Archive for category Mother Earth Monday

Recently, we’ve all seen a credit card ad featuring a jean-clad, motorcycle riding, young Marlon Brando.  When I spent two weeks in French Polynesia years ago, I wondered what Tetiaroa (a small collection of a dozen or so islands) was like.  Brando had just purchased it.

I understood that there are about 133 islands that make up French Polynesia.  Most people begin their journey into Paradise at Papeete, Tahiti and continue on by boat or island hopping, small planes.

Raiatea was one of my last stops.  Friends of mine had just left and the owner of the hotel where I stayed had some old, wobbly bicycles he loaned to guests.  I wobbled myself around the small island, and found that free dives and snorkeling near the reef surrounding the lagoon was of most interest to me.  I helped to refull the fish tank in the hotel’s dining room that afternoon.

The manager mentioned that, for a small fee, the man who ran the mail boat would take me to Taha’a where he had a girlfriend.  I was shown how to make French bread and bake it in the islands huge stone ovens for which the island was famous.  It is now known as a center of fire walking.  Beyond this island is the atoll of Tetiaroa and Marlon Brando’s “vision”.  Construction of The Brando Luxury eco-resort is slated for late 2011.

There is concern that heavy construction could have a negative effect on the population and almost pristine environment.  47 deluxe bungalow villas (each with a private plunge pool), a spa, scuba diving, island activities and archaeological tours of royal Tahitian sites will be included.  The airstrip is being refurbished and extended to meet all safety requirements.  A platform on the coral reef will provide protected access to the island.

Tahiti Beachcomber SA is overseeing the project.  Richard Bailey, CEO was a good friend of Brando’s and worked with him for many years on their joint venture.

The hotel features “sea water air conditioning systems” (SWAC) drawing on an inexhaustible supply of completely renewable clean energy with zero impact on the environment.  His company works closely with the Tahitian Ministry of  Environment.  They stive to protect marine life and educate the public.

www.thebrando.com

From the New York Times: DOE announced it was ready to accept applications for about $8.5 billion in loan guarantee authority for advanced renewable energy projects made available in the department’s 2009 spending bill and $3.25 billion provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to cover the subsidy costs that will unleash the billions of dollars in loan guarantee authority for renewable energy, transmission projects and biofuels.

Of the $3.25 billion in subsidy costs from the stimulus act, $500 million is specifically for biofuel projects, and $750 million is for large transmission projects that begin construction before Sept. 30, 2011.

Applicants have 45 days to apply for the new guarantee authority, DOE said.

The government-backed authority should help boost lending capital for renewable and other clean-energy technology projects, which has dried up with the financial recession. The stimulus act also included an extension of tax credits for renewable energy and added flexibility where companies can apply for grants instead of using tax credits that the Treasury Department also made available this month (E&ENews PM, July 9).

“This administration has set a goal of doubling renewable electricity generation over the next three years,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “To achieve that goal, we need to accelerate renewable project development by ensuring access to capital for advanced technology projects. We also need a grid that can move clean energy from the places it can be produced to the places where it can be used and that can integrate variable sources of power, like wind and solar,” he said.

The loan guarantee authority should decrease the cost of the investments, making a “smart grid” investment a lower investment risk and thus less costly for consumers. DOE also announced the availability of almost $4 billion for demonstration and grants for smart grid projects last month (E&ENews PM, June 25).

As a child, I went through the Panama Canal with my parents.  It was busy with ships from many parts of the world, making room for our ship of  The Red Star Line.

Now, I feel that I must return.  The Panama Canal is being expanded to almost twice its width, update and preapred for a new world of the 2000’s.  We visited Canaima Park near the Canal, and drove inland to see the falls.  There were only the very rich, and the very poor. 

Gamboa Rainforest Resort is nestled among the vast Soberaina National Park Rainforest, some 30 minutes from Panama City.  At last a fascinating and emerging part of the world!

You can take a boat ride or go fishing in the Panama Canal, they provide jungle adventures via an aerial tramway, take a visit to Monkey Island, do a bit of bird watching on Pipeline Road and enjoy kayaking at the Panama Canal.

The resort itself has a breathtaking pool and spa where you can kick back and relax, and it’s being called “stunningly beautiful luxury.”  See you there…

www.gamboaresort.com/index_english.html

34 Nobel winners write Obama about lack of support for energy R&D in climate/energy bill.
This letter was sent to the White House on July 16:

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

You have repeatedly and appropriately called for a Clean Energy Technology Fund of $150 billion over ten years that could be funded from receipts collected from a greenhouse gas cap and trade program. The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost.

This stable R&D spending is not a luxury. It is in fact necessary because rapid scientific and technical progress is crucial to achieving these goals, and to making the cost affordable.

We are concerned that “The American Clean Energy and Security Act” (H.R. 2454) that recently passed the House provides less than one fifteenth of the amount you proposed for federal energy research, development, and demonstration programs. The legislation provides no stable, specific funding for sustained research in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, or for the energy research and associated technology development programs of DOE (at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity Deliverability, Fossil, and Nuclear offices).

Given the expected growing federal budget deficits, and the corresponding pressure on the government’s discretionary budget, this is a serious deficiency.

We hope that you will urge the Congress to send you a bill that will invest in energy research, development, and demonstration at an amount approaching the stable $15 billion annual support that you have proposed.

We stand ready to assist you in any way we can.

Signed,

Paul Berg, Physics 1980
Stanley Cohen, Physiology or Medicine 1986
Robert F. Curl, Jr., Chemistry 1996
Johann Deisenhofer, Chemistry 1988
Val L. Fitch, Physics 1980
Jerome Friedman, Physics 1990
Sheldon Glashow, Physics 1979
Roy Glauber, Physics 2005
Dudley R. Herschbach, Chemistry 1986
Wolfgang Ketterle, Physics 2001
Roger D. Kornberg, Chemistry 2006
Herbert Kroemer, Physics 2000
Robert B. Laughlin, Physics 1998
Leon Lederman, Physics 1988
Anthony Leggett, Physics 2003
John Mather, Physics 2006
Marshall Nirenberg, Medicine 1968
George A. Olah, Chemistry 1994
Douglas Osheroff, Physics 1996
Arno Penzias, Physics 1978
Martin L. Perl, Physics 1995
William D. Phillips, Physics 1997
David Politzer, Physics 2004
Robert C. Richardson, Physics 1996
Burton Richter, Physics 1976
F. Sherwood Rowland, Chemistry 1995
Phillip A. Sharp, Physiology or Medicine 1993
George Smoot, Physics 2006
Horst Stormer, Physics 1998
Richard Taylor, Physics 1990
Daniel Tsui, Physics 1998
Steven Weinberg, Physics 1979
Frank Wilczek, Physics 2004
Robert W. Wilson, Physics 1978

Newswise — They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. They’re descendants of one of the oldest family trees in history, spanning 100 million years. But today leatherback turtles, the most widely distributed reptiles on Earth, are threatened with extinction themselves, in large part due to the carelessness of humans.

We’ve seen reference to the dangers plastic poses to marine life, garbage that we humans directly and indirectly deposit in the oceans, but how clearly have we received the message? Not well enough according to a recent article in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin entitled “Leatherback turtles: The menace of plastic,” co-authored by Dalhousie University’s Mike James.

“We wanted to see if plastics ingestion in leatherbacks was hype or reality,” says Dr. James, senior species at risk biologist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada and adjunct professor with Dalhousie’s Department of Biology.

“It was a monumental effort that looked back at necropsies over the last century from all over the world,” he explains. (Necropsies are post-mortem examinations performed on animals.) “After reviewing the results of 371 necropsies since 1968, we discovered over one third of the turtles had ingested plastic.”

Since leatherbacks prefer eating jellyfish, it’s widely believed they mistake bags or other plastics for their meals. Since jellyfish and marine debris concentrate where ocean water masses meet, leatherbacks feeding in these areas are vulnerable to ingesting plastic.

Once leatherbacks ingest plastic, thousands of spines lining the throat and esophagus make it nearly impossible to regurgitate. The plastic can lead to partial or even complete obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in decreased digestive efficiency, energetic and reproductive costs and, for some, starvation.

“Plastics ingestion doesn’t always cause death, but there are clearly health risks to the turtles,” says Dr.James.

Fascinated by reptiles as a child, Dr. James developed a lifelong interest in turtles, from raising them as a kid, to his PhD research and now as a biologist and conservationist. He says there are simple ways to stop these ongoing threats.

“The frustrating, yet hopeful aspect is that humans can easily begin addressing the solution, without major lifestyle changes,” says Dr. James. “It’s as simple as reducing packaging and moving towards alternative, biodegradable materials and recycling.”

Leatherback turtles are classified as critically endangered world-wide. The true population size is not precisely known, as only adult females come ashore for nesting in remote tropical locations. During the summer and fall, Canadian waters support the highest density of foraging leatherbacks in the North Atlantic.

Today’s Wall Street Journal Reports:

The U.S., European Union and 12 of the world’s largest nations plan to embrace “an aspirational goal” of reducing emissions of global-warming gases by 50% by 2050, according to a draft declaration by world leaders set for release next week in Italy.

The draft, seen by The Wall Street Journal, sets up a framework for detailed negotiations on the issue ahead of a United Nations climate conference in December. But it leaves key areas in the climate-change debate in dispute. The draft is subject to change ahead of a meeting of global leaders starting Wednesday.

The declaration recognizes a “broad scientific view” that global temperatures shouldn’t rise more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but doesn’t lock in the “two-degree ceiling” that some nations and environmentalists want. Global temperatures currently are about 0.8 degree Celsius above those levels.