Obama climate adviser open to geo-engineering to tackle global warming

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

The global warming situation has become so dire that Barack Obama’s chief scientific adviser has raised with the president the possibility of massive-scale technological fixes to alter the climate known as ‘geo-engineering’. John Holdren, who is a member of the president’s cabinet, said today the drastic measures should not be “off the table” in discussions on how best to tackle climate change. While his office insisted that he was not proposing a dramatic switch in policy, Holdren said geo-engineering could not be ruled out.

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America’s 10 most endangered rivers

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Rivers are the arteries of our infrastructure. Flowing from highlands to the sea, they breathe life into ecosystems and communities.

But many rivers in the United States are in trouble.

Rivers in Alaska, California and the South are among the 10 most endangered, according to a report released Tuesday by American Rivers, a leading river conservation group.

The annual report uses data from thousands of rivers groups, local governments, environmental organizations and citizen watchdogs to identify waterways under imminent threat by dams, industry or development. “Our nation is at a transformational moment when it comes to rivers and clean water,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. “Water is life, yet our nation’s water infrastructure is so outdated that our clean drinking water, flood protection and river health face unprecedented threats.”

American Rivers has released its annual endangered rivers report since 1986. The report is not a list of the nation’s most polluted waterways, but highlights 10 rivers facing decisions in the coming year that could determine their future.
Here is American Rivers’ Most Endangered Rivers list for 2009:

1) Sacramento-San Joaquin River System Location: California2) Flint River

Location: Georgia3) Lower Snake River

Location: Idaho, Washington, Oregon4) Mattawoman Creek

Location: Maryland5) North Fork of the Flathead River

Location: Montana

6) Saluda River

Location: South Carolina

7) Laurel Hill Creek

Location: Pennsylvania

8 ) Beaver Creek

Location: Alaska

9) Pascagoula River

Location: Mississippi

10) Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway

Location: Minnesota, Wisconsin

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Florida to get first solar-powered city

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

A Florida utility and a real estate developer are aiming to bring the country’s first solar-powered city to the Sunshine State.

FPL Group Inc’s utility Florida Power & Light is working with the realty group Kitson & Partners to construct what the utility says will be the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant in a planned, environmentally friendly city near Fort Myers in southwestern Florida.Called Babcock Ranch, the city will aim to build 19,500 houses and about 6 million square feet of retail, light industrial, and office space when it is completed, the developers said.The entire project is expected to cost $2 billion.Syd Kitson, chief executive of Kitson & Partners, said Babcock, which will help create 20,000 jobs, can serve as a model for other communities throughout the nation.”Babcock Ranch will be a living laboratory for companies, workers and families ready to reap the rewards of innovation,” Kitson said at a press conference introducing the project.

A spokesman for the project said it will be the first solar-powered city because it will use only solar power during the day and produce more solar power than it needs and so will be a net exporter of solar power.In addition to having its electricity generated from solar energy, the entire city is expected to have wireless Internet access and electric-car chargers.Construction of the city center is scheduled to begin in June 2010, with the first residential and commercial buildings targeted for late 2010.

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Posted in Alternative Energy | 4 Comments

Van Allen radiation belt

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles (plasma) around Earth, held in place by Earth’s magnetic field. Earth’s geomagnetic field is not uniformly distributed around its surface. On the sun side, it is compressed because of the solar wind and on the other side, it is elongated to around three earth radii. This creates a cavity called the Chapman  Ferraro Cavity, in which the Van Allen radiation belts reside. The Va Chapman  n Allen belts are closely related to the polar aurora where particles strike the upper atmosphere and fluoresce.

Energetic electrons form two distinct radiation belts, while protons essentially form a single belt.

In addition to protons and electrons, the belts contain lesser amounts of other nuclei, such as alpha particles.

The term Van Allen belts refers specifically to the radiation belts surrounding Earth; however, similar radiation belts have been discovered around other planets. The Sun does not support long-term radiation belts. The Earth’s atmosphere limits the belts’ particles to regions above 200–1,000 km, while the belts do not extend past 7 Earth radii RE.The belts are confined to an area which extends about 65° from the celestial equator.

An upcoming NASA mission, Radiation Belt Storm Probes will go further and gain scientific understanding (to the point of predictability) of how populations of relativistic electrons and ions in space form or change in response to changes in solar activity and the solar wind.

Several NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts–funded studies are exploring whether it might be possible to use magnetic scoops to collect theantimatter that occurs naturally in the Van Allen belts of Earth, and ultimately, the belts of gas giants like Jupiter, hopefully at a lower cost per gram than laboratory production of antimatter.

Links:

Wikipedia

Radiation Belts

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