Environment Memo

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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It’s what the vast majority of the German public wants, and now the government of Germany is responding.

Germany plans to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022. As Reuters reports, the government

said it planned to cut power use by 10 percent by 2020 and further expand the use of renewables such as wind and solar power.

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Rural areas in Japan were basically bought off to allow nuclear power plants in their back yards. It’s difficult to explain otherwise how Japan would go nuclear after WWII.

Reminds me of what they used to say about nuclear power plants. The Titanic slipped into the sea on May 31, 1911.

The Titanic Was Unsinkable

I’m sure I’m not the only one to point out the ironies here. The ship was unsinkable, being as how Read the rest of this post »

The US Department of Energy is going big-time into more, not fewer, vehicles on the road

today launched a pilot project to incorporate electric vehicles and technologies into the Federal fleet.
…
Furthering the Administration’s goals to cut oil imports by one-third by 2025 and to put one million advanced vehicles on the road by 2015, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum today directing agencies to implement government wide fleet management practices that will ensure the Federal Government is leading by example in fuel efficiency and innovative technology.

It would be far better to have 1 million fewer vehicles on the road. The federal government could lead the way, using the internet to work out carpooling that works, as an example of how to get this going.

EPA is proposing new air pollution rules for coal burning and is currently taking public comments on them. It’s pretty incredible that, as reported by the American Lung Association,

Coal-fired power plants produce more hazardous air pollution in the United States than any other industrial pollution sources;

The Clean Air Act requires the control of hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants, but absent these new rules, no national standards exist to limit these pollutants from these plants; and

More than 400 coal-fired power plants located in 46 states across the country release in excess of 386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants into the atmosphere each year.

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In NYC, there’s a new law:

A new law went into effect Monday banning smoking in 43 square miles of parks, public plazas, beaches and boardwalks in the city.

In the last days, free cigars were on offer.

Google clearly has too much cash around, as they are wasting it here. Why else would they fund work by Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun to develop

a sort of “car-train” effect on a highway that would pack the highways with more cars

Fantastic. Lot’s of sensors and technology. Look, guys, every time room is made for more cars, such as by widening highways, more cars appear! You want a piece of that? Did Thrun grow up watching the Jetsons over much?

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Pollution in China is rampant, which of course is one major reason products there can be made very cheaply. Now, as the Boston Globe reports

China is cracking down on emissions of lead and other heavy metals following a spate of poisoning cases and reports that much of the country’s soil is contaminated with toxic materials. …

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