ECOshore

TORONTO - A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada’s northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.

Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press that the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated in early August and the 19-square-mile shelf is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean. Read more…

POWERleap is the invention of Elizabeth Redmond, who has been designing gadgets since her grade school years. POWERleap is a system that produces electricity using piezoelectric materials in a configuration resembling floor tiles. Piezoelectric materials produce an electric current when they are bent or deflected, so the simple act of people walking across the POWERleap tiles creates electricity. In the designer’s demonstration, the output of the system is measured through a cumulative total of power produced along with the visual display of lights energized by the foot traffic. The excess power is stored in a battery. Innovations like this are among the solutions that will finally lift the viability of alternative energy to the level needed for long term use.

As Congressman Wayne Gilchrest approaches the end of his legislative career, he continues his support for environmental issues.  Gilchrest is one of the sponsors of a bill to continue the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The act is a grant program which requires qualifying groups to raise $3 in non-federal money for every $1 from the NMBCA program. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists 341 bird species as neotropical migrants. According to the American Bird Conservancy, 71 species on the Audubon watch list are neotropical migrants.

Residents of the Delmarva Peninsula, and those visitors who stop long enough to look around on their way to the condo, have an appreciation for the natural environment that makes up the Delmarva Peninsula. Surrounded by the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, along with the Atlantic Ocean, Delmarva is both home and layover point to hundreds, if not thousands, of species. The importance of the shores of Delmarva occasionally make the news in relation to threats to certain species due to the destruction of habitat or food sources.

One example of this relationship can be seen in a bird called the Red Knot, which lingers on the beaches of the Delaware Bay to feed on the eggs of the Horseshoe Crab and build up enough body mass to sustain the birds on their flight to breeding grounds in the Arctic. The Red Knot population is in fast decline due to the overharvesting of Horseshoe Crabs in the Delaware Bay resulting in an insufficient food supply to support a healthy Red Knot population.

In the future, we might be hearing these same concerns about other species that grace our peninsula. It was recently discovered through satellite tracking that a bird known as the Whimbrel makes a 3200 mile trip to the Mackenzie River near Alaska after stopping over on the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The bird that was tracked by the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary made the transcontinental flight in just six days after building up their energy on a diet of fiddler crabs on the Virginia islands. The press release regarding this discovery expresses the importance of the Delmarva habitat in terms of worldwide importance.

This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the hemispheric importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds.

For more than a decade, scientists have believed that the seaside of the lower Delmarva Peninsula in Virginia played a significant role in the life cycle of the whimbrel. During spring migration in the mid-1990s, Bryan Watts from the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and Barry Truitt of The Nature Conservancy documented the densest concentration of whimbrels ever recorded in the western hemisphere within the barrier island lagoon system of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. Since that time, it has been believed that the site represents a critical, coastal staging area where birds feed on the staggering numbers of fiddler crabs that inhabit the lagoon system and build up energy reserves before making their last overland flight to the breeding grounds.

The seaside of the Delmarva Peninsula has been recognized as a globally important bird area, a hemispheric shorebird reserve, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The discovery that whimbrels use the site as a terminal staging area before embarking on a transcontinental flight suggests that the site is uniquely suited to provide the tremendous amount of energy required to prepare birds for such a flight.

Revelations such as those reported about the flight of the Whimbrel will hopefully increase the appreciation for the absolute importance of protecting the natural environment that surrounds us on the Delmarva Peninsula but often gets lost in the noise disguised as progress. Every decision about every square foot of our land has an impact that can only be measured by the long term cost.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. - Henry David Thoreau

Even though gas prices are high right now, we will be taking a road trip this summer just like many other families across the country. Sustainablog has some tips for making your road trip as green as possible. If speed limit signs aren’t enough to slow you down, then consider how much money you are wasting by putting the pedal to the metal. According to Sustainablog, “each 5 mph over 60 mph you go is like paying an extra 20 cents per gallon of gas.” Slow down, save money.

The Discovery Home network is now Planet Green. For those on Comcast in the Salisbury area, that is channel 113. Planet Green shows us many ways to incorporate green things in our everyday life. Many people are resistant to green choices, because they fear that a green lifestyle means that they will have to do without. Planet Green is here to reassure us that a green lifestyle can be comfortable and stylish. Green is about changing habits and incorporating green choices in our current lifestyle.

Many people think that solar energy is a relatively new technology, but there are many examples across the country of solar installations that have been around for a period of time that can now be measured in decades. One example is Kramer Junction, which has been around for about 20 years and is located in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. The Kramer Junction installation combines five solar thermal electric generating facilities with a total output of about 150 megawatts. Solar thermal power focuses the sun’s energy to super heat a liquid that is then used to create steam to drive a turbine which generates electricity. The company behind Kramer Junction claims that a plant covering 1% of the Sahara Desert would meet the electricity requirements of the entire planet.

The Solaire is a residential tower in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. The building overlooks the Hudson River, and it was designed with a green initiative that includes many environmentally friendly features. The systems of the building allow the structure to have a 67% lower electricity demand than a building designed to standard code. The green initiative provides higher air and water quality than normal residential structures. The Solaire is topped by a green roof that provides natural insulation and allows the collection of rainwater. The developers advertise their building as “Environmentally Engineered for Advanced Living,” and the tower stands as a model for green development.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy, electrochromatic windows will be the next major advance in energy efficient window design. Electrochromatic glazings can be switched from clear to tinted with the flip of a switch. The glazing includes several layers which react with the application of a low voltage power supply. An explanation of how electrochromatic windows work can be found on How Stuff Works. This emerging window technology has been featured on popular home improvement shows like This Old House.

On a recent stop at the recycling drop off, I arrived upon the scene of a person stealing aluminum cans from the bin. He was using a long handled fishing net to scoop them out, and he had bags of cans piled in the back of his relatively new truck. He obviously wasn’t a person in great need, so I guess he is just a person of great greed. I had an internal debate about whether to report the crime. I decided not to, but if it happens again, I just might have to.