Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 02/02/2007
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library, reporting a selection of recently published titles we have acquired. Our pledge is to keep the bulletin relevant to your work and brief -- no more than 10 titles. You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here.
Titles here, abstracts below them:
- Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Summary for Policymakers
- Energy [R]evolution: A Blueprint for Solving Global Warming
- Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies
- Green chemistry and the biorefinery: a partnership for a sustainable future
- Cruise Line Utilizes Wetcleaning
- Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation
- Going Green: Pushed by Wal-Mart, legislators, and the public, the cleaning products industry embraces sustainability
- Nano-titanate
- The Materiality Report: Aligning Strategy, Performance and Reporting
- Aquatic Non-Scents: Repercussions of Water Pollutants
That Mute Smell
1. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Summary for Policymakers
DATE 2007
SOURCE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
ABSTRACT The first major global assessment of climate
change science in six years has concluded that changes in the atmosphere, the
oceans and glaciers and ice caps show unequivocally that the world is warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that major
advances in climate modelling and the collection and analysis of data now give
scientists “very high confidence” (at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being
correct) in their understanding of how human activities are causing the world
to warm. This level of confidence is much greater than what could be achieved in
2001 when the IPCC issued its last major report. This report, the first of four
volumes to be released this year by the IPCC, also confirms that the marked
increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) since 1750 is the result of human
activities. An even greater degree of warming would likely have occurred if
emissions of pollution particles and other aerosols had not offset some of the
impact of greenhouse gases, mainly by reflecting sunlight back out to space.
Three years in the making, the report is based on a thorough review of the
most-up-to-date, peer-reviewed scientific literature available worldwide. It
describes an accelerating transition to a warmer world marked by more extreme
temperatures including heat waves, new wind patterns, worsening drought in some
regions, heavier precipitation in others, melting glaciers and Arctic ice and
rising global average sea levels. For the first time, the report provides
evidence that the ice sheets of Antarctica and
WEB LINK
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/docs/
WG1AR4_SPM_PlenaryApproved.pdf
2. Energy [R]evolution: A Blueprint for Solving Global Warming
AUTHOR Teske, Sven; Zervos, Arthouros; Schafer, Oliver
DATE 2007
SOURCE European Renewable Energy Council (EREC); Greenpeace International
ABSTRACT The good news first. Renewable energy, combined
with the smart use of energy, can deliver half of the world’s energy needs by
2050.This new report, ‘Energy [R]evolution: A sustainable World Energy
Outlook’, shows that it is economically feasible to cut global CO2 emissions by
almost 50% within the next 43 years. It also concludes that a massive uptake of
renewable energy sources is technically possible. All that is missing is the
right policy support. The bad news is that time is running out. An overwhelming
consensus of scientific opinion now agrees that climate change is happening, is
caused in large part by human activities (such as burning fossil fuels), and if
left un-checked, will have disastrous consequences. Furthermore, there is solid
scientific evidence that we should act now. This is reflected in the
conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN
institution of more than 1,000 scientists providing advice to policy makers.
Its next report, due for release in 2007, is unlikely to make any better
reading. In response to this threat, the Kyoto Protocol has committed its
signatories to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% from their 1990
level by the target period of 2008-2012.This in turn has resulted in the
adoption of a series of regional and national reduction targets. In the
European Union, for instance, the commitment is to an overall reduction of 8%.
In order to reach this target, the EU has also agreed to increase its
proportion of renewable energy from 6% to 12% by 2010. The
WEB LINK http://www.energyblueprint.info/
3. Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies
AUTHOR Pacala, S.; Socolow, R.
SOURCE Science, v305, 13 August 2004, pp968-972
ABSTRACT Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century. A portfolio of technologies now exists to meet the world's energy needs over the next 50 years and limit atmospheric CO2 to a trajectory that avoids a doubling of the preindustrial concentration. Every element in this portfolio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale. Although no element is a credible candidate for doing the entire job (or even half the job) by itself, the portfolio as a whole is large enough that not every element has to be used.
WEB LINK
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/
305/5686/968?ijkey=K6cRPbiYRFwus&keytype=ref&siteid=sci
4. Green chemistry and the biorefinery: a partnership for a sustainable future
AUTHOR Clark, James H.; Budarin, Vitaly; Deswarte, Fabian E.I.; et al.
SOURCE Green Chemistry, v8 n10, October 2006, pp853-860
ABSTRACT Research into renewable bioresources is demonstrating that by applying green
chemical technologies to the transformation of typically low value and widely
available biomass feedstocks, including wastes, we can build up new
environmentally compatible and sustainable chemicals and materials industries
for the 21st century. Current research includes the benign extraction of
valuable secondary metabolites from agricultural co-products and other low
value biomass, the conversion of nature’s primary metabolites into specialty
materials and into bioplatform molecules, as well as the green chemical
transformations of those platform molecules. Key drivers for the adoption of
biorefinery technologies will come from all stages in the chemical product
lifecycle (reducing the use of non-renewable fossil resources, cleaner and
safer chemical manufacturing, and legislative and consumer requirements for
products), but also from the renewable energy industries (adding value to
biofuels through the utilisation of the chemical value of by-products) and the
food industries (realising the potential chemical value of wastes at all stages
in the food product lifecycle).
5. Cruise Line Utilizes Wetcleaning
SOURCE Drycleaners News, v56 n2, February 2007, p4
ABSTRACT Seattle-headquartered Holland America Line (HAL) has converted its drycleaning services to using a nontoxic wetcleaning alternatives on the MS Volendam and MS Zaandam cruise ships. Seven HAL ships now use wetcleaning for passengers and crew, instead of using perchloroethylene (perc), the company says. Because of these recent conversions, an additional 15,000 to 20,000 people are being served by environmentally safer garment-cleaning methods. The replacement is due to an alliance between Princeton NJ-headquartered Miele and Winning Brands Corp., the manufacturer of the cleaning agents.
6. Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation
AUTHOR Pear, Robert
SOURCE The New York Times, January 30, 2007
ABSTRACT President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities. This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats. The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
WEB LINK
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/washington/
30rules.html
7. Going Green: Pushed by Wal-Mart, legislators, and the public, the cleaning products industry embraces sustainability
AUTHOR McCoy, Michael
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News, v85 n5, January 29, 2007, pp13-19
ABSTRACT One would not expect a Procter & Gamble
laundry detergent to share advertising space in the New York Times Magazine
with expensive watches and designer clothing. But this is not just any
detergent; it's an environmentally friendly one. Over the past year, the
environmental impact of consumer products has gone from being a fringe issue
raised mainly by activist groups to a mainstream concern confronted by P&G,
Wal-Mart Stores, General Electric, and other marquee names of corporate
WEB LINK
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/85/8505cover.html
8. Nano-titanate
SOURCE Advanced Materials & Processes, v164 n11, November 2006, pp14-15
ABSTRACT Alcoa's AFL Automotive business and Altair
Nanotechnologies Inc. have signed an agreement to develop a battery pack system
for medium duty hybrid trucks. The collaboration brings together AltairNano's
nano-titanate battery technology and AFL Automotive's expertise in vehicle
electrical distribution systems and power management electronics. In AltairNano's
rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the graphite negative electrode is replaced
with an electrode in which titanate nanoparticles are up to 100 times smaller
than a typical graphite particle. This increases the surface area available for
reaction, and also greatly reduces the distance a lithium atom must travel to
be released from the particle. As a result, the batteries deliver power per
unit weight and unit volume several times that of conventional lithium-ion
batteries. These properties also mean that even at very cold temperatures, a
nano-titanate battery will produce high power.
9. The Materiality Report: Aligning Strategy, Performance and Reporting
AUTHOR Forstater, Maya; Zadek, Simon; Evans, Deborah; Knight, Alan; Sillanpaa, Maria; Tuppen, Chris; Warris, Anne-Marie
DATE 2006
SOURCE AccountAbility; BT Group; Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA)
ABSTRACT The challenge of sustainable development requires business to shift from viewing it as a matter of compliance to one of value generation. To achieve this, businesses will need to align their strategies and performance management to emerging social and environmental constraints and opportunities. The most important contribution of businesses to social and environmental challenges will be in what they do in achieving success rather than what they avoid doing. Businesses need to work out what is material, and articulate this in credible ways in order to drive learning and innovation. Most businesses, and their investors, however, remain unclear as to which issues might turn out to be critical to long-term success. Today’s practices for determining financial materiality only capture information relevant to short-term performance and risks. Leading businesses have begun to develop robust yet practical approaches for determining materiality in the context of sustainability reporting. The emerging common approach is based on a combination of stakeholder engagement, understanding of environmental limits and strategic alignment. It has made the process, assumptions and evidence base for identifying material issues more transparent, credible and amenable to both debate and assurance. A generally applicable Materiality Framework has now been developed which can be used by others businesses to help align their strategy to emerging social and environmental constraints and opportunities. While businesses can initially use the Materiality Framework to help rationalise external communications, it has the power to close the loop between reporting and stakeholder engagement on one side and strategy development and performance management on the other. Approaches to materiality will need to evolve as their application is stretched beyond sustainability reporting to mainstream accounting and reporting, strategy development and performance management. Widening the focus of materiality is the means by which the basis of mainstream financial assurance and reporting can absorb, or be absorbed into, the sustainability agenda.
WEB LINK http://www.accountability21.net/aa1000/
default.asp?pageid=321
10. Aquatic Non-Scents: Repercussions of Water Pollutants That Mute Smell
AUTHOR Raloff, Janet
SOURCE Science News Online, v171, n4, January 27, 2007
ABSTRACT People complain about the way that fish smell. But it's the fish that should be doing the grumbling. In pristine waters, the animals smell quite well, thank you. Those tiny holes near fishes' mouths are, in fact, nostrils through which the animals draw in water to pump over olfactory nerves. By distinguishing scents, fish find food and mates and avoid predators. These rainbow trout and some other aquatic creatures can temporarily lose their sense of smell—and ability to detect mates, food, and predators—when exposed to any of several common water pollutants. Studies decades ago, for instance, showed that mechanically plugging the nostrils of adult salmon prevented them from locating their natal streams when they attempted to return home to spawn. The fish as juveniles had recorded memories of smells as they went to sea. Without detecting the olfactory signposts, the fish couldn't retrace their routes, says Nathaniel L. Scholz, a zoologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. In a series of studies over the past 6 years, his group has demonstrated that metals and pesticides—at concentrations commonly found in streams—can impair a salmon's sense of smell just as effectively as plugging the nostrils did. Meanwhile, other scientists have shown that such pollutants block the sense of smell in other organisms. "What we're finding," says Scholz, is that "even short-term exposure to many of these pollutants—on the order of hours—can interfere with olfaction." Researchers have reported that the impairment can disrupt the animals' normal behaviors in several ways. Fish use their keen sense of smell not only to navigate dark and cloudy waters but also to nose out scents indicating danger, such as chemicals from a predators' skin.
WEB LINK http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070127/bob10.asp
You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of these resources. Also, please tell us what topics you are particularly interested in monitoring, and who else should see GREENLIST. An online search of the TURI Library catalog can be done at http://greenlist.turi.org/ for greater topic coverage.
Compiled by the TURI Library, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 2007
This page updated Friday February 16 2007