Plastic Debris in the Oceans, and RadioActive Waste

Despite the fact that 40% of Americans – about 120 million people – believe that plastic is biodegradable , there are no organisms in the biosphere that eat plastic, no metabolic pathways that break it down. Plastic isn’t biodegradable. It just gets torn into smaller and smaller pieces.

The volume of plastic is growing, probably exponentially, each year. It’s like the character said in “The Graduate” “Plastics – There’s a great future in plastic.” Much of this garbage winds up in the oceans. There is a large nexus of plastic swirling around the Pacific, called and the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Dump,” in the vicinity of the ‘Horse Latitudes.’ (Click here for the Green Peace report on the extent of the problem.Click Here, Here

, Here or Google ‘Plastic debris in the oceans’). By “Large” I mean 10 million square miles – about the size of Africa – and about 100 feet thick.Captain Charles Moore, of the ORV Alguita, has been exploring the dump click here or here.

The theory of evolution would suggest that eventually a denizen of the gyre, be it bacterial, plankton, or jellyfish, will evolve a metabolic pathway such that this organism will be able to eat, that is degrade, the plastic. It will eat, gorge itself, and reproduce. And then there will be 2 organisms that can eat plastic. Then 4, 8, 16, 32, … 1,024, 2,048, … and then millions and millions. This could start tomorrow, or in 10,000 years.

Scientists could kick start this process. Take some bacteria, plastics and mutagenic agents, put them together in salt water – and wait. Or better yet use genetic engineering and biochemistry to engineer metabolic pathways to biodegrade, i.e., “eat” plastic.

Or, if I may be permitted to wax sarcastic, dump radioactive wastes into this plastic soup. The radioactive wastes may eventually trigger the mutations that create the required metabolic pathways.

(Also posted on Orion Magazine on the discussion of Rebecca Solnit’s

Reasons Not to Glow, LF)

Orion Magazine – Reasons Not to Glow

CBS News: $1 billion in equipment missing in Iraq, according to IG Report

Laura Strickler of the CBS News Investigative Unitreports on CBSNews.com that the Pentagon’s Inspector General has found that a great deal of equipment in Iraq is unaccounted for:

Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News

investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million.

The report details a massive failure in government procurement revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For example, according to the report, the military could not account for 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

The report comes on the same day that Army procurement officials will face tough questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding their procurement policies. One official, Claude Bolton, assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology has already announced his resignation on the heels of sharp criticism of army contracting. Bolton’s resignation is effective Jan. 2, 2008. The Army has significantly expanded its fraud investigations in recent months.

Energy Bills – Good for the Environment and the Economy.

Last summer’s energy bills were not good for the environment.

Yes, both houses of Congress passed energy bills “oriented toward increasing energy efficiency and boosting renewable power and biofuels.” But the House version had no Corporate Average Fuel Economy program (CAFE) car mileage mandate, thanks to the shortsightedness of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, (who believes himself to be an auto industry champion, but is killing the patient), and the Senate version had no Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) due to strong opposition from Senate Republicans. People who think about sustainable economies and environmentalists wanted both mandates in a final bill.

The final bill now includes a 35 mpg CAFE standard, an Renewable Electricity Standard of 15 percent, and 21 billion dollars of investment in the renewable energy economy.

Among other things, the 21 billion dollars will fund production tax credits for solar and wind power over a four-year period; it will fund research and development programs for renewable energy and job training programs for solar power installers; and it will fund individual tax credits for solar energy, home weatherization and purchase of fuel efficient vehicles like plug-in hybrid cars.

And 50 billion dollars in loan guarantees for new nuclear plants were dropped from the Senate version. (They were in the summer’s version.

While the Republicans like subsidizing the nuclear industry, and they like subsidizing the oil industry, they don’t like the Renewable Electricity Standard and the $21 billion tax package that will fund the bill, especially the $13.5 billion in higher taxes on oil companies. President Bush warned that he is likely to veto the bill if it passes the Senate. Sen. Pete Domenici said, “If it comes over here, we have no alternative but … war.” One sardonic environmentalist said “This war is as well thought out as the War in Iraq. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who put a hold on the bill back in October, called the tax increase “discrimination against one industry.” (Please note that Hutchison received $284,000 in contributions from the oil and gas industries in 2005 and 2006, (click here) and a total of$1.3 million as of May, 2001 (click here).

The Republicans will fall on their swords. Then they will return as lobbyists. Truthout.Houston Chronicle.Washington Post.LA Times.

What Mexico can teach Japan

Three Friends

Eco-Tourism is becoming big in Mexico. Delfiniti

, attracts hundreds of visitors each week to spend an hour swimming with, playing with, feeding, and getting to know dolphins. In Mexico and California, people have also realized that whales are worth more alive than dead. Whale watching tours make more money than whaling ships could – and the apparently sentient whales like to ‘hang out’ with the people in the whale watching ships. They know the people aren’t predators; they don’t try to capsize the ships.

More details to follow.

Saving the California Tiger Salamander

Why did the salamander cross the road?

To get to it’s habitat on the other side.

Tiger Salamander, Copyright Gerald and Buff Corsi

Environmentalists in California help endangered Tiger Salamanders cross the road that divides their habitat by catching them, picking them up, and carrying them across the street. Why not lay pipes under the roads for the salamanders to cross thru? and then induce them to enter the channels by something that smells good or tastes good? The same for turtles, and other things that go ‘squish’ under cars in the night.

Photo: © David Rosen/Wildside Photography

Celeste Monforton/Pump Handle: Crandall Canyon Disaster: Four Months Later

Celeste Monforton of The Pump Handle has a disturbing account of the current status of the Crandall Canyon disaster: Congress has cancelled scheduled hearings; even more disturbing, there’s an emerging record of failure(s) to report hazards as required – and what appears to have been the willful destruction of evidence.

Disturbing any way you look at it – assuming that you think workplaces ought to be safe. (If you don’t think that, I’m afraid my advocacy skills may not be up to the challenge).

Link to Dr. Monforton’s piece at The Pump Handle. We’ll try to follow up.

Zooillogix animals of the week

Zooillogix, one of the large fact-farm which is ScienceBlogs, publishes a weekly readers’ poll of favorite animals

. It’s bad enough to ask science types what they think – always bound to start trouble. But to ask them what they like? Here are some of the recent submissions. Res ipsa loquitur.

[photopress:ZooillogixThree_Toed_Sloth.jpg,full,centered]

[photopress:ZooillogixJaguarundi.jpg,full,pp_image]

[photopress:Zoo_illogix_Puffin.jpg,full,pp_image]

See the rest here at Zooillogix.

For those of you complaining that this is off-topic – you’re right. Sue me.

Leatherman Skeletool: 5 ounces (142 grams)

Leatherman has introduced the Skeletool and skeletool CX:

[singlepic=173,480,412,,left] The Skeletool has a removable

pocket clip – so it can be used with or without a sheath.

[singlepic=172,320,240,,right]

The Skeletool CX has carbon-fiber handles; Erik Sofge, in his Popular Mechanics review (link below) says that it’s got a particularly comfortable grip – no small asset for a tool that, almost by definition, one uses in less-than-ideal conditions. The CX also has some attachable bits stored inside the tool. (I’m not entirely sure how they both end up the same weight – this may be the result of my misreading the specs )

Link to Erik Sofge’s review at PopularMechanics.com.

Tyler Hicks

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Rats attempt to climb social ladder; seek parity with squirrels, lobby City Hall

Thomas J. Lueck (copy) and Tyler Hicks (images) of my hometown paper have reported that in the most prominent, and well-kept, public park in New York City, rats play as though they were squirrels. Notwithstanding municipal efforts to persuade them to relocate. From November 10, 2007, “Where the Rats Come Out to Play”:

The rat that was circling André Thomas’s feet was big and brazen, measuring more than a foot from the tip of its tail to a pointed snout that arched upward to the aroma of Mr. Thomas’s ham and cheese sandwich.

[singlepic=170,320,240,,]

The encounter might not have seemed all that unusual to many New Yorkers, who have become wearily accustomed to rats bounding along subway tracks or lurking about garbage bins, usually after dark.

But this rat sighting came as a shock to Mr. Thomas because of when and, especially, where it took place — 2 p.m. on a brilliant fall afternoon while he sat on a bench in City Hall Park, a nine-acre jewel of the municipal park system that underwent a $30 million renovation in 1999. The park is a cornerstone of the city’s efforts to revive Lower Manhattan.

“At first I thought it was a squirrel,” Mr. Thomas said as he strode away. “Isn’t this where the mayor works?”

Mr. Thomas’s rodent experience was hardly unusual. If he had looked under the park’s benches and around its meticulously cropped foliage, he would have spotted at least six other rats scurrying around, unconcerned about the humans all around.

[singlepic=171,320,240,,left]

The infestation of rats in City Hall Park, clearly an embarrassment to the city, was acknowledged in interviews by senior officials of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the city’s lead agency for rodent control, and the Department of Parks and Recreation.

“It’s just a big issue down there and we all recognize it,” said Jessica Leighton, the health department’s deputy commissioner for environmental health. Adrian Benepe

, the commissioner of parks and recreation, said that City Hall Park provided “a perfect set of circumstances for rats.” Continue reading →

Chicago Tunnel Map

The Chicago Tunnel Company Railroad Map:

[photopress:Chiacgo_Railroad_Tunnel_courtesy_Phil_Okeefe.jpg,full,centered]

Apparently the system, as it evolved, had many surplus tunnels. And a parcel delivery system that never quite caught on. Seems well-suited for moving food, medicine and people in emergencies. (We haven’t learned yet anything about the flood-resistance of these tunnels, which were, on average, about 40 feet under street level.

Pentagon misstates data in budget request

Tom VanDen Brook

of USA today has reported that

The Pentagon has asked Congress for $1.4 billion in emergency spending to combat a growing threat of sniper attacks in Iraq based on an overstated assessment of the extent of the attacks, its records show.

[photopress:Marine_sniper_ghillie_suit.JPG,thumb,alignleft]In last week’s spending request, the Pentagon said sniper attacks have quadrupled in the past year and, if unchecked, the attacks could eclipse roadside bombs as the top killer of U.S. troops. However, the rate of sniper attacks has dropped slightly in 2007 and fallen dramatically in the past four months, according to military records given to USA TODAY.

Pentagon officials acknowledged the mistake Monday after questions about the data were raised by USA TODAY.

“The term quadrupled will be removed from the justification because it is simply incorrect,” said Dave Patterson, deputy undersecretary of Defense. [photopress:Simo_Hayha.jpg,thumb,alignright]

In 2006, there were 386 sniper attacks on coalition forces, according to data from the Multi-National Force-Iraq headquarters in Iraq. Through Oct. 26 of this year, there were 269 sniper attacks, the figures show.

The Pentagon does not release the number of troops killed by snipers. Improvised explosive devices have killed about 1,600 U.S. troops, more than half of all combat deaths since the war began in 2003. Continue reading →

DARPA attempts to synthesize canine nose

[singlepic=167,320,240,,left] Sharon Weinberger reports at Danger Room that DARPA is attempting to synthesize or simulate the canine nose. We understand that it certain circumstances call for miniaturization – concealment, portability and risk limitation all make dog-and-handler teams, plus their needed transportation and support, relatively unwieldy. We’re reminded of General Patton’s admonition that “A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.” We can have new human/canine teams ready to go in a matter of months, depending on the particular specialty (debris search, explosives search, general guard work). In addition to time spent raising and selecting canine candidates.

In the long run – a successful simulation of canine olfactory capability – would do very well at airports, and other security bottlenecks. But let’s not plan around having this capability any time soon. Let’s plan around technologies in hand. As someone who has to cop to liking Star Trek quite a lot, I still had problems every time the Enterprise

(or Voyager, etc.) crew made a big scientific or engineering breakthrough on the fly – in hours or minutes, without experimentation, getting it right the first time. Technology takes false turns, rethinking, and redesign.

Link to the excellent Sharon Weinberger’s piece on DARPA and dog noses at Danger Room. (and thanks to Sharon for giving us an excuse to post the cute dog photo).

Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant Whistleblower Fired: Project On Government Oversight (10/31/2007)

Peach Bottom is a nuclear power installation about 90 miles from Philadelphia, less than 100 miles from Washington, D.C., and less than 200 miles from New York City:

[singlepic=163,320,240,,left] “Parts of York County are within the ten mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) of two nuclear power plants-Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and Three Mile Island (TMI) Nuclear Power Plant. ” ((From the York County Emergency Preparedness website. )) That’s a lot of risk for one community; let’s hope their evacuation planning and preparedness are in good shape. (Link to Acrobat/.pdf file on York County website).

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reported, on October 31: (updates to follow):

Washington, DC – Kerry Beal, a whistleblower who exposed overworked and exhausted guards at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant, was notified this week by owner Exelon Nuclear that he “did not meet the selection criteria” for continuing to work at the plant.

Beal filmed guards sleeping at the plant only after his efforts to notify Wackenhut (Exelon’s Peach Bottom security contractor) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the regular occurrence of sleeping guards were met with inaction. Wackenhut Corporation lost its contract to provide security to the Peach Bottom nuclear plant because of the resulting publicity surrounding the sleeping guards.

“This is the stupidest thing they could have done. Now, they’ll ensure no one else will be brave enough to come forward and try to fix problems” said Danielle Brian, Executive Director, Project On Government Oversight.
Mr. Beal’s whistle-blowing prompted USA Today to editorialize: “The Peach Bottom case is a stark example of what has to go right in the crucial effort to keep nuclear plants safe. In this case, the plant owner, the security company and the NRC all failed. It shouldn’t take a hidden camera to make them do their jobs.”

An internal Wackenhut email released by POGO today shows that up until a few weeks ago, guards were still being forced to work more than 60 hours per week. The October 16, 2007 email from Wackenhut manager David Draghi notes: “I have revised the shift schedule…If you can afford to start giving your team members a break from 60 hours please do so.”

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Order from 2003 sought to reign in the problem of overworked guards. But industry efforts to weaken the Order prevailed, resulting in the current situation where security officers can work up to 72 hours per week. POGO issued a letter to NRC Chairman Klein today pointing out that pending efforts at the NRC to strengthen the rules are being dragged out for another two years. Continue reading →

Jews, Moslems, and Humanity: A Christmas Story.

dervis_korkut11

This is the story of how Dervish Korkut, and his wife, Servet, Muslims of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, saved the life of Mira Papo Solomanova, a young Jewish woman during World War II, how Mr. Korkut, the curator of the Sarajevo Museum, also saved the Sarajevo Haggada (click here), from the Nazis, and how Mira then saved Dervis and Servet’s daughter, Lamija and her family from the Serbs. Click here for the details in the New Yorker, here, here and here for other documentation on the Internet.

In 1942, Naza Commander Yohan Fortner arrived at the Bosnian National Museum in Sarajevo demanding the Sarajevo Hagadda. Dervish Korkut, Muslim, librarian, intellectual anti-fascist, and anti-communist, hid the book. He told Fortner that the book had already been taken by the Nazis. One way of looking at this is that Mr. Korkut risked his life to save a book. However, I would suggest that he devoted his life to saving books, ideas, culture, and humanity.

In April, 1942, Dervish protected a young Jewish woman, Mira Papo Solomanova, by bringing her home and passing her off as “Amira,” a Muslim servant, a cousin of his young wife, Servet, to help care for their infant son, Munib. They risked their lives to save another person.

In 1994, in a letter to the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem, Israel, Mira documented how Dervish and Servet saved her life.

Dervish passed away in 1969. (While we originally reported that Servet had passed away in 1998 we now know that) Servet lives in Sarajevo, and we hope, in good health. In 1999 their daughter Lamija evacuated her children in advance of the collapse of Kosovo. Lamija and her husband were sent by the Serbs to a refugee camp. Lamija went to the Jewish community in Kosovo with a photocopy of Mira’s testimony. Four days later she and her husband were flown to Tel Aviv and reunited with their children, and Mira’s Israeli son, Davor Bakovic.

If this story is filmed, Harrison Ford should play Dervish, to Angleina Jolie’s Mira, and Uma Thuman’s Servet. Robert DiNiro should direct and play both Munib Korkut, and Davor Balkovic.

Regardless of whether or not this story makes it to the silver screen, the world needs more Dervish Korkuts, more Servet Korkuts, more Mira Papo Salomanovas, and fewer Yohan Fortners.

Popular Logistics

Systems thinking on the biohumanosphere.