A Swiss non-profit technology company has invented white solar panels.  These panels can be used as the walls of buildings, produce energy and cool the building.  The panels also have no visible connectors or cells, making them more desirable. This is a great invention, but we are still waiting for solar panel windows.

http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/white-solar-panels-could-blend-buildings-cool-them-down.html

http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/270848/speedreads-stephen-colbert-credibly-blames-the-nra-for-legal-dog-and-cat-eating-in-pennsylvania

I thought this might be an enjoyable clip to watch. When we talked about the ethics of meat-eating among environmental movements (i.e. some radicals agree that we are animals and should eat animals; ecofeminists believe that it promotes domination), it took it out of context from pets. Due to our culture around dogs and cats, many meat-eaters in America wouldn’t dream of eating them… but pigeons? Nah, shoot them dead. It was more important to keep gun rights above animal lives, even man’s best friend. By eliminating consideration of this bill, the NRA seems to continue our domination over the natural world and has even pushed us further than the norm of respect of pets.

Oddly, it’s very difficult to find mainstream news sources that have information on the bill or even the topic (NYTimes had nothing to show). Any thoughts on why the topic was hidden by everyone but Colbert?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-democratic-strategists-acknowledge-challenging-environment-as-tuesday-looms/2014/11/02/2c4d2f28-629b-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html

This Article is of the opinion that the environmental issues have cooled, making it harder and harder for more liberal candidates to get elected with that issue on their side. Voters are just no longer as friendly as they once were to the environment.

So who is to blame? According to the author, President Obama. As said by one democratic consultant, “It’s not just anger at [the Affordable Care Act]. He has become, rightly or wrongly, the symbol of dysfunction in Washington. That has led to a demoralized Democratic base, energized Republicans. And those in the middle have an easy way of venting their frustration, and that is to punish the president’s party.”

Democratic Candidates made it obvious they wanted to distance themselves from the President’s politics.“President Obama isn’t the cause of this bad environment, but how candidates have chosen to handle his lower approval ratings has often compounded their problems,” as said by Erik Smith, a veteran Democratic operative.

Democrats remain hopeful, their more environmentally friendly party will still be able to have an influence in congress, even with the bad blood Obama has left in the halls of Congress.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/01/us-climatechange-denmark-idUSKBN0IL35R20141101

Denmark’s Climate, Energy and Building Minister (Helveg Petersen) has made a tentative proposal that the country will phase out of coal use by 2025, even stating that the cost, “would not be significant.” Denmark has been known to have a very green track record. However, the record downsizing in coal use is aside from the amount they use: 6 million tons a year, and coal constitutes about 1/3 of electricity use. As details are being worked out, some estimates say that wind turbines will generate over half of all the country’s electricity by 2020.

Goals like these made me think about two different components. 1) Political motives or impacts and 2) How the country was culturally accepting of a shift. Firstly, Denmark gets a good deal of its coal from Russia, according to the article. What impact would goals like these have on imports/exports on the global market? If other countries began mapping out proposals, how would some countries respond as opposed to others? Second, the article also detailed lifestyle choices of the Danes that makes a goal like this seem acceptable: “41 percent of people in Copenhagen cycle to work or school”, for example. Copenhagen has cycle lanes, has cleaned up the polluted water, and created livable environments for families. As we’ve all noticed bike sharing systems popping up in places like NYC, how far away do you think the US is from being culturally accepting of national green goals? Thinking back on the 60s and 70s grassroots movement, in what ways can the public begin to take more individual and/or structural interest in supporting environmental goals?

http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/28/bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill/

Researchers have discovered a large “bathtub ring” of oil on the bottom of the ocean due to sinking oil particles presumably from the BP oil spill 4 years ago. The study traces the fallout plume of hydrocarbons from the Macondo Well, and has estimated that around 2 million barrels of oil are trapped within the bottom ocean layers. Although BP has been fined up to $9.2 billion in settlement charges previously for the spill, a new federal case in Louisiana might demand an additional $18 billion. Despite the research, BP says that the data is “overblown.”

Hearing about the BP oil spill reminded me that although we don’t see headlines overarching each year as more research is done, the effects are still being felt… perhaps even due to a time lag. What headlines can you recall being environmentally important and seemed to never be resolved (or at least covered in the news as events progressed)?

4 Places Where Hunters Are Working to Protect Game Animals

In Washington State, North Dakota, South Carolina, and the western U.S., hunters and fishermen are working to ensure the survival of the very species they target.

While it might seem backwards, “people who seek to kill animals could take part in saving them, many hunters and fishers are committed to restoring natural habitats and maintaining America’s wild places”. Why is it that hunters are saving the animals that they hunt? Simply, because if they don’t there will be nothing  left for them to hunt. The attached video from National Geographic goes into a lot more detail about the logic of hunters as preservationists.

http://http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141015-hunters-conservation-science-animals-hunting-environment/

Recently, Lockheed Martin announced breakthroughs in fusion technology. They proclaim that they will have a working prototype of a small-sized nuclear fusion reactor in 5 years. In 10 years they say this technology will be used in military operations, and in 20 it will be commercialized and satisfy civilian energy needs. Fusion reactors have been attempted to be made before, but none have succeeded for a variety of reasons (funding on the top of the list). Lockheed Martin’s reactor is different because it is a small reactor which reduces the costs significantly. They have reportedly tweaked some things about previously attempted magnetic confinement and particle recirculation. The way this works is still way over my head after reading several articles on it, but it is promising nonetheless. From this university today article, “There are a few reasons Lockheed-Martin has gone out on a limb. Consider the potential. One ton of Uranium used in Fission reactors has as much energy as 1,500 tons of coal. But fission reactors produce radioactive waste and are a finite resource without breeder reactors, themselves a nuclear proliferation risk. Fusion produces 3 to 4 times more energy per reaction than fission. Additionally, the fuel — isotopes of hydrogen — is available from sea water — which is nearly limitless — and the byproducts are far less radioactive than with fission. Fusion generators once developed could provide our energy needs for millions of years.”

http://www.universetoday.com/115411/fusion-energy-always-50-years-away-now-just-5-according-to-lockheed-martin/

In addition, Lockheed Martin is opening up their doors a little to get more minds involved in this project in which the manager has said, “We think we’ve invented something that is inherently stable.” He also said they are still early on in the scientific process, but with such enormous implications, it is hard to not pay attention to this budding project. It will be exciting to follow this story in the future, as it could change everything.

http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2014/10/lockheed-looks-partners-its-proposed-fusion-reactor-0

This article is about the dumping of electronic waste in Ghana, Africa.  The recycling process for e-waste costs too much, so there is illegal shipping to African countries like Ghana. European countries illegally label their e-waste as “functional” or “repairable” before shipment. This dumping has caused irreparable environmental damage to this village in Ghana.  Now the villagers can not be fishers and instead sort through the electronic good to sell. These villagers are exposed to toxic fumes that cause terminal illnesses and are usually physically wounded while sorting through the e-waste. Experts predict that this illegal dumping of e-waste will only increase and cause even more damage.  They say it will double by 2020.  http://www.dailysabah.com/features/2014/10/17/ewaste-a-death-sentence

I think as Lafayette students we are all familiar with this pesky brown pest. Originating in Asian, the stinkbug (Halyomorpha halys) was introduced into the United States in the mid 1990s. We all recognize them as the annoying bugs that fly around our room and land on our books and in our clothes. But they are also incredibly problematic for fruit crops.

They have now spread to 41 states. Tracy Leskey is a research entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture who is working to understand the threat stinkbugs pose, patterns in which they move and how they may be eliminated. The main problem is that nothing in the Unites States eats these stinkbugs. In Asia a parasitic wasp eats the stinkbugs from inside the shell but more research needs to be done to determine what kind of damage introducing the foreign wasp will create on native stinkbugs and whether it will just turn into another invasive species.

Regardless of how it is accomplished, I certainly agree that these pesky bugs should be gotten rid of…finding them everywhere in a dorm room is not very fun!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141017-stinkbugs-insects-science-animals-nation-control/