The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. -- attributed to Dante
Governors unite for high-speed rail
Owners - It's Time to Substantially Increase Your Architect's and Engineer's Fees - BIM
BIM & Residential Design
BIM & Landscape Design
BIM & Commercial Design
Engineering a BIMStorm
Study: We've Locked in Half the Consequences of Global Warming
What's the premium for a green building?
Consumption Dwarfs Population
A cure for honey bee colony collapse?
World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree
The Dire Fate of Forests in a Warmer World
Global Warming: Heat Could Kill Drought-stressed Trees Fast
Upcoming Events Featuring Earth Policy Institute
Climate Change And Atmospheric Circulation Will Make For Uneven Ozone Recovery
Blue Dog Democrats growling at climate-change plan
Dates Announced for LEED v.3 Launch, LEED AP Exams
Green Roof Professional Accreditation to Launch in June
AP IMPACT: Chinese drywall poses potential risks
US official says wind could replace coal for power
Warren Buffett's Chinese Electric Car Company
Hemp Could Be Key To Zero-carbon Houses
Governors unite for high-speed rail
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, seven other governors of Midwestern states and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley have joined in bipartisan support of a high-speed rail network that would link cities around the region. Milwaukee would be connected to Madison and Chicago as part of the first phase of the system.
"President Obama's vision of making high-speed rail a part of our nation's future transportation network holds great promise," Doyle and co-signers wrote in a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "We recognize that a high-speed rail network has the potential to reduce highway and airway congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and the nation's dependence on foreign oil."
Governors Pat Quinn of Illinois, Jay Nixon of Missouri, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Chet Culver of Iowa, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Ted Strickland of Ohio and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota were co-signers of the letter.
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Owners - It's Time to Substantially Increase Your Architect's and Engineer's Fees - BIM
Overview
BIM has been sold as a tool for increasing the architects and engineers efficiency. Last year at a conference an architect gave an example of two very similar projects; one done with CAD by a team that was familiar with CAD and the building type. The other project was done by a team unfamiliar with the building type and also new to BIM. At the end of the projects the firm analyzed the time taken by both of the teams and found that the BIM team had completed their project 20% faster. This was really quite amazing considering that the BIM team had to both learn about BIM and the idiosyncrasies of the new project type.
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BIM & Residential Design
April 23, 2009 | 12:00PM - 1:30 PM | Pacific Time
Location: Online
Description:
This webinar will review how to use BIM tools on a residential project for design and construction documents. We will review tools for creating framing, roof design including gutters and skylights, trim details, wall assemblies and profiles as well as construction documentation including window and door schedules.
To register & for more information, please visit:
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BIM & Landscape Design
April 28, 2009 | 12:00PM - 1:30 PM | Pacific Time
Location: Online
Description:
In this webinar we will review how to utilize Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools for Landscape Design including plant design and scheduling, creating a site terrain model, modeling site components such as retaining walls, lattice, deck structures, patio stone work and outdoor furniture. In addition, we will demonstrate how this technology is used for early design activities such as schematic space planning and master scheduling; how to design with materials and finishes in the 3D model; how to create a detailed model for quantification and costing; and finally how to produce a well-coordinated documentation set.
To register & for more information, please visit:
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BIM & Commercial Design
May 20, 2009 | 12:00PM - 1:30 PM | Pacific Time
Location: Online
Description:
This webinar will review how to use BIM tools on a commercial project for design and construction documents. We will review tools for creating curtain wall designs, multi-story structures, hotlinks, consultant coordination including AutoCAD connectivity, wall assemblies and profiles as well as construction documentation including building schedules.
To register & for more information, please visit:
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Engineering a BIMStorm
Building information modeling in a web-based charrette increases specifying accuracy and value.
High-impact decisions that affect a building's performance can be made at early design stages when engineering input has the highest potential impact. Web-enabled building information modeling (BIM) tools allow specifiers to position themselves as profitable information managers and can yield great value for clients.
A traditional engineering process is very linear-waiting for the architect to complete his or her task before the engineer becomes involved. This is the limitation of current processes. The American Institute of Architects Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) calls for earlier and more frequent involvement by all stakeholders throughout the project, and this process promotes interaction by those who typically would only be reacting to previous decisions before they are set in stone. IPD allows specifiers to have an early impact on project decisions, reducing costly overtime to change bad decisions or rapidly visualize scenarios before they are set in stone, creating a better end-product.
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Study: We've Locked in Half the Consequences of Global Warming
But steeply cutting carbon dioxide emissions worldwide would blunt the serious impact of climate change.
BOULDER - Drastic, economy-changing cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will spare the planet half the trauma expected over the next century as the Earth warms.
And that's the good news.
Because failure to significantly curb these planet-warming gases will truly transform our world in less than 100 years.
A new study to be published by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research finds that a 70 percent cut in emissions should stabilize temperatures at a mark not too much higher than today.
Such a cut, most experts agree, would require vast retooling of a fossil-fuel-based economy and an unprecedented level of global cooperation.
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What's the premium for a green building?
A systemic study on the financial performance of green buildings reveals that green office buildings have higher market value than uncertified buildings.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RCIS) announced the first study on the financial performance of green office buildings in the U.S. The survey was conducted by Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, and John Quigley of the University of California-Berkeley. The study evaluates the financial benefits of investing in green buildings that meet LEED and/or Energy Star requirements.
"Doing well by doing good?" An analysis of the financial performance of green office buildings in the USA is a 48-page report that claims to offer systematic evidence on the economic benefits of green buildings. For each commercial building the U.S. that obtained a LEED and/or Energy Star label, the researchers identified a control group consisting of all commercial properties located within 1,300 ft.
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Consumption Dwarfs Population
As Main Environmental Threat
It's overconsumption, not population growth, that is the fundamental problem: By almost any measure, a small portion of the world's people - those in the affluent, developed world - use up most of the Earth's resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions.
It's the great taboo, I hear many environmentalists say. Population growth is the driving force behind our wrecking of the planet, but we are afraid to discuss it.
It sounds like a no-brainer. More people must inevitably be bad for the environment, taking more resources and causing more pollution, driving the planet ever farther beyond its carrying capacity. But hold on. This is a terribly convenient argument - "over-consumers" in rich countries can blame "over-breeders" in distant lands for the state of the planet. But what are the facts?
The world's population quadrupled to six billion people during the 20th century. It is still rising and may reach 9 billion by 2050. Yet for at least the past century, rising per-capita incomes have outstripped the rising head count several times over. And while incomes don't translate precisely into increased resource use and pollution, the correlation is distressingly strong.
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A cure for honey bee colony collapse?
For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.
In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.
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World will not meet 2C warming target, climate change experts agree
Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will succeed, a Guardian poll reveals today. An average rise of 4-5C by the end of this century is more likely, they say, given soaring carbon emissions and political constraints.
Such a change would disrupt food and water supplies, exterminate thousands of species of plants and animals and trigger massive sea level rises that would swamp the homes of hundreds of millions of people.
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The Dire Fate of Forests in a Warmer World
It's not easy to kill a full-grown tree - especially one like the pinon pine. The hardy evergreen is adapted to life in the hot, parched American Southwest, so it takes more than a little dry spell to affect it. In fact, it requires a once-in-a-century event like the extended drought of the 1950s, which scientists now believe led to widespread tree mortality in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
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Global Warming: Heat Could Kill Drought-stressed Trees Fast
ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2009) - Widespread die-off of pinon pine across the southwestern United States during future droughts will occur at least five times faster if climate warms by 4 degrees Celsius, even if future droughts are no worse than droughts of the past century, scientists have discovered in experiments conducted at the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2.
Their study is the first to isolate the impact of just temperature on tree mortality during drought. The temperature effect is usually confounded by varying weather and bark beetle and other pest attacks. Quantitative information on how sensitive drought-stressed trees are to hotter temperatures is critical for predicting drastic, sudden and widespread die-offs, the scientists said.
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UPCOMING EVENTS FEATURING EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE
APRIL 17 and 18, 2009
"On Thin Ice", a one-hour special on PBS
Seventy-five percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glaciers, but scientists predict climate change will cause some of the world's largest glaciers to completely melt by 2030. This will increase global competition for food and water and threaten international security.
In a special one-hour NOW on PBS report (check local listings), Host David Brancaccio travels to the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas and Montana's Glacier National Park to see the melting and to examine the consequences. Brancaccio talks with Lester Brown about the effects of melting glaciers of India's food supply.
For additional information go to
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Climate Change And Atmospheric Circulation Will Make For Uneven Ozone Recovery
ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2009) - Earth's ozone layer should eventually recover from the unintended destruction brought on by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and similar ozone-depleting chemicals in the 20th century. But new research by NASA scientists suggests the ozone layer of the future is unlikely to look much like the past because greenhouse gases are changing the dynamics of the atmosphere.
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Blue Dog Democrats growling at climate-change plan
Party's fiscal conservatives and those elected in mining states could side with GOP to veto Obama's cap-and-trade proposal
WASHINGTON -- Nancy Pelosi keeps a small statue of a coal miner on her desk.
Miners "need not fear" that Democrats would ever tolerate a climate-change bill that abandoned the coal industry, the Speaker of the House of Representatives told The Washington Post. "You can't."
Ms. Pelosi's admission highlights the growing resistance from within the Democratic Party to the Obama administration's efforts to forge a cap-and-trade system to fight global warming.
"There seems to be a disregard, an indifference on the two coasts to manufacturing," Ohio Senator Sharrod Brown, a Democrat, said recently, referring to liberal Democrats who tend to cluster along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
"But manufacturing is the ticket to the middle class for a large part of the country. We've got to focus our attention on it when it comes to taxes, trade, energy and other issues."
At the same time, Republicans in Congress who believe climate change is real are working to change their leadership's skepticism toward global warming.
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Dates Announced for LEED v.3 Launch, LEED AP Exams
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced an April 27, 2009 launch date for LEED v.3-including LEED 2009, the newest version of the technical rating system, as well as an updated version of LEED Online, which USGBC promises will be faster, more reliable, and more user-friendly than the current version. The same date will see the transition of LEED project registration and certification to the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), the third party that also administers the LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP).
Projects may still be registered under either the new or the old LEED rating system until June 27, 2009, from which point all projects must be registered under LEED 2009. Beginning with the April launch and going through September 27, 2009, GBCI will be encouraging projects currently registered under the existing LEED Online system to migrate to the new system.
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Green Roof Professional Accreditation to Launch in June
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has announced that the first exam for its Green Roof Professional accreditation program will take place on June 5, 2009, at the group's annual conference in Atlanta. The exam, which costs $395, will subsequently be available in Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, and New York in the fall of 2009. The exam will test participants on material covered in the group's four training courses on the design and installation of green roofs. The exam is aimed at experienced vegetated-roof professionals and roofing contractors, architects, and landscape architects who are looking to expand their practices.
More information is available at
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AP IMPACT: Chinese drywall poses potential risks
PARKLAND, Fla. - At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap.
Now that decision is haunting hundreds of homeowners and apartment dwellers who are concerned that the wallboard gives off fumes that can corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and possibly sicken people.
Shipping records reviewed by The Associated Press indicate that imports of potentially tainted Chinese building materials exceeded 500 million pounds during a four-year period of soaring home prices. The drywall may have been used in more than 100,000 homes, according to some estimates, including houses rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.
"This is a traumatic problem of extraordinary proportions," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat who introduced a bill in the House calling for a temporary ban on the Chinese-made imports until more is known about their chemical makeup. Similar legislation has been proposed in the Senate.
The drywall apparently causes a chemical reaction that gives off a rotten-egg stench, which grows worse with heat and humidity.
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US official says wind could replace coal for power
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey - Windmills off the eastern U.S. coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday.
But those numbers were challenged as "overly optimistic" by a coal industry group, which noted that half the nation's electricity currently comes from coal-fired power plants.
The secretary spoke at a public hearing in Atlantic City, on the eastern coast, on how the nation's offshore areas can be tapped to meet America's energy needs.
"The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility," he said. "It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now."
Offshore energy production, however, might not be limited to wind power, Salazar said. A moratorium on offshore oil drilling has expired, and President Barack Obama and Congress must decide whether to allow drilling off the eastern coast.
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Warren Buffett's Chinese Electric Car Company
BYD is an amazing company. It was started by a chemist and government researcher named Wang Chuan-Fu in 1995 (same year as Yahoo) to make rechargeable batteries, which it learned to do very well. Within a few years, BYD's batteries were cheaper and just as reliable as those made by industry giants Sony and Sanyo. Then Mr. Wang, as he's known, got into the automobile business by buying a failing state-owned carmaker. BYD's conventional gas-powered cars are selling well these days in China, and his electric plug-in electric model looks like it will come to market with a longer range and a lower sticker price than the new Toyota Prius much-hyped Chevy Volt. As if that were not enough, I'm hearing now that BYD is on the verge of a breakthrough in the solar power business and that the company has big plans to make rechargeable batteries at a utility scale to store energy from intermittent, renewable sources like wind and solar. Today, BYD employs 130,000 people in 11 factories, either in China and one each in India, Hungary and Rumania.
That track record -- and that potential -- is what persuaded Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, to buy 10 percent of BYD last fall for $230 million. This could turn out to be one of Buffett's very best deals. Here's what Charlie Munger, Buffett's longtime friend and the vice chairman of Berkshire, told me about Mr. Wang:
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Hemp Could Be Key To Zero-carbon Houses
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2009) - Hemp, a plant from the cannabis family, could be used to build carbon-neutral homes of the future to help combat climate change and boost the rural economy, say researchers at the University of Bath.
A consortium, led by the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials based at the University, has embarked on a unique housing project to develop the use of hemp-lime construction materials in the UK.
Hemp-lime is a lightweight composite building material made of fibres from the fast growing plant, bound together using a lime-based adhesive. The hemp plant stores carbon during its growth and this, combined with the low carbon footprint of lime and its very efficient insulating properties, gives the material a 'better than zero carbon' footprint.
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