You are currently browsing the CNY ecoBlog weblog archives for May, 2006.
I’ve always been fascinated by crow intelligence and at the same time amazed how few people recognize this intelligence especially since, according to some cognitive research, theirs exceeds that of dogs. This video lecture from a writer Joshua Klein, who has been involved with an amateur study of corvid behavior, highlights this.
Of course [...]
More Web Sightings hereBisphenol A or BPA is an important industrial chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. The plastics industry maintains that BPA is completely safe. But academic and government researchers say the chemical needs to undergo a new risk assessment.
...Read MorePercholorethylene, commonly known as perc, is used by about 80 percent of U.S. dry cleaners to remove stains and clean clothes.
When first introduced to dry cleaners in the 1930s, little was known about its health effects, and it was considered something of a miracle chemical because it could be aggressive on stains, but was not [...]
...Read MoreThe principle of maximum diversity operates both at the physical and at the mental level. It says that the laws of nature and the initial conditions are such as to make the universe as interesting as possible. As a result, life is possible but not too easy. Always when things are dull, something [...]
For the record…The Economist offers its 800 word assessment of Destiny USA - Saving upstate New York. May 4th 2006. From The Economist print edition:
About 250 miles north-west of New York City, in the heart of New York state, lies the city of Syracuse. Like the rest of upstate New York, Syracuse has been the [...]
A collection of articles on green business practice and theory can now be found in a special business section of The New York Times, The Business of Green. The topics range from urban renewal, wind power, green business partnerships, and green marketing, just to name a few.
Using satellite data, aerial photography and other GIS technologies researchers from the University of Toronto analyzed the phenomena of sprawl at a continental scale. This research was reported earlier this month at Terradaily.com.
Though urban sprawl is widely regarded as an important environmental and social problem, according to the authors, much of the [...]
ESF hosted the NPR program Science Friday yesterday. The first segment discussed alternative energy in upstate New York and the second focused on the decline of Upstate, Green Urban Renewal and Destiny. If you missed the program you can listen to the broadcasts on the NPR website: renewable energy and Mega Mall. [...]
All Things Buffalo points us to a new, “must-read” book chronicling the decline of Buffalo: Power Failure: Politics, Patronage, And the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York. From the description it sounds like this book raises issues confronting many cities and communities in Upstate New York – not just Buffalo. From Publisher’s Weekly:
Buffalo [...]
A coal-burning power plant in Solvay now ranks among the dirtiest in the state after a surge in air pollution coming from its smokestack, federal records show.
Trigen-Syracuse Energy Corp. polluted the air with more than 763,000 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2004, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year and up 72 percent [...]
No surprise here, but there’s positive First Quarter indications for Wind Energy industry. This is from a May 3rd American Wind Energy Association Press Release:
The U.S. wind energy industry is on track to installing a record-breaking 3,000 megawatts (MW) this year—generating enough electricity to power approximately 600,000 homes—the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said [...]
Dryden Democrats has a post on the Natural Feature Focus Areas in the Dryden Township. Included are a number of PDF documents that show the areas and summarize their significance.
This got me browsing the Tompkins County Planning department website and the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan which is on line.
The document is broken up into [...]
From USA Today:A three-year study of brook trout populations concludes that the popular sport fish has disappeared or markedly declined in nearly half of the eastern U.S. areas where it once thrived…
“Brook trout are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to water quality,” said Gary Berti of Trout Unlimited in a statement. [...]
Speaking of pesticides, here’s some science news from ES&T Online. A paper published in Pharmacogenetics and Genomics (2006, 16, 183–190) finds that the exposure risk from organophosphates to infants and small children may be significantly higher than previously thought. More here.
CNY ecoBlog is proudly powered by
WordPress
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).