Eco-Portal: An Information Gateway Empowering the Movement for Environmental Sustainability
Earth News
October 17, 2008
- Reader Comment of the Day
"No one has 'spread the wealth' over the past eight years." - 2 months
source: (U.S. News) - Masdar takes stake in London Array
The Abu Dhabi group bought 20 percent of the giant offshore wind power project from Germany's E.ON. - 2 months
source: (Cleantech Group - Latest clean technology news) - Nigeria: FG, States to Sign National Environment Pledge Oct 20 (AllAfrica.com)
The Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with the private sector operators and development partners, will in Abuja on October 21, sign a National Environment Pledge with the 36 State governors and the FCT Minister. - 2 months
source: (Yahoo! News Search Results for environment) - Hot Docs: U.S. Financial Crisis Hits Rich Persian Gulf States, Pakistan's Rule of Law
Today's selection of timely reports. - 2 months
source: (U.S. News) - Cindy McCain: As John’s First Lady, I Would Help Find Opportunities for People to Serve
I want to help harness the best impulses of millions of people, Cindy McCain writes. - 2 months
source: (U.S. News) - A Buy Signal for Washington
The $700 billion plan isn't the first big spending idea to come from Washington. - 2 months
source: (U.S. News) - Center for Environment adds experienced fundraiser from Davidson (The Salisbury Post)
An experienced fund raiser has joined the staff at Catawba College's Center for the Environment. Jay Laurens, the center's new director of resource d ... - 2 months
source: (Yahoo! News Search Results for environment) - Sequencing of Diatom Genome Highlights Genetic Diversity; “Transgenic by Nature”
The diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Diatoms have profound influence on the climate, producing 20% of atmospheric oxygen by capturing atmospheric carbon and in so doing, countering the greenhouse effect. An international team of researchers led by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris have sequenced and analyzed the genome of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
The researchers compared Phaeodactylum with the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, previously sequenced by DOE JGI, revealing a wealth of information about diatom biology, particularly the rapid diversification among the hundreds of thousands of diatom species that exist today.
The researchers found that the genetic structures of the two diatoms were dramatically different: 40% of their genes were not shared. Interestingly, the researchers found that hundreds of genes from bacteria were present in the genomes of both diatom species. The findings are published in 15 October edition of the journal Nature.
The bacterial genes found in diatoms could contribute to their success, enhancing their ability to perceive environmental signals or to metabolize organic carbon and nitrogen. Some of these bacterial genes might be responsible for certain cell-wall components in diatoms, and others for “unorthodox mechanisms of DNA replication, repair and recombination”. According to the study, “these findings go a long way towards explaining the incredible diversity and success of the diatoms in contemporary oceans”.
These organisms represent a veritable melting pot of traits—a hybrid of genetic mechanisms contributed by ancestral lineages of plants, animals, and bacteria, and optimized over the relatively short evolutionary timeframe of 180 million years since they first appeared. Our findings show that gene transfer between diatoms and other organisms has been extremely common, making diatoms ‘transgenic by nature.’
—first author Chris Bowler of the Ecole Normale SupérieureThe study showed that gene transfer between diatoms and other organisms has been extremely common in marine environments. For example, the diatom inherited its photosynthetic capacity from plants, and its ability to process urea from animals (although unlike animals, diatoms use urea to store, not eliminate, nitrogen). The researchers propose that this gene transfer has been a major driving force during diatom evolution.
We believe this is the first time bacterial horizontal gene transfer has been observed in eukaryotes at such scale. This study gets us closer to explaining the dramatic diversity across the genera of diatoms, morphologically, behaviorally, but we still haven’t yet explained all the differences conferred by the genes contributed by the other taxa.
—senior author Igor Grigoriev of DOE JGIThe team documented more than 300 genes sourced from bacteria and found in both types of diatoms, pointing to their ancient origin and suggesting novel mechanisms of managing nutrients—for example utilization of organic carbon and nitrogen—and detecting cues from their environment.
Phaeodactylum was targeted for sequencing due to its value as a diatom model, given the ease with which it can be grown in the lab and the availability of tools to genetically transform it, and the comparisons with the previously sequenced diatom genome of Thalassiosira pseudonana.
Diatoms reside in fresh or salt water and can be divided into two camps, centrics and pennates. Pennates like Phaeodactylum look more like a cross between a boomerang and a narrow three-cornered hat—hence the species name, tricornutum. Not only is their shape and habitat diverse, so too is their behavior; for instance, the centrics get around by floating, the pennates by gliding through the water or on surfaces.
The lifestyle of diatoms can be characterized as “bloom or bust.” When light and nutrient conditions in the upper reaches of the ocean are favorable, particularly at the onset of spring, diatoms gain an edge and tend to dominate their phytoplankton brethren. When food is scarce, they die and sink, carrying their complement of carbon dioxide to the deeper recesses.
Bowler and his colleagues are also trying to understand the role that iron plays in the Phaeodactylum’s development. Iron is even more precious than nitrogen in the ocean and its absence in the southern hemisphere is likely a major cause of oceanic deserts of photosynthesis there. Bowler’s team has demonstrated that when iron deficiency occurs processes such as photosynthesis and nitrogen assimilation are suppressed.
Other studies, which hail diatoms as champions in capturing carbon dioxide, suggest a bold strategy of using iron as a fertilizer to provoke massive diatom blooms.
Once they have feasted, the weight of their silicon shells, which resemble glass, causes the diatoms to sink to the bottom of the ocean when they die, and the carbon that they assimilated is trapped there for millennia. By sequestering carbon in this way we could reverse the damage from the burning of fossil fuels
—Chris BowlerThe US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, unites the expertise of five national laboratories—Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Pacific Northwest, along with the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology—to advance genomics in support of the DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup.
The collaboration included partners from 10 countries and was funded in part by the EU-funded DIATOMICS and Marine Genomics projects.
Resources
Bowler C., et al. (2008). The Phaeodactylum genome reveals the evolutionary history of diatom genomes. Nature. Published online 15 October; doi: 10.1038/nature07410
source: (Green Car Congress) - Netherlands, Artumas Tanzania sign carbon offset deal
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands and the Tanzanian arm of Canada's Artumas Group Inc have signed a carbon offset deal for 200,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions to run for seven years, its embassy in Tanzania said.- 2 months
source: ( Reuters: Environment) - In downturn, solar industry sees bright days ahead
SAN DIEGO--People in the solar industry are hopeful that the sun is a good place to put money these days.
To be sure, the financial crunch is rippling through even the fast-growing solar business: With falling house prices and general belt-tightening, consumers may be more reluctant to purchase solar panels, ...
- 2 months
source: (Green Tech ) - Chrysler's CEO says auto industry ripe for mergers (AP via Yahoo! News)
Chrysler LLC Chief Executive Bob Nardelli says a steep decline in U.S. auto sales has created an environment for industry consolidation, but he would not comment on reports that talks are accelerating for General Motors Corp. to acquire his company. - 2 months
source: (Yahoo! News Search Results for environment) - Agricultural production threatening environment (Vietnam Net)
VietNamNet Bridge – Agricultural production now makes up 24% of GDP and 30% of exports. However, it seems that the development of agricultural production is threatening the environment. - 2 months
source: (Yahoo! News Search Results for environment) - Appliance Recycling Centers of America (ARCA) Opens Recycling Center...
Appliance Recycling Centers of America Opens Recycling Center in Springfield, Illinois, to Serve Two New Utility Customers MINNEAPOLIS, Oct 14, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Appliance Recycling ...
- 2 months
source: (Environmental News) - Revealed: Using washable nappies best for environment (The Herald)
Using washable nappies instead of disposables can create 40% less carbon emissions, a new report from the Environment Agency will say today. - 2 months
source: (Yahoo! News Search Results for environment) - Lifestyle - The Starre Behind Eco Chick
Starre Vartan, founder and editor of the green lifestyle website Eco Chick, is one of our favorite go-to girls for sustainable practices. She offers a wealth of information and presents her knowledge in a fun, practical way. Starre has recently taken her duties one step further to create a book of tips called The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to be Fabulously Green. Inside, she walks us through ways to be ecologically smart without sacrificing style and happiness. We caught up with Starre from her home in Connecticut to dish about the book. Here’s what she had to say.
EcoSalon: What inspired you to translate the information on your site into a book? (Don’t worry, greenies - it’s printed on recycled paper.)
Starre Vartan: I really wanted to write something that was a companion to my site, which is for young women who want something cool and accessible. My blog is all about being current and following trends, but I was constantly getting questions about the basics - what is a sustainable fabric? What kinds of cleaning products can I use without breaking the bank? The book answers these questions and isn't about 'news' like the blog is.
ES: You dedicated this book to your grandmother, the original Eco Chick. Did she bestow her traditional green ways upon you? Was she your inspiration for creating Eco Chick?
SV: My grandmother was the major inspiration for the book. She raised me in the Hudson Valley of New York, where I grew up growing and eating organic veggies from our gigantic garden, enjoying meat and eggs from a farm about two miles from my house, and using only non-toxic cleaning products. Being a kid, I thought all these things were normal.
It was only later that I realized she consciously made these choices both because she was attuned to preserving her local environment and because she believed that conservation made sense for a sustainable world.
ES: We love the “My Green Shopping Basket” lists at the end of each section, in which you suggest specific products/services for each topic. Have you really tried them all?
SV: I've definitely tried pretty much all of them, or my friends have, sometimes both! I've been an official greenie (writing about environmental science and sustainable living topics) for about nine years now, and was raised in a very open, progressive way, so some of these companies - Kiss My Face, Nature's Gate, Morningstar Farms, The Body Shop, Under the Canopy, Patagonia - have been part of my life for many, many years now.
ES: You talk about sharing eco-friendly practices with family, friends, and colleagues. Do you believe this will help convert others around us to going green?
SV: It's ONLY by talking to each other that habits change on a large scale. Doing things in a bubble with like-minded people is comfortable and reassuring, but 'ghettoizing' a sustainable lifestyle will not lead to change; only consensus, collaboration, and compromise (not to mention creativity!) will.
ES: This guide is so comprehensive and the perfect carry-along resource. Are there plans for additional books in the future?
SV: I'm working on a more literary endeavor based on a project I started as part of the thesis for my MFA (in nonfiction writing) from Columbia. It's about the five senses and humanity's relationship with the environment; basically how modernization and mechanization have changed the way we understand the world. I'm using the lenses of history, culture and science, including many scientific studies, to look at how we have fundamentally changed the way we live so rapidly; and how that has negative (disconnection from the natural world) and positive (the Internet!) impacts.
ES: Thanks for stopping by, Starre! We’re eagerly awaiting your next project.
Editor's note: To learn more about Starre, visit Eco Chick. You can also hear her talking green fashion at GreenTalkRadio. And be sure to check out her book. Go on, shoo!
- 2 months
source: (EcoSalon - The Green Gathering) - Decor - Designer Spotlight: Christian Rathbone’s 5 Favorite Décor Pieces
Christian Rathbone’s super chic rug collection is proof of his impeccable taste, and we could all learn a thing or two from his eye for elegance. Forget what the trends dictate! Instead, let this hip designer’s insight into his favorite décor pieces guide the way to modish interiors. We asked Christian for his current favorites:
Beam Coffee Table by Environment Furniture:
“I love the surreal and simple look of Environment's pieces. The use of large beams of wood really gives the material an undeniable identity.”
Bottle Lamp by Kusumoto Sukehiro: “This piece seems to reach out in all directions. I like how the bottles conform to the design and not the other way around. Because of this, the form stands out, rather than the materials.”
Monarch Chair by Jennifer Prince:
“This chair reminds me of the skeleton of an airplane wing. As well as being visually stunning, it's very comfy to sit in.”
Skeleton Pillow by Ortolan:
“I'm a big fan of using uncommon design ideas and themes on accessories. That's why the look of the skeleton pillow is very appealing.”
Paper Tables by Matt Gagnon:
“This substantial piece is made from recycled paper. It provides a good example that good design does not have to be sacrificed and can even be enhanced by using recycled or sustainable materials.”It’s clear that Christian’s expertise in design goes way beyond textiles. You can find his artistic creations at Vivavi. Also, make sure to check out his Series of Eight rug that we recently featured.
- 2 months
source: (EcoSalon - The Green Gathering) - Wellness - USDA, USDA, How Many Consumer Protection Programs Have You Killed Today?
Buyer Beware. At the end of September, the USDA quietly halted a program called the Agricultural Chemical Usage Program. The program’s purpose was to measure pesticide use in fruit and vegetable crops. Data from the program was widely used by the EPA to set allowable pesticide levels and also by university researchers and other groups that help farmers minimize the amount of pesticides they apply to their crops.
The reason cited for the move was cost. I don’t know about you, but $8 million a year seems a small price to pay for safer food.
A little background: remember the Alar scare in 1989? Alar was a carcinogenic chemical widely sprayed on apples and when its residue ended up in the apple sauce and apple juices so often eaten by children, a public furor erupted. The flap over Alar resulted in the banning of the chemical, a new slate of food laws, and the enactment of the Agricultural Chemical Usage Program in 1990.
Fast forward: university researchers and EPA policy makers must now purchase the data privately at a cost of $500-$800 a year from a company called Dmrkynetec. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dmrkynetec has a few lobbyists roaming the halls of the USDA. After all, the USDA is the same government agency that was recently ordered by a federal judge to stop buying ads against Proposition 2 in California (a proposition that will ban some of the worst confined feeding practices in industrial meat and egg production). Last time I checked it was illegal for government agencies to try to influence elections.
This development is just another reason to buy your produce from a local, organic farmer you trust. There is a bright side. If word gets out, this will only help the community farmers who are doing it right. So after you hit your local farmers’ market, tell a few friends about what the USDA isn’t doing to ensure safe food supplies.
Sources:
SFGate: Prop 2 Story
Chicago Times: Pesticide Program
More on the Program
Image: soylentgreen23
- 2 months
source: (EcoSalon - The Green Gathering) - Fashion - Merchants of Venice Tormented by Thrifty Tourists
Legend has it there was a time when you could move through the fashion boutiques, Murano shops and cafes of San Marcos Square without battling monstrous crowds. Friends of mine even speak of walking right into the Duomo, right on in. No sweating a one-hour line.
But these days, the main island of the famous Grand Canal is as packed as Disneyland in July, heaving with tour groups fresh off cruise ships and trains, eager to look, but not to buy.
While the spastic market hasn't exactly curbed travel to Venice, it has greatly affected spending. Cutting back is how we mend our broken economy and certainly in line with efforts to create a more sustainable green planet. But it spells disaster to vendors entirely dependent upon the tourist trade. And boy, are they steamed.
In one charming negozio I visited off the square, a weathered bleach-blonde Italian woman was holding her head in agony and sighing as visitors examined her delicate blown glass perfume bottles and animals.
"Is it all right to touch these?" I inquired, meekly, pawing an adorable mini glass fish bowl with itty-bitty glass goldfish.
"Please do, madam," she replied. "Please, go ahead and break something. It's the only way I'll make some money today."
I burst out laughing at her remark but the bizarre attitude I encountered in a fashion boutique called Pignaton wasn't so funny. A brunette saleswoman in her late 20s shadowed me at a furious pace, refolding Missoni sweaters and scarves I had touched, muttering naughty Italian words under her breath, words I hadn't learned in my San Francisco summer class.
"Look, I have to touch when I shop," I explained to my shadow, thinking an Italian, of all people, would get that shopping is a highly tactile experience.
After all, I had done plenty of heavy petting in the Furla stores of Rome and Florence before parting with euros for purple leather wallets, zipper-front gloves, patent clutch bags and ruffled scarves. In fact, I thought my mother and I had made quite a dent in Italy's suffering economy with our hands-on approach to shopping.
"Sure, that's what you Americans always say, but in Italy we don't have to touch, we don't have to touch, we aren't like that," she barked at me, red-faced.
Speaking of touched! I feared if I didn't leave the shop immediately the hostile merchant might attack me with a Versace borsa. Guess she sized me up as one of those tourists who unfold but don't buy. (Boy was she wrong. I even refold if you give me a minuto.)
Yet I have to sympathize with these merchants. They're bombarded daily with internationals asking what items cost and seeking directions (the square is a virtual maze of alleys and crannies).
A darling woman named Liliana I met at a Murano glass factory told me she moved to Lido Island to escape the hordes and their incessant questions. Before that she had escaped Romania by coming to Venice to make money and be with all of the nice people.
While the euro to dollar exchange rate has improved to 1.35 (it was 1.60 last spring), the falling dollar has really hurt the Italian economy (see my earlier post on the Italian recession). The most visible bruises are in Venice where everything depends upon filling those gondolas tethered in the lagoon.
Before my recent trip, I swore I would limit purchases to souvenirs for my kids because Italian prices are so darn high. But I couldn't resist the stunning accessories calling to me from store windows. When I returned home I found the items at Furla cost more here than in Italy and wished I had bought more. But clearly, I was one of the few toting shopping bags around the square.
A news report in PINR warned the dramatic drop in consumer spending in Italy would add insult to the injury in other key fields where the country has lagged behind. These include scientific research, high-tech innovation and labor productivity.
According to the report, another disappointment is "the lack of strategy to reduce the country's alarming energy dependence."
All of it adds up to a crisis that could have retailers hanging permanent chiuso signs on their doors. While heavy hitters Gucci, Pucci and Armani might be able to withstand the drought (despite their outrageous, museum-like prices on goods), small vendors like Pignaton seem to be dying of thirst with no bottle of Brunello in sight.
- 2 months
source: (EcoSalon - The Green Gathering) - Artisan - From Waste to Wonder
Looks sure can be deceiving, but not always in the way that you think. Antakarana artisans reverse this phrase’s negative connotation as they unite in an eco effort to make use of waste. These creative single mothers from Colombia take pride in the fact that their chic Something Old, Something New trays originated as discarded wooden crates.
Beware: this stylishly hand-crafted piece’s organic pattern of rich and faded hues may impress your dinner guests more than your culinary creations. ;)
For a similar look, the Chapati candle tray that we recently featured can be used to serve hors d’oeuvres once its wax burns away. (Available at Original Good for $29.95.) - 2 months
source: (EcoSalon - The Green Gathering) - Honda Begins Sales of All-New Odyssey Minivan in Japan
Honda is beginning sales in Japan of the all-new Odyssey minivan. The new Odyssey is equipped with a 2.4-liter DOHC i-VTEC engine and torque converter-equipped CVT, a combination that enables the vehicle to achieve performance and class leading fuel economy of 13.2 km/L in 10-15 mode (31 mpg US, 7.6 L/100km).
The new Odyssey. The new Odyssey features DBW (drive-by-wire) control and an ECON mode which improves fuel economy by applying collaborative control of the CVT and air conditioner to reduce engine load.
Efficiency improvements and weight reduction in the engine and transmission have helped boost fuel economy, while ECON mode supports even more economical operation.
In 2007, Honda introduced an updated version of the Odyssey in the US (MY 2008) with a more fuel-efficient version of the 3.5-liter Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) i-VTEC V-6 engine. The new generation of VCM provided the additional capability to selectively deactivate either two or three of the engine’s six cylinders during cruising and deceleration (instead of three, exclusively). (Earlier post.)
- 2 months
source: (Green Car Congress)
