Environment Memo

Back to the matter of turning off a car’s engine and ensuring that brakes and steering still work:

I’d sure add this to any test drive of any vehicle! Get to an empty lot, get ‘er up to some sort of speed, turn off the key and try the brakes and steering. Again, these systems should still work, even if you have power steering and power brakes, but would require more muscle than if the engine is on. Good practice for Toyota owners!

Mechanics take note: add this procedure to a buyer’s check!

We are taught the following in driver’s education:

If a car’s power fails (accidentally, or on purpose by turning the key to OFF), even if you have power steering and power brakes, these systems are still supposed to work–BUT, you have to use more muscle.

If I had any sort of modern fly-by-wire car, I’d sure get over to an empty lot and try turning the key to off and verifying that all systems are go. This approach would good practice in case of an acceleration problem, as with Toyotas, and for verifying that things still work, even without power, would provide comfort and some important practice.

Given the troubles with Toyotas, it’s time to rewrite the driver training manuals, and fast!

If your car does something weird, including accelerating uncontrollably, reach down and turn the key off! Practice this maneuver, somewhere safe! And don’t forget the emergency brake!

Tom Friedman discusses two technology companies in his op-ed column yesterday: Calera and Bloom Energy.

Friedman takes the tack that the internet is replete with “studies” either criticizing or affirming the feasibility of these firms’ approaches. But that’s not really the case.

The problem is, these companies don’t appear to be revealing very much at all about what they really have, so it is just about impossible to assess them, one way or the other. And therein lies the rub. If they really had something, they’d put it all out there. After all, they claim to have patents, which would protect them from being ripped off.

As I’ve already discussed Bloom Energy here,  let’s focus on Calera. The headline on Calera’s website is: Read the rest of this post »

Here’s more evidence that proper public transportation tied to appropriate land-use planning can have have a major impact on climate change.

NASA Goddard reports on new research in an article entitled, “Road Transportation Emerges as Key Driver of Warming.” In the analysis,

motor vehicles emerged as the greatest contributor to atmospheric warming now and in the near term. Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it….

We already know how to use this information, so we should get to it. Better cars, whether hydrogen powered or electric, are not a solution. We need to vastly improve growth and planning approaches,  so that public transportation works best. Besides, sprawl, and the accompanying traffic that goes with it, is bad, and we all know it.

This article in the Pocono Record has it about right regarding Marcellus shale drilling:

Few will benefit directly, while many will have to live with the impact on the environment.

Although the article does a fair job of covering a public meeting about gas drilling, it has some glaring misconceptions: one without attribution, as well quotes from a gas industry representative that don’t hold water. Without attribution, the article states that hydrofracking is

a 60-year-old process, but new chemicals make extraction from difficult sites more efficient.

Read the rest of this post »

Why should ratepayers ante up to build nuclear reactors before they are built, especially before appropriate efforts have been made toward conservation? (And, moreover, when construction costs are vastly underestimated.) If conservation can be sufficient, maybe the plant won’t even be needed.

As reported by TheSunNews.com here,

An environmental group challenging two proposed nuclear reactors asked South Carolina’s highest court Thursday to review state regulators’ approval of electricity rate increases to help pay for future plants.
…
Columbia-based S.C. Electric & Gas Co. won approval last year to raise its rates 2.5 percent a year for 10 years to help pay for two new nuclear units
…
The companies are planning to build two 1,100-megawatt generators at a total cost of $10 billion.
…

Read the rest of this post »

Bill Gates is getting a lot of press, maintaining that innovation is the key to climbing out of the climate change hole. I’d like to see him get more into the nitty gritty of his statement that

To achieve the kinds of innovations that will be required I think a distributed system of R&D with economic rewards for innovators and strong government encouragement is the key. There just isn’t enough work going on today to get us to where we need to go.

All well and good, but there’s a problem here. Or, I should say in the case of Bill Gates, who has the resources to help address it, there’s an opportunity here.

Read the rest of this post »

Where sanitation is lacking, one option is to defecate into plastic bags. Bags can be free (from stores, kiosks and the like), and after use are thrown in the trash or sometimes tossed away (thus the term “flying toilets”). Not very sanitary, but better than nothing.

Now, a group (Peepoople) has an idea for a biodegradable bag, called the Peepoo, which has a chemical (urea) added to promote disinfection. Buried in the soil, the product provides fertilizer (and soil conditioning) value. The developers are applying for a patent on this device, and have angel investors.

The Peepoo Bag (patent pending) Is a Great Idea