Walter Cronkite and the Wind Farm

July 18, 2009

Walter Cronkite, the great journalist who passed away on Friday at 92, had actually been involved in some environmental controversy on Martha's Vineyard.

Curious as to where the legendary news anchor stood on the environment, I did some research and learned that after his retirement to the Vineyard, he sided with vocal opponents to a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. "It sounded like such a ghastly invasion," Cronkite told the Boston Globe in 2003. But when he began to learn more about the proposal to put 130 turbines in a shallow 24-square-mile section of the sound, he started to change his mind. "I did not do my own homework as I should have before making the statements," he confessed to the Globe.

The contentious Cape Wind Associates project, which is vying with several other proposals to become America's first offshore wind farm, would produce three quarters of the power needed for the Cape and the islands. In May the state gave it a regulatory green light but the project still needs federal approval and it faces significant legal and financial challenges. Back on land, a recent U.S. government report says that the country is a global leader in wind power investment for the fourth year in a row.

And that's the way the wind is blowing.

Photo: Walter Cronkite on Martha's Vineyard with Barbara Walters a few years after his retirement. Credit: Ronni Bennett.

Wide Angle: Dumb Appliances Get Schooled

July 08, 2009

General Electric, with help from energy management startup Tendril, just announced that it will start selling smart appliances this year. This heralds an end to paying overtime for appliances that already clocked out.

What in the name of microwave lasagna does this actually mean? It means that the world's largest company is going to make refrigerators, washers, water heaters, dishwashers, and microwaves embedded with technology that allows utility companies to communicate with them. Your refrigerator will be able to talk to a smart electric meter that's also in touch with the local utility.

To avoid brownouts, or even blackouts during peak hours, utilities will be able to ask your appliances to power down slightly or even delay a wash cycle for a little while. Mindful that this might freak some people out, the appliances have override options. According to Tendril, these demand response appliances will save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars yearly. Now if they could just build a fridge that shouts warnings about eating too much ice cream.

Photo: Prepare for cheaper electric bills. Credit: Mike DelGaudio.

And One Charger To Rule Them All

July 02, 2009

Amid all the downer news and rain lately, I spotted this bright tidbit on the New York Times site: the European Union just decided to introduce standard cell phone chargers.

In the future, micro-USB connectors are going to be it, no matter what brand cell phone Europeans buy. The European Commission came to the agreement voluntarily and secured pledges of support from ten major international retailers that sell their phones in the EU.

The New York Times points out that this could mean retailers will eventually sell chargers separately from phones to further reduce waste. The States might be a holdout on the metric system, but I imagine that those influential retailer pledges will eventually translate into a standard on this side of the pond. Before the commission made a decision, my blogosphere cousins at TreeHugger reported that voltage and battery variations remain challenges to standard-makers. Now that the standard EU chargers are scheduled to go into effect next year, perhaps making the micro-USB truly universal can't be far off.

Photo: Kiss superfluous chargers goodbye. Credit: Asim Bharwani.

Traffic Paradox Unleashed In Times Square

June 15, 2009

Recently New York drivers went a little berserk--well, more than usual--when the mayor closed parts of Times Square to traffic. Likely forever. So why did gridlock actually improve?

The answer has to do with the "Braess Paradox"--words I had never heard until an entertaining talk about the future of traffic at the World Science Festival Friday. As environmental engineering expert Anna Nagurney explained, in some cases adding capacity to a network slows it down while removing options can improve efficiency. Statistical modeling and real life examples bear it out. Recommended reading: the New York Times article "What If They Closed 42nd Street and Nobody Noticed" from 1990. Yes. 1990.

Perhaps even weirder than the paradox, imaginative designer Mitchell Joachim (or "Dr. J" as he prefers) showed the WSF audience several plans for different smart, futuristic cars. One of my favorites: the inflatable "Soft Car." I wonder if Mayor Michael Bloomberg would spring for a fleet of those?

Photo: Taking a load off in the new traffic-free Times Square. Credit: Flickr user jskrybe.

Climate Modeling Goes Off The Charts

June 13, 2009

At the World Science Festival's carbon event this week, several prominent climate experts did a mock version of the Bonn carbon talks with a little help from an MIT-developed atmospheric simulator.  

Bill McKibben and James Hansen were among the panelists discussing how screwed we are, which was reinforced by satellite images showing accelerated Arctic sea ice melt during the summers. The warming climate threatens to release tons of methane from the tundra and ocean floor. Which would be beyond bad.

At one point the experts formed teams to represent developed countries, emerging economies, and developing countries to negotiate carbon emission reductions. Climate policy guy Robert Corell plugged their numbers into C-ROADS, a predictive climate simulator. We're past 380 parts per million of global carbon now and the ideal is 350. Even aggressive mock negotiating had us at 500 ppm several decades from now. At one point C-ROADS froze, showing nothing beyond 2040. "That's when it's over," I joked, maybe a little too loudly. Kyoto probably won't be enough, based on what C-ROADS showed.

All of the experts advocated large-scale action so I asked Hansen about popular geo-engineering plans. He pointed to promising "soft" geo-engineering approaches: reforestation, improved agricultural practices, biochar (although it has its cons, he says), white-rooftop initiatives in cities, and better ways to make concrete. "That kind of geo-engineering makes sense."

Photo: One of the 6-foot cubes representing the typical American carbon emissions for 4.3 hours on display at the World Science Festival. Credit: Alyssa Danigelis.

Wide Angle: Museum Gets Rooftop Companions

May 28, 2009

This summer the Boston Museum of Science's roof is going to be a whirl of activity. Scientists will be conducting the nation's first museum-top wind experiment to determine exactly how much power small turbines can swish out.

Originally, the museum wanted to put turbines up there to power the building. But, according to the Boston Business Journal, studies in the area showed that rooftop turbines couldn't crank out enough for the giant museum. However, they would be a useful experiment for smaller buildings, since so little is known about tiny turbine potential.

The turbines will vary in height from five feet to 40 feet. Currently there are already two types on the roof's Cambridge side, and the plan is to install three more kinds on the Boston end over the summer. Visitors can learn more about the experiment's progress at an exhibit inside the building, although I imagine all those turbines would make for a sweet roof party backdrop. Hint hint.

Photo: A wind turbine in Ogden. Credit: Martin Laine.

Wide Angle: Cleaning Everest by the Kilo

May 14, 2009

Everest is the world's highest dump--any higher and you're looking at space debris. A trash-collection expedition this spring proves that unwieldy gear can be a killer.

"The garbage left behind by the earlier expedition teams is a major problem," WWF Nepal's Sanjib Chaudhary writes in an email. "All kinds of garbage including cans, LPG gas cylinders, tins, bottles, oxygen cylinders, batteries." Sadly, even the dead bodies of climbers are left behind.

Climbers shed gear to make the treacherous trek easier, but an Eco Everest Expedition team has been testing out lighter, more efficient equipment. Last year, leader Dawa Steven Sherpa successfully replaced LPG gas cylinders with a portable parabolic solar cooker and heat-retaining box. In addition, the team used a SteriPEN device to clean water with ultraviolet light and a rechargeable solar lamp for reading light.

This year's Eco Everest team is still on the mountain. They recently hit bad weather and had to descend to Base Camp, postponing their summit bid until May 18, Chaudhary reports. So far, the team has collected five tons of garbage to bring down--blowing past last year's one-ton haul. The expedition organizers will pay the Sherpas about $1 per pound of trash.

Photo: An image of Base Camp from April 2006. Credit: Flickr user Mahatma4711.

GET MORE OF THE WIDE ANGLE
Dare to go where the air is rare:

Blog: The Clean Mountain Can

Poll: Is Littering on Everest OK?

Slideshow: Mountain Rescue Technologies

Blog: Live From Everest

My Take: Active Amputees Need Better Prosthetics

Game: Experience Everest: The Razor's Edge

HowStuffWorks: 5 Amazing Rescues

Wide Angle: Inventors Wanted

April 20, 2009

This week your trusty tech team is taking on invention. From Leonardo da Vinci to modern-day master inventors, there's plenty of inspiration to go around...especially if you're thinking about the greater good.

While searching for invention engines that help turn smart ideas into reality, I came across several particularly cool catalysts:

Innocentive  Solar king Mark Bent first introduced me to this site, which takes an open-source approach to innovation. Pick a challenge, come up with a viable solution, and you could be eligible to receive financial awards up to a million dollars.

Ashoka's Changemakers  Full disclosure: I do some work for the nonprofit org Ashoka. A look at their online competitions and you'll see why. Take on some of the world's biggest problems through an open process that encourages constructive feedback from an entrepreneurial community. Even the entries that don't win can go on to succeed with outside grant money.

MIT Clean Energy Prize  It wouldn't be an invention-related list without at least one MIT entry. This annual contest is open to student teams from any university in the nation. The grand prize winner walks away with $200,000 in cash plus serious support to put the plan into practice. Speaking of MIT, a shout-out also goes to the Lemelson program for student inventors, which gets greener every year.

Intellectual Ventures  This company, founded by scientists, is based on the idea that capital + invention = awesome. Historically, inventors were off by themselves tinkering away and few made a business out of it. Intellectual Ventures sees beyond the standard product cycle. They organize sessions designed to cull the best that the brightest have to offer and then seed those ideas with investments.

What's your favorite invention engine?

Photo: Brendan Mauro.

GET MORE OF THE WIDE ANGLE
Put your thinking cap on...

News: Solar Engine Whips Waste Heat Into Power

Feature: Super Soaker Inventor Invents New Thermoelectric Generator

Top 10: Unsung Inventions

Top 10: Accidental Inventions

Slideshow: Da Vinci's Inventions

Wide Angle: Pressing the Planet Control Button

April 13, 2009

Recently Obama's scientific adviser John Holdren made the news when he talked about the possibility of taking extreme, Earth-scale measures to combat global warming. Most people who read about it kind of freaked out.

Holdren has since been working hard to make his statements sound grounded. In his defense, he's talking about a decades-old approach known as geo-engineering--using human intervention to control the planet. Admittedly, most geo-engineering plans initially come across as ill-conceived science fiction. Two leading ideas include spraying sulfur particles into the atmosphere in an attempt to reverse the global warming clock, and shooting trillions of special mirrors into space to deflect the sun. It's worth pointing out that geo-engineering research has gained support from well-respected scientists in recent years.

The numerous wild cards in geo-engineering definitely boggle the mind. There's the vast scale, the cost, the logistics, the risk. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be uniting the human race around a plan that alters the entire planet. Holdren's point, and I think it's valid, is that we could reach a desperate point in the future when geo-engineering becomes the best option for survival. Earth could become the next Mars. Better to run the numbers now, even if we want to continue hoping that they're never needed.

Photo: The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Credit: Image via the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wide Angle: One Giant Nano Family

April 02, 2009

Nanotech holds great promise for everything from cleaning water to treating cancer, but what if it ends up in my corn flakes? Coming soon: a dose of sunlight for the shiny nanotools in our scientific box.

This week, while we've been taking a closer look at this teeny tiny tech, it's clear how much we still don't know. A few months ago, Kristen Kulinowski made the case for a new, expansive wiki. The director for external affairs at Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology envisioned a website that pools collective wisdom from the people most familiar with nanomaterials. It would keep us from staying in the dark.

Now the Good Nano Guide site, coordinated by Rice's International Council on Nanotechnology, is nearing completion. Kulinowski says it should be operational in the next couple months (check GoodNanoGuide.org in a couple of days for the landing page). Scientists from around the world who handle nanomaterials will be posting best practices, forming a helpful virtual community.

At first the site will focus on occupational practices and later expand to cover manufacturing, disposal, and beyond. "One of the things we're trying to demonstrate is that there's a large international community of experts who are sharing information, identifying knowledge gaps and trying to fill them," Kulinowski says. "We're not turning a blind eye."

Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson.