| With Natural Gas Drilling Boom, Pennsylvania Faces Flood of Wastewater Workers at a steel mill and a power plant were the first to notice something strange about the Monongahela River last summer. The water that U.S. Steel and Allegheny Energy used to power their plants contained so much salty sediment that it was corroding their machinery. Nearby residents saw something odd, too. Dishwashers were malfunctioning, and plates were coming out with spots that couldn’t easily be rinsed off. [More] rss.sciam.com |
U.S. Unveils a $350-Million Energy-Efficiency Initiative at Copenhagen COPENHAGEN--Since the 1970s, refrigerators in the U.S. have swelled from 18 cubic feet to 22 cubic feet. But, at the same time, the energy consumption of such gargantuan coolers has dropped by 75 percent, down to roughly 40 watts, saving countless tons of coal from being burned. And a five-year global program that reached all the refrigerators in the world with similar efficiency improvements might save 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over that span, a significant contribution to combating climate change. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Floor Plan: Linoleum May Be Green, but Is There an Ecofriendly Way to Keep It Clean? Dear EarthTalk: I have a new linoleum floor, which I chose partly for its ecofriendliness. How do I clean and maintain it without using harsh or toxic chemicals? --A. J. Maimbourg, via e-mail [More] rss.sciam.com |
Channeling Paul Revere to Protect Public Gardens Cyclists channeling Paul Revere took to the streets to raise the alarm about proposed rules they say threaten the preservation of community gardens in New York City. nytimes.com |
Is Climate Change Too Scary? When it comes to persuasion, doom and gloom doesn't work . If that wasn't clear from the morass that is international climate change negotiations starting this week or the constant reports of extinction of plant and animal species worldwide, new research [pdf] from the University of California, Berkeley shows it's so.The researchers canvassed 97 Berkeley students and found that the 25 young men and 72 young women largely believed in a so-called "just world". That means they think the world is generally just, orderly and stable--despite appearances to the contrary. [More] rss.sciam.com |