Green Environment

Reuters reported on Wednesday that China’s environmental ministry has okayed the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on the Dadu River in the Sichuan province, which when completed will be the country’s largest. China’s energy mix was 9.4 percent renewable as of 2011, and the Sichuan project is part of the country’s effort to boost itself to 15 percent by 2020. Hydroelectric power is anticipated to make up most of that increase. The environmental ministry acknowledged that the project is massive enough to damage the local ecology, negatively effecting certain rare fish species and plant life. The dam’s developers have promised to try and offset those effects with “counter-measures,” and the project still requires the approval of China’s ruling cabinet. To be built over 10 years by a subsidiary of state power firm Guodian Group, it is expected to cost 24.68 billion yuan ($4.02 billion) in investment. The ministry, in a statement issued late on Tuesday, said an environmental impact assessment had acknowledged that the project would have a negative impact on rare fish and flora and affect protected local nature reserves. Developers, it said, had pledged to take “counter-measures” to mitigate the effects. Right now the title for China’s tallest dam goes to the Xiaowan project, at 292 meters, while the tallest dam in the world is currently Tajikistan’s Nurek dam, at 300 meters. The Sichuan dam will top 314 meters when all is said and done. China has been at the forefront of hydroelectric development for a while now, with an enormous number of dams either constructed, in the works, or in the planning stages. Even individual projects can be of tremendous scale, providing in at least one instance an electrical capacity equal to nearly half of Britain’s entire national grid, and preventing 200 metric tons of carbon emissions each year. As of 2010, worldwide hydroelectric capacity was 850 to 900 gigawatts, meaning about one-fifth of the world’s electricity — and half the electricity for almost two thirds of the world’s countries — comes courtesy of hydropower. Though that use varies widely: the United States and Europe have developed 70 and 75 percent of their hydroelectric potential, while Africa has only taken advantage of 7 percent. At the same time, the large bodies of water and massive landscape alterations that are part and parcel of large dam projects mean hydroelectricity can come with unusually significant downsides. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China’s Hubei province, for example, caused significant ecological damage, increased the risk of landslides, flooded a number of archeological and cultural sites, and displaced 1.3 million people. And the constricted water flow can hurt downstream populations that rely on the rivers for their fresh water supplies. Meanwhile, climate change itself is also making hydropower less reliable, as altering weather patterns dry up some river flows, boost others, and generally make the future availability of water flows more difficult to predict. One answer to those challenges could be small scale hydropower. Studies suggest there’s as much as 30 gigawatts of unused potential for such projects in the United States. These set-ups generally provide 10 kilowatts to 30 megawatts a piece, and don’t require damming rivers. (Or they can be built into already existing dams, the vast majority of which are not hydroelectric.) Unfortunately, regulatory red tape is in many ways the major hurdle to taking advantage of small scale hydro.

Read the rest of Blackbody Shows Off Beautiful Life-Size OLED Trees at ICFF 2013 Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: "green furniture", Alessandro Dolcetta, ambient lighting, Blackbody, Blackbody OLED, Bruno Dussert-Vidalet, eco design, eco furniture, eco lighting, energy efficient lighting, green design, green lighting, ICFF, icff 2013, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, javits center furniture show, new york design week, sustainable design

State-owned China Resources (836) (Holdings) Co. plans to combine two of its Hong Kong-traded subsidiaries amid a shift from coal-fired power, sending shares in its electricity generation unit down as much as 11 percent. China Resources Power Holdings Co., an electricity generator, will offer HK$24.64 a share for all the shares of China Resources Gas Group Ltd. (1193), a natural gas distributor, both companies said in a joint statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange today. There will be no cash alternative for the deal, which values China Resources Gas at HK$54.8 billion ($7.1 billion). The offer represents a 13 percent premium to China Resources Gas’s closing share price May 3, its last day of trade before both stocks were suspended. The integration of the two units comes amid pressure in China to reduce pollution by shifting to cleaner fuels such as natural gas. Shares of China Resources Power, which largely uses coal for electricity generation, fell the most since November 2008 percent in morning trading in Hong Kong. via China Resources Utility Units Combine in Shift From Coal – Bloomberg.

After a two-year battle with cancer, Joseph Fitzgerald was determined to leave his final resting place to Mother Nature. On a quiet February day in rural Florida, Fitzgerald’s body was carried through the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery on a bamboo stretcher made by family members. In an ecologically approved “green burial,” he was laid to rest on a plot of land surrounded by oak trees and Spanish moss he picked out just months before his passing in a grave that was dug by hand just two days prior. Green burial options have become a small but growing trend in the U.S. funeral industry, with an increasing number of funeral homes offering eco-friendly services and about 30 green cemeteries across the country, according to the Green Burial Council, or GBC, a non-profit organization operating in the United States, Canada and Australia. via Green Burials Catch On In The U.S..

Hoping to start composting but not sure where to begin? Already composting but not getting the results you want? Want answers to your composting questions? Come to Cymple Gardens (formerly Gardener’s Edge) Sunday May 19 for an intimate, 1-hour workshop led by Compost Experience Officer Chris Cano of Gainesville Compost. You’ll learn in one hour what has taken us 3 years to learn! When: 12 p.m. Sunday, May 19 Cost: $5 in advance or $10 at the door Where: 5408 NW 8th Ave, Gainesville, Florida 32605 via Composting 101 Workshop at Cymple Gardens | Gainesville Compost.

The story seems simple enough. First, on Wednesday a study came out that found 97% consensus on human-caused global warming in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. It was by our friends at Skeptical Science, John Cook and Dana Nuccitelli. Then on Thursday, President Obama tweeted the study to his 31,000,000 (!) followers: So how does the ever-shrinking Washington Post report the story? With the headline, “Obama tweet gets Australian researcher 31.5 million followers on Twitter.” #FAIL And just to be clear that the WashPost is in fact as confused and innumerate as their headline suggests, the story asserts: That tweet, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, led 31,541,507 people to decide to follow Australian climate change researcher John Cook on Twitter. The Herald didn’t, however, make such a transparently silly claim. Their headline read, “Obama gives Aussie researcher 31,541,507 reasons to celebrate.” Ten seconds on the interwebs will reveal that Cook has 6,560 followers. But then we’ve suspected for a while that the Washington Post doesn’t employ any fact checkers. Nor does it have a single editor who understood enough about social media to realize instantly that the headline — and hence the story — must be wrong. No wonder the MSM is collapsing in the face of the new media onslaught. Note: As of Saturday morning, the story is still uncorrected.

Opine away!

Joseph Mikrut, a graphic designer and one of the owners of Anamaya Yoga Resort in Montezuma, Costa Rica, has finished constructing what may very well be the world’s first treehouse shaped in the form of an icosahedron. The treehouse is suspended from cables strung between four melina trees, around 20 feet off the ground, and it moves slightly in the wind, making it feel similar to a being on a boat. And the treehouse is situated just high enough that it enhots spectacular views of the mountains to the north. Read the rest of This Unique Icosahedron-Shaped Treehouse in Costa Rica Cost Just $5,000 to Build Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: Anamaya Yoga Resort, Costa Rica, Icosahedron Treehouse, Joseph Mikrut, Latin America, Rancho Delicioso, tree house, treehouse, treehouse design, Treehouses, yoga retreats

Come join Forage Farm to celebrate what’s great about our community! Live music geared toward kids from great local bands, local food, arts and crafts, nature walks, food and garden workshops, kids activities, and more! All proceeds from event benefit Forage outreach programs and the Gainesville Seed Library!  Tickets sold at the door $15.  Kids under 5 are free.  For more information, email anna@foragefarm.org. via School’s Out Farm Festival June 8 | Forage Farm.

The U.K.’s two largest water companies warned today that sewer flooding would worsen should people flush wet wipes in toilets and wash grease down sinks. United Utilities Plc (UU/), the biggest publicly traded water utility in Britain, spends 20 million pounds ($31 million) a year on 53,000 blockages, it said in a website statement. Thames Water Utilities Ltd., with 14 million customers in London and parts of the Home Counties, said half of its 7,000 blockages a month are due to items that shouldn’t be flushed. Sewers aren’t designed to take more than toilet paper, water and human waste, Rob Smith, Thames Water’s chief sewer flusher, said in the statement. “We’re seeing more and more fat and wet wipes, which should never be flushed even if the packaging says ‘flushable,’ ending up in our sewers.” via Water Firms Warn of Sewer Flooding From Grease, Wipes – Bloomberg.