Home/Posts Tagged ‘plant’
Posts Tagged ‘plant’
Pollution, May 7th, 2012,
On Sunday 12 people were killed and 129 injured in a fire at a chemical plant in eastern Thailand, reports Pakistan’s Daily Times. Just over two years ago I posted about Thailand’s Map Ta Phut industrial port in Rayong province and the environmental pollution the Thai petrochemical hub has wrought on the local population. This latest deadly incident at Map Ta Phut caused hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, though loud rains prevented many people from hearing the calls to leave. This prompted Thailand’s industrial minister to call for an upgrade of Map Ta Phut’s warning systems. From the…
Tags: chemical, explosion, fire, Map Ta Phut, plant, Thailand
Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 21st, 2012,
Russian scientists have succeeded in regenerating an ice age plant from fruit tissue found frozen in the Siberian permafrost. A nest of Arctic squirrels containing fruit and seeds was discovered over 30 meters (100ft) underground, its contents frozen for around 32,000 years. Scientists managed to germinate an ice-age plant, similar to chickweed, from the ancient seeds. From the Guardian: The experiment proves that permafrost serves as a natural depository for ancient life forms, said the Russian researchers, who published their findings in Tuesday’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. The burrows explored…
Tags: arctic, permafrost, plant, Russia, scientists, Siberia
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Nov 2nd, 2011,
Growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe has reached another milestone. Following Germany’s move to close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, Belgium has decided to shut its own starting in 2015 and completing by 2025, according to a Reuters report. Much like the companies that run Germany’s nuclear stations, Belgium’s energy operator, Electrabel, warned of blackouts, environmental pollution and a decrease in energy independence as a result of the imminent shut down of the country’s 7 atomic power plants. From AFP: Already a net importer of electricity, Belgium could become increasingly dependent on its neighbours, increase its carbon footprint…
Tags: atomic, Belgium, Climate change, coal, energy, Europe, Fukushima, Lynas, nuclear, plant, power
Green living, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 19th, 2011,
Since the tsunami and resultant meltdowns at Fukushima nuclear plant, views in Japan towards nuclear power are changing. In a country with a history of earthquakes, which has suffered so much from a recent natural disaster, unease regarding nuclear power is understandable. While the true consequences wrought by the nuclear meltdowns remain unknown; caution and even fear influence public opinion in Japan regarding atomic power, and to a lesser extent, government policy. Aside from countries like Germany, which announced a shut down of all nuclear reactors by 2022, nuclear power is growing on a global scale, as can be seen…
Tags: atomic power, japan, nuclear power, plant
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 19th, 2011,
The debate over nuclear energy has heated up in Europe. Though always controversial, the events post earthquake and tsunami in Japan have brought the issue to the forefront in the media and political arenas in some European countries. In May a government safety review of nuclear plants in the UK will be released, taking account of the events at Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. For more on this story see this article from BBC News. In Germany, where nuclear power is always especially controversial, the issue has sparked political action of late. From Deutsche Welle: The governing CDU/FDP coalition…
Tags: debate, earthquake nuclear, Europe, Germany, japan, plant, power, tsunami, UK
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 15th, 2011,
Japan has suffered greatly in recent days after a 9.0 earthquake struck the north of the country and triggered a tsunami which destroyed countless homes and likely killed over 10,000 people. Millions have been left without electricity, while food and water scarcity as well as lack of heat are threatening parts of northern Japan. Most of the media, however, has been gripped by the explosions and resultant radiation leaks at three reactors at a Japanese nuclear power plant called Fukushima Daiichi in Fukushima prefecture. The nuclear safety crisis that Japan now finds itself in the grip of is perhaps the…
Tags: Daiichi, diaster, earthquake, explosion, Fukushima, japan, nuclear, plant, radiation, tsunami
Pollution, Science & Technology, Feb 28th, 2011,
25 years after the worst nuclear accident in history, hundreds of millions of euros are needed to encase Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine amid fears of another potentially disastrous radiation leak. European and Ukrainian officials are trying to drum up hundreds of millions of euros to complete the project of encasing the site in steel. According to the Independent, the EU has contributed around €500m so far, but another €740 is needed: In recent years, the structure has become extremely unstable, with experts warning that if it collapses, a catastrophic amount of radiation could be released into the atmosphere….
Tags: accident, chernobyl, disaster, Europe, nuclear, plant, reactor
Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, Sep 21st, 2010,
It’s been a rollercoaster of a project, and the results will be far from perfect but it will be the most comprehensive list to date. –Eimear Nic Lughadha, head of science policy and co-ordination, Kew Gardens (via BBC News) A rose by any other name is still, apparently, a rose. Scientists from the UK and US are reducing the ‘official’ number of flowering plant species by over 600,000 to around 400,000, according to estimates. Researchers from London’s Kew Gardens the Missouri Botanical Garden in the US are cooperating in a project to reclassify the plant list, which doesn’t contain ferns…
Tags: flowering, Kew Gardens, list, plant, species
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Aug 10th, 2010,
Britain’s energy secretary Chris Huhne has lifted the ban on local authorities selling back surplus electricity into the national power grid. The plan is to encourage local councils to generate their own renewable energy by installing solar panels and wind turbines on council owned property, including both homes and public buildings. Any extra electricity can be sold back to the grid and provide much needed income to local authorities. From an article in the Guardian: At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. The hope…
Tags: authorities, Britain, British, buildings, carbon, council, developers, energy, government, Green, grid, homes, local, plant, power, renewable, Solar, UK, wind
Green living, Health, Jul 16th, 2010,
A recent piece for The Ecologist, entitled ‘Biomass Britain: do fields of energy crops spell an end to grazing livestock’, explores the possibility of a revolution in the UK’s land use. 70-80% of land in the UK is used by the British livestock industry. The possibility of a near-complete shift from livestock farming to the growing of food crops and biomass for energy production may sound revolutionary to some and catastrophic to others. It would mean the de-industrialization of Britain’s meat industry and a 60-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to The Ecologist article. It’s a revolutionary vision that…
Tags: biomass, British, carbon, change, diet, emissions, energy, farming, forestry, industry, livestock, meat, Peel, plant, Scotland, Scottish, UK, wood
Climate Change, Conservation, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 12th, 2010,
Just as zoos underwent an image makeover in the 1990s from carnival-like places to gawk at exotic animals into ‘bastions of conservation,’ so are formal gardens similarly being re-branded. No longer just ornamental green urban escapes, the world’s leading botanical gardens are focusing on conservation and biodiversity. In a time when ecosystems and biodiversity are degrading at an alarming rate, formal gardens play an increasingly important role. Not only do they act as museums or places to conserve rare plants, but also as centers to build up plant species so that they might once again flourish in the wild. That’s…
Tags: assisted, biodiversity, botanic, botanical, botanist, change, climate, Conservation, formal, gardens, migration, plant, species, tree
Climate Change, Pollution, Jun 25th, 2010,
In the 70s and 80s acid rain received lots of attention for being a scourge upon forests and freshwater lakes and streams, poisoning aquatic life, insects and humans as well as corroding monuments and buildings in urban areas. Acid rain never went away, but its levels changed and its sources shifted. You see, acid rain is produced when either sulfur-oxides or nitrogen oxides interact with water in the atmosphere, reducing its ph levels and making it more acidic – resulting in nitric and sulfuric acids. In the 70s and 80s the main source of acid rain was sulfur (or sulphur in…
Tags: acid, acid rain, car, Climate change, coal, emissions, environmental, Europe, Gothenburg, nitric, nitrogen, plant, power, sulfur, sulphur, UK, US
Nature, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 16th, 2010,
This week’s Creature Feature takes us to the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska to find a species that is one of the most endangered in the world. The Boreal Felt Lichen (so named for its appearance) is a foliose cyanolichen and one of the most endangered lichen species in the world. When dry, the lichen appears to be gray-brown in color and when wet, the lichen turns to a nice shade of slate-blue. Underneath, you’ll find white coloring and the top of the Boreal Felt Lichen is pocked with reddish-brown spots. This fuzzy plant has lobes that can grow…
Tags: Alaska, Boreal Felt Lichen, boreal forests, Canada, Creature Feature, critically endangered species, damp places, fir, moss, Newfoundland, Norway, plant, Sweden
Climate Change, Politics, Weird Stuff, Jun 15th, 2010,
Greenpeace activists broke into Sweden’s Forsmark nuclear power plant on Monday, demanding parliament vote against the construction of new nuclear facilities. Currently, Sweden has 10 nuclear reactors at 3 power stations and last year they reversed a decision to phase out nuclear power. Parliament is supposed to vote Thursday on whether or not to expand their nuclear facilities. The activists managed to get into the plant by scaling a fence, while others came by way of an inflatable boat in a nearby river. None of them posed any threat to the plant’s operations, nor did they resist arrest (for breaking…
Tags: arrest, break-in, decision, Forsmark, Greenpeace, nuclear power, parliament, plant, protest, Sweden, vote
Climate Change, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 8th, 2010,
Only in Britain? In what may be one of the biggest wildlife relocation projects ever, some 300 water voles; 350 great crested newts and 30,000 smooth newts, along with thousands of snakes and lizards, are being moved to facilitate the construction of a deep-sea container port on the Thames River on the eastern outskirts of London. The port project, named London Gateway, is the first of its kind in the UK and is owned by the company DP World. In total, over 150,000 wild animals are to be relocated for the river port project. From an article in the Independent:…
Tags: Britain, desalinization, DP, Gateway, london, newts, plant, port, relocation, river, Thames, UK, voles, water, wildlife
Climate Change, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, May 10th, 2010,
Economic growth and the quest for raw materials in developing nations are threatening to devastate global biodiversity, according to a forthcoming UN Global Biodiversity Outlook report. Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the Convention on Biological Diversity is reported as claiming the current rate of extinction to be 1,000 times its ‘natural historical background rate’. From an article in the Telegraph: Population growth, pollution and the spread of Western-style consumption are also blamed for hitting plant and animal populations. The dangerous behavior already practiced by industrialized developed nations will increase dramatically as it is adopted by the developing world. China, India, Brazil…
Tags: animal, biodiversity, developing, extinction, global, nations, plant, report, species, UN
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 28th, 2010,
Monday marked the 24th anniversary of the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, considered the worst nuclear accident in history. Despite the severity of the disaster in 1986, Chernobyl continued to operate until it was finally decommissioned in December of 2000. Today, the event at Chernobyl still affects victims and their families; and casts a long shadow over the nuclear question. Modern nuclear power plants are no doubt safer, yet the fear of another disaster is understandable, especially when Chernobyl itself still contains a large amount of nuclear waste which needs to be dealt with. From…
Tags: apocalypse, chernobyl, deaths, disaster, exclusion zone, Kyshtym, Mayak, nuclear, plant, power, Pripyat, Prypiat, radiation, radioactive
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 14th, 2010,
According to EPA and Eurostat figures, Denmark recycles 42% of its waste and burns 54% in heat and power stations. The US, by comparison, recycles 33% while only 13% is used in waste-to-energy incinerators. The majority of US trash – 54% – ends up in landfills, compared to only 4% in Denmark. Denmark’s state-owned garbage burning power plants are also newer and more state-of-the-art than America’s privately owned pay-to-burn incinerators. They burn cleaner and produce more heat and energy, making them attractive additions to even wealthy communities. Quite a contrast from the smelly, smoke-belching eyesores that come to mind when…
Tags: denmark, energy, heat, incinerators, New York Times, plant, power, waste
Climate Change, Green living, Science & Technology, Feb 1st, 2010,
Statkraft, Norway’s state owned electricity company, has opened the world’s first osmotic power station in the Norwegian municipality of Hurum. The process at the plant is conducted by salty seawater drawing fresh water through a permeable membrane which increases pressure on the side with the salt water. According to an article from the website Nordic Energy Solutions, ‘the increased pressure is used to produce power.’ The plant is only a prototype and not yet capable of generating very much power, but Statkraft has high hopes for the future of the technology. It could one day supply up to 10% or…
Tags: electricity, Norway, osmosis, osmotic power, plant, power, salt, sea, Statkraft, water
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 21st, 2010,
In an unprecedented and audacious move to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the Federated States of Micronesia – a small nation of islands in the western Pacific Ocean – have appealed against the refitting of a coal plant in far off Prunerov, Czech Republic. Prunerov – owned by the utilities conglomerate CEZ – is one of the largest coal-fired power stations in the EU and the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic. According to the Norwegian environmental NGO Bellona, the Czech plant emits 40 times as much yearly CO2 as the entire Federated States of Micronesia….
Tags: Bellona, Climate change, co2, coal, copenhagen, Czech, Czech Republic, emissions, environment, Federated States of Micronesia, global, island, Micronesia, ocean, Pacific, plant, power, Prunerov, Times
