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Deployment precedes innovation

In energy efficiency circles, the story of Jan Schilham's 1997 redesign of a pumping system for a Shanghai carpet-making factory is famous. Schilham saved 92 percent of pumping energy and lowered capital costs by using a well-known principle: Pumping water slowly through fat, straight pipes reduces friction and saves energy relative to pumping the same volume quickly through narrow twisty pipes.

Why isn't it always done that way? Because the bigger pipes cost more than the energy saving. Schilham's insight was that energy is not the only payback. Fatter pipes lower the size of the pumps and motors required, so even with the additional plumbing expenses, total capital costs are lower. Energy savings in this context are free, or better than free.

In a narrow sense, this was an improvement in cost accounting, not technology. Nothing unknown or untested was deployed. No breakthrough enabled the lower costs -- they'd always been possible. Schilham simply counted a benefit that had been overlooked, demonstrating that a technique usually considered unprofitable actually saved money.

The key that allowed Schilham to exercise his genius was that Interface carpets had already decided to reduce its ecological footprint drastically. "Whether" had already been decided -- Schilham was worrying about the "how." Essentially he was in the position of someone complying with a standards-based efficiency rule.

Ditty Bops nominated for Grammy thanks to sustainable CD packaging

Remember when album art mattered? My college band, Groove or Die, had the idea of one-upping the Rolling Stones by making our album jacket out of an actual pair of pants.

That idea, like most things Groove or Die-related -- including actually recording music -- never quite made it out of the dining hall.

This trip down memory lane was brought on by the Ditty Bops, whose efforts to create an album out of recycled materials and soy-based inks earned their album Summer Rains a Grammy nomination for "Best Recording Package" (that's what they're calling album art in this post-vinyl age). As I have seen them perform wearing nothing but recycled plastic bags, in a sense they one-upped Groove or Die by wearing album material instead of making album material out of what they wear.

We need to stop blaming victims of breast cancer and start researching envirotoxicity

Having been touched by breast cancers in numerous women important to me, I've long been astounded by the extent to which discussions of the subject start by blaming women -- you picked the wrong parents, you didn't have your kids soon enough, you forgot to have kids, you ate too much, you ate the wrong things ... on and on and on.

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D, an environmentalist and brilliant poet, writes about the medical-industrial complex and its instant assumption that the genesis of cancer is in the genes in her outstanding book Living Downstream. Sadly, her message seems to have been shrugged off by industry and the agencies charged with protecting public health. The media watchdog group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has a nice new piece in the February 2009 issue (alas, not yet available online) on the media's code of silence with respect to the environmental causes of cancer.

It's worth a trip to the library or magazine stand to check it out.

Meanwhile, there's a good discussion of the topic that starts at about 18:40 in this week's "CounterSpin," the FAIR radio program.

The bottom line: environmental insults are at least as significant as the usual factors discussed around incidence of breast cancer in the US -- but are studied far less, and are almost entirely absent from the wave of feel-good pink bushwa that floods the media every year during "Breast Cancer Awareness Month."

The sterling SF Bay-area group Breast Cancer Action has been a real leader in refusing to allow industry to bury the connection between their emissions and women's breast cancers. For a good example of their work, check out this factsheet on breast cancer and the environment.

DFHs take over, threaten Big Agribusiness

"Biofuel companies are worried about the impact California's low-carbon standard could have in that state and elsewhere."

Freaking hippies. If God had meant people to use land for growing food instead of fuel for cars, he wouldn't have created lobbyists.

Movement for metro pollinators spreading

Let loose the bees! Like the surging movement for backyard chickens, bees also have urban anthropic allies, and Denver is the newest metropolis to allow beehives in town. Led by the intrepid Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) crew, bees will now be invited to pollinate mile-high metro-veggies, just like in Seattle, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.

Enjoy the ordinance's entertaining rules on how hives are to be kept at DUG's site, but consider that native bees are also to be encouraged.

Check out this article on Sacramento's Urban Bee Project, which tries to bolster biodiversity and urban pollination through the planting of vegetation favored by native bees, such as the cantankerous 'headbonker.' Me, I'd plant any damn thing if I thought something by that name might come bumbling by.

Announcing a new blog from veteran coalfield journalist Ken Ward

I dare say no one knows more about coal mining and its impact on communities, economies, industries, the environment, and the climate than Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward. He's been on the front lines for years, filing his award-winning reports from West Virginia and the coalfield region.

Now he's launched a new blog: Coal Tattoo. Bookmark it.

Here's a clip from his first post:

Save the North American biped!

Biden says U.S. is ready to reengage on climate change

Vice President Joe Biden is in Germany today for a meeting on international security issues. Climate change got a strong shout-out in his remarks. Here's the relevant section:

We also are determined to build a sustainable future for our planet. We are prepared to once again begin to lead by example. America will act aggressively against climate change and in pursuit of energy security with like-minded nations.

Our administration's economic stimulus package, for example, includes long-term investments in renewable energy. And we believe that's merely a down payment. The President has directed our Environmental Protection Agency to review how we regulate emissions, start a process to raise fuel efficiency, appoint a climate envoy -- and all in his first week in office, to demonstrate his commitment.

Source: Federal News Service

Fresh off fishery win, Oceana’s Jim Ayers talks with Grist about climate fight

Jim Ayers, the onetime top aide to former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D) and now the Pacific region leader for conservation group Oceana, draws on a deep well of both political and environmental experience. That’s a combo we like at Grist, especially in folks willing to talk shop with us. Ayers did that today, stopping […]

Friday music blogging: Dan Roberts

You know who's awesome? My little brother!

No, wait, maybe that's not the best way to start. Let's start here:

I am far, far from a jazz head. I do dabble, however, with the occasional group that has its roots in jazz but mixes in healthy doses of rock, funk, prog, or electronic dance music. Think, for example, Medeski Martin & Wood, Wayne Horvitz, The Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau, Jaga Jazzist, Marco Benevento ... that kind of stuff. (Yes, I'm aware those artists sound nothing like each other, but you know what I mean. Or maybe you don't.)

Anyway, it so happens that Washington D.C. is blessed with another hot up-and-coming jazz pianist who works in a similar genre. If you're in D.C. you may have seen him playing around in various trios, quartets, occasionally alone -- or if you happen to be active military, you may have seen him playing on USO tours in Kuwait and Iraq with Al Franken, via his job as pianist for the Army band, recently rechristened [wince] Downrange.

His name is Dan Roberts, and his new album is called Can't Not. It's rocking my world, and not just because it shares my DNA. Check it out.