (payback needs to be in a matter of months, not years!).
DIY glowsticks
Way cool – DIY glowsticks! What a great science experiment to do with kids.
Source: How-to-Geek
Antibacterial steel
Yesterday I wrote about the dangerous of evolving antibiotic resistant bacteria. I’m convinced that globally, we won’t be able to decrease the usage of antibiotics enough to prevent the evolution of those bacteria, so instead we need to focus on technologies to fight them. One cool one is a new metal alloy, that adds silver, nitrogen, and carbon to the surface of a stainless steel alloy. The result is metal that helps prevent the spread of any bacteria (well, until they become resistant to that…!). Read more here.
A similar approach uses a special coating (paint-like), applied to any surface, that kills MRSA bacteria. It uses a special enzyme to directly target MRSA. The applications are probably pretty limited for now, but it illustrates one way that technology will likely be used in the future to combat this problem.
Superbugs
Antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ are perhaps one of the scariest byproducts of our modern lifestyle and society. The gist of it is, bacteria, like any living organism, evolves to survive in its environment. When exposed to antibiotics, some bacteria may have traits or mutations that help them survive longer than others; this can be passed on to future generations if they survive. Over time and with more exposure to antibiotics, they can grow stronger and stronger. NDM-1 is a new bug in the wild that appears resistant to ALL antibiotics, MRSA is another (though MRSA can still be treated, to some extent). Antibiotic use in cattle is believed to be a big cause of the creation of superbugs like these, so it’s a bit of a surprise lately that the FDA announced it will no longer regulate the use of antibiotics in cattle! This is in spite of studies showing a large percentage of meat samples (~50%) had MRSA. A letter from a group of medical and health professionals stated,
The evidence is so strong of a link between misuse of antibiotics in food animals and human antibiotic resistance that FDA and Congress should be acting much more boldly and urgently to protect these vital drugs for human illness.
The issue is serious enough that there’s even a lawsuit against the FDA, claiming the agency is not doing enough about this health threat.
If you care about issues like these, go read the full article at the New York Times for yourself. This issue is not confined to the FDA or cattle, this is about the use of antibiotics globally. We’d be fools to expect human behavior to change enough to eliminate this problem; rather, we need to recognize the changes we are creating in our environment, and pursue technologies that can help alleviate the problem we’re creating.