Recyclable Rustling

Penalties have increased in New York for "recyclable rustling", or the use of a truck or van to steal bundles of recycling off of the street. The Times reports that prices for scrap metal, paper, and containers have soared due to strong demand for recyclables in Asia and other developing regions. An interesting local tie in to some of the global issues we've been looking at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/nyregion/15recycle.html

China's Three Gorges Dam

The controversial Three Gorges Dam in China that is set to be completed in 2009 may bring a bigger environmental problem to Yangtze River.

Sunday Times Roundup

Two tidbits from this weekend's Times:

First is a graphic published to describe the distribution of the 1,000,000 trees that are planned to be planted in New York in the next several decades. NYT

Second is the latest article in a series on environemental issues in China - an interesting profile on a Chinese environmental advocate and the issue of water pollution on one of the most famous of Chinese lakes. NYT

How Bad was Summer's Arctic Melt?

Just How Bad Was this Summer's Arctic Melting? (TreeHugger)

World moves into the ecological red

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0472288720071005

LONDON (Reuters) - The world moved into 'ecological overdraft' on Saturday, the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red, the New Economics Foundation think-tank said.

Just an interesting tidbit.

The Energy Hunt

NYT article on the difficulties in extracting energy from remote areas.

Piezoelectric Concept Backpack

This is a simple application for an interesting power-generating technology.

"Shoulder straps made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a strong, flexible material that feels similar to nylon, are piezoelectric, which means that an applied stress generates an electrical charge (just like when you rub your feet on the carpet and shock your baby sister). Converting otherwise wasted, ambient energy into electrical energy, there's virtually no difference in the feel or characteristics of PVDF versus normal nylon. Now, all the rubbing of your backpack straps on your shoulders could finally be put to good use and you can leave heavy batteries and bulky chargers at home."

from Coolhunting.com