Energy at 15,000 Feet

Worldchanging reports on a wild new engineering feat from Australian Bryan Roberts. High altitude tethered wind turbines, hanging at 15,000 feet, generate energy from "average" winds at atmospheric heights. Apparently, clusters of 600 units can produce more power than a nuclear power plant and take up a 10x20 mile rectangle of airspace.


Tethered at 15,000 

Genius, really and kudos to Bryan for not giving up and operating on a shoestring budget. "A number of years ago. on a very limited budget, together with his Australian colleagues, he built and tested the FLYING ELECTRIC GENERATOR shown in the picture at the upper right generating electricity at an altitude of sixty feet on an exceptionally windy day. He has now designed a Flying Electric Generator, classified as a rotorcraft, using a single tether, designed to operate at an altitude of 15,000 feet and higher where only average winds are sufficient to generate power."

One key question I have: If we have a bunch of these clusters hanging in the sky like mobiles above cribs, will air-traffic controllers go ballistic? I can't imagine guiding 747s and helos around these 200 mile blocks of airspace with 15,000 feet of rope dangling down. However, the sky is that big, so maybe there is a way to work it.

Good New from Down Under

The Christian Science Monitor reports on a significant alliance developing between the logging industry and conservation groups in Australia. In a region of the world where illegal logging fuels the demand for hardwoods and softwoods (most of it going to China), an agreement of this magnitude shows the potential of formerly opposing interests uniting to solve challenges both parties are facing.

"If replacing confrontation with cooperation on forestry issues works here, says Kevin Latrobe, "'it will be a model for how we move forward elsewhere. We are being watched.'"

This is clearly not an agreement that guarantees a commitment to overhaul the logging industry and its extraction practices. However, it does represent the best hope for reconciling competing values on a highly charged issue. Regardless, it is a step in the right direction and here's to hoping the industry and environmental communities begin to follow suit.

Navy Sonar: Wreaking Havoc or Protecting the World's Oceans?

For the past 10 years the U.S. Navy has evaded public scrutiny, ducked environmental laws and regulations and ignored the horrible effects of their low-frequency active sonar (LFA) on marine mammals throughout the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where they currently use the sub-locating technology.

Truthout reports on the latest casualities of this sonar technology. Submarine technology has evolved so that they have become invisible to ships on the surface. This new technology will give American naval vessels the ability to "see" enemy subs. In a time of war, this is a good thing. However, the price the marine world is paying is drastic.

The Navy blasts the sonar so loudly that it breaks the eardrums, causes sinuses to explode, and causes massive hemorrhaging within the skull of whales, dolphins and other mammals that use their own sonar to locate food and navigate. In March of 2000, right after a Navy sonar test off the coast of the Bahamas, 14 whales washed ashore. Biologists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute examined them to find massive tissue damage throughout their skulls and ears. The Navy's test was only 195 decibels. The standard Navy sonar is blared at a staggering 240 db---20,000 times louder.

The debate here is whether the loss and destruction of marine mammals and their already fragile populations is worth this technology. What is extremely frustrating is that the majority of these are tests...like firing blanks with your .45, except they aren't blanks because you're causing fatalities and wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems. The Navy claims the environmental impacts are being controlled yet we still have mammals washing ashore with exploded eardrums and bleeding from their sinuses. I understand the need for such sonar, but the possible impact it will have on our marine life seems a bit high. Also, see NRDC's comments on this issue for more background

Around the Horn...

Over at Nature Noted Pat Burns talks about an interesting switch in forestry philosophy between, who else, Sierra Club members and Earth First! activists. Thats right...EF wants MORE logging. Huh?

Chris Mooney touches on a recent speech by John Marburger, a top physicist under President Bush, who was caught defending the administration's stance on global warming. See the article in the Princetonian.

Earth Justice tells us why new EPA Director Steven Johnson has raised some concerns in the environmental community. Why? Well, besides the fact that anyone appointed to be in charge of our environment by George W. Bush is disconcerting, he's failed to stand up for environmental policies that might challenge the administration. For instance the question of whether mercury should be kept out of our water systems...Johnson had no comment. Hmmmmm....Also, its never good when electric and power companies celebrate your nomination if you're a member of the EPA.

Over at Commons Pete Geddes touches on the radioactivity of coal power plants and why nuclear may be a safer option in the end, that is, if renewables are taken off the table.

Shirazi at Greensweep touches on the amazing Karez irrigation system she experienced while in the largest land mass of Pakistan, the Balochistan, a dry, arid and daunting landscape west of the Indus Plains. Maybe something we could learn from these genius irrigators...

Willie Does Diesel

Willie Nelson, founder of Farm Aid and one of the heartland's biggest advocates, has officially endorsed biodiesel as the key to America's energy needs. I obviously don't have to tell you the ripple effect this will have on industries from trucking to agriculture, but you can imagine what an all-American product (made in the USA) could do for the 2 most traditional industries in this country.


Willie fillin' up 

"Willie Nelson's Biodiesel," made from soybeans and vegetable oils, is available at a truck stop near you starting today. What this does is open up a whole new dialogue with the trucking community, a notoriously difficult group to break into. But for Willie, "its like Tiger Woods talking about golf clubs" at your local driving range. In other words, when Willie talks, these folks listen.

One hitch in all of this is the availability of biodiesel. The National Biodiesel Board shows that there aren't many places to fill up outside of the midwest. Yet, if you find yourself trucking through route 70, you should be all set. Let's hope this catches on and the government falls behind it.

Another Murder in the Brazilian Rainforest

This morning ENN is reporting that another human rights leader has been murdered in the federal reserve Tingua, about 19 miles from Rio de Janeiro. Dionisio Ribeiro Filho was a local advocate for sustainability and worked to keep rainforest tracts from being clearcut by logging companies, oil and gas companies, and land-grabbers. He was shot at close range with a shotgun.

Only 10 days ago, Sister Dorothy Stang was brutally assasinated at close range by the very people she was working to defeat: illegal logging companies and local corrupt politicians. So what were these hired (obviously) killers thinking? That they wouldn't get caught? After the most publicized murder in Brazil's history (other than Chico Mendes) these people contine to murder. The question is, how much of this is being sponsored by logging companies, land-grabbers, and local power players and how many of those companies are foreign? The worst thing that could happen here is the discovery of a link between American/European logging giants and the growing violence against environmentalists in the South American rainforests.

This tactic, of shutting up ecologists and environmentalists by murdering them, has got to stop. What's clear is that the Amazon is in utter chaos. Whatever President de Silva does it needs to be significant. Our biggest fear should be that de Silva creates pseudo-national parks that are really just tracts of land patrolled by none other than the very people that destroy them: ranchers, oil and gas companies and logging groups. What we may be seeing is the creation of a market similar to that of marijuana and cocoa, i.e. the market will always supply the need of the consumer. The majority of this Amazon wood is finding its way, either through the black market or through many middlemen, into American homes. The middleman is often China (the world's leading importer of hardwoods from all over the world). While the US and some US logging companies publicly boycott Amazonian wood, furniture companies and interior designers are able to pick the same sacred mahogany and palm pieces right out of China for cheaper. As long as there is a need for these rare resources, people will continue to use violence against those who wish to slow the market.

What's Inhofe Hiding in His Closet?

Chris Mooney makes a great point regarding a recent move by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. After 2 organizations criticized Bush's Clear Skies program, the senator requested their complete financial records "to determine whether the groups represented only regulators' views or whether they also were subsidized by outside interests," said the committee's staff majority director Andrew Wheeler. The 2 organizations, neither of which are funded by environmental activists or private interests, are state and local air pollution control agencies.

Those of you who know James Inhofe and his environmental record understand why this move might be frustrating. Those of you who don't know Inhofe, let me introduce you. This is a man who once characterized the EPA as "the Gestapo." (And just to make a point seems to think that 9/11 is God's punishment on the USA for not supporting Israel more vigorously).

And in case we ever want to know where Inhofe get's HIS funding from, look no further. Note, where the majority of his cash comes from. What's even more frightening? This guy is the Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Stumbling Towards Autocracy

Looks as though we're losing the democracy battle overall...everytime we set one up (Iraq)another one falls (Nepal). Recently King Gyanendra sacked the national government and declared a state of emergency. Telephone and internet wires were cut, flights diverted and major cities were forced into a "lockdown." The King dismissed several provisions of the constitution such as freedom of the press, peaceful assembly, speech and expression, and the right against preventive detention.

2 days ago Gyanendra justified his actions as necessary due to "terrorist activites" and "a growing disillusionment with democracy in general." Talk about feast or famine. I guess in his eyes if you can't do democracy well, you shouldn't do it at all. Whether or not Gyanendra can work his way out of this is TBD, but this does beg the question, is Nepal looking ripe for a political takeover? And where better on earth to be then between the 2 largest countries in the world? Would China cloak such a takeover in a "helping our neighbor" cover?

Smart Growth in the Volunteer State

Smart Growth is beginning to flourish (finally) in many cities across the U.S. Based on the principles of sustainable development (gasp! those tree-huggers!) people are finally realizing the benefits of sound urban design.

So, what does this left-wing fanatical communisitc engineering entail? How about not paying $150,000 a year to have your highway medians mowed and instead using the patch of land for trees which would later be harvested? Or, having 8X the open space in your neighborhood? And I bet you wouldn't mind not ever having to drive to work every morning only to sit in traffic? Sound too good to be true? Its not.

Chattanooga is on the right track with urban growth and design and Karen Hundt, a local urban planner, was recently put on the hot seat over at Grist.

Take-home messages:

--"The world is run by the people who show up," i.e. get involved in your urban planning commission.

--2 biggest challenges stopping Smart Growth: public policies in the form of development codes and all that money that goes to the Dept. of Transportation every year---just for upkeep of all that concrete.

Taking Care of Business

Office Depot is quickly climbing the list of the environmental community's favorite corporations. U.S. offices go through over 90 million tons of paper (700 pounds per person) every year. Not to mention that only 40% of U.S. buisnesses have policies favoring the purchase of sustainable or environmentally preferable products.

OD is releasing its "Green Book" for their B2B clients giving companies the chance to have office supplies that would make any tree-hugger proud. Distributed to Fortune 500 companies as well as non-profits, NGOs and universities and colleges nationwide, the "Green Book" is printed on chlorine-free, 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper. I know my office is already on this bandwagon. The question is, how long will it be before your's is? Two points for OD for taking care of business in a very green way. Get the full press release here.

Getting Going

Greetings all,

Fresh off the heels from a fabulous western adventure I've finally settled in San Francisco (not for good obviously). The northern California coast is treating this easterner pretty well although I must say, no one said anything about all this fog. Feels like I'm back in Seattle.

Thus commences my blog about tech, science and the environment. Stay tuned and we'll see what happens.