Category: Living Things

EPA Nanotechnology Press Release

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I received this EPA Press Release today…and noted the Duke University effort to “develop 32 tightly controlled and monitored ecosystems in Duke Forest in Durham, N.C. Known as “mesocosms,” these living laboratories provide areas where researchers can add nanoparticles and study the resulting interactions and effects on plants, fish, bacteria and other elements.”….a little ‘ecoengineering’ I assume.

Nanotechnology opens new worlds of possibilities for important computer, medical and environmental applications. To ensure nanotechnology is developed in a responsible manner, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and EPA awarded $38 million to establish two Centers for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINs). EPA contributed $5 million to the overall award, which is the largest award for nanotechnology research in the Agency’s history. The new centers will conduct research on the possible environmental, health and safety impacts of nanomaterials, using very different approaches than previous studies.

“Nanotechnology is an exciting field, with the promise of dramatic benefits for the environment,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Working together, EPA and NSF can improve our scientific understanding of nanoscale materials, develop the appropriate risk assessment framework, and make appropriate risk management decisions.”

The CEINs are an important addition to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and will build on NSF’s Center for Biological and Environmental Technologies and EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grants on nanotechnology. Led by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Duke University, the CEIN will study how nanomaterials interact with the environment and human health, resulting in better risk assessment and mitigation strategies to be used in the commercial development of nanotechnology. Each center will work as a network, connected to multiple research organizations, industry and government agencies, and will emphasize interdisciplinary research and education.

The UCLA CEIN, to be housed at the California NanoSystems Institute on the UCLA campus, will develop a predictive scientific model to study the environmental and health effects of different types of nanomaterials and human health faster than can be done by traditional animal toxicity testing. The model to be developed will consider: which nanomaterials are most likely to come into contact with the environment, which animals/plants can act as early sentinels of environmental changes, and high throughput methods to screen many chemicals quickly.

At Duke University‘s CEIN, researchers plan to study the potential environmental and biological effects on a wide range of nanomaterials – from natural to man-made, using a novel outdoor laboratory approach. In the coming year, the research team will develop 32 tightly controlled and monitored ecosystems in Duke Forest in Durham, N.C. Known as “mesocosms,” these living laboratories provide areas where researchers can add nanoparticles and study the resulting interactions and effects on plants, fish, bacteria and other elements.

More information on the awards: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/08CEIN

Endangered Species Act

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From an AP article:

Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

New regulations, which don’t require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a “back door” to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.

The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.

“We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good,” Kempthorne said in a news conference organized quickly after AP reported details of the proposal. “It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species.”

It is one thing if the Interior Department wants to focus energies of FWS on protecting the most vulnerable species….but to say “it is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species” is uninformed and harmful language.

For the entire Article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_endangered_species

Vegetarianism and Water

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I am not a vegetarian…but eat almost no meat and, perhaps stupidly, have not thought much about the environmental impacts of meat production. I just received an email pointing out the following post:

I’ve been vegetarian since 1982. I attended my first anti-vivisection protest in the spring of 1985 at UC San Diego, when anti-apartheid demonstrations were taking place. I first got interested in promoting vegetarianism in mainstream society after reading John Robbins’ Diet for a New America (1987). Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, it makes veganism seem as reasonable and mainstream as recycling.

Half the water consumed in the U.S. goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock. Huge amounts of water wash away their excrement. U.S. livestock produce 20 times as much excrement as does the entire human population; creating sewage which is 10 to several hundred times more concentrated than raw domestic sewage. Animal wastes cause 10 times more water pollution than does the U.S. human population; the meat industry causes 3 times as much harmful organic water pollution than the rest of the nation’s industries combined. Meat producers are the number one industrial polluters in our nation, contributing to half the water pollution in the United States.

Joanna Macy, author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, depicts the advantages of America moving towards a vegan diet in her foreword to Diet for a New America:

“The effects on our physical health are immediate. The incidence of cancer and heart attack, the nation’s biggest killers, drops precipitously. So do many other diseases now demonstrably and causally linked to consumption of animal proteins and fats, such as osteoporosis…

“The social, ecological, and economic consequences, as we Americans turn away from animal food products, are equally remarkable. We find that the grain we previously fed to fatten livestock can now feed five times the U.S. population; so we have become able to alleviate malnutrition and hunger on a worldwide scale…

“The great forests of the world, that we had been decimating for grazing purposes, begin to grow again. Oxygen-producing trees are no longer sacrificed for cholesterol-producing steaks.

“The water crisis eases. As we stop raising and grinding up cattle for hamburgers, we discover that ranching and farm factories had been the major drain on our water resources. The amount now available for irrigation and hydroelectric power doubles. Meanwhile, the change in diet frees over 90% of the fossil fuel previously used to produce food. With this liberation of water energy and fossil fuel energy, our reliance on oil imports declines, as does the rationale for building nuclear power plants…”

Joanna Macy admits, “This scenario is wildly, absurdly utopian. It is also clearly the way we are meant to live, built to live.” What could possibly make it a reality? “It is this very book!”

Paul McCartney also says, “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let’s do it! Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century.”

Update from John Phipps on corn and beans

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Notes from John Phipps’ Blog on his observations on corn and bean crops:

  • We finished (or at least stopped) Friday night. I decided against spotting in corn wetholes – too much damage, too little gain.
  • We replanted about 130 acres of 800 of soybeans. Around here, no-till for beans was a difficult mission this year. The replanting was even more nerve-wracking: “Is this part thick enough? What about this part?”
  • When I was traveled to Ames last Thursday, the view from I-80 was deceptive. Things didn’t look all that bad until you noticed:
    • It’s June 19 – not May 19.
    • At first glance you might form the impression IA farmers only plant the tops of the hills. The sides and bottoms were bare.
  • When I flew into Des Moines this morning, I had a clear view. Immediately you are struck by the absence of green and the dominance of brown. Too much brown. The entire state appears late – very late.
  • Surprisingly, the attitude of farmers I spoke to Thursday evening was relatively calm. Some will continue corn planting today, they hope. I guess some were pretty late last year and got decent yields anyway. Still, this far north I was surprised they were still going with corn, although many already had atrazine down.
  • I’m currently going through the second adjustment stage emotionally. I recognize these now. Up until Friday, all I could focus on was “GET DONE”. Now I’ve been out on the cultivator trying to open up the ground and seeing the corn crop up close and personal. The scope of the loss is now slightly clearer.
  • The corn stand is better than I thought. The condition is worse. Much will come out of it, I think, but my current figure for overall yield is 80% trendline corn; 75% beans.
  • I think the hay market will be chaotic. What little got baled around here is umm, crap. Rank, overgrown, nasty stuff. Livestock, and especially horse owners just added another challenge.

Heard on the ecostreet…and we aren’t in Kansas anymore

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I just heard a brief NPR report concerning Barack Obama’s new media campaign to reintroduce himself to the American public. They played an excerpt commenting on his upbringing in Kansas. I found myself reflecting on my childhood in Kentucky…playing by woods and fields, splashing in creeks and streams (while avoiding the feared copperheads), and running through the most amazing and vast farmlands. I built forts in hayfields, chased down horses (the slow ones), and basically loved the outdoors.

My home was often uncomfortable (no need for the details), so I made ‘spaces’ for my life in nature.

I’m sitting here many years later…. on a week where I’ve hardly seen any nature. Meetings and writing with the computer have consumed my week. My wife just picked up a package of seeds…and it relaxed my mind.

I’m certain it’s hard for Mr. Obama (and Mr. McCain)…we aren’t in Kansas anymore.

Some notes from the week.

Heard from USDA that they will soon be moving forward with the 2008 Farm Bill ecosystem services initiatives…assessment protocols, etc. I initially thought there would be other priorities…but this is going to get immediate attention.

There will be some interesting changes in NRCS programs in the new rulemaking…and some improvements in how they handle operating (and other) funds. This should be helpful to our local NRCS folks…who work hard at sometime confusing tasks. I’m glad for them.

John Phipps got his last 300 acres of beans planted. He’s very lucky…I listened to the crop analyst today at lunch and we’re in for some serious trouble.

Dinner is ready…more next week.