Environment Memo

Food shortages are going to be a serious problem, as food prices rise.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) shares plummet. Why didn’t I short it?

Found on Mars (but probably not a shelter).

Mapnificent covers 17 cities in the US, and some overseas. It

Shows you areas you can reach with public transport in a given time.

Knowing how long it will take to get somewhere takes the guesswork out of using public transportation. You can learn whether to bring a lunch or a book, for example.

Don’t mess with New York. Now, under the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, an Environmental Impact Statement is required where federal funds are involved. As reported by Courthouse News

New York State sued five federal agencies in Federal Court, claiming that plans for “natural gas hydrofracking” in the Delaware River Basin could ruin pristine waters that supply more than 9 million New Yorkers with drinking water.
…
New York’s claims that the Delaware River Basin Commission is a federal agency – an assertion the Army Corps of Engineers denies. [and so] New York demands an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.

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On hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale and elsewhere, regarding foot-dragging on revealing what chemicals are being injected into the subsurface,

Gary Luquette, president of North America exploration and production for Chevron, said it was time for industry to stop dragging its feet on disclosure.

“We have used this ‘intellectual property’ issue as a convenient excuse to move slow,” Luquette told a federal panel set up by the Obama administration to offer recommendations on improving the safety of hydraulic fracturing.

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Japanese institutions are being asked to set their thermostats to 82 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s not too bad if it takes out a lot of the humidity.

The idea is tied to getting the salarymen and others to wear less clothing, including such items as Kariyushi shirts, made only in Okinawa and intended to promote tourism there.

Here’s an example. Amazon.com doesn’t seem to have them.

There are concerns that a 150 MW wind plant in Florida might slice and dice a few birds. (Although it seems the blades move slower than earlier designs, giving the birds a chance to get out of the way, I suppose.)

The obvious solution is to build, say, 10 of the 100 turbines, and see how it affects the birds. Then allow more. Such projects are only possible with significant government grants and/or loans, so phasing ought not be too difficult to require.

The site is near what is purported to be the largest lake in the south. Funny how the Politico article on these matters doesn’t give its name. Florida’s largest lake is “Lake Okeechobee at 700 square miles (the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the United States)”.

If they missed this one, what else don’t they understand? More on that in a minute. The NYTimes reports that

last week the head of a major radio company [CBS] felt compelled to instruct its programmers to start identifying more of the songs played on the air, by title and artist name.

The head of CBS radio called this decision a “no-brainer.” Maybe there are other aspects of the radio of the past that these guys could learn, but I suppose doing things that people actually want detracts from their bottom-line, least-common-denominator approach.

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