From the category archives:

Environment

BP to stuff leaking oil well with Golf Balls

by Rod Edwards on May 14, 2010

The state of the art of engineering science may not be as state of the art as you think:

BP is preparing a “junk shot” for the end of next week that would inject tire pieces and golf balls, followed by mud and cement, to plug the leaking well. It also is drilling a relief well that could permanently plug the leak, an effort that began May 2 and will take 90 days to complete.

via BP Trying to Insert Tube Into Leaking Gulf Oil Pipe (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.

If stuffing crap down the well is all it takes to shut it down, why the fiasco with the cap that failed last week?

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Can pellet fuel make coal plants green?

by Rod Edwards on May 13, 2010

This is an article I wrote for WorldChanging Canada on a Manitoba startup that aimed to convert ag waste and landfill biomass into fuel that could replace coal. The story ends with the company being shut down, but its a fascinating tale nonetheless.

A few months ago, I sat down for coffee with Winnipeg entrepreneur and business magnate Ken Bicknell. Ken had a story to tell about pellet fuel and his own pellet fuel start up, BioCube. Pellet fuel, I thought, was a fascinating topic; the only settings I had ever seen it in were of a rustic nature—yurts, backcountry cabins, and the occasional garage workshop. With Ken’s business background, I figured he and BioCube might have an interesting take on a cottage industry—and I was not disappointed.

WorldChanging.com – Can pellet fuel make coal plants green?

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World’s most miserable-looking fish faces extinction [PIC]

May 11, 2010

These gelatinous masses may not be much to look at, but the world would be a less interesting place without them, probably, so let’s hope the Australian’s don’t kill them off. via Blobfish- world’s most miserable-looking and ugliest animal? | Metro.co.uk.

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Uber Creepy Tour: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [69 Pics]

March 24, 2010

The title says it all. After Katrina, Six Flags never reclaimed their park, which was built over a swamp to begin with. Its now been rusting and decaying for years, making it a fascinating subject for Urban explorers. Uber Creepy Tour: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [69 Pics] | Design + Ideas on WU.

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Early spring disastrous for Winter Roads; RCMP rescuing truckers from mud via helicopter

March 19, 2010

Manitoba’s cloying clay mud is as malevolent a force as nature has been able to come up with, as many truckers are apparently discovering with the early disintegration of Manitoba’s northern Winter Road system. At least the bugs aren’t out yet to torment the stranded truckers… Wrong Lake is part of the province’s 2,200-kilometre winter [...]

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Red Menace: Ug99 Fungus is Going to Destroy the World’s Grain

March 15, 2010

Indeed, 90 percent of the world’s wheat has little or no protection against the Ug99 race of P. graminis. If nothing is done to slow the pathogen, famines could soon become the norm — from the Red Sea to the Mongolian steppe — as Ug99 annihilates a crop that provides a third of our calories. [...]

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Obama announces Nuclear Loans

February 16, 2010

Looks like the US is putting rubber on the road in regards to the greening of its energy grid. Of course, some would argue that nuclear is the farthest from green that one can get; Personally, I side with the nuclear crowd, and place my faith in new technologies like molten salt thorium reactors to [...]

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India & China don’t care about climate change? Here’s why.

August 4, 2009

“…try naming a U.S. city whose air quality is even remotely as bad as Beijing’s, or an American river as polluted as the Han: You can’t. America, the richer and more industrialized country, is also by far the cleaner one. People who live in Third-World countries—like Mexico, where I grew up—tend to understand this, even [...]

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Small Government vs. Smart Government: The New Conservatism

July 10, 2009

In a comment I made on yesterday’s “Banning Bottled Water” post, CWTF challenged my thinking on the Nanny State aspects of policy of this nature. In responding, I was finally able to elucidate why I think policy like banning bottled water is inherently conservative: I see something like banning bottled water as “conservative” because it [...]

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Banning Bottled Water: Bundanoon leads the way

July 9, 2009

The small town of Bundanoon, Australia, has set a great policy precedent, banning bottled water within the town. Its not just the policy that’s great, but the way it was made – with the input of local residents and businesses – and they way in which the polic is being integrated at a municipal level [...]

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