Environmental

Japanese firm wants to transform the Moon into a giant solar power plant

Posted by Stephen on June 7, 2010 at 3:50 pm

(PhysOrg.com) — The Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese construction firm, has recently proposed a plan to harness solar energy on a larger scale than almost any previously proposed concept. Their ambitious plan involves building a belt of solar cells around the Moon’s 6,800-mile (11,000-kilometer) equator, converting the electricity to powerful microwaves and lasers to be beamed [...]

Oil-Eating Microbe Could Single-Handedly Clean Up BP’s Entire Oil Spill

Posted by Stephen on June 7, 2010 at 10:33 am

In short, it turns out there’s a natural oil-eating microbe that can be reproduced by scientists. It feeds on crude oil and when it runs out of oil to eat, it simply dies and is safely consumed by marine life.

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China scientists find use for cigarette butts

Posted by Stephen on May 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm

Chemical extracts from cigarette butts — so toxic they kill fish — can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found.
In a paper published in the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts [...]

Liability limits make oil spills worse

Posted by Stephen on May 10, 2010 at 3:44 pm

You’ve probably seen a lot about the big BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Libertarians are sometimes attacked for not having good answers to environmental questions. In this case, I think there are problems that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have created, and Libertarians would have handled things differently.
(If you’re not particularly interested in [...]

Zoning Laws Destroy Communities

Posted by Stephen on April 30, 2010 at 1:59 pm

Zoning laws are a violation of property rights. They destroy the sense of community in neighborhoods, increase crime, increase traffic congestion, contribute to urban and suburban air pollution, contribute to poverty, contribute to reliance in government — and, thus, reduce self-reliance — and contribute to the ruin of our schools. Most of our urban and [...]

Bicycles help green Ireland’s capital

Posted by Stephen on April 15, 2010 at 3:32 pm

DUBLIN, Ireland ― It’s not quite like Amsterdam yet, but against the odds Dublin is becoming a city of cyclists again.
A free bicycle scheme in this rainy metropolis of narrow roads, potholes and, it has to be said, bicycle thieves, has been a spectacular triumph. Indeed Dublin City Council boasts that the program is “the [...]

Earth 100 Million Years From Now

Posted by Stephen on April 9, 2010 at 12:46 pm

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In New Gas Wells, More Drilling Chemicals Remain Underground

Posted by Stephen on December 27, 2009 at 7:45 pm

Published by ProPublica
For more than a decade the energy industry has steadfastly argued before courts, Congress and the public that the federal law protecting drinking water should not be applied to hydraulic fracturing [2], the industrial process that is essential to extracting the nation’s vast natural gas reserves. In 2005 Congress, persuaded, passed a law [...]