Went to a talk on March 19, 2012 by Dr Joel Schwarz about a recent UNEP report on Short Lived Climate Forcers:

Integrated Assessment of Black carbon and Tropospheric Ozone and Near Term Climate Protection and Clean Air Benefits
http://www.unep.org/dewa/Portals/67/pdf/BlackCarbon_SDM.pdf

Summary for Decision Makers
http://www.unep.org/pdf/Near_Term_Climate_Protection_&_Air_Benefits.pdf

The report focuses on three SCLF [short lived climate forcers] - black carbon, tropospheric ozone and methane [an ozone precursor*] - because reducing them will provide significant benefits through improved air quality and a slowing of near-term climate change.

Black carbon and tropospheric (10 - 20 km above ground) ozone are resident in the atmosphere for a few days to three weeks (3-8 days for carbon, up to 4-18 days for ozone).  Methane has an atmospheric lifetime of 12 years, ± 3 years.

"Full implementation" of all the identified measures could reduce future global warming by "0.5˚C (within a range of 0.2-0.7˚C)". If implemented by 2030, this tactic  might halve the potential increase in global temperature projected for 2050. "The rate of regional temperature increase would also be reduced" wherever they are put into practice.

These measures "could avoid 2.4 million premature deaths (within a range of 0.7-4.6 million) and the loss of 52 million tonnes (within a range of 30-140 million tonnes), 1-4 per cent, of the global production of maize, rice, soybean and wheat each year."  Benefits will be felt immediately "in or close to the regions" where black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone are reduced.  The potential for emissions reductions, climate, health, and economic benefits are highest in Asia but gains can also be realized in Africa, Latin America, and wherever these measures are put into practice.

A few emission reduction measures "targeting black carbon and ozone precursors could immediately begin to protect climate, public health, water and food security, and ecosystems. Measures include the recovery of methane from coal, oil and gas extraction and transport, methane capture in waste management, use of clean-burning stoves for residential cooking, diesel particulate filters for vehicles and the banning of field burning of agricultural waste."

All these benefits can be obtained with existing technology but require significant strategic investment and institutional arrangements to make them widespread, part of general and every day use.

*Ozone is not directly emitted. It is a secondary pollutant that is formed in the troposphere by sunlight-driven chemical reactions involving carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), methane (CH4), and nitrogen oxides (NO ).  Ozone in the troposphere is the third most human-emitted greenhouse gas, after CO2 and methane.  Ozone formation increases as temperature rises.

Solar IS Civil Defense - what we are all supposed to have on hand in case of emergency - flashlight, cell phone, radio, extra set of batteries - can be powered by a few square inches of solar electric panel.  Add a hand crank or bicycle generator and you have a reliable source of survival level electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.

This is also entry level electrical power for the 1.5 billion people around the world who do not yet have access to electricity.  Civil defense at home and economic development abroad can be combined in a "buy one, give one" program like the Bogolight (http://www.bogolight.com) which is a solar LED light and AA battery charger.

Solar IS Civil Defense and could be much more.

-------------------------

I wish the mainline environmental groups had been broadcasting practical material like this for the last twenty years or so instead of devoting almost all their advertising to scaring us about climate change.

Originally published at http://solarray.blogspot.com/2012/04/solar-is-civil-defense-what-we-are-all.html

Scientists Track Radioactive Iodine in New Hampshire from Japan Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402112932.htm

Testing in New Hampshire's Mink Brook watershed during March through May 2011 resulted in calculating radioactive iodine deposition in the soil at a  total amount  around 6,000 atoms per square meter. Dartmouth research associate Joshua Landis commented that "at these levels, it is unlikely that this is going to cause measurable health consequences."  The amount in stream sediments was double the amount in soil but should be reduced by river and stream dilution.

This radiactive waste from Fukushima consists of iodine-131, "highly radioactive, acutely toxic" with a half-life of about 8 days, and iodine-29, less radioactive but with a half-life of 15.7 million years.  "Due to its long half-life and continued release from ongoing nuclear energy production, [iodine-129] is perpetually accumulating in the environment and poses a growing radiological risk," the authors of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report point out.  A nuclear reactor produces 3 parts iodine-131 to one part iodine-129.  "Once the iodine-131 decays, you lose your ability to track the migration of either isotope."

hat tip clamshellalliance.org

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2012/12032905-e.html

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has created a prototype "Super-wide Angle Compton Camera" capable of creating images of gamma ray-emitting radioactive particles. This equipment is based on the gamma ray-observing sensor technology to be added to the next X-ray observation satellite, ASTRO-H. It is expected to be able to create visual images of radioactive particles that have collected at high altitudes such as building roofs where it is difficult to conduct measurements with existing survey meters. Taking advantage of its wide vision (180-degree) capability as well as its ability to distinguish gamma rays from nuclides, it can create images of Cesium 137 (Cs-137) and Cesium 134 (Cs-134) that have widely dispersed on the ground and residential houses. (Attachment-1)

On February 11, 2012, JAXA, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) conducted a field test of the dose measurement and imaging survey using the "Super-wide Angle Compton Camera" at Kusano area of Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture. The results yielded the successful image capturing of the dispersed radio-cesium over a much broader area and to a higher degree of accuracy in comparison with existing gamma cameras. (Attachment-2)

hat tip treehugger.com

We need a zero emissions society and culture, especially where such long-lived pollutants are concerned.

Sidestepping the Impasse:  Zero Emissions to Ecological Design
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/09/17/902951/-Sidestepping-the-Impasse-Zero-Emissions-to-Ecologic al-Design

On Monday January 30th, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) held a public meeting at Suffolk University, halfway between the State House and City Hall, to change the Boston zoning laws to allow for agriculture throughout the city, making it easier for local residents to grow and sell fresh, healthy, foods in Boston and the greater Boston Metropolitan Area.  Nearly 300 people attended.  Boston currently has about 150 community gardens serving 3000 gardeners, the highest per capita of any US city.  Now the city is trying to figure out how to change zoning to increase urban agriculture beyond gardening and household use into businesses and economic development.

Mayor Menino, the newly appointed chair of the food policy task force for the US Conference of Mayors, opened the meeting and the keynote address was given by Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc. (http://www.growingpower.org), non-profit based in Milwaukee, WI which also does work in Chicago, Detroit, Ghana, and around the world.  Growing Power addresses social justice and food access issues through building local agriculture and farm-based businesses and Mr. Allen won the 2008 McArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant for his work on urban farming and sustainable food production.  Growing Power has grown an underutilized 2-acre lot into a farm that produces enough produce, eggs, honey, fish and other meats to feed more than 10,000 local residents and employs more than 100 people on 20 farms, 13 farmstands, and a year round CSA.  

They start by growing soil through composting to replace the existing contaminated urban soils and continue with growing worms, mushrooms, sprouts, which alone provide from $5 to $50 worth of production per square foot, and fish in integrated urban agricultural systems. There are seven different levels of production in their greenhouses, some of which are heated by compost.  At their main farm, a quarter of their electricity comes from solar electric panels and 70% of their hot water is solar heated.  They also have an anaerobic digester for methane production and electricity.  

Growing Power also provides hand's on education and summer jobs for children planting flowers by sidewalks and corners, a measure which actually reduces crime.  Green Power also has community kitchens for food preservation and processing.  They are now building a five story vertical farm at their national headquarters and planning for 15 regional centers.

Will Allen said that, since food "is the one thing we have in common," the good food movement "starts with everybody working together" and if you don't have a sustainable food system, you won't have a sustainable city.  

Video of the entire proceedings at the meeting, including the presentation by Mr. Will Allen:  http://www.cityofboston.gov/cable/video_library.asp?id=2444

The minutes of that meeting, the recommendations by the group, maps of greater Boston food resources, and information about the ongoing urban agriculture planning meetings the city is holding:
http://tinyurl.com/BRARezoneUrbanAgriculture/

A Facebook group called Upgrade Democracy (http://www.facebook.com/groups/upgradedemocracy) is collecting a list of

teams/organizations working on technology-powered solutions to the systemic problems of governance/group decision-making.

They want help in expanding the list but

Please don't add projects that simply use technology to slightly enhance our current political system (e.g. electronic petitions). We're upgrading the democratic operating system, not tweaking the interface. ;)

http://www.facebook.com/groups/upgradedemocracy/doc/167918099964799/

Teams / Organizations Working to Upgrade Democracy
By Frank Grove, Ben Woosley and 5 others in Upgrade Democracy Community

Circle Voting http://www.circlevoting.com
CodeForAmerica http://codeforamerica.org/
Deliberative Democracy (Stanford) http://cdd.stanford.edu/
DemDash http://demdash.us/
DemocracyLab http://democracylab.org/
Dynamic Democracy (US) http://upgradedemocracy.org
HackDemocracy http://hackdemocracy.org
Hypothes.is http://hypothes.is/
LayerVote http://layervote.com/
Open Assembly http://openassembly.org
Personal Democracy Forum http://personaldemocracy.com/
Participant Labs http://participantlabs.com/
ReFrameIt http://reframeit.com/
Seasteading Institute http://seasteading.org
TwoSides http://www.twosides.co/
Village Votes http://villagevotes.com/wiki/Village_Votes
VoteReports http://votereports.org/
VoteSF http://votesf.com/
Wecision http://wecision.com/

My sister sent my a link to a New Yorker article on the history of Occupy Wall Street:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/28/111128fa_fact_schwartz

It focuses on Kalle Lasn and Micah White of AdBusters, the organization that made the initial call for an occupation of Wall Street.  They are both interesting characters with ideas not usually voiced in the major media.  I do wish a little more time had been spent looking at David Graeber, the anarchist theorist who helped convene the first GA on the first day but you can read about him at
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/david-graeber-the-antileader-of-occupy-wall-street-10262011.htm l

For all this history, what I find lacking is the larger context, that Occupy is part of a world-wide movement against corporate globalism and for person-to-person globalism that started with Mohammed Bouazizi setting himself on fire in Tunisia and continuing from there to Egypt, Libya, Yemen but also Spain, Greece, Macedonia, Brazil, Mexico, the UK....  In fact, the US movement is rather late to the party and is missing a real chance by not expressing forcefully their/our solidarity with the demonstrators now being brutalized in Tahrir Square.  That would complete the circle, confuse the politicians and pundits, and make visible the global nature of this movement at last.

This idea may be moot after all the forced evictions of the Occupations from public spaces but I thought I'd share it anyway.

I've visited the Occupations in Wall Street, Boston, and Providence, RI.  Every time I go to one of them, I try to connect with somebody about making the Occupation green with, as yet, little success.  In New York, I saw the greywater treatment system Mobile Research Labs set up and talked to a couple of people about using some simple solar techniques.  In Boston, I've tried to connect the winterization team with the student Energy Clubs at some of the local colleges and universities and alerted my own network of solar enthusiasts to Occupy Boston's  efforts.  I've also tried to do the same by contacting OWS's Sustainability Group.  In Providence, I talked with the only occupier I saw up and around early on a Sunday morning.  He was picking up trash around the park and was disappointed that the group hadn't organized themselves enough to do recycling.  I gave him my card and my elevator pitch for a green occupation and he said he'd pass it on.

I look at the Occupations and see economic refugee camps and a possible test-bed for emergency response and sustainable economic development around the world.  Some may say that's crazy but the links are there if you look.

The Climate CoLab is part of MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence.

In both 2010 and 2011, the primary activities have been a pair of online contests, where teams of community members are invited to propose actions to key aspects of climate change.

The 2011 contest poses the question:

How should the 21st century economy evolve bearing in mind the risks of climate change?

In the initial stages of a contest, teams develop proposals on what should be done. Expert judges assess and select finalists among these proposals.

In the final round, Climate CoLab members are invited to vote. Winners are chosen based on voting and on a second review by the judges. A group of policy makers are briefed on the winning proposals.

On the national level, my proposal made the final cut:
How to Change US Energy in One Growing Season
http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/5/planId/15206

You can vote for it or other proposals in the contest until November 15 at the URL above.  Please take a look.

This interview with Ryan Hoffman of Occupy Wall Street by David Schuster on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on how OWS are self-policing touched me deeply.  I thought it a simple and succinct explanation of what is going on.

Video:  http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/occupy-wall-street-ryan-hoffman-on-security-detail-serving -the-undesirables

"It's irrelevant" whether the police are sending homeless people to Zuccotti Park. "Whether or not they are sending people down there, we'll take them because if they have been wounded by the system that we're in, that creates a systemic sort of foreclosure mill, kicking people out of their houses and sort of oppressing them and taking away their voices, taking away their enfranchisement to speak, well guess what, that's what our movement is about and we're not going to turn those people away. This movement is so that everybody can have a voice and we lift each other up."

Solar water disinfection
http://www.sodis.ch/index_EN
A two liter plastic bottle can be made into a water treatment system simply by filling it with contaminated water and exposing it to the sun.  Sodis is an organization that promotes this technology around the world.  

The disinfection process can be speeded by turning aluminized mylar snack food bags inside out and making them into reflectors as two young students in Belo Horizonte, Brazil discovered:  http://calais.phase2technology.com/content/isef-sterilizing-water-with-trash

Solar bottle bulbs for daylighting
http://www.elliottlemenager.com/2010/06/21/amazing-water-bottle-sky-lights/

In 2002, during a long electrical shortage, at Uberaba, São Paulo, Brasil, Mr Alfredo Moser discovered a way to gather sun light in the house through plastic bottles hanging from the roof. First shown at the Globo Reporter in the 25th May 2007.
Alfredo Moser was pressed by a scarce electricity substitution and found out that he could light his house with a bottle of water filled with water and a protection cap made of camera film.

The bottle is just refracting sunlight very effectively and produces an equivalent light power compared to a 50/60W lamp. In a rainy day, even without much light and direct sun, one still have some light. Scientist have now visited Moser and are looking into ways to take this concept to maximize its potential.

Here's my latest Solar PSA on how a south-facing window is already a solar collector:

"Any window that sees direct sunlight is a solar collector.  You can learn how to use that free energy to make your home more comfortable and secure.  Caulk and seal the window against drafts.  Install storm windows on the exterior, interior, or both.  Cover the window at night with an insulating curtain to prevent conduction, convection, and radiative heat loss.  A valence above the window will stop night-time drafts and reduce condensation.  A sunny window can double as a greenhouse for starting seedlings or growing house plants.  Expand the solar space below, above, or beside the window with a windowbox solar air or water heater.    You can even design a living system to provide fresh vegetables and fish year round while producing space heat, cleaning the air, and reducing waste.  A south-facing window is already a solar collector.  Learn how to use it."

Ages of US Nuclear Power Plants* at Closure
* Includes only commercial plants of significant size

Plant, Shutdown Date, Age, Reason

Connecticut Yankee, Dec., 1996, 29 yrs, Steam gen. cracking, ECCS undersized

Millstone I (CT), July, 199, 28 yrs, Improper operation, Cost of safety improvements

Maine Yankee, August, 1997, 25 yrs, Steam gen. tube damage, Electrical power cable separation

Yankee Rowe     (MA), October, 1991, 28 yrs, Reactor vessel embrittlement, Steam gen. tube damage

Indian Point I (NY), Oct., 1974, 12 yrs., Lack of an ECCS

Shippingport (PA), Oct. 1982, 35 yrs, 1st commercial plant in US

Peach Bottom I (PA), Nov., 1974, 7 yrs., Helium cooled graphite core

Three Mile Island II (PA), March, 1979, 4 mos., Partial meltdown!

Dresden I (IL), Oct., 1978, 18 yrs., 1st full scale private funded plant

Zion I (IL), Feb., 1997, 22 yrs., Steam gen. cracking,  Improper operation

Zion II (IL), Nov., 1996, 22 yrs., Steam gen. cracking

Big Rock Point (MI), Aug., 1997, 35 yrs. Economics

Fermi I, 1972, 2 yrs., Partial meltdown, 1966!  Restarted (?) 1970-72

La Crosse (WI), April, 1987, 17 yrs.

Fort St. Vrain (CO), Aug., 1989, 13 yrs.,  Helium cooled graphite core,Control rod failure, never dependable

Trojan I (OR), Nov., 1992, 16 yrs., Steam gen. cracking, economics

San Onofre I (CA), Nov., 1992, 25 yrs., Cost of seismic retrofit, Steam gen. cracking

Humbold Bay (CA), 1980, 17 yrs., 2nd oldest commercial plant

Rancho Seco (CA), June, 1989, 15 yrs., Poor operating history (39%), Only nuke plant closed by referendum

1993 ATT future - 14 minute video

2011 Corning Glass future - 5 minute video

2004 vision of "Googlezon" in 2014 - 8 minute video

When Wikileaks was thrown off Amazon's servers, some people began to wonder about the security of their communications on the Internet in a new way.  When Egypt shut down access to the Internet and mobile phones for the whole country, more people began to think about how easy it seems to be to pull the plug, even in the USA.  News that "Beijing plans to track all mobile phone movements", a test run in two areas of the city going on this summer, doesn't help either.

Now, people are beginning to think about what may turn out to be a People's Internet, a non-corporate, non-governmental Internet, that can't be shut down or turned off, perhaps in a variety of massively resilient and redundant systems.
Can it be done?  Should it be done?  Here are some initiatives that move in that direction:

FabFi is an open-source , MIT Fab Lab-grown system using off-the-shelf electronics and reflectors made of common building materials to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles, a wireless mesh network.  With Fabfi, communities can build their own wireless networks for high-speed internet, connecting to each other and educational, medical, and a wide range of other resources.  FabFi services are working in both Jalalabad, Afghanistan and in Mountain View, Kenya, where JoinAfrica operates an Internet service provider at three sites.

A couple of years ago, Dr William Moomaw of Tufts mentioned a regional scale experiment with an all-renewable grid in Germany. I've been curious about that project since then. Today, I did a little googling and found a seven-minute youtube called "Fully renewable: biogas + wind + solar"

Dr. Jürgen Schmid at the University of Kassel, Department of Efficient Energy Conversion is the spokesperson from this December 2007 video. The system described is wind with pumped hydro storage and grid scale solar with methane from biomass (corn biofuels). When the sun isn't out in the South, the wind may be blowing in the North. When there's too much wind, it can be used to pump water into reservoirs that will provide hydroelectricity days or weeks later. When the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, biomass can be burned or converted to methane. They say Germany can have a 100% renewable grid by 2050. Dr Schmid, along with John Sievers, Stefan Faulstich, Mathias Puchta, Ingo Stadler, is the co-author of Long-term perspectives for balancing fluctuating renewable energy sources (pdf alert), which details the steps necessary to get to a fully renewable grid.

There's a Swiss consulate across the street from the new Cambridge, MA main library which sponsors a lot of events.  On 6/7/11, the subject was FuturICT (http://www.futurict.ethz.ch/FuturICT) (ICT stands for information and communications technology) with Dr Dirk Helbing of ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Dr Helbing  is the Chair of Sociology, with particular emphasis on Modeling and Simulation, at ETH.  He studies research on disaster spreading and disaster response as well as crowds, movement, and traffic. (I like his "outbreak of cooperation among success-driven individuals under noisy conditions" simulation at http://www.soms.ethz.ch/research/Videos/video_sim_pnas and wonder if he's looked at Temple Grandin's work with slaughterhouses and feedlots.)  He is also the scientific coordinator of FuturICT, a 10 year 1 billion EUR "multidisciplinary international scientific endeavour with a focus on techno-socio-economic-environmental systems."

Straw Centrifuge Pump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5KX5TdJiYc

A lot of modern junk - plastic bottles, cups, refills, rubber slippers, pens etc can be reused in many creative ways to make joyous learning aids.  Children could make more than a dozen delightful pumps using all kinds of odd stuff.  For instance, push two film cans on the ends of a 15 cm piece of old bicycle tube to make an air pump.  The opening/closing valves are made using bits of sticky tape.  This high quality pump can easily inflate a balloon!  Or else make a scintillating sprinkler within a minute.  Poke a broom stick in the middle of a plastic straw.  Make two half cuts 2 cm away from the centre.  Bend the arms and secure them in place with some tape to make a triangle.  Twirl this triangle in water to make a most delightful centrifuge or sprinkler.

Arvind Gupta has been building science teaching toys from trash materials since 1978 and for the Children's Science Centre at Inter-University Centre for  Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune University, Pune 411007 Maharashtra India since October 2003.

On his website
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com
you can find hundreds of toys children can make for themselves with easily available materials
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys.html

He even has video demonstrations of many designs
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/films.html

"The best thing a child can do with a toy is break it !"

"And somewhere there are engineers
Helping others fly faster than sound.
But, where are the engineers
Helping those who must live on the ground?"

In less than 2 minutes, Gil Friend, CEO of Natural Logic, Inc and author of The Truth about Green Business, makes a clear business case against coal:

Went to two full presentations and part of another presentation on the history and aftermath of Chernobyl on April 26, the 25th anniversary of the accident, at Harvard.  I was surprised that the room was so small.  The seminar's room capacity was 17 people and 15 attended this session, the largest audience during the part of the event I attended.

Guess that what happened in Chernobyl and is still happening because of it is not very important any more, even in the wake of Fukushima.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038658656/rdtnorg-radiation-detection-hardware-network-in-ja

RDTN.org: Radiation Detection Hardware Network in Japan

RDTN.org is a website whose purpose is to provide an aggregate feed of nuclear radiation data from governmental, non-governmental and citizen-scientist sources. That data will be made available to everyone, including scientists and nuclear experts who can provide context for lay people. In the weeks following launch, it has become evident that there is a need for additional radiation reporting from the ground in Japan. This Kickstarter project will help us purchase up to 600 Geiger Counter devices that will be deployed to Japan. (The project minimum will fund 100 devices).

hat tip boingbong

They've raised $13,104 of their $33,000 goal from 128 backers and have 14 days left to fund their project.