Green Energy Live is seeing increases in demand for manure management solutions within the agriculture sector. On May 3rd the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new interagency agreement with funding to advance the implementation of biogas recovery systems for livestock facilities, with the goals of increasing farm-based renewable energy generation, protecting air, land and water resources, and enhancing rural economic growth.
The EPA and USDA’s enhanced collaboration will provide up to $3.9 million over the next five years to help farms recover and use biogas from manure. The collaboration will expand technical assistance efforts, improve technical standards and guidance for the construction and evaluation of biogas recovery systems, and expand outreach to livestock producers and assist them with pre-feasibility studies.
Just the name biogas is kinda funny, but there are serious real world consequences of having so much of it in our atmosphere. Biogas primarily methane and is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Rural India and Pakistan are using biogas digesters – a collection tank – where manure is dumped and mixed with water. The gas is siphoned off by gas lines to homes which use it to heat water and cook. If 8,000 farms started their own biogas collection systems that would be enough to produce 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy and save the equivalent of the annual emissions from 6.5 million passenger vehicles.
Scanning electron micrograph of a blood clot
A blood clot is the coagulation of blood formed to create a natural plug. They occur naturally for wounds ranging from small finger cuts to gun shot wounds. The platelets have not formed yet in this scan, but the white fibrous material is nature’s band-aid, filaments of fibrin protein.
Pesticides in kids linked to ADHD
Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly foods — including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery — appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, new research shows.
High levels of pesticides are relatively easy to find via urine analysis. This study focused on organophosphate pesticides which is in the majority of pesticides used in the U.S.
UPDATE 1-BP siphoning off 40 pct of Gulf of Mexico oil leak. According to this report and BP claims, they are now collecting 40 percent of the leaking oil – which according to the razor-sharp Brit Hume at Fox is no big deal anyway. The Coast Guard says the spill has not hit the current, but some scientists say it may have.
“We feel like it has entered the Loop Current,” said William Hogarth, dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science. If it does sweep around the Florida peninsula, he said, it could cause extensive damage to the Everglades.
“Once it gets into those sensitive areas, it’s much much harder to clean,” he said. “No one wants it anywhere, but on the beaches it’s easier to clean. It’s a tar ball, much like picking up cat litter.”
The Coast Guard says the bulk of the oil remains miles from the current, although a branch of the slick is approaching it.
From a satellite photo I saw on the news – which I cannot find on the internet right now – part of the spill is curling in a shape that mimics the Loop Current. While it might not be fully entwined in the current it does seem like just a matter of time.
tangledwing 