The Green Report: Arctic animals, precious peridotite, phosphate-free detergent and drag-free driving

Polar bears in life jackets: a fun solution to a deadly serious problem

22 November 2008

The Globe and Mail

POLAR BEARS IN LIFE JACKETS: A FUN SOLUTION TO A DEADLY SERIOUS PROBLEM

Life jackets for polar bears may not be the most feasible solution, but as the number of bears drowning in Arctic waters increases, the digitally created image (at right) may help to raise awareness of the problem. At least that is the hope of designers ADDI Concepts, based in Sweden.

A 2006 study in the journal Polar Biology found that the number of bears swimming in open water had increased from 4 per cent of all bears spotted to 20 per cent, including four that had drowned. As summer sea ice melts, the distances between floes widen, and the animals become exhausted, sometimes fatally.

“The solution to global warming isn’t the vest; it’s changing your light bulbs, or not flying or taking your car,” Andreas Karlsson, one of the designers with ADDI, said in an e-mail. “We wanted to show this issue in a different light and hopefully put a smile on your face while addressing a very serious problem.”

This is ADDI’s second design for threatened animals: The first was a Bengal tiger wearing a bulletproof vest, drawing attention to a creature that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in its native India, and is now reduced to a population of 2,500 or less.

But isn’t it a bit contradictory for ADDI, which designs decor products, to implicitly criticize the kind of consumer culture that contributes to global warming? “I agree it’s an interesting contradiction,” Mr. Karlsson concedes. “We just don’t want to encourage the ‘throw-away society;’ we try to create emotional products designed to be passed on through generations.”

CARBON CAPTURE ROCKS

Much research has gone into the idea of facilitating carbon sequestration – also called carbon capture and storage (CCS) – by taking carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and locking it away deep underground in porous rock or in emptied oil fields. Now, researchers at Columbia University say they have found that a rock called peridotite could do the job.

In a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they describe how the rock reacts with carbon dioxide to form solid carbonate crystals. By drilling several kilometres deep into peridotite deposits and injecting heated water with dissolved carbon dioxide, they say, the natural mineralization process could happen 100,000 times faster.

“This would be permanent and environmentally benign,” says Juerg Matter, a geochemist and co-author of the study, mainly because CCS methods that propose to trap the carbon dioxide as a gas inevitably pose a risk of leakage.

Using peridotite, Prof. Matter says, could potentially store up to four billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – out of 30 billion tonnes released worldwide – for up to 3,000 years. This would only work for carbon emissions near exposed peridotite deposits, which are currently found in oil-rich Oman, as well as on Pacific islands and the coast of Greece. Prof. Matter is also working on a CCS project in Iceland that uses volcanic basalt.

“But we really want to emphasize that sequestration techniques are just one in a suite of solutions – there is no silver bullet for solving climate change,” he says. “We have to start with the easier and cheap solutions, like fuel conservation, energy efficiency and, most of all, stopping deforestation.”

A CLEANER KIND OF SOAP

An independent lab test conducted by Consumer Testing Laboratories in Bentonville, Ariz., has found that a botanical soap called Wave 2X High Performance Auto Dishwasher Gel, made by Earth Friendly Products, was just as effective at cleaning dirty dishes as phosphate-rich Cascade.

Phosphate-free detergents are already widely available – Wal-Mart and Loblaws have their own lines – as governments move to limit phosphates. Manitoba has regula-

tions in place, while the federal goverment proposes to limit the concentration of phosphates in household dishwasher detergent to 0.05 per cent by July, 2010. But the problem won’t be eliminated: Agricultural run-off, fertilizers and human and livestock waste still account for a big portion of the problem.

Phosphate is not a toxin, but a super-fertilizer. In rivers and lakes, it can stimulate blooms of algae, which soak up all the oxygen, choking out plants and fish.

PIMP MY MINIVAN

They’re not just for souped-up Camaros any more. Physicists have designed a spoiler for minivans that could save fuel and improve mileage.

By reducing drag and improving lift, the spoiler – shaped like a wave – could improve fuel efficiency by several kilometres per litre, as cars use half their power to overcome drag at highway speeds, says a report in the latest issue of the Journal of Vehicle Design.

For drivers who want to improve mileage while waiting for spoiler models to arrive, gas-saving tips include keeping tires inflated, removing excess weight from the trunk, planning journeys around traffic jams, installing radial tires, accelerating smoothly and staying below the speed limit.