During a research voyage to the Bering Sea in the summer of 2007 the guys at Greenpeace came out with an interesting discovery. A new species of sponge was found in the depths of the underwater canyons (Pribilof Canyon), a unique habitat that we don’t know much about except that fishing methods like bottom trawling may destroy it. They named the “new” sponge Aaptos kanuux from the Unungan word that means heart (kanuux).

Apart from the discovery, George Pletnikoff, Greenpeace USA’s Alaska Office Oceans Campaigner and a native of the Unungan communities on the Pribilof Islands warned that the deep waters are at risk because of overfishing and if these canyons won’t be able to pump the much needed nutrients such an ecosystem may fail and the life of people depending on these waters could be in jeopardy.

“We know so little about the seas around us and far less about the open oceans. This amazing discovery underscores the need for the UN to establish a global network of marine reserves and to stop the current free-for-all whereby habitats and species are being destroyed before scientists have even had a chance to give them names,” said Richard Page, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace International.

There must be something we can do to protect marine life: “if we want fish tomorrow we need marine reserves now“.

It’s beautiful down there, check out this video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmckLTZlVpg[/youtube]

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The results of the latest World Glacier Monitoring Service report, showed that 30 glaciers around the world lost a record amount of ice in 2006. These are the obvious repercussions of global warming and Professor Wilfried Haeberli, director of the monitoring service, told The Observer that “glaciers melt at fastest rate in past 5,000 years“.

Glacier melting into the sea near the southern tip of Greenland by Silversprite

Biggest concerns about melting glaciers are risen sea levels, floods, avalanches and drought that not only put people’s lives in jeopardy but are threatening eco-systems, too.

“We’re talking about something that happens in your and my lifespan. We’re not talking about something hypothetical, we’re talking about something dramatic in its consequences” said Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The problems are real and the melting glaciers are highly relevant to what we are about to face. Tony Blair an ambassador for action on climate change in the ‘Breaking the Climate Deadlock’ initiative, began a series of high-level environmental meetings in Japan, China and India.

“We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. Failure to act now would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible. The scale of what is needed is so great that the purpose of any global action is not to ameliorate or to make better our carbon dependence, it is to transform the nature of economies and societies in terms of carbon consumption and emissions.

If the average person in the US is, say, to emit per capita, one-tenth of what they do today and those in the UK or Japan one-fifth, we’re not talking of adjustment, we’re talking about a revolution”, Tony Blair said yesterday in Chiba, Japan.

Will we do anything about it? Sure hope so.

A new technology patented by a new Turkish company, Solitem Group and Germans from MAN Ferrostaal should offer high efficiency solar thermal cooling systems. Yes you’re reading it right, these two companies claim they can cool your house by harnessing the heat of the sun. They tested their systems in several Southern Europe and used roof-top and ground systems, and it works.

The technology is based on 1.8-meter wide parabolic trough collectors made entirely out of aluminum, that are able to “boil” water up to 180 – 250 degrees Celsius and then through a two-stage absorption chiller, it turns heat into six degrees Celsius cold water. That water is then used to cooling the air or as steam for industrial processes. Also, the fact that they are made of aluminum this is a cheap light-weight solution that offers high stability.

“The secret lies in complex software that regulates the energy flows in the system and delivers a constant stream of water cooled to about six degrees, the perfect temperature for conventional air conditioning units,” said Solitem’s managing director Dr Ahmet Lokurlu.

The new solar thermal cooling system is a highly efficient alternative to air conditioning systems, that won’t take the usual course of cooling a house : fossil fuels into electricity and electricity into cooling.

MAN Ferrostal owns 20.1 percent stake in Solitem and will help them with sales and installation resources. They plan to bring this project across the Middle East, Africa, the US, Australia and the Mediterranean.

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“Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough” said Mark Twain and many of us took his advice.

Aberdeen University scientists discovered that a by-product from whisky waste (residue) is capable of cleaning contaminated soil and polluted water from chlorines, heavy metals or pesticides.

Fort William Whisky Distilery – barrels lined up outside – by Justin Dawkins

Dr Graeme Paton, Professor Ken Killham and Dr Leigh Cassidy named it DRAM (Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple polluatnts) and had “commercial reasons” not to disclose the recipe. They did say something very interesting though. Apparently not only whisky by-products are going to be used because the technology they’ve patented is able to work with other by-products from the food and beverage industry.

Nowadays cleaning processes are not only very expensive but also very slow and here is where the DRAM changes things. It’s cheaper and way faster. Tests so far revealed that the new technology has been very successful fighting pollution so I guess the Irish saying I’ve heard, is true. “What butter and whiskey won’t cure, there is no cure for”. Right?

via EnvironmentalGraffiti