Environment Technology
Frequently we are bombarded with negative environment news that makes one wonder how much longer the earth could hold. Many struggle with accepting the reality of what is taking place in the world today. Consider for a minute how every 10 seconds part of the rain forest, the size of a football field, is lost forever. The gravity and rate of destruction causes most people to go into denial. How sustainable is the sustainable growth of our industries?
This week I focus on the technological aspect of the environment, but however always a political issue. If we are destroying the environment, then we can fix it right? China is turning on a new coal-fired power plant once every four days and is estimated to surpass the US before 2010 in becoming the biggest carbon-emitting culprit. Whilst there is a genuine need for the development of their power generating capacity, the real problem is that there lacks a technological solution (worldwide) that can provide China an alternative source of energy to use.
On this premise, therefore, what is happening on the technological front? Enock Chinyenze - Regional Coordinator for Africa, TVE
Sangonet. 8 August, 2007. Africa's ICT Development Still "Haunted" By The Past. Kelvin Chibomba
The demons of the past will remain the evils that will continue cursing the development of ICT in Africa, if not exorcised. This was the sentiment held by the delegates attending the session on 'ICT Policy in Africa' at the SANGONeT conference. Delegates from various countries in Africa were given an opportunity to share experiences of the information technology communication (ICT) environment in their countries.
Giving a description on ICT policy in Congo Brazaville, Sylvie Niombo from African Women Coordinator and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) told delegates that due to the post conflict environment of the Congo Brazaville, infrastructure had been destroyed. This resulted in the country's ICT industry developing at a very slow pace. Very few institutions of higher learning offered ICT training in Congo Brazaville, “That’s why students travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for training,” said Niombo.
Niombo explained that computer equipment in Congo Brazaville is very expensive, noting that a second hand Pentium III computer can cost up to 800 US$. Internet connection can cost 2000 US$, she said. Niombo said that the telephone market in Congo Brazaville is dominated by international companies such as Celltel and MTN. However, not many local people benefited from such a cellphone market. Niombo told delegates that ICT’s were not seen as a priority by the government and as a result there was no political will and financial commitments to ICT.
Coura Fall, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) CIPP Africa Manager in Senegal, said there has been some improvements in Senegal. Initially the media industry did not understand ICT policies, but NGO’s took a responsibility to train journalists. She said through training, journalists were equipped to report and inform people about ICT. Senegal now had ITC debates on national television.
The constraints though were the slight control monopoly and weak competition in the mobile networks. The only internet operator in Senegal was Sonatel, she said. Milton Aineruhanga, Programme Officer of Wougnet, gave a gender perspective on ICT in Uganda.
Aineruhanga said women in rural areas did not have ICT access in the appropriate suitable times, as they had to fulfil their roles as women. Aineruhanga said part of the remedy to this would be to give access to women at times when they were done with their chores and also locate ICT systems in venues that women frequented. Places near health centres would be appropriate as women were tasked with the responsibility to take children to clinics.
Aineruhanga said there was a strong need for women in Uganda to be represented in fora where major decisions on ICT’s were made. At the moment, there were few women that participated in the planning, implementation and ownership of ICT’s. Abi Jagun from African ICT policy research said focus needed to be put on the increasing and expanding of telecom infrastructure. She said there was a need for liberalisation of the market to allow for more ICT companies.
Much has been said on the state of Africa's ICT policies, but what ought to be understood is that ICT development will not exist outside social and political framework. If socio-political evils are not addressed ICT access to the majority will remain a miracle from heaven.
UN. 25 August, 2007. Media for Freedom: Technology To Save Environment.
More than 180 young people from 85 countries will meet in Germany next week in a United Nations-sponsored conference to discuss the ways in which technology can be used to promote environmental protection. “Our hope is that on the basis of discussions at this Conference, 180 young people will return to their communities and nations and become beacons of activities and also motivators for many others to play a part in addressing environmental challenges” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said today.
“Technology in service of the environment” is the theme of the third Tunza International Youth Conference, organized by UNEP in Leverkusen, Germany, from 26 to 30 August. The participants, aged 15 to 24, are all involved in environmental activities in their respective countries. Meeting at the headquarters of Bayer, the health care giant which is the largest sponsor of UNEP’s children and youth activities, the youngsters will discuss climate change, clean development and renewable energy, participating in workshops and field trips to experience first-hand how technology and environment can go hand-in-hand.
The Tunza Conference, which derives its name from a Kiswahili word meaning “to treat with care and affection” or “to nurture,” will reinforce the links between a growing network of young people working with UNEP on various environmental issues. At the end of the Conference the participants will elect a new Tunza Youth Advisory Council, with two advisors for each of the six UNEP regions - Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and West Asia - and two advisors representing indigenous youth organizations.
The Council’s main objective is to represent youth in international environmental fora and to make their voices heard. The Council also advises UNEP on better ways of engaging young people in its work. “We are looking forward to welcoming young environmental protection activists from all over the world to Bayer,” Bayer Board of Management Chairman Werner Wenning said. “This Conference is a further milestone of our partnership with UNEP.” The Tunza Programme, endorsed in 2003, is a comprehensive six-year strategy to promote the participation of children and youth in every part of the world in environmental activities. It focuses on four thematic areas: awareness building, capacity building, information exchange, and facilitating the involvement of young people in environmental decision-making.
Reuters. 22 August, 2007. U.S., Canadian West set joint carbon-cutting target. Adam Tanner
Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces on Wednesday agreed to cut greenhouse emissions 15 percent by 2020 in the latest regional pact to regulate the gases, an approach opposed by U.S. President George W. Bush. "Our collective commitment will build a successful regional system to be linked with other efforts across the nation and eventually the world," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
The Western Climate Initiative, led by Schwarzenegger, seeks to slash greenhouse emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Mandatory cuts are at odds with the voluntary approach favored by his Schwarzenegger's fellow Republican Bush.
"We also feel the federal government needs to step up and take action and today's action sends, I think, another strong signal to Washington," Linda Adams, California's secretary for Environmental Protection, told reporters. "In the absence of federal action, states and provinces are not waiting, they are in fact leading the way. The White House this month announced a meeting of the biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries on September 27-28 in Washington. The meeting is an effort to involve developing countries in the move to cut the pollutants.
Scientists say high levels of heat-trapping emissions, such as carbon dioxide, will lead to catastrophic storms, droughts and floods as temperatures rise and glaciers melt. The group of six Western states and two provinces also agreed to design a market-based mechanism, such as a cap-and-trade program, by the end of August 2008 to help reach the goal. The pact's goal is modest compared to reductions of 80 percent by 2050 that two states -- New Jersey and Florida -- recently adopted.
Heavy lifting
Environmentalists welcomed the announcement although some said the targets were too lenient. "These targets are barely consistent with what needs to be done," said John Coequyt, energy policy analyst with Greenpeace in Washington. The Western pact, along with a U.S. East Coast emissions agreement between 10 states, may pressure the U.S. Congress to pass laws regulating heat-trapping gases, he said. But he cautioned that the modest 2020 goal could make it "heavy lifting" for advocates to push for agreement on deeper emissions cuts in the future.
The Western pact does not include Alberta, the Canadian province that is home to oil and natural gas fields, including the tar sands, whose development is extremely carbon-intensive. It also excludes Nevada, California's neighbor which lacks emissions targets and has sought to lure Golden State businesses with tax benefits and other incentives. "This was a big concern in California that companies would move to other states and this kind of a regional program will certainly help to minimize that," said California's Adams. Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington and Utah are the U.S. members of the pact, along with Canada's Manitoba and British Columbia.
"A regional cap...should ensure that all businesses in the region will operate on a level playing field," said Christopher Busch, climate economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "A regional cap is a clear indication that the future for business is in cutting pollution, not escaping regulation." The United States is the largest greenhouse gas emitter, followed closely by China.
States in the U.S. East formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative pact starting in 2003. The group of 10 states seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants starting in 2009.
UN. 24 August, 2007. UN officials call on Chinese business leaders to utilize technology for development
United Nations officials yesterday called on top Chinese executives to utilize information technology to improve the plight of poor people in their home country and around the world. “Development is no longer the sole responsibility of governments and non-governmental organizations,” Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang told a group of more than 40 Chinese executives gathered in New York. “We also need to harness the collective strength of private sector entities in support of our development efforts. We therefore consider you as an indispensable stakeholder in the fight against poverty, illiteracy and disease.”
Speaking at a panel on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) to address development problems, Mr. Sha said that “ICT connects the world and can give everyone a voice. It can aid education through distance learning, content creation and teacher training. It can empower women by helping them to acquire new skills, create business enterprises and create wealth.”
Sarbuland Khan, the Executive Coordinator of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, said the Alliance provides an opportunity for private sector executives from China to express their views on how to minimize poverty in China, India and across the developing world. “You can take advantage of our platform to become more profitable, but also to contribute to the reduction of poverty,” he noted.
Participants agreed that bolstering information technology can serve to improve quality of life, and that the provision of training is in the best interest of corporations. Some attendees cited impediments to the spread of technology, such as the lack of appropriate software and computer illiteracy.
The panel was part of an all-day meeting, organized by Friendship Across Frontier and the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, which brought together Chinese and United States executives to discuss bilateral economic relations, trends in business and technology, and strategies in steering private Chinese companies into the global business arena.
AFP. 22 August, 2007. China behind in pollution drive. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Beijing.
China has failed to meet its targets in cutting pollution this year as dirty factories continue to have free rein in pumping out discharges, authorities said in comments published Wednesday. However some progress is being made and pollution emissions are showing signs of easing, the China Daily reported, citing a joint study by the government's main environment and economic departments. China has set a goal of reducing two major pollutant indicators -- sulphur dioxide for air and chemical oxygen demand for water -- each by 10 percent from 2006 to 2010, an average decline of two percent a year.
However sulphur dioxide emissions fell by just 0.88 percent in the first six months of this year, while chemical oxygen demand increased by 0.24 percent. The failure to meet the targets in the first half of 2007 comes after both the pollution indicators increased last year, putting China immediately well behind in its five-year campaign.
A senior official with the State Environment Protection Administration, Zhao Hualin, said local governments were largely to blame for ignoring orders from Beijing and chasing short-term economic gains at the cost of the environment.
Zhao said local governments too often failed to monitor or punish polluters. However the administration pointed out that at least the pollutant emissions had come down slightly from previous years, showing that some progress was being made. An editorial in the China Daily also said local governments were to blame for the failure to meet the environmental targets. "Local officials are yet to change their mentality of placing economic growth before environmental concerns," the editorial said.
It referred tostatistics showing power plants, steel, and other highly-polluting industries increasing by more than 20 percent in the first six months of the year, negating good work by other sectors.
SPX. 29 August, 2007. Airplane Monitors Great Lakes Algae. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Cleveland OH.
A rare bird has been flying over the Great Lakes recently, and it isn't migrating or searching for prey. This hawkeyed species is a Learjet aircraft outfitted with an advanced imaging system. Engineers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland modified the plane to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitor algae in western Lake Erie and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. The Glenn team began its latest round of flights in August. The plane's new imaging system incorporates instruments originally designed by Glenn engineers to study dust on Mars with a high-resolution scientific camera called a hyperspectral imager. It is allowing scientists to study incredibly detailed pictures of algal blooms in the lakes.
What's so interesting about algae?
Most algae are harmless and even important to the health of the ecosystem. But when algae grow rapidly enough to form blooms that float on the water or wash ashore, they can be a nuisance. The blooms may, for example, lead to smelly, foul-tasting drinking water and unpleasant swimming conditions. What's worse, some algal blooms produce toxins that can make humans and other animals sick. Algal blooms vexed swimmers and skiers in the Great Lakes throughout the 1960s, until the federal government limited the use of phosphorus in detergents and fertilizers. Over the past decade, however, Microcystis, a type of blue-green algae known to produce the toxin microcystin, has returned to the Great Lakes. No single cause has been pinpointed, but runoff from cities, fertilizers, septic tank overflow, zebra mussels, and livestock near water supplies are likely culprits.
This concerns government and business leaders because the Great Lakes provide drinking water to 40 million people and have more than 500 recreational beaches. The lakes also generate approximately $4 billion in commercial and sport fishing business, according to NOAA. Although municipal water plants filter the toxins and no illnesses have been reported, scientists at NOAA's Center of Excellence for Great Lakes and Human Health are researching and developing technology to detect and predict the blooms.
Eyes in the Sky
For years, the Michigan laboratory's researchers have been measuring microcystin levels in western Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay by collecting samples of the blue-green algae. When toxin levels exceed the World Health Organization's recommended limit, they notify local health departments. But the area's vastness makes finding the blooms by boat difficult and time consuming. To solve this problem, the laboratory has been working with NASA to develop techniques for distinguishing harmful algae from other types of algae using satellite and aerial images.
In a 2000 study funded by NASA Glenn, scientists from the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University in Ohio were able to identify blue-green algae using satellite images. The data collected from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites matched toxin concentrations in the water samples. Since then, NOAA has also used the Landsat TM Earth-observing satellite, which is equipped with a stronger imaging system, to monitor the blooms. While satellites are the best way to observe a large area, they do have some limitations. "Landsat passes over the lakes once every eight days," said John Lekki, an optical systems research engineer at Glenn. "If the sky is cloudy, it might not capture a clear image."
Aerial monitoring complements satellite monitoring by allowing researchers to take to the skies quickly when conditions are right. "In an airplane, we can pass over a bloom hourly and fly under clouds," Lekki added. "Since we're flying at a lower altitude, we can capture higher resolution images, too." Aerial monitoring also produces quick results, enabling researchers to take water samples immediately after the air crew spots a suspicious bloom. "We are basically NOAA's eye in the sky," Lekki said. "It's difficult to cover these large areas with a boat, so we make their lives easier by letting them know where we have spotted blooms. Then, they can take their boats directly to the algae and collect water samples."
Glenn first monitored the Great Lakes with its T-34 aircraft late last summer and early last fall. Lekki and a team of engineers modified both planes by adding a state-of-the-art imaging system, which includes the hyperspectral imager. "Hyperspectral imaging is the gold standard," Lekki said. "The level of detail it provides is unmatched." Designed by Glenn engineers, this hyperspectral imager can cut one picture into 250 color-specific images, covering the spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared. Each image shows a unique characteristic, not discernable to the human eye. Therefore, each substance in the lake has a different spectroscopic signature, much like every person has a different fingerprint.
What's Next?
NOAA is analyzing the data from the imaging system and comparing it to measurements taken from the water samples and satellites. The goal? To eventually make remote monitoring so accurate that it can be used to predict harmful algal blooms and give early warning to municipal water plants, beaches, boaters, skiers or anyone planning a day on the Great Lakes. "It is always nice when our work helps make things better here on Earth," Lekki said, "especially in our own back yard."
SPX. 22 August, 2007. Frog Plus Frying Pan Equals Better Antibiotic. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Ann Arbor MI.
By creating "Teflon" versions of natural antibiotics found in frog skin, a research team led by biological chemist E. Neil Marsh has made the potential drugs better at thwarting bacterial defenses, an improvement that could enhance their effectiveness. Marsh will discuss the work Aug. 20 at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. Marsh and collaborators work with compounds called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are produced by virtually all animals, from insects to frogs to humans. AMPs are the immune system's early line of defense, battling microbes at the first places they try to penetrate: skin, mucous membranes and other surfaces.
They're copiously produced in injured or infected frog skin, for instance, and the linings of the human respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts also crank out the short proteins in response to invading pathogens. In addition to fighting bacteria, AMPs attack viruses, fungi and even cancer cells, so drugs designed to mimic them could have widespread medical applications. Scientists have been interested in exploiting these natural antibiotics since their discovery in the 1980s, but they haven't been able to overcome some limitations. In particular, AMPs are easily broken down by protein-degrading enzymes (proteases) that are secreted by bacteria and are also naturally present in the body.
Increasing the concentration of AMPs in an effort to get around that problem can cause toxic side effects, such as the destruction of red blood cells---those critical carriers of oxygen in the bloodstream. That seems to happen because sticky parts of the AMP molecule interact with the cell membrane in a harmful way. Marsh had the idea of replacing sticky portions of the peptides with nonstick analogs. His inspiration came from the kitchen as much as the chemistry lab: nonstick cookware is coated with fluorinated polymers, plastic-like compounds composed of chains of carbon atoms completely surrounded by fluorine atoms. The fluorine not only makes Teflon slippery, it also makes the coating inert to almost every known chemical.
When Marsh and co-workers swapped sticky parts of their AMP molecule with nonstick, fluorinated versions, the molecules became much more resistant to proteases. "The difference was quite striking," said Marsh, a U-M professor of chemistry. "When we treated them with purified proteases, the nonfluorinated AMPs were all degraded within 30 minutes. Under the same conditions, the fluorinated AMP was completely intact after 10 hours. We think that should make them more effective, as they'll stay around longer in the body. "We also showed that they seem to be at least as good at killing bacteria as their nonfluorinated counterparts, and for some bacteria they're actually significantly better."
Next, the researchers plan experiments to learn whether Teflon AMPs are also less toxic than their stickier equivalents. If they are, and if further studies continue to point to their promise, eventually producing large enough quantities of fluorinated AMPs for clinical trials should be quite feasible, Marsh said. Though the research now has obvious practical applications, it started as an exploration in basic science.
"We were just interested in translating useful properties of man-made materials into biological molecules," Marsh said. "But fairly immediately we saw the potential for applying our fundamental science to a very important clinical problem, which is the way that more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to more and more conventional antibiotics."
Marsh's collaborators on this project include associate professor of chemistry Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, graduate students Lindsey Gottler and Hyang-Yeol Lee, and Charles Shelburne, an assistant research scientist in the School of Dentistry. The researchers have funding from the American Heart Association and the National Science Foundation.
SPX. 30 August, 2007. Go Green Swimming Pools With Clear Water. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Phoenix AZ.
AquavidaPools.com is in full swing with a variety of Alternative and Low Energy Efficient products for pool owners looking to "Go Green". The benefits to Go Green are trendy but owners can now become less dependent on high output products using outdated technologies. "Almost every manufacturer has developed enhanced products with low Amperage or Solar pumps to decrease energy bills from homeowners and to increase the value of homes living green," says Thomas Lopez of Aquavida Pools.
Aquavida Pools has updated consumer information and Energy Saving tips for pool owners who are considering pool resurfacing and shopping new products in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. We expect to continue being a leading pool remodeling company providing Green Living products with solar water heaters and solar pumps just a beginning. We are preparing to see a huge increase in consumer actions searching for Energy related Pool products.
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