Monthly Archives: February 2011

A case for happy pills

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Mark Walker's latest piece is up in the Journal of Well-Being: "Happy-People-Pills For All." Abstract:

It is argued that we have a moral duty to create, and make available, advanced pharmacological agents to boost the happiness of those in the normal, i.e., the non-depressed, range of happiness. Happiness, conceived as a propensity to positive moods, is a quantitative trait with a sizeable genetic component. One means to boost the happiness of those in the normal range is to test the efficacy of antidepressants for enhancement. A second possibility is to model new pharmacologicals based on the genetics of the happiest amongst us, that is, the hyperthymic. The suggestion, in other words, is to “reverse engineer” the hyperthymic: to investigate what makes the hyperthymic genetically and physiologically different and then put what they have into pill form. To the ‘Brave New World’ objection, that there is more to wellbeing than happiness and that taking happy-people-pills will require the sacrifice of these other aspects of wellbeing, it is countered that contemporary social science research supports the view that happiness promotes achievement in the ‘higher’ endeavors of humanity, including work, love and virtue. In other words, happiness promotes acquisition of traits valued by perfectionists. Those born with genes for hyperthymia, on average, tend to be doubly blessed: they are happier and achieve more than the rest of the population. Happy-people-pills are a means to allow everyone else to share in this good fortune. The paper seeks to rebut two further criticisms: that happy-people-pills will lead to emotional inappropriateness and inauthentic happiness. Finally, it is argued that depending on the view about the role of government in individual welfare, either government has a positive duty to develop happy-people-pills, or government has a duty not to interfere with private companies that seek to develop such pharmacological agents.

Link to PDF.


Using synthetic life to explore outer space

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Lou Friedman's yawn-inducing article about the 100-Year Starship Study workshop has at least one interesting snippet of information:

One really provocative idea using information technology was advanced by microbiologist Craig Venter: sending signals from Earth with information to create synthetic life out of constituents on a complex Earth-like planet in another star system. That would be interstellar flight at the speed of light, so long as that synthetic life could signal us about their success. It is pretty way out—but maybe less so than sending actual humans on the voyage.

Despite this very visionary idea, the article makes me laugh, especially when Friedman notes, "If we are creating the future for humans in the universe, we must occasionally look at where we are going." I don't really think we're creating the future for humans in the universe—and NASA and DARPA of all institutions should be aware of this. As I`ve noted on this blog to the point of nausea, space will be explored by our post-biological descendants—if at all.


China’s proposed megabus

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Check out the Chinese megabus: Also referred to as a mega-straddle bus, it will straddle the road allowing it to pass over the normal road traffic on China’s busy city streets. The buses will be 6 meters (18 feet) wide and 4.5 meters (13.5 feet) high which means they'll take up two road lanes, while still being low enough to get under most of the cities overpasses.

Each of these mega-buses will carry up to 1,200 passengers while blanketing other commuters. They will be electric powered, using a relay charging system that would recharge the bus as it is traveling by maintaining contact with at least one high-power electrical conductor that makes contact with the roof of the bus. The mega-bus either be on a railway style system (similar to trolly cars) or equipped with laser sensing cameras using regular tires following a painted line. The cost savings of this opposed to underground methods are over 90%.

The Chinese are serious about rolling this project out. The Mentougou district of Beijing laid out 186 km of tracks at the end of 2010 for a pilot program. If all goes according to plan, mega-buses will make an appearance in the many megacities right across China. And the good news is that it’s expected to save up to 860 tons of fuel per year, and reducing 2,640 tons of carbon emissions.

Via.


Using EEG for meditation training [quantified self]

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Beer van Geer - Project Dagaz from Quantified Self Amsterdam on Vimeo.

From the Amsterdam QS Show&Tell Meetup group: Beer van Geer explains his award-winning Dagaz Project. His application uses the Neurosky EEG headset to quantify brainwaves during meditation on Mandala symbols. Meditation students and practitioners can observe their progress in real-time.

This is very cool considering the recent news indicating that meditation can change the structure of the brain.

Via Quantified Self.


Cyborg professor implants "third eye" to back of his head

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Via Singularity Hub:

Never question the resolve of an artist. First off, they are crazy enough to do anything. More importantly, some of them are secretly cyborgs. NYU Professor Wafaa Bilal announced his intent to install a camera on the back of his head earlier this season, and, true to his word, he is now walking around with the device surgically implanted. Bilal, an Iraq-born artist, has a history of controversial projects aimed at getting audiences to explore the limits and boundaries of society. Now, his backwards facing camera will stream the part of the world he never sees to visitors at the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. The art project, entitled “The 3rd I” will go live on December 15th and continue for a year. Take a look at the cybernetic camera and listen to Bilal explain his work in the video from the Associated Press below. Two hours of surgery with nothing but local anesthesia – well, no one said becoming a cyborg (or an artist) was easy.

Check out Bilal's website.


Exercise triggers heart-healing genetic program

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It's widely known that regular exercise has metabolic and cardiovascular benefits, but until recently scientists weren't exactly sure why this is the case. A recent study, however, offers some of the first molecular-level insights.

Studies on mice indicate that exercise turns on a genetic program that leads the heart to grow as heart muscle cells divide. The shift in activity is driven in part by a single transcription factor--a gene that controls other genes. This gene, called C/EBPb, was known to play important roles in other parts of the body, but this is the first evidence for its influence in the heart.

"We've identified a pathway involved in beneficial cardiac hypertrophy – the good kind of heart growth," said Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard Medical School.

"This is yet another reason to keep on exercising," said Anthony Rosenzweig of Harvard Medical School. "In the longer term, by understanding the pathways that benefit the heart with exercise, we may be able to exploit those for patients who aren't able to exercise. If there were a way to modulate the same pathway in a beneficial way, it would open up new avenues for treatment."

Researchers also suspect that there may also be ways to optimize training regimens such that they tap into this natural mechanism more efficiently.

It was previously known that heart muscle adapts to increased pressure and volume by increasing in size. That's true in the case of exercise as it is in pathological conditions including high blood pressure. But in disease states, as opposed to exercise, those changes to the heart can ultimately lead to heart failure and arrhythmias.

The new evidence also gives important biological insights into the heart's potential for regeneration of muscle.

Rosenzweig said it will be important in future studies to explore all of the players in the pathway and to provide even more definitive evidence that exercise leads to an increased rate of cell proliferation in heart muscle.

Source.


DARPA to develop new unified mathematical language for military

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DARPA is working to create a unified mathematical language for everything the military sees or hears:

The armed forces are overwhelmed by all the data its various sensors are sniffing out. They want a single data stream that combines drone video feeds, cell phone intercepts, and targeting radar. Darpa’s solution, found in the brand-new Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation, and Execution program is to design an algorithm that teaches the sensors how to interpret the world — how to think, how to learn and what data, accordingly to collect.

Sensors “process their signals as if they were seeing the world anew at every instant,” Darpa laments in its call for algorithms. To put it in Philosophy 101 terms, existence is, to a sensor, what William James called a “blooming, buzzing confusion“: an unmediated series of events to be vacuumed up, leaving an analyst overloaded with unsorted data. Wouldn’t it be better if a sensor could be taught how to filter the world through a perceptual prism, anticipating what the analyst needs to know?

That’s the specific military application of MSEE. But to get there, Darpa takes a rather unconventional path. To get the “economy and efficiency that derives from an intrinsic, objective-driven unification of sensing and exploitation,” it wants to create an “intrinsically integrated” algorithm for the machines to interpret reality. “All proposed research must describe a unifying mathematical formalism that incorporates stochasticity fundamentally,” Darpa tells would-be designers.

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Genetic architecture and the radical transformation of planet Earth

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Seoul Commune 2026: Reconfiguring Towers in the Park, by the Korean office for architecture Mass Studies. Source.

Genetic architecture is an exciting, promising, and highly conceptual field that suggests we can bridge the gap between biology, artificial intelligence, and architecture. The end of result would see not just the integration of living and inert matter, but the transformation of the entire planet itself. Karl Chu, a leading figure in this area, calls it the "architecture of possible worlds." And he isn't thinking small.

Chu acknowledges that a future in which genetic architecture exists will be one in which humanity has gone through a number of paradigm shifts. He envisions a future in which humans have migrated to post-humanity and exist as "multiple beings" who take part in the emergent collective that is the "global brain." Because Chu considers architecture as an extension of the human and post-human being, he sees great potential for architecture to radically evolve along with its inhabitants and designers. The possibilities are staggering.

Genetic architecture can incorporate creative surroundings. Source.

As part of this vision, Chu and other genetic architects imagine buildings and other objects of our design as being transformed into living entities (if not beings) endowed with certain levels of intelligence and capacities. It will twist our notions of what we have traditionally considered to be lifeless objects, as much of our environment will become endowed with life and even intelligence.

Future "genetic buildings" could, for example, be self-assessing, self-healing and self-modifying, thus minimizing their need to be repaired or maintained by external sources. They will morph, process, and react. These buildings could even meet the needs of its inhabitants by sensing the moods or health of its occupants and act accordingly. Needless to say, the potential for sustainability is substantial.

Concept research: New skin living material. Source.

Chu also notes that genetic architects are not trying to imitate or copy biology. Rather, they are looking to significantly expand the space of possible intentional design through the integration of artificial intelligence and biological processes. He looks at our planet as eventually becoming a massive computing system—a very literal take on the concept of the global brain. The role of architecture is to facilitate and conceptualize this transformation.

The end result could potentially see the Earth as a massive computational and "self-aware" system in which all its components, inhabitants and systems are endowed with intelligence.

Check out this video of Karl Chu giving a talk at TEDxBrooklyn:


Don Tapscott: Designing your mind

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Says Don Tapscott:

The existence of lifelong neuroplasticity is no longer in doubt. The brain runs on a "use it or lose it" motto. So could we "use it to build it right?" Surely if we are proactive, the demands of our information rich, multi-stimuli, fast paced, multitasking, digital existence can be shaped to our advantage. In fact, psychiatrist Dr. Stan Kutcher, an expert on adolescent mental health who has studied the effect of digital technology on brain development, says "There is emerging evidence suggesting that exposure to new technologies may push the Net Generation brain past conventional capacity limitations."

My own research suggests that when the straight A student is doing her homework at the same time as five other things online she is not actually multitasking. Rather she has developed a better active working memory and better switching abilities. Personally I can't read my email and listen to iTunes at the same time, but she can. She has a brain more appropriate to the demands of the digital age than I do.

How could we use design thinking to change the way we think? Good design typically begins with some principles and functional objectives.

Read more.


Lift weights, get smarter

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According to the New York Times, voluntary wheel running with a load increases muscular adaptation and enhances gene expression in rat brains indicating that this kind of exercise may have the identical or even more useful neurological effects than endurance training.

Whether the same mechanisms occur in humans who undertake resistance training of one kind or another is not yet fully clear, but “the data look promising,” said Teresa Liu-Ambrose, a principal investigator at the Brain Research Center at the University of British Columbia. In results from her lab, older women who lifted weights performed significantly better on various tests of cognitive functioning than women who completed toning classes. Ms. Liu-Ambrose has also done brain scans of people who lifted weights to determine whether neurogenesis is occurring in their brains, and the results, still unpublished, are encouraging, she said.

Just how resistance training initiates changes in cognition remains somewhat mysterious. Ms. Liu-Ambrose said that “we now know that resistance training has significant benefits on cardiovascular health” and reduces “cardiovascular risk factors,” which otherwise would raise “one’s risk of cognitive impairment.” She speculates that resistance training, by strengthening the heart, improves blood flow to the brain generally, which is associated with better cognitive function. Perhaps almost as important, she added, resistance training at first requires an upsurge in brain usage. You have to think about “proper form and learning the technique,” she said, “while there generally is less learning involved in aerobic training,” like running.

The brain benefits from being used, so that, in a neat circle, resistance training may both demand and create additional brain circuitry. Imagine what someone like Einstein might have accomplished if he had occasionally gone to the gym.

More.


Laws of physics are not fine-tuned for life, says cosmologist

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The value of the cosmological constant suggests that the laws of nature could not have been fine-tuned for life by an omnipotent being, says a cosmologist:

Here's the thinking. The cosmological constant is a number that determines the energy density of the vacuum. It acts like a kind of pressure that, depending on its value, acts against gravity to push the universe apart or acts with gravity to pull the universe together towards a final Big Crunch.

Until recently, cosmologists had assumed that the constant was zero, a neat solution. But the recent evidence that the universe is not just expanding but accelerating away from us, suggests that the constant is positive.

But although positive, the cosmological constant is tiny, some 122 orders of magnitude smaller than Planck's constant, which itself is a small number.

So Page and others have examined the effects of changing this constant. It's straightforward to show that if the the constant were any larger, matter would not form into galaxies and stars meaning that life could not form, at least not in the form we know it.

So what value of the cosmological constant best encourages galaxy and star formation, and therefore the evolution of life? Page says that a slightly negative value of the constant would maximise this process. And since life is some small fraction of the amount of matter in galaxies, then this is the value that an omnipotent being would choose.

In fact, he says that any positive value of the constant would tend to decrease the fraction of matter that forms into galaxies, reducing the amount available for life.

Therefore the measured value of the cosmological constant, which is positive, is evidence against the idea that the constants have been fine-tuned for life.

My thoughts:

  • As observers, we don't necessarily have to reside within a universe that is perfectly optimized for life—it just needs to be good enough to foster the emergence and sustenance of life. In the space of all possible life sustaining universes, ours may be but one example of many other viable models.
  • Our universe may not be fine-tuned for life, but it may be optimized for something else. Our universe, for example, may actually be an exquisite black hole generator. Or something we don't yet know. 


Oil Pipelines from the Tar Sands and Report Controversy

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Remember T. Boone Pickens and his “plan” to transfer all fuels for cars in the U.S. to natural gas?  He’s pushing that plan harder than ever, and in his most recent email update on his business venture, he informs us that he has been meeting non-stop with politicians in Washington.  He’s his own biggest lobbyist, along with his “army” of supporters who seem to think he cares about the environment.  (He does not).  This video shows how much he really hates “foreign oil”.  He hates it so much he has invested $500 million dollars in it.  (Pickens shows up at about 2:12)  The U.S. seems to be on a destructive path to pursue natural gas with far more enthusiasm than we are pursuing renewable, clean energy, thanks to greedy people like T. Boone Pickens.

Then there is the seeming deception of how much new foreign oil we are becoming dependent on.  It’s the dirtiest oil on the planet — the tar sands oil from Alberta.  It’s about to pour into the United States, and if you don’t like that, you have to speak out now.  Some of the proposed pipelines have already been approved by Hilltary Clinton herself, acting on behalf of the State Department, at the orders of President Obama.

Interestingly, a report about the pipelines to carry tar sands oil that was done on December 23rd was not released to the public until this month. Was someone trying to hide the report, called the Keystone XL Assessment?   This oil extraction is causing unprecedented environmental damage in Canada to the land, the wildlife, and at least one river.   The pipelines are not without their own negative environmental impacts, either.  President Obama discussed these pipelines and the tar sands oil  with Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper when they met on February 4th.  86 groups sent a letter to President Obama urging him to say no to tar sands and Keystone XL. The decision for the latest proposed pipeline will be made soon.

A decision on the proposal is expected within the next weeks or months. The Canadian National Energy Board approved the project in March 2010.

See more facts about the tar sands and pipelines here.

Notice the pipeline in red? That is the one called the “Alberta Clipper” that goes through my state of Minnesota, and which was approved by Hillary Clinton herself at the State Department in 2009.  The State Department is in charge of approving these pipelines because this dirty oil that is gotten by such nasty and unconventional means is considered a matter of national security. From this report, it’s clear that fossil fuels are not just embraced by this government, they are considered matters of national security.  This outrageous stance on such horribly polluting oil is something that environmental groups and the rest of us must try to overturn.  The whole story is below.

TransCanada claims their proposed pipeline could free the U.S. of Middle Eastern oil imports. Opponents say DOE’s report shows the pipeline is [...]

EPA Proceeds with Enforcement

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The EPA cracks down on one of the world’s biggest cement plant polluters.  This pollution, like all pollution, is a public health risk that the government has every right and obligation to regulate and stop.

Cement Manufacturer to Pay $1.4 Million for Clean Air Act Violations

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Justice Department announced today that Cemex, Inc., one of the largest producers of Portland cement in the United States, has agreed to pay a $1.4 million penalty for Clean Air Act violations at its cement plant in Fairborn, Ohio.  In addition to the penalty, Cemex will spend an estimated $2 million on pollution controls that will reduce harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), pollutants that can lead to childhood asthma, acid rain, and smog.

“Emissions of harmful pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can lead to a number of serious health and environmental problems, including premature death and heart disease,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “Today’s settlement will help keep harmful air pollution out of Ohio communities, protect children with asthma and prevent region-wide public health problems.”

 

“Through this action, the United States and Ohio will secure reductions of harmful emissions by requiring that Cemex adopt state-of-the-art technology and take immediate steps to control pollutants,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “As in the case of other Portland cement plants that have agreed to come into compliance with the Clean Air Act, the Cemex plant has been a major source of air pollution, and this settlement will result in a healthier environment for residents of Fairborn, Ohio and the surrounding region.”

The settlement addresses modifications Cemex made to its cement plant without obtaining the proper permit, as required by the Clean Air Act. Major sources of air pollution are required to obtain permits which require the installation of pollution control technology before making changes that would significantly increase air emissions. Today’s settlement ensures that the proper pollution control equipment will be installed to reduce future emission levels.

Cemex will install state of the art control technologies that will reduce annual emissions of NOx by approximately 2,300 tons and SO2 by approximately 288 tons. Air pollution from cement plants can travel significant distances downwind, crossing state lines and creating region-wide health problems. These effects can have greater impacts on communities disproportionately exposed to environmental risks and to vulnerable populations, including children.

Reducing air pollution from the largest sources of emissions, including cement facilities, is one of EPA’s National Enforcement Initiatives for 2011-2013. The initiative continues EPA’s focus on improving compliance with the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act among industries that have the potential to cause significant amounts of air pollution. In fiscal year 2010, EPA’s enforcement actions in the cement manufacturing, [...]

High Speed Rail to Spread Across U.S.

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One of the best ways to cut down on climate change-causing emissions is for people to give up driving their individual cars when possible, and use low-carbon public transportation. That will get easier to do in the U.S. very soon if the President’s plan for high-speed rail proceeds as planned.

White House launches high-speed rail push with $53 billion plan

The Obama administration on Tuesday called on Congress to back a six-year, $53-billion investment in high-speed, intercity rail, saying it was “dreaming big” on reinventing US infrastructure.
But Republicans, now wielding the power of the purse after November’s mid-term election triumph, slammed the plan, and called on the White House to stop throwing money at America’s “Soviet-style” railroad system.
Read more here.

President Obama is beginning to fulfill some of his promises that he made in the State of the Union Address last month.  Next week he will release his federal budget that includes a 6-year, $53 billion dollar plan to build high-speed rail networks across the country. Obama also insisted that this project will include strong buy-American provisions that attract American industries and create 10s of thousands of American jobs.  Unfortunately, Republicans aren’t on board with the plan. The chairman of the House Transportation Committee, John Micah, advised the President to squander limited taxpayer dollars on marginal projects”.  There is nothing marginal about high speed rail or rebuilding infrastructure or greening our transportation system in the U.S.  In fact, it’s exactly what we need to do to create jobs and start replacing our outdated transportation in this country.

Especially when nations like China are far ahead of the U.S. in new technology investments.  The rest of the world is already well ahead of the United States on high speed rail. You can travel across much of Europe this way, and wouldn’t it be nice if Americans could park their cars for weeks out of the year and travel by high speed rail all over the country, or just to work?  No, that would not be good for Republican’s best friends like Big Oil, which is why they are against it.  In fact Republicans are usually against doing things that are good for Americans and jobs if it causes any business friend of the GOP to potentially suffer profit losses.

California is the state in our country that is usually ahead of the rest of the country on environmental issues, and new technology.  California is already developing high-speed rail.  (So is Florida).

California developing high-speed rail stations
Cities that expect to have passenger stations for California’s proposed high-speed train system will get help from the state to plan for development around the stations.

Meeting Thursday in Sacramento, the California High-Speed Rail Authority board approved putting up as much as $200,000 per station site. The board also approved guidelines for station-area planning. The money is intended to promote connections between local transit systems as well as what planners call “transit-oriented development” to encourage greater ridership on the high-speed trains. In the [...]

Ramifications of Oil Regimes Falling

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Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy: The U.S. and China both recognize the need to move aggressively on reducing carbon emissions and developing clean energy sources. Event: U.S.-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation http://bit.ly/eIUb8D

The video is from the end of January, 2011, at the Brookings Institute.  Middle Eastern unrest around the world is making people who think about energy more concerned than usual and Chu appears to be rolling out a renewed push for renewable energy, in part based on the progress China is making. Notice that Steven Chu never mentions peak oil?  See the peak oil review here.  (Everything I’m reading about oil prices on mainstream websites quotes someone who says our oil reserves are plentiful, the problem with price is political.  Not true.)

Unlike the US, China has a Renewable Energy Standard, a goal for a percentage of power to be produced by solar, wind, and other renewable energy.

” Politico: For all the uncertainty surrounding events in Egypt, at least one thing is clear: Political unrest in a Middle Eastern country will inevitably lead to a new fight over oil in Washington.

Protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have already caused a fresh uptick in global crude oil prices, and politicians are ready to pounce with new hearings and old talking points.

Steven Chu recently warned that unrest in oil countries might affect our oil supply and he told reporters at the end of January that we need to diversify our energy supply.  Yet, he talks openly about our climate goals, as you can hear in the video above.

What happens when oil regimes around the world begin to fall, as seems to be happening? There are/were uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and reportedly in Yemen, Jordan and maybe other countries. If the U.S. supply of oil is cut off, as may actually happen if things deteriorate, do our leaders lead us into more war, or give up and turn to renewables and a better future?

We need to move to renewables even faster than orginally planned, but my guess is that politicians will decide they need move on to drilling in other areas, like the Arctic.  Our next political battles may be with China and Russia, over who gets to drill in deep water the most in the Arctic Sea, now that the sea ice is disappearing. That would be the worst thing I can imaging happening, because it will greatly add to global warming, but it’s already happening to some extent.  Steven Chu seems to be warning us against this outcome.  You can bet BP and Exxon are already making plans for this drilling, as are oil companies in Russia and China.

At the very least, the unrest around the world (not just in Egypt) will make oil and gas lots more expensive, but that’s happening anyway. Chu’s ultimate plan involves a big push, thanks to the billionaire T. Boone Pickens, to turn every car and truck in the U.S. into a natural [...]

Amazon in Trouble

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A Brazilian crosses the muddy bottom of the Rio Negro, a major tributary to the Amazon river, in the city of Manaus, October 26, 2010. Photo: Euzivaldo Queiroz

The Amazon is in a world of trouble. From World Environment News:

A widespread drought in the Amazon rain forest last year was worse than the “once-in-a-century” dry spell in 2005 and may have a bigger impact on global warming than the United States does in a year, British and Brazilian scientists said on Thursday.  The widespread drought last year dried up major rivers in the Amazon and isolated thousands of people who depend on boat transportation, shocking climate scientists who had billed the 2005 drought as a once-in-a-century event.

More frequent severe droughts like those in 2005 and 2010 risk turning the world’s largest rain forest from a sponge that absorbs carbon emissions into a source of the gases, accelerating global warming, the report found.

Trees and other vegetation in the world’s forests soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow, helping cool the planet, but release it when they die and rot.

“If events like this happen more often, the Amazon rain forest would reach a point where it shifts from being a valuable carbon sink slowing climate change to a major source of greenhouse gases that could speed it up,” said lead author Simon Lewis, an ecologist at the University of Leeds.

The study, published in the journal Science, found that last year’s drought caused rainfall shortages over a 1.16 million square-mile (3 million square km) expanse of the forest, compared with 734,000 square miles (1.9 million square km) in the 2005 drought.

It was also more intense, causing higher tree mortality and having three major epicenters, whereas the 2005 drought was mainly focused in the southwestern Amazon.  As a result, the study predicted the Amazon forest would not absorb its usual 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in both 2010 and 2011. In addition, the dead and dying trees would release 5 billion metric tons of the gas in the coming years, making a total impact of about 8 billion metric tons, according to the study.  In comparison, the United States emitted 5.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use in 2009.  The combined emissions caused by the two droughts were probably enough to have canceled out the carbon absorbed by the forest over the past 10 years, the study found.

More sad news for our world’s natural lungs, the Amazon rain forest.  According to Mongabay:??

Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rain forest have been destroyed.

And now a new dam threatens even more.  This is the worst story of all, and an environmental minister in Brazil has actually resigned over this.

“Belo Monte is among the most [...]

Protecting Water from Pollution via the EPA

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It almost seems like the EPA is one of the most powerful branches of government these days.  Everyone who should be is scared of them (meaning: Republicans and polluters).  All the EPA is doing is attempting to protect our health against an assault of money and unregulated environmental damage from fossil fuel companies, lobbying groups and even right-wing members of Congress, who get lots of campaign money from these polluters.  It seems that impending regulations or even just uncertainty over permitting  is forcing positive  things to happen lately, but it’s also leading to an avalanche of propaganda from the fossil fuel industry.  There is a lot at stake with the end of the era of fossil fuels and that is the health and general welfare of all Americans.  Coal and other fossil fuels are heavily polluting and they know their days are numbered.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC this morning [Feb. 3] announced it is postponing plans to drill for oil this summer in seas off Alaska, citing continued uncertainty over whether it would receive federal permits.  Shell CEO Peter Voser … said the company would need to spend as much as $150 million without knowing whether it would receive needed permits from U.S. EPA and the Interior Department.

“Despite our investment in acreage and technology and our work with the stakeholders, we haven’t been able to drill a single exploration well,” Voser said. “Critical permits continue to be delayed, and the timeline for getting these permits is still uncertain.”

The plan took a hit in late December when an EPA appeals board remanded Shell’s Clean Air Act permits back to the company for revisions, faulting the agency’s analysis of the impacts of nitrogen dioxide emissions from drill ships on the Alaska Native communities (Greenwire, Jan. 5).  Read more here.

The EPA is also working slowly to regulate previously-unregulated water pollution under the Clean Water Act.  This is just the beginning of the EPA beginning to regulate water safety. Next their plan is to regulate (and probably ban) several chemicals that are used in natural gas fracking.  The public would be horrified to find out the number and toxicity of the chemicals that are used to extract a supposedly “cleaner” form of energy, and those chemicals are poisoning ground water.  There is also an alarming amount of rocket fuel chemicals in the water in certain places in California.  It’s obvious why the fossil fuel industries can’t regulate themselves!  See story after the break.

EPA to Regulate Rocket Fuel Chemical

Sometime in the future, Americans may not have to worry about perchlorate in their drinking water. For the first time in its history, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to regulate perchlorate, a potentially toxic substance that may impact the normal function of the thyroid.

In a separate action, the EPA said it is also moving towards establishing a drinking water standard to address a group of up to 16 17 toxic chemicals that may pose risks to human health.

“Clean water is [...]

Obama’s Speech on Climate Change

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Remember President Obama’s speech on race that he gave during his presidential campaign? It was widely praised as being a very important speech. During the health care insurance bill campaign, he traveled the country giving speeches about the need for change and reform in health care, and got huge public support (for a very poor bill). Obama is a very gifted speaker, no doubt about that. That’s why he needs to use his oratory gifts to gain public support for serious action on climate change. Why hasn’t he done that yet? All this important issue gets from the President is mentions here and there.

Given its importance, climate change needs its own speech.  President Obama has to be honest with the American people.  I recently heard an environmental author say that the U.S.  Republican Party is the only major organization in the world that denies climate change and actively works against action on it.  That has to change, and it will only change if the President gets behind a real effort to do something about it instead of sweeping it under a rug.

After the last Climate Files podcast, in which I said Obama has to give that climate change speech, it appeared, as if by magic a few days later. I know it’s not related to what I said, but it was pretty great timing. Here it is, from Climate Progress and their guest writer, Bill Becker*.

Like the BP disaster, the extreme weather events occurring worldwide offer a Sputnik moment to focus attention on the urgent need to address climate change. Here is the speech I’d love to see Obama give in a special session of Congress, perhaps on Earth Day.

The setting: In a major departure from protocol, several guests take seats behind the President, alongside Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John Boehner. They are Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu; NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco; the President’s principal science advisor, Dr. John Holdren; NASA’s Dr. James Hansen; and two scientists from the private sector – Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and coauthor of the World Bank’s 2010 World Development Report, and Dr. Robert Correll, head of the U.S. office of the Global Energy Assessment. Taking a seat next to them is Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in full uniform.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

In my State of the Union address 3 months ago, I called this America’s Sputnik moment. I proposed that by 2035, we obtain 80 percent of our energy from clean technologies. I talked about how our genius for innovation is the key to the future of our country. Our economic security depends on it.

Tonight I want to talk as Commander and Chief, and as the chief executive officer of some of the [...]

Diesel Fuel Injected in Ground to Get Natural Gas

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THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO REGULATE THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY

This story illustrates the insanity of a goal of trading one fossil fuel (oil and gas) for another (natural gas) and then calling natural gas “clean energy”.  This fracking practice is nothing sort of insanity. They are poisoning the ground, and the dirt itself, as well as the water people are depending on.  There is no scenario I can think of where this fracking practice should be legal.  The industry will not regulate itself. Congress has to step up and stop this. This should not be allowed anywhere, least of all in the U.S.

NATURAL GAS: Fracking companies injected 32M gallons of diesel, House probe finds (01/31/2011)

Fracking Companies Injected 32M Gallons of Diesel, House Probe Finds

Drilling service companies have injected at least 32 million gallons of diesel fuel underground as part of a controversial drilling technique, a Democratic congressional investigation has found.

Injecting diesel as part of “hydraulic fracturing” is supposed to be regulated by U.S. EPA. But an agency official told congressional investigators that EPA had assumed that the use of diesel had stopped seven years ago.

“The industry has been saying they stopped injecting toxic diesel fuel into wells,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who led the inquiry. “But our investigation showed this practice has been continuing in secret and in apparent violation of the [Safe Drinking Water Act].”

Waxman calculated the amount of diesel based on voluntary disclosures from “service companies” like Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger, which do the “frack jobs” for well operators. On Monday, Waxman and fellow committee members Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) shared their findings in an open letter to EPA officials.

Read more after the break. This video is from November 2010.

The letter said they had not been able to determine whether the diesel injections threatened groundwater. The service companies told Waxman’s staff they did not know how close their frack jobs were to sources of drinking water, saying their clients, the well operators, would have that information.

Of the total figure, 10 million gallons was “straight diesel fuel,” according to the letter, while another 22 million gallons was products containing at least 30 percent diesel.

If you are reading this and not saying “OH MY GOD” you must work for Halliburton or one of these fracking companies.

It is not my intention to reprint the entire article here, but this story is too important to not spread far and wide.  The link to the original article is here. This is THE reason why fossil fuels have to go. Regulation is not enough. The drilling and obtaining of these fuels is going to pollute the environment to the point where we will all be poisoned.  Do we really want our tap water to burn when lit?  Do we want American well water poisoned by these greedy corporations? More from this incredible story:

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