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  • Japan Nuclear meltdown is far worse… Maybe worst industrial accident ever!

    The Japanese reactors are far worse than they are telling us. It might take 100 years to clean it up, if/when they get the reactors under control.
    CNN news on this issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXwI0HM9BYM (~5min)

    Decontamination processing is ongoing: http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20110624_7822.php

    In the meanwhile nuclear waste going to Yucca Mountain is not an option. So we continue to have no energy policy related to US nuclear power (and the nuclear waste).

    “For nearly thirty years, NRC waste-storage requirements have remained contingent on the opening of a permanent waste repository that has yet to materialize. Now that the Obama administration has canceled plans to build a permanent deep-disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, spent fuel at the nation’s 104 reactors will continue to accumulate and is likely remain onsite for decades to come…
    With a price tag of as much as $7 billion, the cost of fixing America’s nuclear vulnerabilities may sound high, especially given the heated budget debate occurring in Washington. But the price of doing too little is incalculable.” by Robert Alvarez in The Nation, June 20, 2011.

  • USF is ranked #9 in Patents/Innovation.

    USF is ranked way up there with the BIG research universities. The only one from Florida in the top 14.
    http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?a=3509&z=158
    Pretty cool.

  • The ugly truth about our trade deficit with China.:-(

    The China Question premiers on CNBC on Friday night, June 3rd at 8pm.

    This looks like it is going to be the story that I’ve been looking for years. The symbiotic relationship that we have with trade-deficit to China. 

    They subsidize our spending habits (US & EU) with their artificially cheap currency. Then with the $ dollars and Euros from their trade surpluses,  they buy stuff. They buy our Treasuries to keep our Federal Debt a float. They have a high savings rate, where we have a fractional private savings rate (deficit for government, of course). They keep their currency artificially low so they can continue to export. Literally they are paying us to buy their products of toys and such. But that relationship cannot, and will not, last forever. The relationship is NOT sustainable.
    Both a trade deficit and a federal deficit are automatically “fixed” over time by the devaluation of the currency.

    Let’s see what the show has to offer.

  • World Water Day Past… Earth Day Coming…

    Earth Day 2011 is Coming Next Week!!!
    Earth Day is on Friday 22nd this year (that’s Good Friday).

    BUT, this newsletter is actually devoted to water…

    World Water Day

    World Water Day flooded past us Tuesday March 22 without most of us hearing a drop about it.!:-(

    The 41st World Water Day (March 22, 2011): UN World Water Day.
    A Prayer for Japan

    As we give thanks for water and all it does to sustain our lives and wellbeing, let’s pause to give respect and prayer to the people of Japan who have been so devastated by the March 11 earthquake and the massive tsunami wall-of-water that fell upon them a month ago…

    Our prayers go out to Japan and to the heroic people working to get cooling water on run-away nuclear reactors… (The role that water plays in the making of energy is another story.)
    The Worst Case, Could be a Lot Worse
    As bad as it is, and nuclear reactor issues aside, it could have been worse. Imagine if this earthquake had been on the other side of Japan? Actually between Japan and Asia?! The tsunami in 2004 killed almost 10 times as many people (230,000+) in several Asian countries.
    Water, Water, Everywhere…
    Water, so critical to life can be devastating in its absence. It can be devastating in abundance. Australia, plagued with decades of drought, finally got rain: it had an area flooded the size of Germany and France combined! This was followed in February with Cyclone Yasi in the northeast. (A cyclone is the Pacific version of a hurricane… and, yes, they went through the alphabet to get to Y.) We know a lot about hurricanes for two years starting in 2004 giving us in Florida 3 or 4 per year including Katrina that also hit New Orleans.
    But the quiet pain associated with water is very easily preventable with very little money. More than 1 billion of our world’s 6.9B population have inadequate drinking water with an additional 1B having inadequate sanitation. The result is that more than 3.5 million people die each year because of easily preventable water-related diseases (World Health Organization). Approximately half of the world’s hospital beds are taken by water and hygiene-related diseases (http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/).
    World Water Day
    World Water Day was initiated to try to solve health and wellness problems around the world where people have poor water and sanitation. The UN has a 10 year program to attempt to overcome the pain and death associated with inadequate water by 2015. Progress has been made, but it is slow.
    WATER STATS: Most of the earth’s surface (70%+) is water. Yet only about 2.5% is freshwater. (The salt in oceans and some lakes make it unusable for drinking, agriculture, etc. without expensive desalinization processing.) Of the world’s freshwater 68.7% is in ice caps and glaciers, 30.1% is underground, ~1% is other, and barely 0.3% is fresh surface water! That’s about 0.009% of our total is fresh surface water. Freshwater is lakes (87%), swamps (11%) and rivers (2%). So as we divert and consume the fresh water available to us – taking from rivers and aquifers – the impacts become ever greater as rivers dry and ancient aquifers are depleted.
    This year the theme is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. Cities everywhere are running out of fresh water.
    The Water Bubble and Water Wars
    The water bubble may be coming faster than we originally thought… Water sources, especially the invisible underwater aquifers are being depleted. This will show in increased prices for water, water shortages and food shortages/prices (Marks, 2009). “We’re fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute” (George, 2011). Our own Ogallala Aquifer in the high plans of the US (underground aquifer from Texas through Wyoming) will be depleted in about 25 years. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer.).
    Water wars and water conflicts are expected to increase dramatically. Counties (and states) that are at the headwaters of rivers can take all the water and leave nothing for the cities, farmers and fishermen below. Worst case, and a horrible example, is the Aral Sea. What used to be the world’s 4th largest lake is now mostly dry, highly salty and toxically polluted. Russia has been consuming the water that would have run downstream (and through) the former USSR state of Kazakhstan. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea and the following news video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8b0svfuO_k at Russia Today.)
    The truth of the matter is… that water matters! …
    Even in Florida where we are surrounded by H2O.
    What can we do?
    Basically, we need to become more informed about the sustainability impact of all we say and do. We need to become more informed consumers of water. Maybe compute our water footprint.
    1) Compute your water footprint (and take actions to reduce it):
      a. H2O Footprint: (Water footprint calculator.)
      b. Facts at National Geographic

      c. Water footprint of food, products, etc.: http://www.waterfootprint.org/

    2) The average American uses 1,800 to 2,000 gallons per day, more than twice the global average.
    3) For Florida-centric details & water-saving tips, please visit: www.WaterMatters.org and www.savewaterfl.com.
    4) References and links below.
    Thanks for listening, reading, and thinking about sustainability.

    Let’s be good stewards of our God-given resources.
    Some References
    George, L. (2011, Feb. 2) Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst . New Scientist. Retrieved from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927986.400-earth-economist-the-food-bubble-is-about-to-burst.html

    Marks, S. J. (2009). Aqua shock: The water crisis in America. NY, NY: Bloomberg Press.
    Some Links:

      http://www.unwater.org/

  • US’s looming Federal Debt crisis as described by Dave Cote of Honeywell.

    US’s looming Federal Debt crisis has to be addressed, and soon. Maybe not before the end of this week when the Federal government might shut down without a 2011 budget allocation. But soon.

    Check out this video for the Committee for Economic Development: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1DKIg2CcLk  (5min)

    Or we can delay and let the debt market and the IMF help use with austerity decision.

    My favorite, always is the national debt clock: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

    Any comments on its accuracy are welcome. Seem pretty accurate though. When the Federal government has already spent all the money it gathered for Social Security and Medicare and the Baby Boomers all start to retire and start to require that money… It’s gonna get ugly. Very ugly:-(

    The question is how soon and how quickly we can start to dig ourselves out the hole we’re in. Cote suggests both tax increases and spending cuts. For sure we have to get the 10% growth rate per year in SS & Medical expenses under central. But ever since “W” Bush we have cut taxes and increased spending. That was before we got into a recession and decided to stimulus-spend our way out of it… Only at the Federal government can that make any sense.