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This video is great for discussing captive breeding of endangered species:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/other/watch-as-adorable-condor-chick-is-fed-with-a-puppet/vi-BB16dV9Q

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9411549/Amish-community-United-States-achieve-herd-immunity-Covid.html

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This cool moving chart shows health expenditures per capita in the highest spending nations. The US is not always number one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxGIjfogXCA&t=86s

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Useful for industrial towns:

https://www.ecowatch.com/plants-fighting-air-pollution-2650611803.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

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I have always been strongly against used land to grow fuel as both costly and bad for the environment. This article finally documents some of the adverse consequences that up to now had only been a matter of speculation.
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While there are many version of portable photovoltaic panels, this is the first time I have ever seen a portable wind generator. I look forward to seeing the price when it becomes available to see how it compares with photovoltaics.
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Since my son suffers from many allergies I am always on the look-out for good articles on how this condition can be minimized. I am particularly intrigued by the "hygiene hypothesis" which presumes that rate at which people suffer from allergies has increased because children growing up in cities and suburbs are not regularly exposed to pathogens and parasites as their rural counterparts. This contrast is more evident in more affluent countries, perhaps because city dwellers in less affluent ...
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The Solar Impulse just landed in Hawaii after 5 days of solo flight from Nagoya, Japan. This is a big deal because it is perhaps the riskiest portion of the first RTW flight on a manned plane that is powered entirely by photovoltaic panels. Kudos to Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg for making it happen. As you may well know, the Piccard family has been setting records for dangerous pioneering research for generations. But how many of you know that Bertrand's grandfather served at the rea...
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This new lithium battery that uses sulfur as the oxidizing agent could dramatically increase the range of electric vehicles while lowering the price due of the low cost of sulfur. Lithium however is still rare and expensive. If there is a possibility of combining sulfur with more commonly available alkali metals like sodium in batteries the price should be dramatically lower. The sacrifice in energy density (sodium is heavier than lithium) may be worth it to those with short commutes who do n...
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Even though I have a personal fascination with fuel cells and even incorporate a fuel cell activity into my lab manual, I think it is a waste of resources to invest in the "hydrogen economy". This article does a great job of summarizing the economic and technological hurdles of using hydrogen as a major transportation fuel. First, it utterly demolishes the myth that hydrogen is a "green" fuel since the only practical source of hydrogen is natural gas. Second, it shows how lithium batteries ar...
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Realistic economic trade-offs of policies designed to reduce carbon emission are seldom addressed by environmentalists outside the Copenhagen Consensus, so it is refreshing to see this issue brought up in this journal. Even though the authors rightly emphasis the problem of using agricultural land for biofuel (a policy that I have always strongly opposed), they also touch upon the high cost of carbon reduction technology, which in turn gives consumers less disposable income. The proponents of...
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Given the range limitation of battery-powered transportation I do not expect to see electric cargo vessels in the near future, but this electric ferry that carries passengers and cars takes advantage of the fact that ferries usually cover the same small distance. The installation of a battery unit at the port has cut down fueling time to 10 minutes, making this lag time comparable to that of its diesel counterparts.
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This charming little shelter that provides all its utility needs was developed in Eastern Europe. It looks tiny from the outside, but the pictures of the interior convey an efficient use of the limited space. While this may be too small for regular housing, it may provide an interesting model for larger plans. I look forward to seeing the price tag when it becomes available.
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This item is particularly interesting because most environmentally-friendly products are not cheap. This is sold in India for people who lack electricity or cannot afford an electric refrigerator. It is amazingly simple and cost-effective. I would only like to see how cool it keeps food on a hot day.
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According to this article by the director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, strategically placed ditches can play a major role in capturing and removing nutrient runoff by providing a place were these nutrients can be held until plants use them up. One of my biggest disagreements with Bjorn Lomborg in his book "The Skeptical Environmentalist" is the very high cost he puts on the remediation of nutrient pollution is bodies of water. I have not done the math myself, but given the economic benef...
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According to this study from the University of Michigan taking a plane is more efficient that "driving".The comments below the article reflect my misgivings about the lack of comparison to other forms of ground transportation (like long distance buses), but in all fairness I only read the abstract of the study. Maybe these comparisons are in the original research article. However, the fact that plane travel has gotten cheaper and more crowded is probably indicative of improvements in energy e...
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While I have a great deal of respect for Bjorn Lomborg, I would like to see an itemized chart showing how he came to the conclusion that electric vehicles are more polluting than those that rely on internal combustion engines. Beyond the obvious fact that electric cars are only as clean as the means whereby the electricity is generated, Lomborg does bring up the overlooked issue of battery life and the resources needed for their manufacture and disposal. The fact that recharg...

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In the past, I gave some tips on teaching about fuel cells. The main advantage of fuels cells over rechargeable batteries is energy density: Rechargeable batteries must carry with them all components of the oxidation-reduction reaction that generates current. In contrast, fuel cells vehicles are lighter because (like combustion engines) they only need to transport the reducing agent (what is referred to in plain English as “fuel”). Unfortunately, most fuel cells only run ...

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In downtown Houston there is a 6-mile network of underground tunnels and second story catwalks that allow pedestrians to walk to many popular buildings without experiencing the summer heat. I often made use of these between the classes I taught at the University of Houston, not because I could not tolerate the heat, but because it allowed me to walk indefinitely without having to cross any streets. Many of these tunnels had shops, restaurants, and spaces for art, so there was...

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Here an an update on a post I made in the past about a highly affordable 84 mpg car that will soon be produced in the U.S. An interesting and commonsensical point made by Mr. Elio in the video is how mass is the main factor determining fuel economy in the city, just as aerodynamics determines mpg on the highway. Interestingly, this car is legally classified as a type of "motorcycle" and the manufacturers are trying to persuade some states not to require the drivers to wear helmets. When I liv...
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This interview of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s director Alan Girard hits close to home because I live only 40 minutes from this important estuary. Much concern has been raised due to Governor Hogan’s easing of regulations addressing nutrient runoff into the Bay. However, what mainly caught my attention was how Girard singled out the use of manure fertilization as a very significant source of nutrient pollution into the bay. Traditionally, organic fertilizers (like manure) were regarded...

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I like both mountains and ocean shores, but if I have to choose one I prefer the ocean. A new study implies that introverts prefer mountains and extraverts prefer the seaside. Apparently this preference is related to the likelihood of socializing in the given environment since mountains are regarded as more “secluded” (this probably rules out skiing resorts). I am not an introvert, but I do prefer secluded beaches because of their natural beauty, especially if there are s...

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This article about the European Union's Ban on First Generation Biofuels contains two videos that succinctly describe the damage of the ethanol racket on the environment and politics. According to the first video the mandate was started by George W. Bush, but Obama pretty much ran with it. The second video describes how congressman Charles Grassley goes after an oil company that chooses not want to sell E-85 (an crappy product that almost nobody wants due to its low energy density and destruc...
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Grain prices are dramatically lower due to high yields and lower demand for ethanol fuel. I have never been a fan of setting aside land to grow biofuels, and I have always regarded the ethanol mandate (for putting ethanol in gasoline) as a particularly egregious example of politicians implementing bad policies just to buy votes. While I feel for tenant farmers struggling to pay the rent, they partly have themselves to blame for their participation in this charade. 

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Reversing the process of desertification is a winner on many levels, not only because it provides more arable land, but also because it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, addresses one of the greatest concerns of climate change (the growth of deserts in lower latitudes), and increases biodiversity. With most forms of geoengineering there are too many unknown consequences, and with emission reductions we know more about the dire economic consequences than the ecological advantages. Hence, mor...
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Without a major technological breakthrough, no country will sacrifice its economy to reduce its carbon emissions in a large way. Hence, nothing short of a world government along the lines of that in North Korea can make this happen now, and most people (like myself) prefer to take chances with global warming than live like the North Koreans. Consequently, some environmentalist prescribe geoengineering as a means to offset anthropogenic climate change. This article cautions ag...

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Like most Americans, I appreciate the relaxation that comes with a warm shower. But as an environmentalist I am mindful of how much water and energy this consumes. I somethings thought about designing a means for recirculating water in a shower after the dirty water has gone down the drain. This shower designed in Sweden has taken this idea a step farther by means of instant purification as well as recirculation, thereby saving a whooping 90% of the water otherwise consumed. The only thing mi...
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While on the topic of my activity using the WHO database, I will relate this to the recent measles outbreak in the U.S. Based on this article, “herd immunity” kicks in at about 92-94%. Shockingly, some counties of California have immunization rates is as low as 18-23%. Evidently, some people in these counties feel they can “afford” to refuse vaccination because of their access to first rate medical care in the event that their children are stricken. This is not the ca...

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This article highlights the cost-effectiveness of subsidizing modern stoves (such as gas or electric) in order to phase out solid fuels like firewood and dung. The devastating effect of indoor pollution from solid fuels has been thoroughly documented by the WHO.  In one of my lab activities (2-5: Risk Factors and Health Outcomes in Africa) students compile raw data from the WHO interactive website. This culminates in a graph with solid fuel use on the x-axis and childhood dea...

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On average, OECD inhabitants of cities live more sustainably than those who live in suburbs and rural areas. This is not necessarily so in less developed countries where a large portion of the rural population relies mostly on manual labor and subsistence farming. Since standards of living are rising in most of the world, we must look to the role of urbanization in minimizing the trade-offs between economic development and protection of natural resources. While Curitiba often gets much attent...
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Some of you may recall the book/movie Jurassic Park, where biotechnologists cloned dinosaurs from DNA samples extracted from ancient mosquitoes preserved in amber. In order to prevent their products from endangering the outside world, they incorporated a mutation that made them highly dependent on the lysine supplements provided by the park staff. Since lysine is a naturally occurring amino acid, this strategy was not very effective when they did escape (this was not in the m...

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I generally hate shopping, but I like going to IKEA. There’s something about the way they arrange the space that makes strolling through their store much more interesting than being in a mall. Predictably, nearly all the furniture in our house is from IKEA. My first exposure to the elegant minimalist style of Northern European furniture was a small store I knew as a teenager called “Scan” (short for “Scandinavia”). This store near our house is long gone, and I was i...

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This video was produced by a private company that found a way to generate electricity from plants without harming them. From what I gathered in the description, they accomplish this by placing electrodes in the soil in locations that have differing voltage potentials. This electrical gradient can be attributed to the the breakdown of photosynthetic products released from the plants' roots. Much like a hydrogen fuel cell, the product of this electrochemical reaction is water. I do not know how...
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According to this article human activity has increased the rate of erosion about 100-fold. This is not surprising to me. I recall my agronomy instructor about 35 years ago using the last day of class to give a slide show to discuss the erosive effects of plowing and building construction. This is also why I have always been strongly against using land to grow biofuels. In this article I wrote a few years ago, I reference other research suggesting that biofuels may have played...

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I abhor getting X-rayed, and every time a doctor or dentist requests one for myself or a family member I always ask myself: Is this necessary or is he/she just practicing defensive medicine? In one event, I refused to be X-rayed for a routine dental appointment and had to sign a waiver acknowledging my refusal. In another event, my son was rushed to the emergency room for an asthma attack and the doctor persuaded me to allow him to get a chest X-ray in case he had pneumonia. In retrospect I s...
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While fishing around the internet for mention of my lab manual, I was very pleased to see this favorable comment by Andrew Friedland (see the November 13 entry). Based on the discussion threads I have read on the College Board environmental science forum, I know the textbook who co-wrote with Rick Relaya is very widely used. Now they are putting out a new edition which is thoroughly described in this video.

I met Andrew Friedland at the AP Conference in 2010(?) shortly before he published the ...
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This tree-like structure produced in France replaces leaves with mini-turbines that produce electricity. It is quieter and more aesthetically pleasing than standard wind turbines. It also manages to generate electricity even when subjected to light breezes. I would think that this design is also much less likely to kill birds and bats. Maybe this information is not yet available. According to the designers, this "pays for itself" in only two years. I would be more satisfied knowing how much e...
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This floating greenhouse could make densely-populated port cities much more self-sufficient and sustainable. Using only energy from the sun, these hydroponic farms can purify all the water they need from bodies of water that are either to salty or polluted for human consumption. Given the high labor intensity of hydroponics, this innovation may not be cost-effective in the U.S., but it may work out in developing countries where labor costs are relatively low. Having experienced the pollution,...
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While homes built from shipping containers have gotten much attention as a means for building sustainable housing, this house takes minimalism to its extreme. What makes this project particularly interesting is that it is being carried out not by an instructor or architecture or engineering, but someone who teaches environmental science. Having lived in Texas for over 10 years, I think he will have to put an open canopy over it during the summer to avoid getting cooked!

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The central theme of this article is a new technology that improves the performance of lithium batteries. Unless you are in this field (I am not) you may struggle to understand the breakthrough the author is describing. I confess that I never really "got it", but what caught my attention was that this new process might allow for electric vehicle batteries that use sodium instead of lithium for their battery packs. This is very significant because lithium is a rare metal that must be imported ...
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The problem with hybrids and electric vehicles is that they are still very expensive to produce. This car from a new company called "Elio Motors" does not rely on government subsidies or tax rebates for its incredibly low price. The airplane cockpit design is for purposes of cutting down air resistance. From all appearances, this car only seats two, but given that the popular "Smart" car which gets less than 40 mpg and costs over $12,000, this car seems to be a much better deal.
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This TED Talk is not that new, and a bit longer than usual, but the speaker does a pretty good job of summarizing how to set up photovoltaics in your home. The main reason I am posting this is because, much like Lab 3-9 (Photovoltaic Cell Dynamics)  and this corresponding video, the speaker presents a calculation for how many years are needed for the photovoltaic panels to pay for themselves. He bases his calculation on the "cost per watt hour" of photovoltaics. My calculation is based on "co...
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The production of hydrocarbons using carbon dioxide and hydrogen (obtained from water) is not new, but this plant in Germany is the first time it is being done on an industrial scale. The hydrogen is obtained from water by means of electrolysis. The carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide. These two feedstocks, H2 and CO are then subjected to Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis from production of a wide variety of hydrocarbon fuels. The facility currently produces about a barrel a day. Hopefully, ...
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I visited Singapore in 1999 and was amazed at the cleanliness and efficiency of this city. Only when I visited some of its open markets was I reminded that I was visiting one of the most crowded cities on Earth. So it did not surprise me to see this article about this aesthetically pleasing water barrage that serves mainly as a means of flood control and storing freshwater, and secondarily as a recreational "green space" for the city's inhabitants.

According to the CIA fact book, Singapore has...
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Here is an article on the viability of indoor urban farms. As a graduate student in the 1990's I visited a hydroponics farm in Texas where they grew strawberries and combined it with fish culture. I also visited an indoor shrimp farm that used recirculated salt water I do not know today if they are still in business. At any rate, the idea of growing food in crowded cities is interesting. In order to compete with traditional food sources they use different marketing strategies. Currently, food...
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Do not forget to recycle those batteries! This photoshop gives you perspective on how much target material you get out of mines. One of the biggest problems with the mining of metal ores is that the environmental costs are not incorporated into the monetary cost of the product. Consequently, taxpayers usually take up the tab for remediation of the toxic residues from the ores of nickel and copper, not to mention the ripped up landscape (I do not know if this is also true of diamond mines). In...
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I am never a fan of land-based biofuels because they are worse for the environment than fossil fuels, and I regard algae fuels as problematic due to the difficulty of separating phytoplankton from water. However, this use of algae as a means to treat sewage as well as serve as biofuel is noteworthy because it also serves to remediate an environmental liability. I proposed this in an article I published five years ago where I question the use a switchgrass as a sustainable biofuel. I suggested...
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I got back last week from a trip to Florida. We started with "Bathtub Reef" near Stuart Florida. We chose this place because of its reputation as a good place for children to snorkel due to its shallow waters and gentle waves. We only got to do a couple of hours of snorkeling because we had wasted too much time trying to get a hotel by the beach, only to find them way out of our price range. We would have saved much more time if we had directly gotten a hotel in town, because we only needed t...
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This article based on well-to-wheel analysis exposes some inconvenient truths about hydrogen fuel cell cars. Even though I am fascinated by the fuel cell principle and even include a lab activity on fuel cells, I have never been a fan of fuel cell cars. In fact, two of my activities (Lab 2-2: Transportation and Lab 3-6: Fuel Cell Dynamics) expose the inefficiency of extracting hydrogen from water for purposes of using it in fuel cells. This is why most hydrogen is extracted from natural gas (...
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Electric cars are not so new. I remember as a child in the 1960's when I saw a commercial for "Timex" electric watches where a little old lady enters a jewelry store and purchases an electric watch. Given the context that electric watches were a novelty at this time, the merchant says to her "Welcome to the electric age!" (I am paraphrasing). She then retorts, "Young man, I have been driving one for over 40 years". In the next scene, she leaves the shop and enters a battery-powered antique ca...
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Even though technological limitations still make it hard to electric cars to compete in the U.S., here is an interesting development; a vending machine that doles out rental electric cars in Chinese Cities. Given that this is a private endeavor with probably little or no help from the Chinese government it is worth seeing how this develops over the next few years.

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In an earlier post, I noted the importance of energy storage. I was also surprised by the fact that more than half of this comes from water that is pumped into a reservoir in order to serve as temporary hydropower. Here is an interesting article on the world's largest "battery" of this kind. This is considered by some to be more environmentally-friendly than conventional hydropower in that it can be used in brown fields (such as abandoned quarries) and can be used to supplement intermittent f...
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According to the hygiene hypothesis children today have more allergies due to an overly clean environment that results in the immune system overreacting to nonpathogenic substances. This can be prevented in part by living on a farm or at least having a dog in the house. The is also credible evidence that probiotics (supplements or fermented foods with beneficial bacteria) play a role in reducing allergies.

Both my wife and myself have had worms when we were children and neither of us have any...
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The biggest disadvantages of electric vehicles are prolonged charging times, high cost of lithium batteries, and mass of the batteries. Even though (according to my own calculations) lithium batteries are about 4 times more energy dense than their lead acid counterparts, the mass of lithium battery material needed for a road trip can be 10 times that of the gasoline that can be used to cover the same distance in a conventional vehicle. In contrast to internal combustion engines and fuel cells...
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I just got back last night after about ten days vacation spent mostly in Florida. Among the highlights of our trip was seeing a manatee grazing at the inlet in Anastasia State Park. We were lucky because most of them migrate north in the summer. It helped that the tide was near its peak during the early evening and that most of the visitors were gone. The high tide made the seagrass accessible for grazing, and with less people the manatee felt more comfortable feeding near th...

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Even though these cars are not practical, I am amazed at how fast they move.

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This is not an update on my lab manual. It is environmental news that some of you might find interesting. Here is a lecture by Allan Savory on using grazers to reverse the process of desertification, thereby addressing one of the worst consequences of climate change. Here is the link: 

http://vimeo.com/8291896

I am not an agronomist, but what he suggests is both counterintuitive and contradictory to what we teach from our textbooks. Nevertheless, his hypothesis on how this impr...
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