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Green Notes - 22 May 08

By Chinthana ⋅ May 22, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

• As many companies fight to store the captured greenhouse gases as part of ‘the’ plan to cure the planet, some come up with controversial yet seemingly feasible plans. One of them is burying the CO2 and other gases beneath the seabed. Analysts say the search for a suitable technology could become a $150 billion-plus market. But a big worry is that gases may leak from badly chosen underground sites, perhaps jolted open by an earthquake. Climos was able to convince Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and Braemar Energy Ventures to fund its carbon-storing plan. Now Climos’ CEO Dan Whaley tells us the company is looking to raise another round in the fall to help it meet regulatory hurdles to start testing its project.
• Energy Department said that heat-trapping carbon dioxide releases increased by 1.6 percent last year, with most coming from residential and commercial energy use. The higher emissions in 2007 came from a greater demand for heating and cooling homes and office buildings because of weather. Emissions from transportation and industrial sources remained flat, compared with 2006. Further details and stats can be found here. Looking at the bigger picture, it seems that the changes in climate are forcing the us to dirty-up the air even more. For the EIA, it’s a reflection that hydroelectric power fell off in 2007, thanks partially to droughts. That put the onus onto other types of power generation—like natural gas, the fuel of choice to replace coal at power plants. While cleaner than coal, natural gas isn’t lily-white. And who was using that dirtier electricity? It wasn’t industry, which continued cutting its emissions, as it has on average since 1990, giving big business more ammunition to argue that it’s already doing its part to clean up. American households were the big disappointment—emissions rose 4.4%.
• An interesting article in the Telegraph highlights the paradox of trying to be green -  If too much air-freighted food is banned from the shelves of UK supermarket, tens of thousands of livelihoods could be wiped out in Africa, according to the Food Ethics Council. The report does not name any individual grocery chains. However, both Tesco and Marks & Spencer have put stickers of an airplane on food that has been flow in to the UK.
• Scientists delivered a warning Tuesday about nanotechnology after tests on lab rodents found that microscopic, needle-like fibres that are already in commercial use led to lesions similar to those caused by asbestos. The study used established methods to see if specific types of nanotubes have the potential to cause mesothelioma — a cancer of the lung lining that can take 30-40 years to appear following exposure. The results show that long, thin multi-walled carbon nanotubes that look like asbestos fibers, behave like asbestos fibers. “The problem of asbestos was caused when it was released into the air, if it was handled inappropriately or incorrectly. Carbon nanotubes could do the same,” said Andrew Maynard, chief science adviser to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies in Washington and one of the authors of the study.