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7 billion: What to expect when you’re expanding — a special series
The population will hit 7 billion on Halloween, according to the U.N. Who knew those goons with the black helicopters had such a macabre sense of humor?
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New line of kitchen appliances will be powered by poo [APRIL FOOLS]
UPDATE: This is an April Fools' Day post, entirely made up. Your smoothies are safe.
It might be time to rethink the adage "don't sh*t where you eat." Silicon Valley-based startup Advanced Recycling Concepts (ARC) announced Thursday that it will soon be offering a new line of kitchen appliances powered by poo, following a recent trend of excrement-powered homes, gardens, and streetlights. (We sh*t you not.) The company will be introducing poop-powered blenders, mixers, coffeemakers, and food processors -- which means you might want to pay a little more attention when you whip up that morning protein shake.
Unlike with the dog-doo streetlights in Cambridge, Mass., owners of these kitchen gadgets won't have to actually handle their own crap in order to reap the electrical benefits. "Understandably there are hygiene concerns, but we want our customers to rest assured that these appliances are not only off the grid, but restaurant-grade in terms of sanitation," said the company’s chief technical officer, Glen Matlock. The idea might sound way out there, but ARC has backing from big-time venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
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Climate change linked to rising infertility [APRIL FOOLS]
UPDATE: This is an April Fools' Day post, entirely made up. To the best of our knowledge, your ovaries are blissfully unaware of climate chaos.
Mmm, nothing like some hot scrambled huevos: A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details rising infertility rates in America -- and, for the first time, cites global warming as one potential culprit. The report, released earlier this week, says that 17 percent of couples in the U.S. are experiencing difficulty bearing fruit -- a 5 percent jump from 2005. Airborne toxins and even Old Spice body wash have previously been linked to lower fertility, but climate change is a new one. The report says that rising global temperatures, and extreme temperatures in particular, seem to be affecting women's body chemistry in poorly understood ways, thus hampering their ability to conceive and carry a baby to term. It's a controversial theory sure to inspire lots more research and provoke plenty of criticism.
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Spelt linked to cancer & other health problems, even as Big Ag muscles in on market [APRIL FOOLS]
Spelt is the ultimate health food, right? Not so fast. New research links it to spleen and kidney cancers. Meanwhile, Monsanto is trying to approve Roundup Ready seeds.
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Climate Citizens
The Climate Citizens Story At Grist we have a clear bias: The science of climate change is sound and the world must act. The global community must reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases being pumped into the atmosphere, and the U.S. government must enact a comprehensive program to help achieve this […]
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A rollicking tour of America’s energy landscape
This is a dummy article pointing here: https://grist.org/article/series/2009-10-07-power-trip-a-rollicking-tour-of-americas-energy-landscape
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Meteor Blades
Dan E. Arvizu will take his seat as the eighth director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on Friday. The federally funded, privately managed lab is the premier U.S. research institution for renewable energy and also conducts research into energy efficiency. Its goal is not only to pioneer new technologies, but to get the fruit of its endeavors into the marketplace.
All I know about Mr. Arvizu is what I read in the DOE press release and what little is available about him on the Internet. He seems to have plenty of the right credentials and experience for the job. I wish him well.
But a new director won't mean more money for the laboratory, which will be operating on around $200 million again this year, about a sixth of the nation's entire renewables and efficiency budget. That's less than half the 1980 budget of NREL's predecessor, the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), where I went to work in 1978. Indeed, this year's entire R&E budget, which is poking at the $1.3 billion level, is only 40% of the R&E budget of a quarter century ago. It ought to be 400%. That would put it in the range of three months worth of what we're spending on Iraq.
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Power to the People
Earth Day 1999 — April 22 — will mark the beginning of a year-long “New Energy for a New Era” campaign leading up to Earth Day 2000. Denis Hayes, who was national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970, is leading the charge. The goal is to rally hundreds of millions to push for […]