Pollution news in brief
March 31, 2008
Posted in Green News
SULPHUR BUSTING FIRST – A new 5,400MW coal-fired power station planned for the Mpumalanga town of Witbank will be fitted with technology to control sulphur dioxide emissions. This will be the first time Eskom installs technology to control sulphur dioxide emission. In the past the utility only regulated dust emissions. Environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has promised that the power station would be fitted with “the most advanced air pollution abatement equipment installed at a power station in South Africa”. According to a government media release, “the technology to be installed is called flue gas desulphurisation or FGD and involves the scrubbing of sulphur dioxide gas with a sorbent (limestone) to limit the emissions of sulphur dioxide to the atmosphere. The process also removes the majority of the dust from the emissions and has added benefits such as reducing the mercury emissions from the plant.” The reason behind the new power station’s pollution control measures appears to be that it falls within the recently declared Highveld Priority Area. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has plans to do something about the poor air quality in the region.
CARBON CREDITS – Chemical group Omnia will reportedly get R60-million from the International Finance Corporation for 1-million of its carbon credits. Omnia will generate about 500,000 certified emission reduction units (CERs) from its Sasolburg plant’s nitrous oxide destruction facility. The IFC has reportedly committed to buying 50 percent of Omnia’s CERs which it will then sell globally. Richard Worthington of the South African Climate Action Network asks in a letter Business Day whether there will be a contribution to sustainable development in the Omnia deal. He says that the emission reduction will be achieved by flaring nitrous oxide, which is required by law in most industrialised countries but is not a costly exercise. (Business Day 1, 2)
BURNING ISSUE – Parliament’s environmental affairs and tourism committee has decided not to ban waste incineration outright but has opted for strict regulation, Business Day reports. Incineration is also used to dispose of hazardous waste and could be used for the co-generation of electricity. Cement producers use incinerated waste in their kilns, the repor says. But environmental NGO groundWork wants incineration banned outright. All “burn” technologies resulted in the release of dioxins and furans (cancer-causing chemicals) and also heavy metals such as mercury, it says. The NGO took the issue to the public protector saying that incineration was a violation of our constitutional right to a healthy environment. According to the new National Environmental Management Waste Bill, applications for licences to incinerate waste would have to provide the department with information about the waste to be disposed of, the existence of incinerators in the area and alternative environmentally friendly treatments. (Business Day)
Do you have to have dishwasher hands to be green?
March 27, 2008
Posted in Lifestyle
There have been ads on TV lately promoting dishwashers as more energy efficient than hand washing – I took that information with a pinch of salt, coming from the appliance manufacturers as it did. But something on the Friends of the Earth website has made me take another look at the issue.
It says that research verified by the University of Bonn puts the average household water usage at 60 litres for two or three hand washes a day, while a new dishwasher typically uses 12 litres per wash. Assuming that middle-class South Africans use about the same amount of water to wash up as Europeans. This would seem to be a significant water saving.
The environmental group does point out that
What this doesn’t take into account, however, is the total energy used to manufacture the dishwasher, the transport costs and raw materials used or hand-washing habits.
You’d need to use your dishwasher’s eco-setting, of course. And, alas, environment-friendly plant-based products to use in dishwashers just don’t seem to be available in South Africa. Perhaps this is a gap in the market someone will step in to soon, though. But just maybe you don’t need to be elbow-deep in dishwater to be green after all.
For more information about dishwashers and water usage, FOE points to Waterwise.co.uk
Really green architecture
March 23, 2008
Posted in Lifestyle
The extraordinary piece of urban architecture on the right is the Caixa Forum museum in Madrid. The building has been restored and given a two-storey addition made from rusted iron. This is juxtaposed with a stunning 24-metre-high Patrick Blanc vertical garden on one of the walls of the square in front of the building. Read more about it on TreeHugger
Ruwenzori glaciers could be gone in 30 years, says WWF
March 23, 2008
Posted in Green News
Africa is at risk of losing the glaciers that are a permanent source of water for the Nile, the WWF reports. The glaciers on the Ruwenzori Mountains have shrunk by 50 percent in the past 50 years and 75 percent in the past century, a WWF team has found. This is very bad news for the more than 2-million people who live in the area whose water supply depends on the glaciers.
The glaciers also play a vital role in providing water for the forests of the Virunga National Park – the home of rare mountain gorillas.
The Ruwenzoris straddle Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are one of only three mountains in Africa that have permanent snow – the other two are Mounts Kilimanjaro and Kenya.
“The impact of melting of glaciers was felt by the team when it discovered that the route leading from the DRC to Uganda used a glacier that no longer exists, forcing the team to open a new route” says Marc Languy, head of WWF’s Programme in the Great Lakes region.
“However, the impact is more severe on wildlife and the vegetation that can not adapt to the new condition fast enough. While it was comforting to find many signs of leopards, chimpanzees and other wildlife, one wonders how they will survive if changes continue at the present rate”.
The WWF estimates that the glaciers could completely disappear in the next 30 years.
Photograph: Glaciers on the Ruwenzori Mountains in 1952, top, and at the same spot in 2008, below.
Positive energy HQ for Gulf solar city
March 22, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
Pictured is the headquarters of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City. The building will be the world’s first large-scale positive energy building – which means it will produce more energy than it consumes – according to the architecture firm chosen to design it. The building will also be the first in history to generate the power needed to build it because its huge solar roof will be built first. The building’s features will include integrated wind turbines, one of the world’s largest building-integrated solar energy arrays, and solar thermal-driven cooling and dehumidification system. The building will also use 70 percent less water than “typical mixed-use buildings of the same size”.
Besides being the city’s HQ, the building will also accommodate private residences and businesses.
Masdar City will be constructed over seven phases and is scheduled to be complete by 2016. The headquarters should be finished by the end of 2010.
Via :: Environmental News Agency
Green tip: Keep the pressure up
March 22, 2008
Posted in Green tips, Lifestyle
We’ve mentioned before that with underinflated tyres your car use up to 4 percent more petrol. They are also less safe to drive on. But here’s a factoid from a report in the Sunday Independent that you may find interesting if you’re driving from the Highveld to the coast this Easter. Apparently tyres slowly deflate as you travel towards the coast because of the denser air pressure at the coast. So if you’re going to be driving to Durbs, keep an eye on your tyre pressure.
Phillip Hull of the Road Safety Foundation was reported as saying that 19 percent of cars randomly tested in Gauteng recently were riding on one or more tyres pumped to less than 1,8 bar. Four percent had tyres that were dangerously deflated at levels below 1,5 bar.
“The scariest part is that … many drivers still consider a kick against the tyre a sufficient safety check,” Hull said.
(Photograph: Frenkieb, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence)
Making fireworks less toxic
March 22, 2008
Posted in Green News
Fireworks displays are a popular way to celebrate, but they’re not very environmentally friendly. “When a firework is set off, it releases a whole cocktail of poisons damaging to humans and the environment: heavy metals like lead, barium and chromium, chlorates, dioxins, smoke and particulates, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen and sulfur oxides,” says a report.
But it is possible to make them much less dangerous to the environment by using nitrogen-rich compounds and other new strategies, say two European scientists. The main stumbling block to the development of more environmentally friendly pyrotechnics is price pressure, says Thomas Klapotke of the University of Munich. The new products must compete with established ones. “Lawmakers and other promoters must intercede to address this,” he says. Read more at Terra Daily
Book lovers can green up their act
March 22, 2008
Posted in Lifestyle
Every year about 20-million trees are cut down to produce the virgin paper for books sold in the United States alone, according to eco-entrepreneur Raz Godelnik. This is a sobering thought for those of us who can’t leave a bookshop empty-handed.
Godelnik and his partners have come up with a way to help book lovers reduce their environmental footprint a little. Last year they launched a company called Eco-Libris that helps people plant a tree for every book they read.
Their plan was to raise awareness to the destructive environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people with an affordable and easy way to do something about it, Godelnik said. “We strive for a world where reading books doesn’t contribute to deforestation and global warming. Planting trees is just the first step towards the day the book publishing industry will be truly sustainable.” Read more
News in brief
March 22, 2008
Posted in Green News
Elephant trouble – Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey has given his “qualified backing” for South Africa’s lifting of the ban on elephant culling. The new elephant management norms and standards were announced on February 28. He told the BBC that it was a “necessary part of elephant population management”. But he also said that South Africa had a responsibility to curb human activities that impinge on elephant habitat. Read more at BBC.
Water trouble – Many conflicts around the world erupt or are worsened by water shortages, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in an opinion piece this week. And population growth and climate change are only going to make things worse. So, we urgently need to use water more efficiently and share it more fairly . “International Alert has identified 46 countries, home to 2.7 billion people, where climate change and water-related crises create a high risk of violent conflict. A further 56 countries, representing another 1.2 billion people, are at high risk of political instability,” according to Ban. From Environment News Service
Pollution on the move – Nasa has found that about 15 percent of the pollution over the Western United States and Canada actually originates in East Asia. What’s more it moves pretty quickly – pollution from forest fires or industry in East Asia can reach the western US in about a week. But you can’t simply blame East Asia for the pollution levels, says one scientist, some of it also originates in Europe, North America and elsewhere in the world. Environment News Service
Biodiesel plan for Coega
March 17, 2008
Posted in Transport
A R1.5-billion biodiesel plant is on the cards for the Coega industrial development zone in the Eastern Cape by Rainbow Nation Renewable Fuels. The Australian-owned company is waiting to receive a licence from the department of minerals and energy to produce 288-million litres a year of biodiesel from soyabean oil, Engineering News Online reports. The plant, which will be the biggest in Africa, is expected to be commissioned in 2009, the website adds.
It will reportedly use one-million tons of soyabeans to produce 250,000 tonnes of oil and 800,000 tons of animal feed. The bulk of the soya feedstock will have to be imported because South Africa does not produce enough at the moment. But it is hoped that local production will increase to meet the demand within five years. Read more at Engineering News Online
keep looking »
