The Largest Minority

February 23rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Abengoa Solar, a Spanish power company, is planning to use 3 square miles of Arizona desert for one of the largest solar power plants in the world. Construction on the 280-megawatt plant is expected to begin as early as next year and could be producing solar energy by 2011.

In the location of the proposed plant, it can get as hot as 120 degrees in the summer. Unlike most solar energy plants, however, Solana will use thousands of giant mirrors to harness the sun’s heat, not light, for power by heating up liquids which will spin turbines. This method is essentially the same as that used in a coal power plant, but without the pollution. “We receive the heat from the sun, and we use a fluid that becomes very hot. And we can keep it hot for a long time and release that heat for a long time,” said Abengoa CEO Santiago Seage.

Up to 70,000 homes will be supplied by the Solana Generating Station at full capacity. Arizona Public Service, the largest electric utility in Arizona, currently produces 1½ percent of its energy from renewable sources. The new plant will bring APS to around 5 percent in 2011, which is important since Arizona regulators are requiring utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. “There is no reason that Arizona should not be the Persian Gulf of solar energy,” remarked Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

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February 11th, 2008 by Calypso

Work has begun on Masdar City; the first eco-friendly, car-free, waste-free, and carbon-free city. The Abu Dhabi metropolis will cost about £11.3bn ($22bn) to build and is expected to house 50,000 inhabitants and 1,500 businesses after its completion in 2016.

Masdar will only need a quarter of the energy used by other cities its size, and even that will be solar energy. Current green architecture plans, including rotating towers, will be implemented and the city will rely on emission–free public transport in the form of pods on magnetic tracks. Natural air conditioning will be provided from wind towers, water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant, and Abu Dhabi will become home to the world’s largest hydrogen power plant.

The project will be funded by the Masdar Initiative and other sources. It is hoped that the project will encourage joint ventures and promote greener cities. While Masdar City is supported by the WWF and many look forward to its outcomes, some remain skeptical about the motives behind the project.

Source

February 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Democracy Now! looks at the slight differences between Clinton and Obama on domestic issues such as the economy, the housing crisis, social security, health care, and nuclear power. Discussing their stances are Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, Max Fraser of The Nation, and Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear.

Notice the disgusting grin on Clinton’s face when she acknowledges that single-payer health care is a system “a lot of people favor, but for many reasons, is difficult to achieve.” Um, the only ones making it difficult is fuckers like you. Out of all the Democratic candidates, it’s simply disgusting that Dennis Kucinich was the only one who endorsed a universal single-payer not-for-profit system.

Parts 2 and 3 and available below the fold
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February 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Update: The original video was taken down by the BBC for some reason, but here’s one with even more footage of the incident

The Australian government has captured footage of a Japanese whaling fleet killing a mother minke whale and her calf. Hopefully these images can pressure the Japanese government into following international law.

Sign this Greenpeace petition for whales to be shot with Canons, not harpoons.

On a completely unrelated note: Romney dropped out of the race today, but let’s not pretend like that makes any difference by wasting an entire post on it.

February 5th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that may harm whales, despite President Bush’s decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The Navy is not “exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act” and a court injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision.

“We disagree with the judge’s decision,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. “We believe the orders are legal and appropriate.”

The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating the no-sonar zone. The Navy’s attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.

Environmentalists have fought the use of sonar in court, saying it harms whales and other marine mammals.

“It’s an excellent decision,” said Joel Reynolds, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is spearheading the legal fight. “It reinstates the proper balance between national security and environmental protection.”

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February 2nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

By selectively deleting six specific genes in a strain of E. coli, Texas A&M University Professor Thomas Wood has enhanced the bacterium’s naturally occurring glucose-conversion process to produce around 140 times more hydrogen than normal. Professor Wood imagines that the “tweaked” bacteria could actually be used as a potential source of clean energy. Most hydrogen is currently extracted through a process known as “cracking water,” which is inefficient and expensive.

“These bacteria have 5,000 genes that enable them to survive environmental changes,” Wood said. “When we knock things out, the bacteria become less competitive. We haven’t given them an ability to do something. They don’t gain anything here; they lose. The bacteria that we’re making are less competitive and less harmful because of what’s been removed.”

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January 27th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

An experimental helmet, created by Dr. Gordon Dougal of the research company Virulite, could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease within weeks. The device, which sends infra-red light through the skull and directly to brain tissue, is to be worn for just ten minutes a day. After just four weeks, symptoms such as memory loss and anxiety are reversed by stimulating the growth of brain cells and encouraging their repair.

“Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it,” Dr. Dougal said. “The implications of this research at Sunderland are enormous - so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age. We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves.” He continued, “This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions - for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance. But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?”

Human trials are due to start this summer using levels of infra-red which occur naturally in sunlight. A study with lab mice found that middle-aged mice exposed to infrared for six minutes per day, through the span of ten days, were able to improve their performance in a maze. An Alzheimer’s Society spokesman said the reversal of Alzheimer’s symptoms could change the lives of countless people, adding that “we look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans.”

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January 20th, 2008 by Manila Ryce