A reusable grocery bag left in a hotel bathroom caused an outbreak of norovirus-induced diarrhea and nausea that struck nine of 13 members of a girls’ soccer team in October, Oregon researchers reported Wednesday. 
Now that the United States is using 40 percent of its [corn] crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in Guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn…Roughly 50 percent of the nation’s children are chronically malnourished, the fourth-highest rate in the world, according to the United Nations... We’re betting that this news won’t dent greens’ self-confidence. They will still insist that unless they are put in charge of the entire world economy we face disaster. The sad truth is that the more power they get, the more damage they do. -Walter Russell Mead
When the United Nations wanted to help slow climate change, it established what seemed a sensible system... since 2005 the 19 plants receiving the waste gas payments have profited handsomely from an unlikely business: churning out more harmful coolant gas so they can be paid to destroy its waste byproduct. The high output keeps the prices of the coolant gas irresistibly low, discouraging air-conditioning companies from switching to less-damaging alternative gases. That means, critics say, that United Nations subsidies intended to improve the environment are instead creating their own damage. ... The United Nations and the European Union, through new rules and an outright ban, are trying to undo this unintended bonanza. But the lucrative incentive has become so entrenched that efforts to roll it back are proving tricky, even risky.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops, Energy
Putrid air hung over a luncheon meats warehouse long after a blaze consumed the building where frustrated firefighters met their enemy: rooftop solar panels. Loved by the green movement, solar panels pose a growing threat to firefighters, who may suffer electrical shocks from panels that typically cannot be turned off, said John Drengenberg, consumer safety director for Underwriters Laboratories... It took 29 hours to put out the flames at the Dietz & Watson warehouse, which was left gutted and smoldering in ruins. "Do I think we'd have had a different outcome if we could get on the roof? Sure," Delanco Deputy Fire Chief Robert Hubler said.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Funny, Oops
There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846. So when one popped up again on British shores this week, twitchers were understandably excited... But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed.
Eagle chopped in half by wind turbine
Killing Eagles: Havorn Hakket Wind Farm
Eagle chopped in half by wind turbine - Knud PedersenEnvironmentalist, Liberal, Oops, Metaphor
A single dead eagle could spell trouble for a White Pine County wind farm that sells power to NV Energy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting an investigation after a golden eagle was killed in late February at the Spring Valley Wind Farm, about 300 miles north of Las Vegas.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Crime, Oops
A Seattle, Washington ban on plastic shopping bags has resulted in spikes in shoplifting and net losses of thousands of dollars, according to local business owners. Mike Duke, who operates the Lake City Grocery Outlet with his wife, said that since the plastic-bag ban started last July, he’s lost at least $5,000 in produce and between $3,000 and $4,000 in frozen food. “We’ve never lost that much before,” Duke told local KBOI News.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Brilliance, Oops, Waste, Healthcare, Regulation, Pc
A reusable grocery bag left in a hotel bathroom caused an outbreak of norovirus-induced diarrhea and nausea that struck nine of 13 members of a girls' soccer team in October, Oregon researchers reported Wednesday. The outbreak also affected many family members after the team returned home. Norovirus is a common, easily spread virus that causes various forms of gastric distress. It is "the perfect human pathogen" because it is highly contagious, rapidly and prolifically spread, produces limited immunity and is only moderately virulent, which allows it to continue spreading, said Dr. Aron J. Hall of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an editorial accompanying the report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Funny, Brilliance, Oops
Published this week in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, the "comparative environmental life cycle assessment of conventional and electric vehicles" begins by stating that "it is important to address concerns of problem-shifting". By this, the authors mean that by solving one problem, do electric cars create another? And, if so, does this environmental harm then outweigh any advantages? The study highlights in particular the "toxicity" of the electric car's manufacturing process compared to conventional petrol/diesel cars. It concludes that the "global warming potential" of the process used to make electric cars is twice that of conventional cars.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops
Researchers examined these reusable totes and found significant amounts of dangerous bacteria, including, among others, E-coli. And there seems to be a correlation between plastic bag bans and increased illness, as bacteria-related deaths spiked immediately after San Francisco’s bag measure began.
Environmentalist, Oops
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon investigators have traced an outbreak of norovirus to a reusable grocery bag that members of a Beaverton girls' soccer team passed around when they shared cookies.
Environmentalist, Warming, Liberal, Oops
New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution. Researchers used satellite data from 2003 to 2011 to examine surface temperatures across as wide swath of west Texas, which has built four of the world's largest wind farms. The data showed a direct correlation between night-time temperatures increases of 0.72 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) and the placement of the farms.
Democrat, Environmentalist, Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Obama, Financial, Oops
Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste. It’s a tedious process. Slowly but surely, the shattered remains of brand new solar panel tubes head to a recycling plant in Hayward. Meanwhile the next phase of the company’s liquidation is under way. It involves getting rid of all the heavy metals left inside the building that were used to make the panels.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops
Federal ethanol-fuel policies forced consumers to pay an extra 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent in increased food prices in 2008, and the government itself could end up paying nearly $1 billion more this year for food stamps because of ethanol use, according to a new government report.
Last week, Examiner columnist and Manhattan Institute fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth, author of the new book "Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies Are Damaging America’s Economy,” explained that: Most people think green is good but pay little attention to associated increases in costs. In 2015, it will cost between $49 and $79 to generate one megawatt hour of electricity from natural gas. A megawatt hour from onshore wind will cost between $75 and $138, and from solar photovoltaic will cost between $242 and $455. As her book demonstrates in this chart, rising costs of energy hit lower income Americans the hardest, because they spend a higher proportion of their incomes on energy.
Environmentalist, Hypocrisy, Liberal, Science, Oops
Through the end of November [2011], hybrids and electric vehicles sales consumed between 4,904,820 and 6,093,355 pounds of rare earths. That’s somewhere between 2,452 and 3,047 tons. If processing one ton of rare earth elements produces approximately 75 cubic meters of acidic waste water and about one ton of radioactive waste residue, then hybrid and electric vehicles alone produce between 183,900 and 228,525 cubic meters of acidic waste water and between 2,452 and 3,047 tons of radioactive waste.
Environmentalist, Warming, Crime, Incompetence, Un
The reported killing of 23 Honduran farmers in a dispute with the owners of UN-accredited palm oil plantations has called into question the integrity of the EU's emission trading scheme (ETS), as carbon credits from the plantations remain on sale. In Brussels, Green MEP Bas Eickhout called the alleged human rights abuses "a disgrace", and told EurActiv he would be pushing the European Commission to bar carbon credits from the plantations from being traded under the ETS.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Government, Incompetence
The budget approved by the Vancouver school board includes $405,725 to pay for such offsets, money that board chair Patti Bacchus said Friday could have been put to better use. "I could pay for about five teachers," she says. Adding insult to injury, the board is required to pay the province about $45,000 for a "smart tool" to assess its carbon footprint and to supply staff to make it work.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops
LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities are investigating the deaths of at least six golden eagles at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains. The utility said at least six eagles have been struck dead by wind turbine blades at the facility in Kern County.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Narrative, Oops
Biodegradable products may not be as good for the environment as advertised. New research from North Carolina State University shows that biodegradable materials actually release a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere when they break down. “Biodegradable materials, such as disposable cups and utensils, are broken down in landfills by microorganisms that then produce methane,” said Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State University, and co-author of the study.
Liberal, Oops
Get ready for higher food prices, which appear to be just around the corner for U.S. consumers and potentially a crippling burden for the world's poor.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops, Energy
An estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds are killed each year in the 50-square-mile Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, and of those fatalities, between 880 and 1,300 are federally protected raptors, such as burrowing owls, red-tailed hawks and golden eagles, according to a study released last year by the California Energy Commission.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops, Energy
ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects. But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Oops, Energy
Yet there is one group of energy producers that are not being prosecuted for killing birds: wind-power companies. And wind-powered turbines are killing a vast number of birds every year.
Environmentalist, Liberal, Government, Incompetence
The budget approved by the Vancouver school board includes $405,725 to pay for such offsets, money that board chair Patti Bacchus said Friday could have been put to better use. "I could pay for about five teachers," she says.
Environmentalist, Obama, Oops, Energy
California's attempts to switch to green energy have inadvertently put the survival of the state’s golden eagles at risk. Scores of the protected birds have been dying each year after colliding with the blades of about 5,000 wind turbines.