October 21st, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) are holding public hearings this week on the country’s first greenhouse gas emissions limits for passenger vehicles.
Hearings began today in Detroit and will continue in New York City on Friday and Los Angeles on Tuesday. You can thank President Obama for pushing this environmental agenda, in concert with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, automakers, the United Auto Workers Union and eco-conscious organizations.
According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), passenger cars and light trucks emit “nearly 20% of the nation’s greenhouse gases, in the form of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons. In April, EPA provisionally found that these four contaminants and two other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.”
The proposed standards would apply to new cars produced from 2012 to 2016. The EDF cites the following benefits:
- Breaking Our Oil Addiction and Strengthening National Security. The vehicles subject to the proposed standards are responsible for about 40% of all U.S. oil consumption. The standards would reduce our oil consumption by 1.8 billion barrels, while achieving a 5% annual improvement in fuel efficiency for U.S. passenger cars.
- Reducing Global-Warming Pollution. Vehicles covered by the proposed standards account for 60% of heat-trapping emissions from the transportation sector and about 20% of all U.S. heat-trapping gases. These emissions have increased by more than 1% annually. The proposal would cut carbon dioxide pollution from passenger vehicles approximately 21% by 2030, reducing emissions by 950 million tons.
- Saving Money at the Pump. Families can save more than $3,000 over a vehicle’s lifetime.
Photo:
Tags: cars, emissions, environment, EPA, global warming, greenhouse gases, Health, Obama, oil, pollution, Schwarzenegger
Posted in The Environment | 2 Comments »
September 26th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, director of documentaries like The Civil War and Baseball, trains his lens on The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a six-episode series that premieres Sunday on PBS. (Click here to view a preview. You may also purchase the DVD boxed set or companion book on Oct. 6.)
Sadly, well-known parks like Yellowstone, Joshua Tree, the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Acadia (right) are beginning to show their age, and they’re now threatened by funding shortfalls, pollution, climate change and encroaching developers.
This hasn’t stopped committed individuals from fighting for the parks’ survival:
- Maxine Johnston, dubbed the “Godmother” of Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, worked tirelessly for 50 years to help protect some 100,000 acres of highly diverse wildlife habitat.
- Former Miami Herald reporter Juanita Green, featured in Burns’s film, wrote stories that were instrumental in creating and protecting Biscayne National Park. In the 1960s, the park was threatened by a proposal to dredge a channel through the bay and turn the area into a city.
So, what can you do to help?
- Visit and explore one of our 391 national parks. Share your experiences with others to build support.
- Join the movement without leaving home. Sign up for news and action alerts. Write to President Obama, and contact your congressional representatives and other decision makers. Voice your concerns about park conservation.
- Reduce your carbon footprint. Global warming’s effects are already visible at national parks. At Glacier National Park, glaciers are disappearing faster than scientists predicted. In parks across the country, native trees and animals are losing ground because changing temperature and weather patterns affect the availability of food, water and shelter. Visit the Do Your Part! For Climate Friendly Parks website, which helps you calculate your carbon footprint. Set goals for buying local foods, reducing automobile use and saving energy at home.
Photo courtesy of ARA
Tags: climate change, DVDs, environment, events, global warming, Ken Burns, national parks, pollution
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August 10th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
Two half-hour documentaries will debut Wednesday evening on Planet Green: Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff: Troubled Waters (10 p.m. ET/PT) and Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification (10:30 p.m. ET/PT), produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council and narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver.
As the documentaries reveal, our oceans, freshwater rivers, lakes and streams have become increasingly plagued by dead zones, toxic runoff and dying wildlife. Fish populations are in serious decline, and carbon dioxide pollution is making the oceans more acidic.
Woodruff shows how banks and shores in every part of the world are facing similar threats. Among his interviewees is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chief prosecuting attorney for the environmental group Riverkeeper.
Acid Test explains that since the Industrial Revolution, the ocean has absorbed 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning fossil fuels, causing a 30% increase in ocean acidity. Sea creatures’ shells dissolve, threatening the ocean’s ecosystem.
For Your Organic Bookshelf: Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World
Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images
Tags: carbon dioxide, environment, oceans, pollution
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June 8th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 I’m a cat lover. They’re cute, cuddly and awesome, but I have no doubt that cats will eventually enslave mankind and take over the world. Now, to make their job easier, some cats are actually sprouting wings. Yes, wings.
In the Chinese city of Chongqing, some kitties are growing small fur-covered wings on their backs. Flying cats! We’re doomed. But luckily for humanity, the little wings are too small to for flight.
Now, even though they look cute—I want one—the cause of the wings may be man made. Chongqing is heavily industrialized and local factories spew out tons of pollution. Toxins passed on from mother to kitten may explain the deformity.
A more ironic explanation is that the wings are merely Siamese twins. Either way you look at it, if cats take to the skies. We’re going to need an army robot terminator dogs—stat!
Via Discoblog.
Tags: animals, pollution
Posted in The Environment | 1 Comment »
May 27th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 New York’s Hudson River is getting cleaned up, finally. Twenty-five years ago, the federal government declared the Hudson River a Superfund site, meaning it’s a filthy polluted mess in need of a good scrubbing.
Good news, starting last Friday a computer-guided dredging system began scooping out piles of disgusting mud, old tires, broken bottles, dead mafia henchmen and whatever else is under there.
Twelve dredging machines will work round the clock, six days a week, hunting for sediment contaminated with PCBs. Then the gunk will be hauled to a hazardous waste landfill in Texas. PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyl are harmful to both humans and animals.
Prior to 1977, before they were banned, an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs flowed into the Hudson. New York officials are calling the cleanup the healing of the Hudson, but Hudson River pollution isn’t all bad.
Here’s my hero. The late, great George Carlin:
When I was a little boy in New York City in the nineteen-forties, we swam in the Hudson River, and it was filled with raw sewage! We swam in raw sewage, you know, to cool off!
And at that time the big fear was polio. Thousands of kids died from polio every year. But you know something? In my neighborhood no one ever got polio. No one, ever!
You know why? Cause we swam in raw sewage! It strengthened our immune system. The polio never had a prayer. We were tempered in raw sh**!
Via The New York Times.
Tags: bolychlorinated biphenyl, immune system, PCBs, pollution
Posted in The Environment | 1 Comment »
May 23rd, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
 In an attempt to combat global warming, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 for a waiver under the Clean Air Act to institute a program that would significantly reduce vehicle pollution.
Under federal law, the EPA was supposed to grant the state’s request to toughen emission standards, unless the agency found compelling reasons to deny it. With Bush II in office, the EPA last year rejected the request, and U.S. automakers celebrated.
On Tuesday, President Obama and the Governator will team up to correct this mistake by devising meaningful greenhouse gas emission standards for passenger cars and trucks, including cohesive regulatory standards for the nation’s automakers. By 2016, the new federal standards would ideally achieve a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.
FYI: Thirteen states—Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—have adopted California’s standards and are awaiting favorable EPA action. Together, they represent approximately 40% of the U.S. market.
For Your Organic Bookshelf
Tags: automobiles, climate change, global warming, pollution
Posted in Political Action, The Environment | No Comments »
March 26th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 First we invented the wheel. Humans built the pyramids. Then we moved up to automobiles, artificial hearts and sneakers with lights in them and now British scientists have created the robot fish. Five of these carp-shaped cyborg fish will be used to monitor pollution in the northern Spanish port of Gijon.
Much like your laptop in a Starbucks, the cyber-fish will use Wi-Fi technology to transmit information back to researchers. Chemical sensors will sniff out hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from underwater pipelines.
Earlier versions required human controls, like traditional mini-exploration submarines, but these new and improved fish navigate independently. At a mere $29,000 apiece and measuring nearly 5 feet long, they’re highly energy efficient and can swim around and analyze water pollution for hours on end. Plus they look cool!
Reminds of the United States Navy using dolphins to detect explosive mines in the ocean, but I have question. Are they too real looking? I watch a lot of Animal Planet and these robots look a lot like a tropical fish and fish get eaten all the time. It’d certainly be a killjoy if a mako shark snapped up a $29,000 investment. Maybe they should be outfitted with torpedoes too.
Via Reuters.
Tags: dolphins, fish, ocean, pollution
Posted in The Environment | 1 Comment »
February 4th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 In China, every 30 seconds a baby is born with physical birth defects and now, officials are claiming 10% of those deformities are due to environmental pollution.
According to the state-run media, that adds up to nearly 1.1 million births a year.
The northern province of Shanxi, a coal-rich region with large-scale chemical industry, is a major source of pollution and reports the nation’s highest rate of birth defects.
Researchers blame China’s 8 main coal zones, saying if the rate of birth defects continues to increase it will soon become a social problem, disrupting economic development and quality of life.
Pollution from coal, specifically mercury emissions, has been linked neurological disorders in humans and animals.
Via the AFP.
Tags: mercury, pollution
Posted in Health, The Environment | No Comments »
January 28th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 New research in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals improved air quality in the United States has added months to people’s lives.
Between 1978 and 2001, the average lifespan in the U.S. increased to 77 years old, up 3 years from previous figures, experts attribute the jump to lower levels of harmful particulates.
Particulate matter in air pollution, like grit, dust, soot and chemicals from factories and cars, can lodge deep in people’s lungs and heighten risk of lung disease, heart attack and stroke.
Scientists examined government census data and death records from 51 U.S. cities and after adjusting for variables, such as smoking habits, income, education and migration, they determined from 1978 to 2001 particulate matter in the air fell from 21 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 14 micrograms per cubic meter in the studied cities and during this time Americans lived an average of 2.72 years longer; the Associated Press reports.
The Clean Air Act, passed in the 1970s, is credited for the improvements. The legislation gave the Environmental Protection Agency the power to establish and enforce national standards to protect people from particulates and other pollutants.
Now, states like California are doing their part to improve air quality. Starting this year, all new cars sold in the state will display labels ranking the vehicle’s smog emissions and impact on global warming.
Tags: emissions, evironment, heart attack, pollution, smog, stroke
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January 7th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 That big sticker on new cars at the dealership is mystifying. So much information! And I have no idea what it all means. But California is about to cram more details on there.
Starting this year, all 2009 model cars sold in California will post labels ranking the vehicle’s emission standards, specifically smog and the car’s impact on global warming.
The brainchild of California’s Air Resources Board, the new stickers will rate smog and global warming on a scale of 1 to 10. The higher the scores, the more environmentally-friendly the car is.
Most vehicles receive an average rank of 5 for both criteria.
The global warming score is based on the car’s greenhouse gas emissions and pollution caused during manufacturing. And the smog rating tallies the vehicle’s non-methane organic gases and nitrogen oxides.
To learn more, check out www.DriveClean.ca.gov.
Via earth2tech.
Tags: emissions, global warming, methane, pollution, smog
Posted in Green Living, The Environment | 1 Comment »
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