three nytimes articles

Three articles from the New York Times (you may need to register for a free account):

In Visits to 3 States, Bush Pushes Alternative Energy

Rewarding Recyclers, and Finding Gold in the Garbage

Reach of Clean Water Act is at Issue in 2 Supreme Court Cases

Global Solutions Flash Logo Contest

A contest to devise a flash logo for Citizens for Global Solutions, with cash prizes. (And it's not even due until April 1.) So, if you want to have some creative fun, check it out!

-Alison

Bush Green Watch - envi misdeeds

hello,

this site has up-to-date info on what the bush administration is doing concerning the environment. they cite newspaper articles among their sources, so that's a plus - not just angry environmentlists : ).

-alison

Post 3: Renewable Energy Systems

Note: 3 speakers on renewable energy

Wind Energy: Site Selection, Design, Energy Yields
Andrew Oliver, Ph.D
Renewable Energy Systems

He’s British.
How engineers can make a difference for a sustainable world. Co. Est. 1982. 1,000 wind farms. Offsetting 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
• 50,000 MW worldwide
• growing 20% per year
• takes 2-3 months of production to pay for itself (in profit? No in energy) – payback period is like 6 years
• Fuel is free
• Competitive with all other forms of new electricity generation
• All engineering disciplines!
• Wind turbines increase in size
• 3000 kW. J per hr
• Largest about size of airplane

Wind farm:
• Wind – increase to 2 x – get 8 x the energy
• Transmission access and availability (Antarctica great wind, but no transmission)
• Mesoscale wind model to est. wind speed potential.
• Global weather archive.
• Consider environmental aspects – for instance, trees slow it down.
• Need detailed knowledge of transmission systems.
o Prox to site
o Markets served (do they want it?)
o Constraints – US grid system maxed out.
o Capacity available
o Will there need to be adjustments to the receiving system?
• Throw into GIS (geographic info system)
• Land ownership
• Project boundary
• Look for constraints – houses, pipelines → map of constraints = ‘setbacks’ – areas too steep to build on.
• Build a mast to est. wind – anemometors, wind vanes.
• Wind trends – monthly means. Time of day. Can it match the system load?
• Interested most in wind speed distribution
• PREDICTION of wind is most important. Wind speed varies every year.
o Measure
o Correlate
o Predict
• Get an estimate of output.
Wind Farm Building:
• Zone of visual influence
• Wireframe views
• Photomontage
• 3D
• Computational Fluid Dynamics.


----

Renewable Energy Technology Overview
Richard Amato, Ph.D
Director of Clean Energy Incubator (Part of the Austin Clean Energy Incubator)


Part of the IC squared? Austin. UT program. Basic overview of basic renewable energy, and what we’re doing with it.

What is it? Inexhaustible. Most come from the sun.
• Hydroelectric: considered not renewable because of lots of large dams cause environmental degradation. So not considered positive in envi communities. Catching current – small hydro. Doing a lot of research off the coast of England.
• Wind: … most economical right now. Competes favorably with petrochemical. Green Choice – Austin Energy. Energy cost can be secured – fluctuates with use, but not with fuel cost (fixed). So GET ON IT NOW. Because the trend is probably going to continue.
o Being on top of one is quite an experience
• Solar: Thermal and Voltaic: heating – then transferred into electricity, or electrical with cells. Huge several football fields for heat gathering. Voltaic cells, on convention center. Integrated photovoltaic – into buildings. For shading purposes, too. Or as roofing materials
• Bioenergy: One of the oldest – for instance, wood burning. Via combustion or gasification. Natural gas type turbine. Biogas – methane from organic matter into electricity.
• Geothermal: maybe not renewable – site will be taking away heat, lowering temp. But slowly. Use heat – looks similar to traditional plant – but not burning coal. Where does our power come from – Coal, nuclear, natural (1/3 each) but 5% Renewables. Austin has a plan of 20% renewables by 2020. Natural gas is much higher in Texas than most other places.

Clean energy:
• Renewable and green, emerging, sustainable, efficiency.
• Broader spectrum
• By 2014, they will grow another six fold, to more than $100 billion. Clean-energy markets – “Clean-Energy Trends 2004” Clean Edge, March 2005: wind, solar, fuel cells (15x!)

ATI Mission:
• Working with tech to reach business goals. Before market, but after R&D.
• NREL (national renewable energy lab) and SECO
• Market need for business knowledge to commercialize viable clean energy technologies.
• 11 incubators in 9 states national alliance of clean energy business incubators.
• One in California

CEI Companies
• RSET
• WindKraft Inc
• Power Tube
• Austin Biofuels – biodiesel
• E60 vision
• MircoDynamo
• Simeken inc – EPA certified
• HyEnergy systems
• Geotek Energy

ramato@ati.utexas.edu

---

Renewable Energy and Grid Issues
Mack Grady, Ph.D
Electrical Engineering, UT Austin

A lot of issues of transmitting through power lines to where energy is used.

Mainly in wind from west. Get it to the east. A lot of energy from crude oil. 40% of energy moves through the grid. It’s like the US highway system – updating, but used more heavily. Three grids – Western, Eastern, and (ERCOT) Texas Connection. Most of wind goes to north, then some to east.

Remember 3 to 1 rule. If use 1, took 3 kWhr to make. 44-68% lost in generation. 8% lost to transmission and distribution. If you want to reduce, don’t use it. Distribution creates problems that are interesting to us. Solar will probably be up and coming – in rooftops.
Some wind towers turned off because grid can’t take the power addition. Talking about offshore – wind pattern is favorable – more generation in the daytime. GE Wind turbine. See on I-10 toward Fort Stockton. Wind Farm. Rancher get $4,000 /yr per each (about 150 there). Not heavy. Beautiful setting.

Spacing…

Daily load profile – Consumption, when you really need it, it goes to minimum. Everyone wants wind, but it does have its weak points. You can’t store it. So this takes away from the savings. Fuel is storage in oil… not economical. Maybe one day into H2, store the chemical. 6 months to make a wind farm, years to get a grid connection. BP believes in solar panels, prices have come way down. Shingles. Cost per kWhr, wind is Great. But not there when you need it. (see website for presentation)
5th largest energy user in the WORLD. (TX)?

Leads US in potential for renewable energy use. (Wind, solar, biomass) we’re a big state.
2%? Disparaging numbers.

A lot more generation in the west. (This guy has an awesome accent.) Saey? see? Wind has to have some imaginary power. (only real power). GE units do. Stabilized.

Everybody in the utilities is in favor of wind
ERCOT March 2005 (right quick)
3200 MW of renewables at end of 2005
Need other resources since wind is not always available. Ocean may be more on-peak.

Solar has a more favorable profile. Help out wind. Extra cost. Diversity of locations and installed amounts help balance.

Wind not responsive, not dispatchable, low value on-peak, but very low operating cost, no fuel cost, no emissions – as an engineer, have to find a balance.

Energy storage bothers, and not being on peak, and companies not willing to invest in new tech once invested: while on-peak is produced off coast – much less. West Texas much more feasible

Interesting Air Pollution Article (possibly useful for conference)

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't been able to make a meeting (someday I'll be able), but, since I know we're thinking of making the conference about air pollution, I have this fantastic article about "New Source Review," which is bureaucratese for some air pollution regulations. It is a NY Times article from May 4th, 2004, but it explains a good deal of the current controversy surrounding air pollution regulation. However, the article is very long (13 pages) and the link requires money to view the article or for you to have a NY Times Select Account. As a result, I would feel rather irresponsible posting 13 pages of a very long article; so, if you want the article or you think it would be perfectly fine to post or you have a wonderful idea for how to post the article, just send me a quick email at: jcaves@rice.edu.
Jeremy

Light bulbs: Not such a bright idea

An op-ed from BBC News:

"Listening to most politicians, you would think the world's energy problems can be solved only by building ever bigger power stations and burning ever more fuel.

Not so; and it certainly cannot solve the coming climate crisis.

After turning off unnecessary pieces of equipment, improved energy efficiency is the cheapest way for developing countries to maximise their use of limited energy supplies, and for developed countries to achieve cuts in their carbon dioxide emissions.

One quick and simple option for improving energy efficiency would be to make greater use of compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Each one of these bulbs produces the same amount of light as an incandescent light bulb whilst being responsible for the emission of 70% less carbon dioxide.

It also saves money; about £7 ($12) per year in the UK, more or less in other countries depending on electricity prices.

So why not just ban incandescent bulbs - why not make them illegal?

They waste so much energy that if they were invented today, it is highly unlikely they would be allowed onto the market.

Nobody would suffer; every energy-saving bulb would save money and help to curb climate change." [read more]

The author, Matt Prescott, is director of banthebulb.org, an online campaign encouraging greater energy-efficiency. He is also organiser of the Oxford Earth Summit, and writes the environmental weblog Earth-Info.net.

I think: yes, little things add up, become a movement, make a difference. They have that potential, at least. But the thing is, grassroots movements require too much labor to reach too few people. (I'm in a pessimist kind of mood these days.) There must be a way to popularize these little, powerful ideas. Taxing is one route, but Blair's probably more likely to do it than Bush is, which is to say, still not very likely. If it happens in the US it will probably be on a state-by-state basis. But lightbulbs should be a part of our energy policy, and our energy policy should be on the national level, because it desperately requires that degree of commonality and importance.

Post 2: Notes on the Earth Summit and UN Commission on Sustainable Development

Hello,

Post 2: Notes on the Earth Summit and UN Commission on Sustainable Development

Although this page of notes got totally screwed - it was put in alphabetical order, and I couldn't undo it - I thought it has some useful pieces of information - especially youth and interaction with the UN.

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
Daniel Roth, Grad Student, Cornell
Youth Achieving the Millennium Goals
Amir Farmanesh
A Global Assessment of the Sustainability Movement
Timo Marquez Arreaza, Project Manager for World YES Project
The Environmental Justice Movement
Nile Galloy
The Earth Summit and UN Commission on Sustainability
Korrina Kester, Environmental Health and Safety, UT



10:45 am panel

2: Resources, conservation, atmosphere, biotechnology, droughts, radioactivity (most of major envi issues)
3: Major groups, international participation: women, youth, NPGs, industry, science, aggies, indigenous .. – concretized their role. Increased civil society – interacting with governmental process. Stakeholders.
4: Ways problems can be addressed – technology transfer – renewable energy, refugees – A lot of the focus is engaging all the stake-holders

Amir: Role of young people in meeting Millennium Development Goals. Iran – Knew of Corrina. UN has different discussion forums. There’s a comprehensive list-serv – major facility tool to contact each other to prepare for each summit. Open to everyone. Show you how it’s really possible to be engaged. WSSD-youthcaucus@yahoogroups.com. Youth Report. Millennium Development Goals: mostly non-political – very achievable – kind of a new religion for UN. Youth is not mentioned as a partner, but as a target group. But we are a partner. When we started, we didn’t know it was even going to be published. Internet contact. Very good acceptance from UN. Something that was just a bunch of e-mails at the start, became something. We did 40 case studies about how young people are already doing the development goals. This is a very practical report. From all countries around the world. MDGyouthpaper.org. Complete report is in PDF. Or taking IT global – really focused on youth engagement – hosted there. Can be a member – NPO. Completely youth run. Membership from all countries. Very good activities.

Business Sustainable Relations
Analysis:
• Initiatives vary
• Gap between big and small companies
• Online communication best – info largely qualitative – not quantitative

But you have to take it home and encourage what’s important.
Civic and spiritual leaders
Conclusion:
• Trend is there that businesses are addressing sustainable development.
• More engaging initiatives are needed
• But hard to cross-check companies progress.
• They can go on from materials, processes:
o Stakeholder engagement
o Education
o Best Practices
• Hope they will take advice, can help them implement.
Corporate Sector: Working with waste management. Reports seem wonderful, but they’re actually not happening at all. Could be a total disconnect. They might say that they do it globally – but it may not be true. A lot is due to grass roots pressure.
Corrina: World Summit: Several prep statements. World summit was looking at everything in the world and development. Youth are major stakeholders. It’s a really valuable process to have on the world stage. But discussions aren’t binding.
Corrina: UN – summary: body composed of reps of govt of countries around the world. Placards of countries names. Five official languages. International system can cooperate. Part of the discussion is in development. Largely started in 70s. Stockholm – wow, there’re big envi problems that we can’t handle ourselves. Ozone depletion, pollution in NW from China. It’s not just the environment, but it has a big interrelationship with development issues. Our Common Future – Brutlin commission – meeting the needs of current generations without damaging the ability for future generations to meet their own needs. UN commission (1987). Earth summit – Rio, Brazil. Landmark conference because a lot came out of it: Agenda 21. Recognition about things. Really hard to get governments to agree on things. Really amazing that all agreed that there were big problems that needed to be discussed.

Education in the company effective?: Personally think that there’s no education internally in company. Contest in Switzerland – Holcim - $2 million for a contest of SD architectural and engineering ideas.


Cultural creatives
Culture is an underlying dimension of all of this. Diversity, values, knowledge. Culture connects to the individual. Languages, worldviews. Connect to SD in a meaningful way: through culture. Want people to be able to do sustainable development capacity.
Different sectors will improve their ability to partner. Youth working with adult organizations. Getting better with innovations. One of the most important things that we can do is to improve this ability, that not many people can do that well. Decade of education for sustainable development. (2005-2014) Timeline! So makes people motivated. Millennium goals date 2015. Hope to go beyond millennium goals. Need to be raising the bar higher.
Emerging green builders
Energy action
Engaging People in Sustainability
Environment
Environmental justice
ESW
Ethical entrepreneurs – socially, environmentally
Gender Equality
Grassroots activities. (in booklet) but to express voice
Health Promotion
Higher Edu
HIV/AIDS
Including Faith
Inherit interconnectedness of life in indigenous culture - wisdom. How they’re intertwined. Systems thinking has divided. Engaging young people and leaders. 1.5 billion are between 10-24. – the largest group to enter adulthood.
Interdisciplinary researchers – often at the core of innovative SD ideas

Kevin: Amazing experience. Co-founding the Asian caucus. Turned into a white paper, then read on the plenary floor. Able to network with many kinds of people. Got to speak in Canada about experiences. Try to make it a reality.

Key Action Things – UNESCO –
major issues and how we’re going to look at them. Not binding. But good things came from it. Discussion on climate, biodiversity. Every year, countries come together to talk about – in NY at UN offices. Commission on Sustainable Development. Sustain Us: young people have an opportunity to express voice. (very diverse) Agents of Change: Participate in a caucus. Youth caucus – a group that can voice interests.
National initiatives:
Native movement
Net Impact
Ongoing sustainability tours
Organicportraits.org
Overcoming Poverty
Quality Edu

Remember: def. of sustainable development in “our Common Future” business is involved. World Business council on sustainable development WBCSD. First looked at basics: Corporate citizenship, responsibility, sustainable development? Mission statement reflects what kind of time and movie will be put in. In analysis: see what they do (like with Cement) – improve resources, materials. We look at external stakeholders and if companies are addressing sustainability through education, energy material efficiency, process improvements,
Responsible consumers
Rural Development… Everything…
Sec 1: Poverty, consumption
Sustain Us. – Corrina de UT
Sustainability has been a public relations word. ☹. AMD wants to develop an aquifer across town that a lot of envi groups are protesting.
Sustainable development: issues and sectors.
Sustainable enterprise networks
Terracycle – Cornell Univ. Organic plant food.
Timo: Venezuela. ETA sustainability. A univ in Switzerland. How sustainability can be incorporated into curriculum. World YES forum. 7 different projects. Regional. Corporate responsibility and climate change – one project. Want to provide discussion and recommendations, from a voluntary perspective, not mandatory.
Triple bottom line: Flourishing environment,
UN processes – youth leadership in Iran - Amir de Syracuse
Water
Young people:
Youth councils
Youth Encounter on Sustainability
Youth speakers bureau
Youth Xchange UNEP – youthxchange.net – toolkit to engage young people in a sustainable consumer life - empowering people to have an effect on the economy.

What does it look like: Envision a better world. Interdisciplinary and holistic – not just a new class. Really education for SD has to be integrated, and cross-sections for all.
You think because you understand ‘one’, you must understand ‘two’, because one and one make two. But you must understand ‘and’.
-Ancient Sufi Proverb – working together

Talwar Declaration: Taillores? Dec
Campusgreening.org
Specifically curriculum: EFC-acad@lists.asu.edu

When hired a sustainability coordinator – talk to alumni affairs and with boards of directors. Strategic placement of sustainability education. Different strategy than corporate partnerships.

But companies are supposed to make their stakeholders wealthier. Individual professors have been more supportive than university – where is the frontline where students should be working for. Our future.
• A lot of frontlines – corporate, grass roots – a diversity of ways. Financial yes a consideration, but effective ways to use limited funds. Can seek people out with the Internet, volunteer force. Don’t underestimate the power of small business. Get them involved at the university, union level – they’re the ones that tend to be sustainable. Find funding. Some of the most innovative work is at the county level. With local business and local govt, building a strong base. Instead of going to another country, it could be done here. incentives for businesses
• We need more dreamers, more faith, more visionaries.
• (Idea: think about a project for an hour a week. Anything.) Requires specific skills from engineers. Jobs out there for non-engineers?
• Keep dreaming big.

Notes from the Engineers for a Sustainable World Conference

Hey eviclubbers!

So, I'm trying to post all the lecture notes I took. Some are exhaustive. I'm trying to make them a little more readable, too. The next post is from the first talk on the first day (a Thursday). I have notes up till the end of the conference (on Sunday), with about 3 to 5 talks per day. Ah, well, please feel free to peruse at your leisure!

-Alison

Akhtar Badshah - Keynote (Thurs talk)

Akhtar Badshah
Microsoft Corporation
Keynote

Impressed that engineering students wanted to take on the problems of the world.
Architect by trade. Sustainability and design work at MIT. Urban revitalization issues. Inner-city slums. We need to focus on economic empowerment. Impossible otherwise to create a sustainable way of giving. Poeta partnership. Microsoft unlimited potential program. Video

Finding innovation everyday:
• Ensure we deploy technology everywhere. 50 emus in a pen in the middle of nowhere. Better service in India everywhere. $30,000-bike. Never got out of customs. Didn’t need a fancy bike. Solar panel + attaché case + bike. Accesses information. Goes back to office to get it. Returns to the remote village.
• In Egypt, 8 hours from Cairo – nothing there. IT. An oasis. For dates, hibiscus, and mint. Found markets in Europe. Cut out the middlemen. Siba. Because women are learning these programs. Making the difference in their own lives. Our job is to support them to do it in a more effective way.
• Not trying to create software engineers. Just like reading or writing. Targeting youth, women, and elderly.
• Boys and Girls IT Clubs.

Program Reach
• UP – from Corporate Giving. International.
• Developed a curriculum. From word processing to economic… National curriculum in Egypt. Very accessible.
• Telecentre.org – with Canadian org. access points being set up around the world. Many cannot sustain selves. Try to make them sustainable.
• UP reach, Impact, Metrics: More than $125 million in cash and software (that’s nothing…) 90+ countries. Encourage employees to volunteer. Microsoft match donation of employee. $32 million (employee) matched by $30 million by Microsoft. Volunteer – company matches monetarily.
• Encouraging research through creative partnerships – partnered company to an NGO on the ground.
• Spending time with the end users to find sustainability: cultural acceptance, buy-in, access.

Look at the impact on the people you are about to serve. Look at the impact on their lives. They can help design the program, and this can be a most effective partnership. What can they bring? It can be a really successful partnership. We have the luxury to refine, which they do not have. That is the challenge.

Neg affect on culture?: A technology that’s ubiquitous? What are you getting people to use it for? Focus for ex: give weather info to fishermen, and agriculture prices for women. Technology bringing them economic benefit. Tsunami warning system? If had been solely for that, would not have been effective. The framework and content in which you introduce it is very important.

Partnerships between Universities, not just NGOs:

Security (of equipment): Security from Internet. Not worried so much about getting mugged. Microsoft doesn’t go and offer. They respond to community request. They need to be engaged; it’s there environment. Locally owned, community effort.

Sustainable?: Non-sustainable systems of foods? Non-local emu. Don’t think that in a global world, won’t produce consume just locally. Won’t be feasible all over the world. Emu work – understanding the resources that they would need. His land would sustain them. Added to the economic sustainability – Use drip irrigation for sustenance. Have to be careful not to get caught in that trap. How do we get sustainability not harming the local environment and worthwhile for people. Adequate balance. You are going to be part of a local market. I don’t see that as being all bad. Thinking we will change their culture by bringing technology. Who are we to make that decision for them? We can’t impose our value systems. Have to get them to understand theirs.

Refining: How are people going to use and purchase sustainable? Sustainably? How do you internalize it? Not coming from the outside?

Technology: Cheapest cost widest coverage. Mesh networks. But there are data security issues. But maybe farmer not doing financial transactions. Eventually. But need to get them out there first.

Bear full cost? Why take philanthropy?: Markets are not fully market-driven. Provides incentives. Can’t wait for investment. It’ll take too long. Provide incentives for these efforts to proliferate. Start the market, essentially. Donation – a form of subsidy. You cannot break away. This tries to have an exit plan, leave it to the partners. Take the microcredit industry. It’s taken 25 years to learn, to get tech to catch up, to manage it. Don’t do it as an investment. But as a contribution.

Thoughts: Compelling. Interesting, since I wasn’t thinking about all these market forces. However, another professor/speaker who I was sitting with later on in the conference confessed that IT was catering to the elite, and was not doing the social good it was for which it was supposed.

On Climate Change, a Change of Thinking

From yesterday's New York Times, on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol...

"In December 1997, representatives of most of the world's nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate a binding agreement to cut emissions of "greenhouse" gases.

They succeeded. The Kyoto Protocol was ultimately ratified by 156 countries. It was the first agreement of its kind. But it may also prove to be the last.

Today, in the middle of new global warming talks in Montreal, there is a sense that the whole idea of global agreements to cut greenhouse gases won't work.

A major reason the optimism over Kyoto has eroded so rapidly is that its major requirement - that 38 participating industrialized countries cut their greenhouse emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2012 - was seen as just a first step toward increasingly aggressive cuts.

But in the years after the protocol was announced, developing countries, including the fast-growing giants China and India, have held firm on their insistence that they would accept no emissions cuts, even though they are likely to be the world's dominant source of greenhouse gases in coming years.

Their refusal helped fuel strong opposition to the treaty in the United States Senate and its eventual rejection by President Bush.

But the current stalemate is not just because of the inadequacies of the protocol. It is also a response to the world's ballooning energy appetite, which, largely because of economic growth in China, has exceeded almost everyone's expectations. And there are still no viable alternatives to fossil fuels, the main source of greenhouse gases." [read more]

Is it a futile struggle to try to curtail emissions in light of the needs of economic development? In China it has always been "development first, environment second," a sentiment that is echoed throughout the world. But what good is prioritization when lower priorities can undermine the higher ones? Are we really moving forward and "developing" when quality of life is simultaneously improved through economic growth and degraded by pollution, loss of green space, the looming threat of climate change? (Yes, lots of wondering aloud here) How can the developing world address economic growth and environment together, holistically (along with, say, health care)?

* * *

There's a new course offered in Spring '06 on the Kyoto Protocol:

ESCI SEM 513: The Kyoto Protocol
Instructor: Mark Gabriel Little
Credits: 3
Meeting time: WED 2-4pm
Location: GEOLOGY 107

Course Outline: We will use the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as a syllabus to guide an investigation into climate change and its potential for mitigation. Readings will include the Kyoto Protocol document, climate and earth-systems journal articles, as well as pertinent news and legal readings.

Honda tests first fuel-cell car

From NY Times:

"...The FCX is powered by hydrogen fuel cells, the futuristic technology that many automakers see as an eventual solution to the world's energy woes, though the viability of the technology is a subject of vigorous debate inside and outside the auto industry..." [read more]

Offshore wind farms off Galveston?

From Renewable Energy Access:

"Texas Bid Could be First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm"

"A new bid for an offshore wind project was announced this week in Texas adding to the current roster of projects hoping to take the title of first offshore wind power facility in the US. [read more]

climate modeling

A pair of articles from Scientific American on climate change:

"Climate Model Predicts Extreme Changes for U.S."
"The latest and most detailed climate model of the continental U.S. predicts temperatures so extreme by the end of the century they could substantially disrupt the country's economy and infrastructure. The climate simulation, churned out by supercomputers at Purdue University, factors in dynamic environmental variables previously unaccounted for and analyzes them at a resolution twice as fine as previous models. The results indicate an increase in heat, heavier rainfalls and shorter winters, which could strain water resources for people and crops and cause a catastrophic loss of life and property, among other things..." [read more]

"Warmer Climate Produces Less Rain"
"New climate simulations from NASA show that under the warmer global temperatures of the 20th century, water vapor in the atmosphere took longer than normal to fall out of the sky fall as rain, snow and other precipitation. With a few exceptions, the amount decreased over land but increased over oceans..." [read more]

Greenpeace Organizing Team

This may be a good opportunity for those interested in environmental leadership and activism. Thanks to Richard Johnson (Rice's Sustainability Planner) for the heads up.

* * * * *

Dear Student,

I am writing to invite you to apply for the Greenpeace Organizing Term, a semester of ACTION, TRAINING, and TRAVEL.

You can learn more and apply at www.greenpeaceusa.org/got

The Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT) is an action-filled semester and the best hands-on training for you to become an environmental leader. You'll be making an investment in your leadership skills and get trainings in grassroots organizing, media, direct action, and campaign strategy. You'll travel abroad with Greenpeace and join a team of incredible activists working to protect the planet.

Applications are currently being accepted on a rolling basis. The application deadline is Friday, October 21st. To learn more and to apply, visit www.greenpeaceusa.org/got

For more information, contact me at 202-319-2436 or got@wdc.greenpeace.org

For a green and peaceful future,

Amy Faulring
Organizing Term Coordinator
Greenpeace USA
202-319-2436
got@wdc.greenpeace.org

Solar Decathlon

Here... a seed post!

The Solar Decathlon is going on right now, Oct 7-16, in Washington D.C. 18 teams of college students from around the world are competing to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home.

For visuals:
gallery of the homes and daily photos.

Virginia Tech is in the lead right now.

They're also accepting proposals for the next Decathlon to be held in 2007. Anyone up for it?

Welcome!

Welcome to the Enviclub Blog, a place for members of the Rice Environmental Club as well as others in the Rice community to share environment-related items of interest.

Those who wish to make their own posts and comment on others' must register for a Blogger account. Guest posts can also be made by e-mailing Jen (jyw at rice.edu).

Some examples of what to post:
- Link to a news or research article, perhaps with a brief excerpt and/or your own commentary
- Link to an interesting web site
- Event announcement with link to more info
- Event recap with pictures if available
- Recommendation of a book, movie, museum exhibit, etc. with your own review or a link to someone else's

The are many possibilities, so keep your eyes and ears open and your thinking caps on to help make this an active blog for environmental news, knowledge, happenings, and discussions!