Environment Memo

I’ve been quick to share a saying of a friend from Finland a few years back: “There’s only a one-letter difference between networking and notworking.” Indeed, it is possible to waste a lot of time networking, be it in person or on the internet.  As written at Hubspot.com: … the question we all need to [...]

I’m at a water conference, where one presenter hit us with the Mark Twain quote: “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” However, as Twainquotes.com says: This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but until the attribution can be verified, the quote should not be regarded as authentic.

There’s a big need to ask, in terms of plans to hydrofrack the Marcellus (and other) shales to get out the gas:  what fracking chemicals are really necessary to create the cracks, and then keep them open (proppants)? Why can’t things be accomplished solely with with non-toxic compounds? The list of chemicals for fracking is [...]

The Environmental Working Group has a rundown here of how much radiation different cell phones emit, along with approaches for minimizing exposure.  The jury still may be out on effects of cell phone use, but playing safe could be a good idea.

There’s news out, reported here by MSNBC, among others, that McDonald’s is going to open 1,000 new restaurants concentrated in China, Australia, Russia, Germany, France and the U.S. That’s a lot of burgers and fries.

The NY Times reported a couple of days ago about an EPA publication, out in September 2009,  entitled The National Study of Chemical Residues in Lake Fish Tissue (available here). It’s interesting that the EPA website on the study has an in initial Q&A, the first one being Why is this study important?

Recently I spoke with a truck owner (who was taking out some tree limbs at my house).  He’s apparently had some experience with putting the sign on the back of his dump truck, which we’ve all seen, saying “Not Responsible for Broken Windshields….Stay Back 200 Feet!” among other versions.  However, police later told him this [...]

Todays NY Times has an article about the big swirls, or gyres, of garbage in the oceans.  A gyre is defined as a swirling vortex; a circular current, especially a large-scale ocean current; to whirl The one in the Pacific is apparently twice the size of Texas in area, as the article says.

The Marcellus Effect has an update about the outfit (“Patriot Water Treatment LLC”) that wants to truck to Owego, NY used hydrofracking flowback fluid, treat it, and then truck it back to wells getting gas from the Marcellus Shale.  Apparently, the company owner, Andrew Blocksom, told the board that he is working with the DEC [...]

I just came across the book by H. Lanier Hickman, Jr., American Alchemy: The History of Solid Waste Management in the United States, Forester Press, Santa Barbara, 2003.  The discussion of the history of solid waste management is excellent, and will tie-in to some future discussion. There’s an interesting review of this book, here.  Here [...]