June 20, 2011

Good Morning,

Researchers use several different factors to rank the
environmental impact of domesticating and consuming
livestock; i.e. beef, lamb, etc. Check out the first
article for details on this study.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Foods ranked for environmental impacts

LOS ANGELES - In a ranking of foods by environmental impact, lamb, beef and cheese generate the most greenhouse gases, a study says. The Meat Eater's Guide, based on research by the Environmental Working Group, ranked 20 popular meat, fish, dairy and vegetable proteins, using a cradle-to-grave, life-cycle assessment that includes the amount of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, as well as information on processing, transportation and disposal of each food, the Los Angles Times reported Sunday. "There's been a lot of information out there about all the various impacts of meat production and consumption," EWG senior analyst Kari Hamerschlag said. "We wanted to consolidate and highlight the most important things consumers need to know to make better choices." Livestock such as sheep and cows "release substantial amounts of methane," a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, the study said. The study measured the carbon footprint of each food, equating it to equivalent car miles driven. Eating a 4-ounce serving of beef, for example, generates the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car 6 miles, the guide said. While the study acknowledges the
healthy proteins and other nutrients provided by meat when consumed in moderation, it cited a 2009 National Cancer Institute study that found people who ate the most red meat were 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease than those who ate the least. "Most people in the U.S. eat way more meat than is good for them or the planet," TV chef Mario Batali said in endorsing the guide.


Solar panels provide cool extra benefit

SAN DIEGO - Solar panels on the roofs of houses and office buildings can do more than produce electricity, researchers say -- they can reduce cooling and heating costs. A professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, San Diego, says he found using thermal imaging that a building's ceiling could be 5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler during the day under solar panels that under an exposed roof. At night, the panels help hold heat in, reducing heating costs in the winter. "Talk about positive side-effects," Professor Jan Kleissl said. Kleissl said his study found the amount saved on cooling the building amounted to getting a 5 percent discount on the solar panels' price over the panels' lifetime, a UCSD release reported. The panels essentially act as roof shades, researchers said. Rather than the sun beating down onto the roof and pushing heat through the roof and inside the ceiling, photovoltaic panels take the solar beating and shade the roof. In a test of a building on the UCSD campus, panels reduced the amount of heat reaching the roof by about 38 percent, the researchers said. "There are more efficient ways to passively cool buildings, such as reflective roof membranes," Kleissl said. "But, if you are considering installing solar photovoltaic, depending on your roof thermal properties, you can expect a large reduction in the amount of energy you use to cool your residence or business."


Russia launches orbiting radio observatory

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A long-delayed Russian radio telescope was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the country's Federal Space Agency said. The Spektr-R orbiting radio observatory was launched Monday into an elliptical orbit that varies between 621 miles and 207,000 miles above the Earth, SPACE.com reported Monday. Multiple delays in construction of the telescope, built by Lavochkin Association of Moscow, had pushed the original launch date of 2004 or 2005 back. During its five-year mission, the Spektr-R observatory will study black holes, pulsars and other deep space objects with the participation of scientists from 20 countries. With a 30-foot-wide antenna dish, the Spektr-R is part of an international astronomy project that will see it working in conjunction with radio telescopes on Earth. "The aim of the mission is to use the space telescope to conduct interferometer observations in conjunction with the global ground radio telescope network in order to obtain images, coordinates, motions and evolution of angular structure of different radio emitting objects in the universe," Roscosmos officials said in a statement.


Modern humans carry Neanderthal DNA

MONTREAL - Some of the human X chromosome is from Neanderthals and, found exclusively in people outside Africa, hints at interbreeding with modern humans, a study says. "This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," said Damian Labuda of the University of Montreal in an article published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Neanderthals, who left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have survived until about 30,000 years ago. Early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. Scientists have long wondered if the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The new study suggests the two lived in close association and did interbreed. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, a small piece of the sequence of DNA called a haplotype was found to be present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia. "There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals," said Nick Patterson of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in the Montreal study. "This is a very nice result, and further analysis may help determine more details."

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