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Data Centers Set to Outpace Airlines in GHG Emissions
A new study released last week by McKinsey & Company claims that the emissions by data centers -- the hidden banks of servers and electronic storage devices behind everything from your email, to eBay to, well, this blog -- currently account for .3% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, those emissions are poised to quadruple; by 2050, data centers will have outpaced the airline industry in their GHG emissions.
The growth of power consumption in this area is staggering. According ...
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Air Travel II: Learning to Fly
Sometime during the afternoon of December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers flew their airship -- by modern standards a matchbox of spruce and muslin -- 120, 175 and 200 feet. The distances seem paltry in comparison to the architecture of modern aircraft, where wingspans regularly extend over 220 feet. But this would be to forget that the Wright brothers' contribution was not flight, but the control of it.
By the time the Wright brothers made their flight in 1903, the record of men who had taken...
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Bargain City Biking
What do you think of the possibility of having an outdoor “subway,” where the only air is fresh air, and the thrill you get down your spine is not from the erratic, bearded fellow crammed next to you, but because of the steady peddling action of your feet? One of The New York Times most emailed stories at the moment is about a bicycle rental program that’s debuting in our nation's capital.
The program, called SmartBike DC, will make 120 bicycles available to rent day or night at ten st...
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Good News, DC Anglers
When I moved from NYC to DC, I knew I wanted to do one thing: fish. Whereas most people are called to DC by a sense of civic duty, I was called, in part at least, by a sense of exploration. The Potomac. The Blue Ridge Mountains. The Shenandoah's. All good water. All filled with fish.
And so it came as a bit of sad news to hear that the Angler's Lie in Alexandria, VA, had closed its doors. It was, I was told, the spot for fishing gear and advice. But when I called the number, good news answere...
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What's a Weekend to Do?
Trying to plan your Earth Day weekend? Me too.
I have some good news: there’s a lot going on. Now, I have some bad news: there’s too much going on. Too much, that is, for any one person to do.
And so, to simplify your choices, I’ve included a number of suggestions below of events going on in the greater DC area. If you go to any of these, respond by letting me know how they were. I know I won’t make it to all of them, and I’d love to hear your feedback.
Events:
National Hanging Ou...
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Are We Losing the Race on Extinction?
When it rains, it floods. But what about our species? When they decline, do they also collapse?
The confluence of a few events has made me worry about this lately.
First, there was my series of posts about the collapse of Chinook salmon. In the Central Valley, only 90,000 adult Chinook returned last year, and scientists predict that as few as 58,000 will return this year. The numbers are even lower on the Klamath. Commercial fishing in these areas has been banned as a result.
Yesterday, there...
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Nicked by Nalgene? Try Stainless Steel
For every age, there is a remedy. And for nearly every remedy, a folly. The Romantic Poets famously had their laudanum, the Victorians their adulterated tea. So bad was the latter that Punch magazine ran a cartoon of a little girl at a grocery counter saying, "If you please, Sir, Mother says, will you let her have a quarter of a pound of your best tea to kill the rats with, and an ounce of chocolate as would get rid of the black beadles."
Could the same thing be true for my Nalgene?
Drink w...
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The Price is Right
For the first time ever, a company is attempting to put a market value on an ecosystem.
At the end of March, reports CNN.com, the UK private equity firm Canopy Capital announced that it bought 371,000 hectares of the Iwokrama Reserve rainforest in Guyana. The company invested because they believe that forests will soon come to be valued for the services they provide—that being rainfall, carbon storage, climate regulation, and biodiversity. Along with investing, the firm also wants to help ...
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A New Generation of Environmental Activists?
I'm usually not one for public speaking -- I get nervous, my hands clam up -- or for shout outs. But here goes.
To the bright kids in Lucia Plumb-Reyes's chemistry class at the Bronx Theater High School, I say: keep it up! We need you now more than ever.
Quickly, here's the story. My good friend Lucia invited me to speak to her class on any topic of my choosing. Having harbored a dream of teaching, and a passion for the environment, I chose to talk about urban environmental issues, and a bit...
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Air Travel I: Warning Sign
Last week U.S. and European officials signed the OpenSkies pact. U.S. officials, ever eager for market rule, saw it as an opportunity to reduce international fares through increased competition, even while fuel prices hit 4 clams a bucket. But as has historically been the case whenever this former colony of ours signs a pact with its former colonizer, confusion followed. It was time for a debate sold as news.
Some newspapers sold the story of low prices. Still others told another story -- of ...
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