Environment

Methane Harvest Debuts in Texas

By |

San Antonio, Texas will be the first city in the United States to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning natural gas. San Antonio’s Business Journal said the city signed a 20-year lease with Ameresco Inc., who will convert the city’s “biosolids” — sewage — into natural gas. “The citizens of San Antonio produce about 140,000 tons of biosolids each year,” said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer of San Antonio’s water system. Methane gas, the main byproduct of human and organic waste, is a major component of natural gas that is burned in power plants, furnaces and combustion generators. The city’s biogas will be prepared in a processing plant built in San Antonio and then sold on the open market, making it the first city to do large-scale conversion of methane gas to fuel for generating power.

World

Sri Lanka War Nearing End?

By |

One of Asia’s longest-running wars could soon be over if Sri Lanka’s government is to be believed. Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the BBC on Friday that government forces will soon recapture the rebel stronghold city of Kilinochchi, in the far north of the island nation. “Our numbers are very much greater than theirs, our firepower is much greater. We are very confident we can win and we want to finish this very soon,” the BBC quoted him as saying. The 25-year-old war between government forces and the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, has killed 70,000 people, and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, according to news reports.

Featured

The Business of Ballot Booklet Brokering

By |

Campaigner and ex-City Hall aide David Noyola illustrates how insiders spin local elections
By Matthew Hirsch, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press
Like many who work in San Francisco City Hall, David Noyola last month was answering two phones, a land line for his official duties, and an iPhone to talk politics. Noyola has since left his position as a legislative aide for Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and for election 2008 has put his specialized knowledge to use as a professional campaigner. His work in these two capacities illustrates how insiders can have sizable impacts on local elections. In Noyola’s case, his influence is currently most visible in the city’s voter information guide — the thick booklet published before each election that lists all the candidates and initiatives, as well as the official and paid arguments in support or opposition. Working separately as a partisan electioneer and as an aide for Peskin, Noyola placed 22 arguments in the voter guide, collectively supporting of five propositions.

Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 38

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“The carbon numbers just don’t add up and we need to be looking at other options.” — Brian Launder, an engineer in the U.K., says large-scale geo-engineering can help fight climate change (see below). *THIS WEEK*
– Women on top in Rwandan Parliament
– Can ‘geo-engineering’ save the Earth? – Veteran PTSD on the rise as new therapies emerge
– Heavy spin cycle on Iran reporting

THIS WEEK ON NEWSDESK.org
* Women on Top in Rwandan Parliament
Women will form the majority in Rwanda’s national parliament, making it the first country in the world to have more female legislators than men.

Democracy & Civics

Women on Top in Rwandan Parliament

By |

Women will form the majority in Rwanda’s national parliament, making it the first country in the world to have more female legislators than men. According to the Independent, women have won around 56 percent of the seats in parliament after four days of peaceful elections. Women will have at least 44 of the 80 total seats. “The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves,” one female voter said. President Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front secured a majority in the elections — only the second since the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people there.

World

Heavy Spin Cycle on Iran Reporting

By |

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s annual visit to the United Nations General Assembly has brought the usual round of troubling stories about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and his anti-Israel views. But a glance at the world’s press offers some less-expected — and sometimes less credible — angles. Hong Kong’s Asia Times newspaper gives a new image for the country, that of Iran the diplomatic power. According to contributor Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Iran has recently helped to reduce tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan and in post-war Georgia and Russia. This is not entirely selfless, however.

Environment

Can 'Geo-Engineering' Save the Earth?

By |

Perhaps recycling and compact fluorescent lights aren’t exciting anymore — but media have recently latched onto the concept of geo-engineering as a means of combatting climate change. For now, geo-engineering remains theoretical, and imagines large- scale projects such as man-made volcanic eruptions and giant algae farms.
Shell Oil is already exploring the field, according to the environmental Web site Mongabay, by investing in a project that adds lime to seawater as a means of increasing carbon dioxide absorbtion by the world’s oceans. At least some climate scientists are apparently excited about the field, too. British science group the Royal Society this month published a special collection of papers on geo-engineering, and the Economist magazine published a run-down of some of the most elaborate ideas. One of the better received plans appears to be that of Jonathan Latham of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, who proposes a fleet of unmanned ships that would pump seawater vapor into the atmosphere in order to make that clouds reflect sunlight back into space.

Nation

Veteran PTSD on the Rise as New Therapies Emerge

By |

Iraq war veterans are seeking out new forms of therapy to help heal psychologically as reports of post-traumatic stress disorder and army suicides have increased dramatically. United Press International reported that the suicide rate of soldiers in 2008 would likely surpass that of the nation’s suicide rate, while an article in the Washington Post noted that reports of post-traumatic stress disorder remain high for both wounded and uninjured soldiers. New solutions to the problem may be emerging, however. At the University of Southern California, psychologist Albert “Skip” Rizzo anticipated the return of thousands of soldiers with PTSD and developed a “Virtual Iraq” program that he says has been successful in treating the troops. Rizzo told NPR that one of the best treatments for PTSD is for the person to relive their trauma using their imagination – something most soldiers want to avoid.

Featured

Alphabet Soup

By |

From A to V, Newsdesk.org presents a complete overview of the 22 propositions that San Francisco voters will consider on November 4 — from public power and Junior ROTC to waterfront redevelopment and legalizing prostitution. Photo: San Francisco ballot receipt

The Truthiness Report

San Francisco Voter Propositions for November ’08

By |

By Greg M. Schwartz, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press
Editor’s Note
This overview of the twenty-two propositions on San Francisco’s Nov. 4 ballot includes regularly updated contextual links, as well as reader comments. Truthiness Update
San Francisco Election Ad Annotations
Prop D: Eyeing a Revitalized Pier 70 (Nov. 3)
Prop. V and JROTC: Lessons in How Not to Listen (Oct.