Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED LightingGreen Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting

From the NY Times

Jeffrey Sauger for The New York Times

LED streetlights in Ann Arbor, Mich., are expected to cut maintenance and electricity costs.

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: May 29, 2009

To change the bulbs in the 60-foot-high ceiling lights of Buckingham Palace’s grand stairwell, workers had to erect scaffolding and cover precious portraits of royal forebears.

This is the second in a series of articles about stopgap measures that could limit global warming. Future articles will address appliance-efficiency standards, transportation, reducing global-warming gases other than carbon dioxide and other efforts.

So when a lighting designer two years ago proposed installing light emitting diodes or LEDs, an emerging lighting technology, the royal family readily assented. The new lights, the designer said, would last more than 22 years and enormously reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions — a big plus for Prince Charles, an ardent environmentalist. Since then, the palace has installed the lighting in chandeliers and on the exterior, where illuminating the entire facade uses less electricity than running an electric teakettle.

In shifting to LED lighting, the palace is part of a small but fast-growing trend that is redefining the century-old conception of lighting, replacing energy-wasting disposable bulbs with efficient fixtures that are often semi-permanent, like those used in plumbing.

Full article

Concerns Grow Over Sugar Maples in Midst of Global Warming

Some see the magnificent Sugar Maple as New England's version of the canary in the mineshaft of global warming.

A growing number of scientists, lay people, and those who's vocations and avocations regularly bring them into contact with Sugar Maples are expressing alarm over the potential economic and environmental impact of a changing climate on the species and the New England region.

"At first blush," says Wayne King, an environmental consultant and owner of Moosewood Communications, " few people have an appreciation for how broadly the Sugar Maple is linked to the New England economy and the New England psyche. But if you stop and think about it for just a moment, you will see why it is so. The Sugar Maple is deeply ingrained in us, from the stunning colors of autumn to the warmth of a woodstove and the sweet euphoria of real maple syrup on warm pancakes."

"What creates concern among those of us who understand the nexus of cultural, scientific and economic factors associated with sugar maples," King continues, " is that the species seems to be particularly sensitive to climate changes. "

An exquisitely sensitive tree, the sugar maple has a wide variety of residents, ecologists and scientists worried about how it will fare if Northeast temperatures rise as projected during the next century of climate change.


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Links:

Join the Google Sugar Maple Group. Post your thoughts, links, ideas and read those of other interested in the magnificent Sugar Maple.

NH Public Radio
In New England, Concern Grows for Sugar Maple by Ketzel Levine

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Guardian of the Lupine

Floodplain Forests - Protecting a Unique NH Biosystem

Langdon Park - Plymouth, NH one of NH's finest examples of a floodplain forest where environmental and community interests blend to protect a beautiful forest and to provide for the recreational needs of the community.
Image: Wayne D. King

Floodplain forests - once abundant along river corridors - now account for less than two percent of New Hampshire. The Nature Conservancy and the US Army Corps of Engineers have announced that they will be conducting a study of these unique forests to learn how to protect them while still safeguarding cities and towns from floods.

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Listen to a radio piece from NH Public Radio
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Floodplain Forests represent a very unique ecological niche in New Hampshire. The mix of species varies in different regions of the state but all share some unique characteristics associated with the flooding, scouring and draining that takes place every year in them.

In the central NH area they are represented by canopies of large trees, often silver maples which are rarely found anywhere else in the hardwood forests of the region. Huge ostrich ferns, sensitive ferns and interrupted ferns creating a lush carpet along the forest floor, interspersed with streams, oxbows, and wallows.

According to Kimberly Lutz, director of The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut River Program, "Floodplain forests are an important biological community and we know very little about them.

We know that dams and other alterations of river flow can harm floodplain forests. We know that they are threatened by conversion to development and agriculture. And we know that floodplain forests can actually help alleviate floods' damaging effects on communities by holding high water and easing the impact of flooding."

But we know little about their dynamics -- like the volume, duration and timing of high-water events that enables them to survive. There have been studies of trees and other plant life in floodplain forests. And there have been other studies of elevational profiles and flow modeling. But there have been no studies that combine the two in a comprehensive way.

That's where the Nature Conservancy's study comes in. Over the next two years Christian Marks of the Conservancy and his crew will be lead an ambitious field study of floodplain forests throughout the entire Connecticut River watershed, looking at the effects of flow and elevation on trees and other flora.





Links

A Question of Flow for Floodplain Forests
Framed by enormous, towering silver maples, Christian Marks walks waist-deep in ferns, spreading out a foot of yellow measuring tape with each step
The Nature Conservancy's Floodplain Forest Project

The Sustainable Rivers Project -- A partnership of The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Partnership in Action

The future of many American rivers rests with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, empowered by Congress to manage the nation’s waterways. As the largest water manager and hydropower producer in the United States, the Corps owns more than 600 dams, controls levees and administers river locks that allow for navigation, making it an essential partner in the Conservancy's goal to achieve lasting river conservation in the United States.

In 2002, the Conservancy and the Corps launched a historic partnership to find new ways of conserving and protecting freshwater habitats while meeting human needs for water. Named the Sustainable Rivers Project, it is an important example of the Conservancy’s freshwater conservation work. Sustainable Rivers promotes innovative water management practices through work at demonstration sites, staff exchanges and software development. A focal challenge in the partnership is finding ways to manage floods so that key ecological processes, such as fish spawning and forest regeneration, can persist, while human settlements are protected.

Video

A Natural Focus: Floodplain
www.howstuffworks.com

The richest, deepest soils of the Holyoke Range are found by the riverside. To thrive here, plants must be able to withstand frequent flooding.

videos.howstuffworks.com

Fawn Among the Ferns

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Maintaining Perspective on the Pandemic

President Obama stated that we are "concerned but not alarmed" over the developments regarding the flu pandemic. The president is calm by nature, of course, but his demeanor on this front is particularly important in order to make sure that what is a source of concern does not become an unnecessary and calamitous amendment to the economic maelstrom in which we already find ourselves.

Panic and political opportunism both threaten to exacerbate the current international economic crisis. In order for cooler heads to prevail lets all agree to help tamp down the fear by using a few of these important facts to add some perspective to discussions that we are part of over the next few months.

1. A Pandemic is a world wide epidemic. We have an annual pandemic of the flu EVERY SINGLE YEAR. The question is always how serious is the pandemic NOT whether there is one.

2. The recent name change from Swine Flu to H1N1 Virus reflects the fact that we still do not know the actual origins of the flu but we know that it is genetically composed of viruses from past flu viruses including swine flue, avian (Bird) flu, SARS and possibly some others. In any case it is not spread by eating meat of ANY Variety. Calling it a swine flu has already had a serious detrimetal effect on pork producers, who have seen orders for their product plummet.
Additionally, always looking for a way to take advantage of an international crisis to violate world trade agreements and enhance their cash flow, countries like Russia are making a cynical play to close their borders to the importation of pork and in some cases other meats.

3. On any given year more than 36,000 people die from complications of the Flu in the US alone. So far, deaths from the H1N1 Virus are fewer than 300 in Mexico where it is believed to have started.

Before its all over, it could get much worse and there is no doubt that we should continue to operate as members of the Obama adminstration have said "with an abundance of caution",

Useful links:

Mapping the outbreak
Virus is 'a mild strain'
Your questions answered
Q&A: Advice about swine flu


Pelican Puppet


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