Oceans Becoming More Acidic
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
By now you’ve probably heard most of the doomsday scenarios regarding global warming. Temperatures and sea levels are rising, glaciers and ice caps are melting, and shifting weather patterns are wreaking havoc with ways of life that have otherwise changed little for centuries. Climate change has been connected with everything from water-rights squabbles to failing crops to an increasing prevalence of malaria and dengue fever. Some scientists have speculated that these scenarios may be avoided by sequestering greenhouse gases in large bodies of water, but this short-sighted approach begs the question: what exactly are these emissions doing to our oceans?
“Ocean acidification” was a hot topic at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). According to researchers, our oceans have lower pH levels now than at any point in the last 40 million years, and at the present rate these levels will drop by another .3 units by the end of the century. This is due to the chemical reactions that result when carbon dioxide is dissolved in water, forming carbonic acid. Over the long term, this process could affect the food chain in significant ways. First, many organisms will not grow as large or will produce fewer offspring, as increased levels of CO2 render respiration and other physiological processes less efficient. Also, the absorption of greenhouse gases is likely to create dead-zones at some depths where the CO2-oxygen ratios are too low to support life. This is apparently already happening and is somewhat similar to the poisonous volcanic crater lakes that exist in central Africa, where high levels of CO2 and other gases are kept at the lake bottom due to water pressure — until something stirs up the water, leading to the release of noxious plumes that can have lethal, large-scale consequences, such as the 1700 people killed in Cameroon in 1986.
It is unlikely that the presence of such dead-zones in the oceans will present any significant danger to human populations, except in that such zones will lower the productivity of the ecosystem, affecting subsistence fishermen and others who rely on the sea for their sustenance and livelihood. But there is one more way in which ocean acidification could have serious consequences. Shellfish, coral and echinoderms may not be able to form their exoskeletons, as the calcium carbonate on which they depend dissolves during carbonic acid formation. One researcher referred to the massive volcanic explosions at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago which caused oceanic pH levels to change suddenly, leading to the extinction of 90% of oceanic species, particularly those that make shells from calcium carbonate. Another researcher, looking into the combined effects of acidification and temperature increase, conducted experiments on purple sea urchins that replicated the ecological conditions that will exist in 2100 if emissions levels continue unabated. Her results indicated that the urchins had to work up to three times harder to create their shells, and that these shells were often deformed.
All this goes to show that you can’t simply shrug off greenhouse gases by pumping them underwater.
Posted in Art, Global Warming, Technology, Waste, Water | Permalink
Green Renter: Infrastructure and Environmental Health Risks in the South Bronx: A Review of the South Bronx Health and Policy Study With Dr. Carlos Restrepo, New York University
Sunday, February 10th, 2008| February 18, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Posted in New York City, Pollution, Solar One Events, Sustainability, Waste | Permalink
Where Are Your Old Cellphones?
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
Our friends over at INFORM have started a new series called The Secret Life. First on the agenda: cellphones. These devices that have totally transformed communication over the past 20 years have also become too-synonymous with “disposable” leading to their being sent by the millions to landfills and incinerators. And yet, many, if not all, of the materials used to make them are reclaimable and/or recyclable.
INFORM has put together a great 5 minute video about the need for more cellphone recycling, while also showing in some detail what happens to these phones during the recycling process. We encourage you to check out their website, watch the video, and then take those old phones out of your junk drawer and find a way to recycle them (they provide the info on how to do just that, of course).
In addition, this seems like a great time to remind everyone about the Greener Gadgets Conference coming up this Friday, February 1st. Our recent Green Renter with conference co-chairs Marc Alt and Jill Fehrenbacher was a great overview of the need to re-think the design process for digital technology, complete with some great examples like the BOGOlight that the audience got to pass around and test out. We’ll have a video version of their presentation on our site soon, but you can register for the conference right now.
Cellphone image by Chris Jordan, taken from inhabitat.com
Posted in Pollution, Products, Recycling, Sustainability, Technology, Waste | Permalink
Eyebeam Announces Winners of Eco-Vis Challenge
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St. (between 10th Ave. and 11th Ave.), NYC
At a public reception at Eyebeam Saturday, December 15, Executive Director Amanda McDonald Crowley announced the winners of Eyebeam’s two-part, online Eco-Vis Challenge competition. Oz Etzioni’s Unrecyclable Icon was awarded a $2000 grand prize in the Eco-Icons category, and the Studio for Urban Projects’ In Popular Terms, the Evolving Language of Ecology was awarded a $2000 grand prize in the Eco-Visualization category. The winning projects will be previewed during the month of January, and exhibited as part of Eyebeam’s Feedback show in March 2008.
Posted in Art, Education, Waste | Permalink
Show Support for Upcoming eWaste bill in NYC
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
With all the new gizmos coming into apartments as holiday gifts, an equally impressive stream of outdated electronics gets jettisoned to make room in tight apartments. The toxic metals in these throw away items is something we have written about before, and are something that politicians are taking more notice of.
We wrote about the bill in October, and it looks as if City Council is nearing a decision on a great step forward to making electronics recycling easier and more widespread. It would require manufacturers to be responsible for the recycling of increasing percentages of their products–25% in 2012 and 65% in 2018 (NYT). Many people are very excited about this and are encouraging emails and phone calls to the City Council. Heads up from no less than No Impact Man himself. (Read his post for the contact info)
Posted in Products, Recycling, Waste | Permalink
A Wetlands in a School?! Amazing!
Thursday, November 15th, 2007 Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. is my dream school, it has a wetlands in the middle courtyard! Can you imagine!? Take a peak at their interactive tour! [ here ]From the American Institute of Architects: Top 10 Green Building Projects of 2007
Designed to foster an ethic of social and environmental responsibility in each student, the facility demonstrates a responsible relationship between the natural and the built environment.
Bicycle storage and showers are available, and the building is located within walking distance of a subway stop and several bus stops. Parking is available in an underground lot. A green roof and constructed wetland reduce stormwater runoff, improve the quality of infiltrated runoff, and reduce municipal water use. The wetland treats wastewater for reuse in the toilets and cooling towers.
The building was sited to take advantage of passive solar design. Together with high-efficiency electric lighting, photosensors, and occupancy sensors, daylighting minimizes lighting energy use. Solar-ventilation chimneys, operable windows, and ceiling fans minimize the need for mechanical cooling. Rather than develop a utility plant for this building alone, a central plant was created to serve the entire campus. A photovoltaic array generates about 5% of the building’s electricity needs.
Reclaimed materials include exterior cladding, flooring and decking, and the stone used for landscaping. Interior finishes were selected for their high levels of recycled content, low chemical emissions, and use of rapidly renewable materials. [ continue reading ]
Posted in Build It Green, Education, Waste | Permalink
Are Holiday Catalogs Weighing You Down?
Friday, November 9th, 2007
It’s the time of year once again when the trees turn red, the breeze turns chilly, it’s dark before you get home from work and your back starts to ache from lugging huge recycling bags full of holiday catalogs. Save a trip to the chiropractor and sign up for Catalog Choice, a free web service sponsored by Berkeley’s Ecology Center that lets you opt out of receiving catalogs in the mail. You go through a list of catalogs and click on the ones you can live without. It’s good for your back, and good for the environment- they’ve helped over 120,000 people opt out of over 1,000,000 catalogs!
Posted in Pollution, Sustainability, Waste | Permalink
Promoting Re-use at NYC.gov
Monday, November 5th, 2007 Coming on the heels of the news that New York City is conducting a modest expansion of its public recycling program, comes the new NYC Stuff Exchange. I believe that this is a new endeavor building off of the Dept. of Sanitation’s Wastele$$ program, and it promises to help New Yorkers find ways to donate/sell/buy/rent/repair their “gently used” items of all kinds. They are also hosting a calendar of events to keep track of the various book fairs, donation drives and swap meets taking place around the city. Should be a valuable resource as we gear up for a holiday season full of parties, good cheer, gifts, leftovers and a whole lot of extra waste.These are small steps for a city that has not made much progress at improving its recycling and diversion rates, and that lags well behind cities like Seattle and San Francisco, but at least there are steps being taken. We’d still like to see the adoption of some ambitious goals (up to, and including Zero Waste), as PlaNYC was largely silent on the matter of waste and the cost of disposing on NYC’s trash in the far-flung landfills of Virginia, South Carolina and beyond is only going to get more expensive (and carbon intensive - all those truck miles!).
For more options for re-use and waste prevention, check out Freecycle NYC , Wa$tematch, and the NYC Materials Exchange Development Program.
And we’d be totally remiss to not remind you (as always) that Build It Green! is the place to go for building materials, paint and a whole lot more at deeply discounted prices. Wine cooler, anyone?
Posted in Build It Green, New York City, Recycling, Waste | Permalink
This Week’s Green Renter: The Participatory and Environmental Art of Caroline Woolard
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Potable Prototypes: Ingestion as Visceral Knowledge
Speaker: Caroline Woolard, Artist
Caronline Woolard, a graduate of Cooper Union and Fellow of the Oxbow Residency Program will share insights into environmental and participatory art, as well as examples of her own work. Ms. Woolard will conduct a discussion about such works and involve the audience in a dialogue about the future of her ongoing projects and everything in between.
Join us on Tuesday October 30th at 7pm
Posted in New York City, Solar One, Waste | Permalink
Carbon negative fuel/compost?
Saturday, October 20th, 2007 An ancient composting technique shows promise as a way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Called terra preta, it is a human made soil/fertilizer, but not a chemical fertilizer. It is a way of burning/gasifying/decomposing biomass that breaks down the carbon chains to create super rich soils.It could create a rare triple-win situation. Rather than burn or landfill crop waste, it could be specially composted. The resulting chemical process emits burnable gases for modest amounts of fuel. The majority of the original carbon in the biomass ends up in the super rich soil that has been shown to be 50% more effective than chemical fertilizers. Since carbon was extracted from the air for the plant matter, and most of it ended up back in the compost, it could potentially be more than carbon neutral.
Naturally, this could be a great jack-on-all-trades solution for poorer parts of the world, with potential to decrease soil erosion, water pollution, and provide fuel. The basic setup is not particularly complicated or expensive.
Definitely check out a full length article by the great people at World Changing.
Posted in Biofuel, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, Sustainability, Waste | Permalink
