Author: Michael McGuire (Page 1 of 2)

This article describes the resurgence of small corner grocers in urban areas. This time around, the grocers are catering primarily to a wealthy clientele of locavores. Is this trend a positive step away from big-box food distribution or just the next chapter in boutique food shopping snobbery?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/05/02/308941681/urban-greengrocers-are-back-to-serve-big-spending-locavores

This article describes how methionine, a synthetic substance used in the poultry industry,  is allowed to be used to produced certified organic chicken.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/05/03/309027851/organic-farming-factions-spat-over-synthetic-substances

This article from NPR describes how patrons at restaurants that purchase a whole cow for meat, can only offer a limited amount of the prime cuts since a cow only has so much steak to offer.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/05/04/297280870/ranch-to-table-trend-has-some-diners-asking-wheres-the-steak?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140504

A CSX trail hauling oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale derailed today in Lynchburg, Virginia and is currently dumping an unknown amount of oil into the James River. The river is currently at flood stage, so the oil will be traveling quickly and should begin to reach Richmond sometime on Thursday. Richmond and several other municipalities are making preparations to temporarily use alternate sources for drinking water.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/train-carrying-crude-oil-derails-in-downtown-lynchburg/article_ca91041c-d096-11e3-ae9b-0017a43b2370.html

Most of the crude oil extracted from the Alberta oil sands, shale oil from the Dakotas, and corn-based ethanol is transported by rail. This has put tremendous strain on our freight rail capacity and adds to the energy overhead associated with these fuel sources. This article from the Windsor Star reports that the volume of  liquid fuel transported via freight rail has exploded since 2005 (On occasion, the fuel actually explodes as was the case last summer when a train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec killed 47 people). This boom in rail transport has created a serious bottleneck in the supply chain for many industries, including the auto industry. The article highlights an ongoing situation where hundreds of new minivans are stranded in Detroit due to a lack of rail cars need to transport them to distribution points.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/04/23/finished-minvans-sit-on-detroit-riverfront-due-to-rail-car-shortage/

Lately, Paris has a bit of a smog problem:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/16/paris-smog_n_4973835.html

The article by John Fisher on the evolutionary pressures that shape modes of transportation reminded me of this old ad campaign for Suzuki:

It is a shameless advertisement,  but it is pretty clever too.

The Colorado River is so heavily exploited it no longer reaches the sea. Still, people are flocking to the Sunbelt states in search of a desert climate with all the conveniences of limitless tap water and green golf courses. Portions of the sunbelt also makes great farmland provided there is enough water for irrigation. Garret Hardin’s 1968 paper the “Tragedy of the Commons” describes how individuals in a group naturally tend to act according to their own self-interest. Without proper regulation, the members of the group ultimately over-exploit a limited common resource to the detriment of the whole group. Pervasive drought in the Colorado watershed is leading to a serious debate on how water will be rationed in the future.

The dusty Colorado River

Roof damage is a major contributor to the overall cost of storms. LEED structures often use highly efficient roofing materials and it just so happens that many of these materials, such as steel and aluminum, are resilient in storms.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/03/03/green-building-takes-the-wind-out-of-strong-storms/

At one time, “global warming” was an easily digestible term used to describe the highly complex interaction between the climate and greenhouse gases. As pointed out in the article below, the weakness of “global warming” is that it oversimplifies climate change and it provides critics an easy punchline in light of the bitter winter felt by the eastern half of the country.

Recently, we have been discussing our connection to food and the natural environment. All of us spend a lot of time, perhaps too much time, consuming and creating data on the internet and over phone networks. While data production and consumption doesn’t directly gobble up trees or burn coal, it does require a lot of hardware… and lots of electricity. Take a look at the link to the slideshow and New York Times article describing what goes on in a modern data center. Large data centers consume as much power as a decent sized town.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2219188/Inside-Google-pictures-gives-look-8-vast-data-centres.html

Great field trip today to Jacobsburg State Park Environmental Education Center!

When you read articles describing potential future scenarios with widespread use of electric cars and renewable energy sources, one of the primary obstacles to this seemingly better world is our current battery technology. The world is waiting for a Big Battery Breakthrough that will make these greener alternatives to fossil fuels a no-brainer from economic and convenience standpoints. We’ve had big breakthroughs in the past (steam power, powered flight, penicillin, radio communication) that radically shifted the economy and the way we live our lives. What will a Big Battery Breakthrough look like?

Here are some possibilities:

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/01/organic-mega-flow-battery-promises-breakthrough-for-renewable-energy?utm_source=harvardalumnigazette&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hag_january2014

http://theenergycollective.com/lougrinzo/316306/hydrogen-vaporware-vs-big-battery-breakthrough

This piece fits into the underlying theme of the video Dr. Brandes posted from the Wall Street Journal. In this case, the authors argue that green energy technology has not lived up to the promise of stimulating the economy.

Sustainable Management and Beneficial Reuse of Residual
Wastes and Byproducts

2014 Cal Poly GWRI REU Announcement