Year-End Reflections on the Fuel Cell Industry in 2010: GreenTechMedia’s never-changing ‘short’ list of profitable fuel cell firms….
First, here’s an updated list of the top three profitable publicly-held fuel cell firms:
1.
2.
3.The not-profitable list is a bit longer and includes:
FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq:FCEL) reported revenue of $69.8 million in 2010 compared to $88.0 million for the comparable prior year. Net loss for the year was $58.9 million. FuelCell Energy builds molten carbonate stationary fuel cell power plants located at wastewater treatment facilities, universities, pump stations and other sites that need low-emission baseload distributed generation.
Australian firm, Ceramic Fuel Cells builds SOFC-based small-scale on-site micro combined heat and power (CHP) and distributed generation units. The AIM and ASX-listed firm lost about $19 million in the year ending June 2010 on sales of $2 million. The company has some sales activity in Europe.
Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems produced its one-millionth membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) this year, certainly a milestone in the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell technology. The MEA is the core component of its proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and Ballard has seen a 30 percent annual reduction in the cost of its fuel cell products over the past two years.
Ballard lost $3.3 million on 2009 sales of $46.7 million at a 5.9 percent gross margin. Ballard has a range of fuel cell products including systems and components for residential cogen, distributed generation and backup power. The pioneering firm has been developing proton exchange membrane-based fuel cells and losing money since 1983.
Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG), facing a Nasdaq delisting, lost $19.5 million in the second quarter of this year and $9.3 million on revenue of $5.8 million in the third quarter. The company is now focusing its PEM fuel cells on the materials handling market (in other words: forklifts). Oorja Protonics is also targeting this market.
Every fuel cell startup from MTI (recently de-listed from Nasdaq) to Protonex (recently delisted from the AIM) all the way to multi-nationals like Toshiba have promised commercial fuel cell product for decades, but few have managed to reach commercialization, let alone profitability.
Fuel cells were first demonstrated in the 1830s though it took another 50 years until the physics of the flow of electrical current in the fuel cell was understood. It might take another hundred years or so until the art of making them a volume-scale and profitable commercial business can be fully understood.
But VCs and entrepreneurs, God bless ‘em, are not going to let a century of business failure halt their ambition. Nor is Uncle Sam or other governments, which continue to pour millions into fuel cell technology development. Major firms such as GM, Hyundai, Honda, Johnson Matthey, Panasonic, Siemens, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Toyota, and UTC also invest in the fuel cell industry directly or as limited partners in venture capital firms.
A new type of wind-turbine platform can be placed much farther from shore.
Deepwater Wind, a company based in Providence, Rhode Island, has drawn up plans for what could be the largest wind farm in U.S. waters, the company announced last week. The proposed farm would generate a huge 1,000 megawatts of power and would be located 18 to 27 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts at a depth of 52 meters””considerably deeper than any other large scale wind project to date. By moving into deeper waters, turbines can harness stronger, more sustained winds. And the massive turbines the company plans to use””each capable of generating more than 5 megawatts of power, with blades rising 150 meters above the water’s surface””will be nearly invisible from shore, thereby avoiding potential legal battles with coastal communities that perceive the turbines as eyesores.
Four-legged steel platforms rising from the seafloor will allow Deepwater Wind to operate in depths more than twice those of conventional steel “monopole” wind turbine platforms. As water depth increases, the diameter of monopoles must increase exponentially, making them uneconomical in water deeper than about 20 meters. By using a four-legged design, company officials say they will be able to work in depths that were previously prohibitively expensive.
The four-legged platform design is already commonly used for offshore oil and gas rigs. It was first adapted for offshore wind turbines in a pilot project in the North Sea, known as the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project, in 2007. Two 5-megawatt turbines were each mounted on a four-legged tower in 45 meters of water. Although the towers were never connected to the electricity grid, they remain the world’s deepest offshore wind platforms.
Paul Sclavounos, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, says four- or even three-legged towers offer a ready way for offshore wind to expand into deeper waters. However, truly deepwater deployments””platforms in hundreds of meters of water””will require floating platforms unattached to the seafloor.
Advertisement“For depths much larger than [45 meters], the only solution is floaters, but we still have to do more development on these designs,” Sclavounos says. Only two small pilot floating turbines have so far been deployed anywhere in the world.
Can Social Science Combat Climate Change?
Roughly 44 percent of Californians smoked tobacco in 1965. By 2010, 9.3 percent did””a shift that might have seemed impossible before it happened. Understanding exactly how such a social transformation occurred in the past may prove key to understanding how individuals might alter their behavior to help combat climate change in the future.
By studying past instances of social transformation, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) hope to predict future change in response to global warming as part of California’s Carbon Challenge””a study commissioned by the California Energy Commission to help the state cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels. LBNL energy technology scientist Jeffery Greenblatt and his colleagues are analyzing technology options as well as data records from 10 historical behavior changes””smoking cessation, seat belt use, vegetarianism, drunk driving, recycling and yoga, among others.
For starters, Greenblatt is examining the full mix of technical advances in both the supply and demand of energy that could possibly help meet the target, including more efficient electric motors, better insulation, intelligent controls for energy, as well as fluorescent and LED lighting. But even all of these technological advances may not get California to its mid-century mandate alone.
Individual choices could close the gap, according to historical data. Because smoking cessation data and seat belt””use statistics have around for decades, scientists have a good grasp on so-called adoption rates, or how much behavior change is ultimately possible. Historical data also explains how long it takes for change to stick. For example, tobacco smoking has been in a steady decline since the 1960s with all sorts of factors driving this trend””improved science and epidemiology, education through labeling and advertising campaigns, and greater public awareness of risks””all of which could be applied to behaviors that contribute to climate change. “Watershed events and labeling can play important roles in transforming change. The 1964 Surgeon General report is an example [of a watershed event] and subsequent labeling for cigarettes was a big factor,” says energy researcher Max Wei of LBNL, adding that he imagines far more carbon or environmental labeling to inform the public.
By identifying the hurdles, policies and incentives used to, say, dissuade smokers from lighting up, the LBNL team says they can better pinpoint corresponding elements related to persuading individuals to alter their energy use. “We’re eliminating the squish from what has often been known as the squishy science,” Greenblatt says. In total, the team is looking at 23 different energy behavior areas””from telecommuting and public transit to wasting less food””and projecting these well into the future.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
On the point about social science, there has been lots of work done on how the “adoption” cycle works that has developed a fairly consistent view (Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” is a reasonably good explanation of it) but the mechanics of influencing it are remarkably difficult.
People do have a remarkably strong view about what constitutes a “normal” life and although each is individually different they fall within a close enough band to provide social cohesion. This cohesion is what allows many of our systems, like the money system, to actually function. In fact, the money system is the only one that has achieved near universal adoption: so too has the way we account for the flows of that money and each time the same erroneous assumption has been made that there is no “cost” to using the Earth’s resources and services.
That is beginning to change with China having calculated that last year’s economic growth inflicted 1.3 trillion yuan (about 4% of GDP) of damage on the environment and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project has produced an estimate for the global cost. There is a flicker of recognition that we need to bring the economic and eco systems into line harmony with each other rather than have one consume the other but there is a long way to go.
There is a big difference between individual rejection of the smoking habit and individual rejection of carbon dioxide emissions. The smoke affects the individual personally and directly. Greenhouse gases do not. I advocate taxing coal, oil and gas out of existence completely, but I have no intention of spending my own money on it. You couldn’t persuade me to disadvantage myself personally for the cause of climate change under any circumstances. I don’t do guilt, especially for behaviors which are determined by public policy, but I certainly would consider acting in the interest of my own health.
The quest to persuade people to change their personal behavior for the cause of climate change is ridiculous and likely to be almost completely ineffective. It’s like asking people to contribute money to the federal government voluntarily because they need to reduce the public debt. There might be a few mentally deficient persons who make a contribution, but most reasonable people will recognize this as a matter for collective, not individual, responsibility.
The list with fuel cell firms doesn’t contains names …
California county rushes to mop up flood damage ahead of storm
Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Volunteers flocked to a southern California community to help residents mop up last week’s flood damage ahead of what meteorologists are predicting will be more rain.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said the storm should be much smaller than the one last week, but that it could dump as much as two inches of rain or two feet of snow in the mountains of California. Because the ground is already wet, the storm could cause problems
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/12/29/california.floods.cleanup/index.html
No say about this very rare event or that climate change contributes to the uptake in precipitation.
NY Plow Driver: ‘Nastiest’ Storm I Can Remember http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbIDz8jG36E&feature=player_embedded
The last paragraph of the article on social sciences and climate states that “education is inversely proportional to beef and meat consumption.” So, to put it bluntly: the more meat people eat, the more stupid they are. I wonder if there’s a causality one way or the other…
I’m gonna cook some lentils now!
Interesting side effect….
CBC News – North – Light shines in High Arctic darkness
People in the High Arctic say their 24-hour darkness isn’t as dark as it used to be, and a weather researcher says it’s because of the warming climate.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Climate-Portals/139434822741700
Economics is a human made construct of behavior. Cost can mean nation-state printed symbols of political power or end of life.
Social transformation may come when “the people” realize that defining materials which are mechanically stripped from the Lithosphere as “energy” is fraud. Mother Earth does not define these sequestered states of Matter as “energy.” Only humans do.
We have spent the development of western civilization headed in one wrong direction. Bomb power based on material explosives has pervaded civil economics through imperatives of nation-state military-industrial centralized economics.
Mother Earth is only beginning to respond to this fraud by now reacting to over one trillion tons of carbonic acid gas contamination (carbon moved from lithosphere to biosphere by human oxidation). Nations continue to pour massive public financial resources and policy directives into subsidies for mining transnationals and military power. Health costs continue to rise, substantially from contamination as well as greed.
Prepare for a prehistoric climate of destabilization (such as when seas were a hundred feet higher). That is a “cost.” This means that petroleum, coal and uranium are not “energy” resources, but physical and political power weapons of fools. Tar sands and coal for our militant stockings and combustion engines, while the polar vortex begins its collapse. Just a step in a cascade of coming unfortunate events due to fossil and fissile fraud.
Since uranium mining is the other side of the coin of power finance from that of “mineral wealth,” fading empires now promote going atomic. Indeed, like the last flicker of what once was and is soon gone from unbearable, self-made, internal financial burden. Yet, it will be “externalized costs” (such as radiative forcing from invisible gas) that truly counts the most. Consider that “cost.”
There is a big danger in comparing smoking and climate change because there is a huge difference. Quitting smoking is an action that mostly benefits the quitter. Quitting greenhouse gas emissions has negligible benefit for the quitter. There simply is very little incentive.
For social science to combat climate change, we have to promote clean energy better than the coal and oil guys promote their products. They have honed their PR and marketing for over a century.
We have some catching up to do. We can never rest, but at least we have facts and ethics on our side.
Joe has written about the “four miracles” needed to make fuel cells practical, but here’s a single one that would do it:
A cheap way to get H2 from organic matter. Garbage and sewage are H2 sources with negative cost that goes deeper negative as cities get bigger and richer.
Modular, local waste-to energy fuel cells would eliminate truck traffic, pollution, and cost. Selling waste heat makes them even better.
6. Mark Shapiro, “social science to combat climate change”
Yes! Human capital is the secret weapon against climate change with potential way undervalued; and coincidently, information and communications technologies (ICTs) including social media etc. have been rapidly evolving to optimize it (as well as cities). How convenient!
Re: social science (of which I know little)
“9/11” is a concept (partially based on barbaric acts that took place in NYC/DC/PA in 2001) that really took off and gave our President nearly free reign to respond as he saw fit. The down side is that some seriously flawed responses were taken. This will happen when we, as a society, get serious about directing our efforts toward zero carbon emissions and carbon sequestration. Proponents will say we’re doing the best we can and the naysayers will point out how money and effort is being wasted. Skeptics (both true *and* politically motivated) will always be with us.
The “Hundredth Monkey” effect is what I’m looking for. I know, the Hundredth Monkey research was bogus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect] but “War Hysteria” really happens, and that’s pretty nearly the same thing. I prefer, however, the “we’re learning to be responsible” concept over the “scared out of my wits so beat them up” concept. The faster society accepts the need for significant re-direction the better; I’m sure we cannot wait 35 years (as the smoking illustration suggests).
@2 and @8:
It’s true that people will not be motivated to sacrifice for the wider good when no direct benefits accrue to themselves, and this makes for a distinction between change in smoking/seat belt usage on the one hand, and carbon reduction on the other.
But there’s a difference too, I think, between the way people feel about spreading their wealth around horizontally in time, as it were, and longitudinally. What we wouldn’t do for contemporary strangers we are likely to be more willing to do for subsequent generations.
Anecdotally: I never consistently wore seatbelts, or ate my veggies, despite the obvious benefits to me – until I had kids for whom to set an example. My son and daughter in law tried unsuccessfully several times to quit smoking. Their daughter arrived, and they found the motivation.
We should continue to talk about near-term effects of climate change, so folks can get a sense of how little time is left to deal with it. But it may cut more ice, as it were, to focus on the effects that will be felt by our children and grandchildren. That’s whom people are willing and even eager to sacrifice for.
Prokaryotes said:
I believe that’s the point. An indictment of the “Hydrogen Economy.”
Mark Shapiro said:
I think those are even more efficient as just plain Methane sources, with the added benefit of being able to plug into existing infrastructure (i.e. feed into natural gas pipelines). I assume the H2 you’re talking about would have come from cracking the methane, so there’s an inherent loss of energy in that step, as compared to sending the CH4 directly to gas-fired power plants, home heating, etc.
Education and public awareness campaigns have helped to reduce smoking consumption, but the most effective weapons have been public policy changes to increase the cost of tobacco products (through taxation) and prohibit smoking in workplaces and public places. (The effectiveness of these measures is why the tobacco industry fights them so strenuously at every level.) California has been a leader in tobacco control for decades, and it shows. And yes, we could learn a lot from this experience when it comes to changing attitudes and behavior to reduce fossil fuel use.
Northern Ireland to import water
The authorities in Northern Ireland came in for heavy criticism yesterday after water shortages affected tens of thousands of homes, some of which have had no running water for a week.
A thaw following days of cold weather brought thousands of burst pipes and other problems. At one point 40,000 homes were without water.
The Northern Ireland Executive yesterday accepted an offer from Scotland to provide 160,000 litres of drinking water. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/northern-ireland-to-import-water-2171628.html
nicteis (#13) said, “Anecdotally: I never consistently wore seatbelts, or ate my veggies, despite the obvious benefits to me – until I had kids for whom to set an example. My son and daughter in law tried unsuccessfully several times to quit smoking. Their daughter arrived, and they found the motivation.”
Hence the possible value of bumper stickers such as “This car’s fuel is your children’s future” and, for an EV with solar panels at home., “Fueled by renewables instead of your children’s future”.
Rhetorical question: How do fossil fuel company executives and their PR and political minions live with the damage they are doing to their own children’s and grandchildren’s future? I believe the answer is the power of denial. If we can crack this one, we will get somewhere.
Climate chaos….. Even the US won’t be able to cope
Anger grows in New York over slow snow clean-up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12090575
Climate revenge….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12087870
The floods are also hitting businesses in Queensland, which is Australia’s key coal-producing state.
Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote
For many communities we haven’t even seen the peak of the floodwaters yet, that’s a number of days away”
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Two of Australia’s biggest coal export terminals – Dalrymple Bay and Gladstone Ports – together with Australia’s top coal transporter QR National said they were cutting back on operations while the floods persisted.
Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, declared “force majeure” at four Queensland coal mines allowing it to miss deliveries because of circumstances beyond its control.
“They’re a pretty tough lot here, they won’t leave. If… their bank managers will keep giving them money they will keep trying and trying and trying.”
Total chaos….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088872
He was speaking as 36,000 people across NI struggled to cope without running water – some for as long as 11 days.
2010 is the watershed….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12090706
More than 8,000 people got stuck at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport because they had not been warned, he said.
“Entire villages remain without power, the situation is also difficult on the roads, and thousands of people are stranded in airports.”
“The situation is difficult, but thankfully not catastrophic, and our task is to make sure it does not escalate to catastrophic levels,” he said.
NOAA Launches Website Housing Previously Released Public Information from the Deepwater Horizon Response
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20101229_dwh_library.html
“NOAA today unveiled a web archive of the maps, wildlife reports, scientific reports and other previously released public information used by emergency responders, fishermen, mariners and local officials during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The NOAA Deepwater Horizon Library can be accessed via http://www.noaa.gov/deepwaterhorizon. “
Too much rain? Next few months will tell
Experts say the ground is so saturated now that the danger of flooding and debris flow will remain heightened through the rest of the rainy season.
The wettest December since 1889 has left hillside areas across Southern California dangerously saturated, bringing a heightened risk of landslides and further flooding in the next few months.
More than 14 inches of rain has fallen in some hillside areas in just the last two weeks, and officials said the saturation levels could intensify in January and February, when Southern California typically gets most of its rain for the year. Engineers are using helicopters to fly over some hillside areas hit by recent fires, looking for signs of fissures or earth movement.
“It gets to the point where the water that’s falling is no longer even going into the ground — it’s just skipping off the ground,” said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. “A lot of residents are under the false impression that once the sun comes out, everything is fine. That’s not the case. The soil beneath the surface can take months to completely dry out.” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-12-30-rain-20101230,0,2384258.story
This is just the beginning, it will just getting worse … still irresponsible/reckless people dig fossils.
From the LAT article:
“Normally … it doesn’t rain that much in a short period of time. The mountain could not hold it,” Cooke said. “The side slopes fell and slid down, and our roadways happened to be in the middle of them, and it took the roads with them.”
Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, said there’s ominous similarity between this early winter and that of 2004-05: Both brought eye-popping amounts of rain. In fact, December 2004 brought so much that it set a record for December rainfall for the 20th and 21st centuries — but this month’s more than 10 inches of rain topped even that.
Still, for now, rain is the name of the game, Patzert said: “The bottom line is, something is imminent if the rains continue like this.”
Another storm is expected to hit Saturday night.
Clues sought in Arkansas earthquake swarm
Drilling for natural gas has been ruled out as a cause for the quakes, but experts are looking at saltwater disposal wells, Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for the USGS, said.
Disposal wells are created when drilling waste is injected back into the earth after drilling.
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission issued an emergency moratorium on permits for new disposal wells earlier this month.
“I think everyone recognizes that there is an increased number of seismic events occurring in and around this area,” Shane Khoury, deputy director and general counsel for the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, said. “If you look at the maps, at least circumstantially, there appears to be evidence that they may be related to disposal operations.” http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/12/24/Clues-sought-in-Arkansas-earthquake-swarm/UPI-16101293217985/
Natural Gas = Methane + Gasland
Woman killed, 4,000 evacuated in Philippine flood
… in eastern Philippines, where landslides and flooding have prompted some 4,000 people to evacuate to safer ground.
Albay province has been pummeled by nonstop rains for five days, and the provincial governor, Joey Salceda, has declared a state of calamity to free up provincial funds for disaster relief efforts.
Residents of at least five towns have been evacuated. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/30/AR2010123000068.html
Elliott is among hundreds of homeowners flooded in 2008 — the wettest year on record in Chicago — who were supposed to be helped by a $10 million federal grant administered by Cook County. But there’s no more money available, and many homeowners are stuck with half-finished repair projects, with no more aid in sight.
But after contractors started tearing out flood-damaged walls and floors, they often discovered more extensive damage. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-flood-grants-20101229,0,4305866.story
By the time the repairs are done the next flood hits? Even without another flood in the next month, it remains questionable if mold growth can be prevented.
In theory people should move to higher ground and rebuild? Even if they do, landslides will occur, there is no save place anymore on Eaarth. Brought to you by fossil energy – Big Oil.
ANNIE GUEST, REPORTER: Twenty-year-old John Horton was born and raised in Theodore and can’t believe he has to go, but his home, his car and most of his belongings are underwater.
JOHN HORTON, FLOOD VICTIM: Yeah, just devastating, hey. It’s a bloody disgrace. I went there… I don’t know, 5:30 the other morning and it was… I don’t know, ankle deep and then I went back about… oh about 11:00 o’clock or something, she was up knee-deep. Fridges, freezers all sorts of shit just bobbing around the house.
ANNIE GUEST: The young mine worker had just spent his life savings setting up a new home with his girlfriend.
ANNIE GUEST: And like many out here, Dr Chater doesn’t have insurance.
BRUCE CHATER: We never got around to doing it and flood insurance is always horrendously expensive in the past, so no-one ever took it out, so yeah, we just, you start again.
ANNIE GUEST: Margaret Dale has lived in Theodore for all of her 66 years. She saw the last major flood when she was 10 years old, but nothing prepared her for this.
MARGARET DALE, FLOOD VICTIM: We didn’t ever think that it would come to this. We thought that we would be able to, what they say, live it out and you know, find higher ground within the town. We didn’t think we’d have to move out like this.
ANNIE GUEST: It’s the second time this year flooding has ravaged cotton crops around Theodore. The last record-setting flood here was in 1956, but this time the Dawson River has gone higher, and it’s still rising.
ANNA BLIGH, QUEENSLAND PREMIER: Well, it’s absolutely clear this is a devastating event for the people of Bundaberg and the Burnett region. This river is set to peak at somewhere around 7.5 meters. At that level it will be bigger than the flood in the 1950s, so there’s a lot of people going to be hurt by this event. Our heart goes out to everyone who’s been affected.
ANNIE GUEST: The State Government has also announced and contributed $1 million to a flood appeal.
JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: Today, I can announce that the Australian Government will match that donation with $1 million.
ANNIE GUEST: The floods are expected to cost more than $6 billion in lost exports and damage.
In areas further south, some people are starting to return home in Warwick and in Dalby on the Darling Downs. But despite all the rain they’ve had, residents have had to limit their water use in Dalby, thanks to a damage water treatment plant.
Meanwhile back in Moura, the Dales are worrying about the future of their hometown of Theodore. John Dale fears it could take three decades to recover.
JOHN DALE: Well one of the cotton growers told me he’d be back 30 years, and I think the town might be too. Yeah, you know, that’s if there’s a town left in a week’s time. So, you know, we’ve got to wait and see.
TRACY BOWDEN: Annie Guest reporting there from Central Queensland. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s3103866.htm
Seven News Brisbane: Queensland’s Flood Disaster (29.12.10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isfNA5Nj_1M
San Diego River at flood stage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dobJdb07CxM
Californantis?
Cockatoo Coal Says Queensland’s Baralaba Mine Flooded
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-29/cockatoo-coal-says-queensland-s-baralaba-mine-flooded-update1-.html
Food crisis emerging in flood-hit Qld
A food crisis is emerging amid Queensland’s unprecedented flood disaster, with vast swathes of the state awash.
Authorities are planning mass food drops to isolated communities across central and southern regions, as the crisis rolls on.
Premier Anna Bligh, who’s been touring flooded communities, foreshadowed a multibillion dollar damage bill and said the state was facing its “toughest hour”.
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On Thursday, the situation in the inland community of Emerald was of most concern.
The worst-case scenario suggests 80 per cent of the town and 8000 residents could be affected by floodwaters. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/food-crisis-emerging-in-floodhit-qld-20101230-19awc.html
Donations should only go to nations which aggressive phase out dangerous flood causing Co2 emissions.
What Is in Fast Food? A Newly Discovered Reason to Avoid Fast Food
As reported by University of Toronto researchers, the chemicals studied in human blood, urine and feces were polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs), which are the breakdown products of the perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) used in coating the food wrappers. Scientists said the exposure to humans through this means “should be considered as a significant indirect source of PFCA.”
That means you now have a new reason to avoid fast foods.
The CDC’s Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals 2009 (considered the most comprehensive assessment of the exposure of the U.S. population to chemicals in our environment), detected a total of 12 different types of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in Americans tested.
PFCs have many health dangers, including being part of a group of chemicals referred to as”gender-bending,” because they can disrupt your endocrine system and sex hormones.
In animal studies, PFOA has also been associated with other health dangers such as:
* “Significant increases in treatment related deaths” in rat offspring at doses that did not affect the mothers.
* Serious changes in the weight of various organs, including brain, prostate, liver, thymus and kidneys.
* Deaths of a significant number of rat pups of mothers exposed to PFOA.
* Damage to the pituitary at all doses in female rat offspring (The pituitary secretes hormones that regulate growth, reproduction, and many metabolic processes. Change in pituitary size is associated with toxicity.)
* Tumor development after prolonged exposure.
Other studies have linked PFC’s to:
* Infertility: A study published in the journal Human Reproduction last year found that both PFOA and PFOS dramatically increased the odds of infertility from 70 to 134 percent; PFOA was linked to a 60 to 154 percent increase in the chance of infertility.
* Thyroid disease: A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that PFOA can damage your thyroid function. Individuals with the highest PFOA concentrations were more than twice as likely to report current thyroid disease. Your thyroid contains thyroglobulin protein, which binds to iodine to form hormones, which in turn influence essentially every organ, tissue and cell in your body. Thyroid hormones are also required for growth and development in children. Left untreated, thyroid disease can lead to heart disease, infertility, muscle weakness, and osteoporosis.
* Cancer: PFOA has been associated with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests (liver, pancreas, testicles and mammary glands in rats), and has been associated with increases in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers. The EPA has ruled PFCs as “likely carcinogens,” and has stated that PFOA “poses developmental and reproductive risks to humans.”
Immune system problems: Several studies indicate that PFCs have an adverse effect on your immune system. As described in a report on PFCs by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), PFOA was found to decrease all immune cell sub-populations studied in the thymus and spleen, and caused immuno-suppression.
* Increased LDL cholesterol levels: A study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine showed that children and teens with higher PFOA levels had higher levels of total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol, while PFOs was associated with increased total cholesterol, including both LDL cholesterol and HDL or “good” cholesterol.
Keep in mind that avoiding these products is especially crucial for pregnant women or couples who want to have children, since PFC’s can have a serious impact on fertility, and on a baby’s delicate hormonal system. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fast-food-health_b_800297.html
“The temperatures are really going to start to drop off tomorrow afternoon and evening, and then it’s going to get pretty brutal,” said Mark Turner with the Weather Service in Spokane.
Storm drops 9 inches of snow in Spokane, Wash.
Heavy snow and icy roads made travel tough Wednesday in eastern parts of the state as a storm dropped more than 9 inches of snow in the Spokane area and blizzard conditions blew through the Palouse region.
The storm temporarily knocked out power for more than 6,000 customers in the Spokane area after snow and winds snapped tree limbs and power lines.
In November, 25.7 inches of snow fell at Spokane International Airport, breaking the record of 24.7 inches set in 1955. Weather records have been kept in Spokane since 1893.
Spokane averages less than 42 inches of snow in a typical winter.
A strong La Nina event in the tropical Pacific Ocean has forecasters predicting cool and wet weather across the state through February.
“It just will not stop,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeremy Wolf of Spokane. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013799864_apwawinterweather8thldwritethru.html
Powerful winter storm pummels Utah
Yet another major winter storm rolled in to Utah, and it hit all over the state.
Anyone driving in the storm is warned to be prepared with a winter storm survival kit in the car. It should include extra clothes, food and water, blankets, and whatever else may be needed if the vehicle gets stuck in the snow. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13813950&autostart=y
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — A winter storm in the Sierra Nevada has left more than 10,000 homes and businesses without power around Lake Tahoe.
NV Energy Inc. spokesman Karl Walquist says crews are working to repair power lines that were downed overnight by high winds and tree limbs snapping under the weight of heavy snow.
The biggest outage at midday Wednesday was affecting about 10,000 customers at South Lake Tahoe and the Meyers area. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-29/10-000-without-power-in-storm-at-lake-tahoe.html
Putin Assails Transit Officials for Response to Ice Storm at Airports
Power failures and other weather-related troubles all but shut the airports earlier this week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Many were angered by a lack of information, and there were reports of disturbances and even attacks on airport workers. State television showed scenes of passengers mounting protests and chanting slogans against the management of the two airports, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo.
On Tuesday, President Dmitri A. Medvedev told prosecutors to examine whether the authorities had mishandled the response to the ice storm, which occurred when an unusual warming melted snow and caused rain. That was followed by freezing temperatures that left a thick coat of ice everywhere and took down electrical lines.
Over the summer, the Moscow region suffered a record heat wave and was blanketed by smoke from forest fires in the suburbs. City officials were condemned for being unprepared.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/europe/30moscow.html
Winter wackiness: Utah Climate Center explains recent weather
First snow, then rain, then more snow. And as the week draws to a close, temperatures are forecasted to be well below freezing.
According to the National Weather Service, much of the state is in a winter storm warning. On top of that, the Utah Avalanche Center is currently rating risk of avalanches in the Logan area as “considerable.”
“This is very unusual for the state of Utah,” said meteorologist Marty Booth of the Utah Climate Center. “A day ago, all of this moisture was tapping in from the subtropics, but this is sort of combining now with moisture off of the northeastern Pacific, off the coast of Alaska.”
This moist, high-pressure system immediately followed by a colder, low-pressure system, Booth explained, led to the strange conditions that swept through Cache Valley on Wednesday.
“With the high-pressure ridge moving in, we did have snow overnight, because we do get temperatures below or near freezing at nighttime,” he said. “This warm front moved in overnight and into (Wednesday) morning, and it caused the snow to change to rain.”
In mid-afternoon, however, the rain turned back to snow.
“It should be getting quite chilly,” he said, adding that New Year’s Day may be as cold as minus 6 degrees, near record lows for this time of year. http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_fe5ed03c-13be-11e0-8e00-001cc4c002e0.html
Unusual? Strange Conditions? And all over the world …
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay plans to implement new greenhouse-gas standards on oil refineries, arguing the regulations would amount to “a new gas tax.” http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/135413-hutchison-epa-climate-rules-like-a-new-gas-tax
Fail!
#38 Prok, 3 people have died in BC in the last week due to avalanche!