Another disaster brought to you by the fine people who brought you carcinogenic coal ash!
Residents of nine West Virginia counties have been warned not to drink or even touch tap water after a chemical spill. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency Thursday in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and…
Brown, who teaches mechanical engineering at Metro State, is working with students, as well as a local nonprofit organization, Revision International, to build solar powered furnaces for homes in the neighborhood. With empty soda cans as one of the main parts of the design, the furnaces cost around $30 to make and are expected to save about the same amount in monthly energy costs.
In November, the group installed two of the heaters in homes, with more installations scheduled for later this month. And while it’s possible to “upgrade” the units — spending another $20 for an acrylic cover, $2 for a thermostat or $2.50 for a shower curtain to drape around it — that almost defeats the purpose of providing reliable and inexpensive energy, Brown said.
An initial effort, undertaken with graduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder, yielded a furnace that cost about $60. But Brown thought the price could be lowered. That was the challenge he posed to his students at Metro State, tasking them with making the units faster, cheaper and more efficient and reliable.
“You have to be really creative,” said Richard Anderson, a Metro State senior who’s part of the project team. “Right now, the unit will last for about a winter without any maintenance. If you bumped up the cost to about $100, it would last three or four times longer. But you’re talking about soda cans and computer fans that you can buy six for $10 on eBay and you’re supplying heat to an entire house.”
Anderson said the electricity used by the fans costs about two cents a day. Cool air is drawn into the unit’s base and then heated as it travels up through drilled holes in the 144 aluminum cans, which have been heated by the sun. The air then exits through ventilation holes at the top of the unit. While there has to be a supplemental source for heat at night, the units can reach about 170 degrees during the day. In one of the units installed in November, Anderson said, a room that was about 60 degrees increased to 90 degrees within 20 minutes.
“There was a little boy who was going to be sleeping there. He was going, ‘I’m going to be so warm tonight,'” Anderson said. “That was just so cool — it’s really exceeded my expectations.”
An educational program funded by Ohio’s oil and gas industry and sponsored by Radio Disney has environmental activists – and some parents – up in arms over what they say is a hijacking of public education by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) interests, in a state sitting on billions of dollars’ worth of gas-rich shale.
The program, called Rocking in Ohio, went on a 26-stop tour of elementary schools and science centers across the state last month. It involves interactive demonstrations of how oil and gas pipelines work, and is led by three staffers from Radio Disney’s Cleveland branch. It is entirely funded by the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), which gets its money from oil and gas companies.
Radio Disney, a nationwide network of radio stations aimed at kids, has said it will take the tour to other states if it deems the program successful. The company could not be reached for comment in time for the publication of this story.
Environmental activists and parents have called the program “propaganda” for promoting a controversial industry. Fracking – a process in which thousands of gallons of water and chemicals are injected into deep wells in order to break up rocks that contain natural gas or oil – has been a boon to Ohio’s economy, but has caused myriad environmental issues in the state.
H/t Nicole Naum.
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Someone I know in Ohio said they were expected to be at -40 today, and that they even closed the churches Sunday. Notice how everyone on the teevee talks about the freeze, but they never think to mention the external factors they went into making it happen? Thanks, Exxon and Koch brothers!
CHICAGO — Hardy Midwesterners well accustomed to frigid weather found Monday’s blast of arctic cold to be far beyond anything in recent memory, breaking records and testing their legendary ability to cope with winter’s extremes.
Brutal subzero temperatures forced school closings, kept people home from work, stymied air travel and posed real danger to anyone lingering outdoors as arctic air swept across the Midwest on its way toward the East Coast.
Like a “how cold was it?” joke, the weather across much of the USA was so cold even western Michigan ski resorts shut down and some airlines, such as JetBlue Airways, simply stopped trying to operate most routes between Chicago, other Midwestern cities and the Northeast.
Tuesday promises to be even colder as the “polar vortex” of frigid arctic air advances, bringing what forecasters say will be record-breaking cold to the East and Northeast.
Below-zero temperatures, some into double digits, brought life to a virtual standstill across much of the upper and industrial Midwest. Chicago saw a record low minus 16, and Quincy, Ill., tied a record at minus 9. Wind chills across the Midwest were 40 below and colder.
The cold stretched into southern regions accustomed to a milder January. Waco, Texas, saw 16 degrees and Monroe, La., 19, both records.
It’s about damned time these careless bastards face some serious jail time:
Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge’s ruling on Thursday.
Following a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James G. Carn decided that all eight charges against Exxon — including violations of both the state Clean Streams Law and the Solid Waste Management Act — will be “held for court,” meaning there is enough evidence to take the fossil fuel giant to trial over felony offenses.
Pennsylvania’s Attorney General filed criminal charges back in September, claiming Exxonhad removed a plug from a wastewater tank, leading to 57,000 gallons of contaminated water spilling into the soil. The Exxon subsidiary had contested the criminal charges, claiming there was “no lasting environmental impact,” and that the charges could “discourage good environmental practices” from guilty companies.
“The action tells oil and gas operators that setting up infrastructure to recycle produced water exposes them to the risk of significant legal and financial penalties should a small release occur,” Exxon said at the time.
Thanks to Ed Tayter.
I don’t exactly expect the Democrats to be much better, but I hope I’m wrong. Maybe we need some pitchforks!
A new study published in Nature suggests that climate change is even worse than scientists had previously anticipated, upgrading the forecast from “dangerous” to “catastrophic.” According to the study’s authors, temperatures are currently snared in an upward spiral: As earth gets hotter, the heat prevents sunlight-reflecting clouds from forming, trapping more heat and further exacerbating the problem. The result could be a temperature climb of 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.
The alarming report follows yet another confirmation, this time by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that humans are almost indubitably the drivers of climate change. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed concern, stating that “if this isn’t an alarm bell, then I don’t know what one is. If ever there were an issue that demanded greater cooperation, partnership, and committed diplomacy, this is it.”
But the unnerving escalaton in climate change is unlikely to be abated without significant U.S. support—and for the time being, the Republican Party insists on stonewalling any efforts to offset the human-caused warming process. Given that the U.S. is the second biggest contributor to climate change, its participation in any international resolution is absolutely vital. Yet with one major political party blocking such support, the odds seem increasingly likely that 2100 will, indeed, bring with it a “catastrophic” increase of global heat.
Another massive storm — “near blizzard conditions,” they say –on the way to the Midwest and the East Coast:
A winter storm grounded hundreds of flights and threatened to bury more than 100,000 hockey fans Wednesday as forecasters warned that parts of the Northeast could face up to a foot of snow by Friday.
A day after meteorologists predicted a storm system was unlikely to bring snow to New York City this week, the forecast was revised and experts warned the Big Apple can expect between five and eight inches of snow through Thursday and Friday.
A storm system could bring heavy snowfall and sub-arctic temperatures to residents living in areas from the Great Lakes to New England. NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reports from Chicago.
“It’s going to be a pretty significant storm which will cause major travel disruption for a lot of people early in the new year,” said Dave Houtz, senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel. “Any untreated roads will be a real mess.”
Coastal areas between Boston and New York will likely experience near-blizzard conditions, with wind speeds up to 30 mph and temperatures dropping into the teens, according to the National Weather Service.
Parts of New England could get up to 12 inches before the storm winds to a close late Friday.
The storm moved in from the Great Plains, and Chicago and Detroit were already seeing snow by late Tuesday. Both cities are expected to get as much as 10 inches by the end of the week.
H/T Seth Okin.
We know that TEPCO is in the dangerous process of removing fuel rods from the No. 4 reactor, but since Japan is on the verge of passing a state secrets law that would make it a serious offense to leak information about Fukushima or for journalists to try to get that information, it’s just highly unlikely that anyone will tell us if there’s another nuclear disaster. We do know that steam has been observed coming from the Reactor 3 building three times this week, and we know what it’s been associated with in the past — which ain’t much, but it’s all we have:
Tepco (translation), Dec. 27, 2013: At around 7:00 am on December 27, and confirmed by the camera that from Unit 3 reactor building, 5th floor near the center, steam is generated. Have not been identified abnormal plant conditions of 54 minutes at 7:00 am the same day, the indicated value of the monitoring post (meteorological data of 50 minutes at 7:00 am, 5.1 ℃ temperature, 93.1% humidity).SOURCE: Tepco (July 24, 2013)
Continue reading “What the hell is happening at Fukushima?”
