Investment in India's renewable energy is out-pacing the rest of the world, thanks to the improving cost-competitiveness of wind and solar.

Renewable energy investments reached $10.3 billion in 2011, 52 percent higher than the $6.8 billion invested in 2010, the highest growth of any significant economy in the world.

India now accounts for 4 percent of global investment in clean energy.

Policy measures like the India's National Solar Mission and declining prices for wind and solar have made this a record year.

India's National Solar Mission has set a target of producing 10 percent of its energy - 20,000 MW - using solar by 2022, equivalent to 18 nuclear reactors.

India will exceed its Five Year Plan (2007-2012) target, installing 14.2 gigawatts (GW) of renewables compared to its target of 12.4 GW, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Funding for solar projects has grown seven-fold since 2010, from $0.6 billion in 2010 to $4.2 billion in 2011, almost reaching that for wind at $4.6 billion.

India added 277 MW of solar in 2011, up from 18 MW in 2010, and will add another 500-750 MW this year. 

India ranks third in the world for wind capacity after China and the US. It added a record 2,827 MW of wind capacity in 2011, up from 2,140 MW in 2010. An estimated 2,500 - 3,200 MW will be added in 2012, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Most of the investments are for utility-scale projects at $9.5 billion, but there was also $425 million invested in companies through venture capital and private equity in 2011, more than four times the amount in 2010.

"India's record performance in 2011, and the momentum it is carrying into 2012, is one of the bright spots in the clean energy firmament. With support mechanisms falling away in the US, the ongoing financial crisis in Europe, and China already going flat out, it is gratifying to see some of the world's other major potential markets coming alive." says Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

"The surge in installation of renewable energy shows that it is becoming cost competitive and scalable. To carry this momentum forward, federal and state governments will have to ensure four things. First, that transmission lines are available for projects; second, that the grid can handle an increased flow of renewable energy; third, that renewable purchase obligations are enforced; and, fourth, that project developers are paid on time for the power they produce," says Ashish Sethia, head of India research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Last month, we reported that solar has become cheaper than diesel for back-up power in India. And the country is using auctions to drive down the price of solar.

Photo by Ho John Lee/flickr/Creative Commons

Lead contamination from hundreds of gold mines across northwestern Nigeria has caused the deaths of 400 children under the age of five and exposes thousands more children to lead poisoning, according to a report from the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch. Across the state of Zamfara, where hundreds of artisanal mines are now in operation, young children processing ore are exposed to toxic levels of lead, the report said. Many others are exposed when family members return home from work covered in the toxic dust, when lead-filled ore is crushed in their homes, or when exposed to contaminated water and food. In some villages, mortality rates were as high as 40 percent among children who showed signs of lead poisoning. “Zamfara’s gold brought hope for prosperity, but resulted in death and backbreaking labor for its children,” said Babatunde Olugboji, a deputy program director at Human Rights Watch. Healthcare workers also report high rates of infertility and miscarriage among adults in the region. While governmental and international organizations have treated more than 1,500 children showing signs of acute lead poisoning, the report says thousands more children require chelation therapy to remove lead from their bodies.

Photo by Human Rights Watch

by Silvio Marcacci

Solar power has been one of renewable energy’s biggest success stories, especially in Europe. But a combination of austerity measures by cash-strapped governments and the industry’s own success are creating cloudy skies on the clean energy horizon.

New grid-connected global photovoltaic (PV) capacity nearly doubled in 2011, from 16.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2010 to 27.7 GW (with almost 21 GW in Europe), according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. 2011’s boom pushed total installed capacity to 67.35 GW.

Favorable government feed-in-tariff (FIT) programs fueled this solar boom by guaranteeing above-market rates to solar power producers. But ironically, the FIT programs worked too well and by exceeding their goals, have become too expensive to maintain. This quandary is most explicitly seen in Europe’s biggest solar market – Germany.

Germany

At the end of 2011, Germany had the most cumulative installed solar capacity in the world, with 24.7 GW. New installations reached a record 7.5 GW last year and solar output reached 18 billion kilowatt-hours, but the record jump was largely attributed to prices falling ahead of planned FIT reductions, made every six months. Solar panel prices have fallen 50 percent since 2007, and as prices fall, government officials have begun to debate how much they should scale back subsidies.

Germany’s economy minister has proposed legislation to limit new FIT-supported installations to 1 GW per year, accelerate planned subsidy cuts to an every-month basis rather than twice a year, and phase subsides out completely for some facilities by 2017. Unsurprisingly, the CEO of German manufacturer Bosch said “should we do that, then photovoltaic is dead is Germany.”

However, the harsh proposal has been countered by a more moderate proposal by the country’s environment minister. The alternate plan would cap new subsidized PV installations at 5 GW per year, and seems to have a better chance at passage. While Germany is the biggest market scaling back solar subsidies, it is not the only European country doing so.

United Kingdom, Spain, Greece

The United Kingdom is expected to announce plans this week that would reduce subsidies at routine intervals to curb new solar installations through a trigger mechanism once installations reach a predetermined level. The UK’s plan has exceeded all expectations and cost estimates – 284 MW of installed capacity were expected by April 2013, but 780 MW had been installed as of January 2012.

Conditions are even worse in Spain and Greece, two of the hardest-hit economies in the Eurozone. Spain, home to the world’s highest unemployment rate, passed a decree last week to “temporarily suspend” subsidies for all new solar installations. The move is expected to save 160 million Euros in 2012, but could have a severe impact on employment.

Spain first cut its renewable subsidy by 35 percent in 2008, a move that cost 20,000 jobs, and this suspension is expected to cut just as many jobs. Spain had the fourth-most installed solar in the world at the end of 2011, with 4.2 GW, and the government once estimated renewables would create 300,000 jobs by 2020.

Greece, the epicenter of the Eurozone economic crisis, has also targeted solar subsidies as a way to trim spending. Installed capacity more than doubled in 2011, with 350 MW of new capacity and 550 MW cumulative installed solar.

But last week the government drastically cut FIT subsidies, saying it can’t pay the current rates and had licensed enough new capacity to meet its renewable energy targets. All new solar power plants that go online starting in February would be reduced, with those generating more than 100 kilowatts facing an initial 12.5 percent subsidy cut with additional reductions every six months until August 2014.

Grid parity?

Fortunately though, the end of generous subsidies may not spell the end of renewables. Manufacturing costs have fallen fast, and the CEO of Suntech Power, the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, recently predicted solar will be as cheap as fossil fuels, saying “we believe that by 2015, there will be around 50 percent of countries where it reaches grid parity.”

by Frankie Berti

New York City’s Department of Transportation and Alta Bicycle Share, Inc. will be opening the largest bike share system in the country by summer of 2012. Ten thousand bikes in 600 stations around Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the surrounding burroughs will be available 24 hours a day throughout the year for short bike rides.

The Details:

Alta Bicycle Share, the same company that runs Boston’s New Balance Hubway and Washington D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare, will be running the program. New York City’s program is funded by private sponsorship and user fees, much like Miami’s DECOBIKE. Alta will be responsible for installation, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and customer support. The bike stations will be solar powered, thus reducing energy costs, do not require roadwork for installation.

Rental rates will be determined after the contracts are signed, but Alta is promising affordable annual memberships, costing less than a monthly unlimited ride MetroCard (around $90-95). Unlimited weekly membership would cost $20-25 and unlimited 24-hour access would be $8-10. The NYC bike share will include the obligatory smart phone app, which will use the system’s wireless technology to find real-time bike and station availability.

Like the DECOBIKE bike sharing program in Miami Beach, the bikes will be available in 30 to 45 minute sessions. Longer trips will incur a small, graduated usage fee. Check out the Boston and Washington D.C. bike share programs to compare rates. Check out NYC Bike Share to see how it works.

Who will benefit:

Bike shares are great for short trips: they reduce bike parking, storage issues, and as well as theft. This share program will help New Yorkers connect to different modes of mass transit where subways don’t reach. And Alta Bike and the NYDOT will be hosting demonstrations, open houses, and workshops throughout the city for those who are new to the concept. Alta Share estimates that it will employ 200 locals to help run the share.

The Benchmarking Bike and Walking Report shows that New York is in the top five states for bicycling and walking levels, and that New York City ranks in the top five cities for the same. The city’s transit system already tops the nation in its scope; items like this bike sharing program no doubt make biking the Big Apple that much more accessible, especially considering that 54 percent of all trips New Yorkers make are less than two miles, the perfect distance for a quick bike ride.

New York City has one of the highest bike userships in the country, but it also ranks in the top 10 cities with the highest fatality rates for bicyclists and pedestrians. Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged this in his State of the City address in January: “…the reality is more and more New Yorkers are biking, and the more bike lanes we put in, the fewer deaths and serious injuries we have on the streets.” Of course, that depends on education and biker awareness. But it seems that the government will be providing the infrastructure support needed, as per the mayor’s address: “We’ll also make our city smarter and safer by deploying Traffic Enforcement Agents to safety hot spots at key intersections, doubling the number of 20 mile-per-hour zones for schools, and continuing adding more miles of protected bike lanes.”

Boulder City, Nevada, home of the Hoover Dam, is fast becoming an epicenter of utilty-scale solar plants, and is benefiting mightily from it financially.

The city had the foresight to set aside land for solar plants and as a result will rake in lease payments for decades to come. Residents had the same foresight with their near-unanimous support for the projects.

Since they set aside 8000 acres as an "energy zone," it's become home to the nation's largest solar PV plant, the 58 megawatt (MW) Copper Mountain Solar 1, owned by Sempra U.S. Gas & Power.

Online since March 2011, Copper Mountain will add another 92 MW by January 2013, and another 58 MW by 2015 on its 1100 acres. Sempra also has the 10 MW El Dorado Solar plant there.

Acciona's Nevada Solar 1 is there too - a 65 MW concentrating solar plant on 400 acres that's been operating since 2007.

Both companies plan to expand significantly and will be joined by others to eventually cover the entire energy zone. There are plans for about 1400 MW of solar to be built there, supplying energy to 420,000 homes.

Raking in the Cash

Mayor Roger Tobler says the projects could eliminate the city's debt and stabilize its revenue stream far into the future, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Unlike other cities in Nevada, Boulder City has been able to avoid laying off employees and other drastic spending cuts because it will collect about $12 million a year in lease payments from the two projects it's approved thus far.

Besides the lease payments, the city requires solar developers to pay millions of dollars in upfront payments that cover the 2-4 year construction phase.

In total, the city stands to collect over $480 million in rent through the life of the contracts, increasing its annual revenue by almost 50 percent. Leases average 40-50 years.

Sempra also gave Boulder City $500,000 to install any kind of renewable energy on its buildings.

On top of that, the county will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from property taxes, and Boulder City will receive some of that revenue too.

And even on top of that, the solar plants are creating many hundreds of renewable energy jobs.

What attracts so many solar developers there? There's plenty of sunlight, land and access to transmission lines. And they avoid the lengthy, expensive approval process required to build on public land.

Photo by Pardee Ave./flickr/Creative Commons

by Tina Casey

“Turbine Cowboys” is a new reality series premiering on The Weather Channel this spring, and anyone with an interest in clean energy should check it out. Despite the highly mechanized nature of wind turbine construction and the use of robotic devices for maintenance, the human element is still very much at work. Turbine Cowboys is an important reminder that while renewable energy is cleaner and safer in terms of emissions and overall public health impacts, that does not necessarily translate into a low-risk work environment.

Wind and Workers

The Turbine Cowboys crew has been filming as far south as Baja California and up north to Alaska, which is a hint about the direction it’s going in. Along with the hazards you’d expect from working around electricity and huge pieces of equipment, and occupying a workspace far above the ground, the workers have to deal with rain and snow, extreme heat and cold, and of course, wind. The show will also cover the “boot camp” training received by turbine workers. As far as green jobs go, it’s hard to imagine one that’s tougher.

In the Words of a Wind Power Worker

The hazards of wind power work are aptly summed up in a posting on the Turbine Cowboys production company Facebook page (typos corrected):

“To say they are not dangerous is ignorant. The amount of safety classes, first aid and rescue training, OSHA certs, ect. is never ending. I work on turbines every day and find new risks every day. I”m constantly reminded of how a simple slip at any point in my day can harm/kill myself or a co-worker.”

Another Turbine Cowboy

“Turbine Cowboy” is a play on the old John Travolta movie Urban Cowboy, so it stands to reason that the same title has come up in the past. Sure enough, somewhere in a record shop bin out there is a 45″ single, “Turbine Cowboy,” written and recorded in 1981 by a graduate of GE’s Field Engineering Program (FEP). The program dates back to 1966 and was initiated to train workers in conventional power generation and industrial equipment work. FEP graduates have some great stories of their own and you can read all about it at their website, turbinecowboy.com (the site is not affiliated with GE, by the way).

Turbine Cowboys: A Celebration of American Labor

As a side note, The Weather Channel Companies is owned by a consortium consisting of NBC Universal, The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Yes, that Bain Capital. Bain is perceived as an outfit that has made huge profits by eliminating jobs for U.S. workers, so it’s a little ironic that the company is connected (albeit remotely) to a show celebrating the skill, courage and resourcefulness of American labor, but whatevs. Turbine Cowboys is just one part of TWC’s upcoming “Braving the Elements” series on American workers that so far includes high-rise ironworkers and utility emergency repair crews. TWC expects to add more titles throughout the year.

Climate scientists didn't take the usual climate denying propaganda lying down when they responded to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal,'No Need to Panic About Global Warming,' signed by 16 "scientists."

The opinion piece argues that the passion about addressing climate change is just a way for governments to raise taxes and for green non-profits to raise funding. 

39 climate scientists wrote their own op-ed, which the Wall St. Journal published - 'Check With Climate Scientists for Views on Climate.'

Here are some excerpts from both:

No Need to Panic About Global Warming

The oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

The lack of warming for more than a decade-indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections - suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause.

The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase concentrations to get better growth.

Although the number of publicly dissenting scientists is growing, many furtively say they are afraid to speak up for fear of not being promoted - or worse.

Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet.

Check With Climate Scientists for Views on Climate

Do you consult your dentist about your heart condition? In science, as in any area, reputations are based on knowledge and expertise in a field and on published, peer-reviewed work. If you need surgery, you want a highly experienced expert in the field who has done a large number of the proposed operations.

You published "No Need to Panic About Global Warming" by the climate-science equivalent of dentists practicing cardiology. Most of these authors have no expertise in climate science. Those few authors who have such expertise are known to have extreme views that are out of step with nearly every other climate expert.

This happens in nearly every field of science. For example, there is a retrovirus expert who does not accept that HIV causes AIDS. And it is instructive to recall that a few scientists continued to state that smoking did not cause cancer, long after that was settled science.

Climate experts know that the long-term warming trend has not abated in the past decade. In fact, it was the warmest decade on record. Observations show unequivocally that our planet is getting hotter.

And computer models have recently shown that during periods when there is a smaller increase of surface temperatures, warming is occurring elsewhere in the climate system, typically in the deep ocean.

The National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. (set up by President Abraham Lincoln to advise on scientific issues), as well as major national academies of science around the world and every other authoritative body of scientists active in climate research have stated that the science is clear:

The world is heating up and humans are primarily responsible. Impacts are already apparent and will increase. Reducing future impacts will require significant reductions in emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Research shows that more than 97 percent of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused. It would be an act of recklessness for any political leader to disregard the weight of evidence and ignore the enormous risks that climate change clearly poses.

In addition, there is very clear evidence that investing in the transition to a low-carbon economy will not only allow the world to avoid the worst risks of climate change, but could also drive decades of economic growth. Just what the doctor ordered.

Photo by superwebdeveloper/flickr/Creative Commons

by Christine Bader

For those of us who have been working in corporate social responsibility (CSR) for years: Now is our moment.

Apple’s supplier woes have put the social impacts of business onto every media outlet from the Daily Show [see below] to Fox News. Twitter users organized a boycott this weekend after the company’s announcement that it would withhold tweets in countries where the content is illegal. Next month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case about Shell’s activities in Nigeria, and determine whether corporations can be sued for human rights abuses abroad.

These cases of how companies affect the rights of people and communities are what CSR is all about. As these iconic businesses struggle in the spotlight, now is the time to make that clear.

The Evolution of CSR

With the explosion of CSR in the past ten years (in 2010, some 5,600 companies around the world issued CSR or sustainability reports, up from 837 ten years earlier), the term has become so broad as to mean everything and therefore nothing: from funding walk-a-thons to recycling programs. 

Such a potpourri arms critics who can tear apart the whole concept by pointing to a few bad examples -- a tobacco company funding a business ethics program, Hershey promoting its philanthropic giving while harboring child labor in its supply chain -- that should never have earned the CSR label in the first place.

CSR means improving what companies’ core activities do to people and planet throughout their operations, and stopping them from causing harm. It is not sending employees in matching t-shirts out to paint a wall for five hours a year, or using philanthropic checks as a fig leaf to hide wrongdoing. 

The Elephant in the Room

My CSR colleagues are out in the field and see the good, the bad, and the ugly of what globalization has done to the world’s most vulnerable people. They are working in every industry, on the front lines of globalization at the far corners of the earth. They’re calling out suppliers skimping on pay and dealing with corrupt police who see them as ATMs.

They're working on complex issues with no easy answers and little precedent, for example investigating their supply chains all the way back to raw materials to find and eradicate child and forced labor (HP with conflict minerals in the Congo; Coca-Cola in the sugar cane fields of El Salvador; with cotton in Uzbekistan).

As Monica Gorman, the new head of CSR at New Balance, said to me recently:

“CSR is only meaningful if you talk about the elephant in the room. It’s the biggest, ugliest, darkest secret you have -- that should be what you focus on.”

CSR = Front Page News

Despite doing work that is in the best interests of both business and society, CSR professionals often struggle to make the case to higher-ups for more resources. When I worked for BP, I hungered for that front page New York Times story that I could show my bosses to prove how a company can incur the wrath of local communities, regulators, and the global media for getting CSR wrong or not getting it at all. (I left the company in 2008, two years before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.)

Now, the case for CSR is impossible to avoid.

It might seem opportunistic to capitalize on the plight of others to bolster our own staffs and budgets. But any feelings of Schadenfreude at other companies’ debacles quickly give way to the sentiment of "There but for the Grace of God go I." Our goal is to prevent these abuses from occurring again, anywhere.

The Way Forward: Clarity & Collaboration

That is why even in the most competitive industries, we’ve found ways to collaborate with each other: The Voluntary Principles on Security & Human Rights, the Global Network Initiative, and the Fair Labor Association are all sector-specific efforts that bring together companies and campaigning groups to address those challenges that none of us can solve alone.

This is our opportunity to explain to the world what CSR really is. Let’s send philanthropy and marketing back to the right departments with the right professionals, and get on with our work.

If nothing else, these recent news stories have clarified CSR for one important stakeholder: After years of confusion over my choice of career, my mother called last week and asked whether “this horrible Apple stuff” is related to what I do.

Yes, Mom, it is. That’s exactly right.

Photo by Andreas Eldh/flickr/Creative Commons

by Fen Montaigne

Two of the world’s leading experts on the world’s top marine predator are now in Antarctica, tagging and photographing a creature whose remarkably cooperative hunting behavior and transmission of knowledge across generations may be rivaled only by humans.

On the afternoon of January 10, at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, whale researchers Robert L. Pitman and John W. Durban stood on the bridge of a cruise ship, peering through binoculars for signs of killer whales. The Weddell Sea, where English explorer Ernest Shackleton and his men were locked in the sea ice nearly a century ago, was calm and studded with icebergs. It was raining, an increasingly common occurrence in summer in this rapidly warming part of Antarctica.

Around 3 p.m., Pitman spotted several of the distinctive triangular dorsal fins of killer whales two miles ahead. Soon, roughly 40 killer whales appeared on all sides of the cruise ship, the National Geographic Explorer, delighting the nearly 150 passengers on board.

Pitman and Durban stepped into a rubber Zodiac driven by a ship’s naturalist and cruised slowly toward the whales. Two large female killer whales approached, rolled on their sides, and “took a long look at us with wide open eyes as they passed a few feet under the Zodiac,” Pitman later recalled. One of the females surfaced next to the boat, and Durban, cradling a black crossbow, fired a satellite tag onto the middle of the whale’s dorsal fin. When the second female rolled on the surface, Durban fired a dart that would provide a tissue sample for scientific analysis. “Our skin donor,” Pitman said later.

Thus began more than a month of killer whale research in the Antarctic, conducted by two of the world’s leading experts on these top predators, whose killing power, Pitman says, “probably hasn’t been rivaled since dinosaurs quit the earth 65 million years ago.” I was a lecturer aboard the Explorer, and was able to watch the pair work for more than a week in the Antarctic.

As many as 50,000 killer whales roam the world’s oceans today, and roughly half of them are believed to live in Antarctic waters. Yet though killer whales may be the most recognizable creatures in the marine world, a great deal about them remains a mystery, especially in the Antarctic, and Pitman and Durban are now gathering basic information about their behavior and feeding habits . This baseline data is particularly important since climate change and other human impacts, such as overfishing and the accumulation of toxic chemicals, are rapidly altering the whales’ habitats and their prey.

Scientists worldwide are still sorting out how many species and sub-species of killer whales — also known as orcas — exist in places like Alaska, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and Canada, and the North Atlantic. In Antarctica, Pitman and Durban — who work for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla, Calif. — have played a role in identifying three main types of killer whales in Antarctic waters and a fourth in the sub-Antarctic. The populations — likely separate species — differ in their distinctive black, white, and gray patterning; in the shapes of their dorsal fins and heads; in their geographic range; and in their food and foraging habits. Each individual has unique markings on the saddle behind the dorsal fin, and Pitman and Durban — who have amassed a collection of 40,000 photos of killer whales from Antarctic waters — have gotten to the point where they can recognize individuals and extended families.

But what has driven the men to pursue killer whale research is not the minutiae of markings or migration routes, but rather the extraordinary culture and habits of these cetaceans, whose cooperative hunting behavior and intergenerational transmission of knowledge is rivaled only by humans, Durban and Pitman contend.

Killer whales — Orcinus orca — are long-lived, with females surviving for up to 90 years or more. The whales travel in extended family groups, with offspring generally remaining with their mothers their entire lives. Stable groups of whales join together in pods composed of different matrilines (a dominant female and her offspring), and these related whales all communicate in a distinct dialect using an array of clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls. Killer whales — which gestate for 17 months — are believed to recognize their mother’s calls in utero and are born with the ability to immediately communicate.

As many as four generations of killer whales will travel together, passing on astonishingly sophisticated group hunting behavior from one generation to the next.

“You’ve got individuals that are spending 50, 60, 80 years together, and you can do a lot of things when you’re spending a lot of time with your family and related individuals,” Pitman told me in an interview. “You can hunt cooperatively. You can make sacrifices that other animals wouldn’t make. If you kill 50,000 seals in your lifetime, you get pretty good at it. And if you learn a few things you pass them on to your offspring. It makes them quite remarkable and very human-like in the things they do.”

“We have grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and great-great-grandmothers traveling in groups together with younger whales, imparting cultural knowledge,” added Durban.

Three years ago, farther south along the western Antarctic Peninsula, Pitman and Durban spent three weeks observing such behavior among a group of pack ice killer whales, also known as large type-B Antarctic killer whales. The men studied a hunting technique known as “wave-washing,” in which a pod of whales moves through ice floes, its members lifting their heads out of the water — a behavior known as “spy-hopping” — looking for their preferred meal: fat, fish-eating Weddell seals. Once they spotted a seal on an ice floe, the whales called in reinforcements and, two to seven abreast, swam toward the floe and washed the seal off the ice by creating a large wave with powerful strokes of their tails. Pitman and Durban then observed what they call the “butchering” of seals, with the whales first drowning the seals and then meticulously stripping off their skin to get at the choice flesh.

“It was shocking to see,” said Pitman. “You’re not used to animals doing things that are so canny.”

Pitman and Durban are now aboard the 331-foot Explorer, where they will remain until mid-February, as guests of Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Expeditions. As visiting scientists, they use the ship as a research platform, and even rely on passengers to help take close-up photos of the killer whales’ distinctive markings, an example of the “citizen science” that has helped identify hundreds of individual killer whales in hot spots such as Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Pitman, 62, who has a sweeping mustache, has worked in the Antarctic for more than two decades and has studied killer whales for the past 15 years. Durban, 35, a burly Englishman with a black beard, first worked with killer whales as a 16-year-old assistant to a pioneering whale researcher in Washington state.

The 40 whales the men encountered in the Weddell Sea likely comprised three matrilines and belonged to an “ecotype” — or possibly new species — of Antarctic killer whale they refer to as a “small type-B”, related to the larger type-B “wave-wash” hunters. But little is known about the small type-B’s; Pitman and Durban have occasionally seen them feeding on gentoo and chinstrap penguins, but never on seals, and one of the goals of this year’s research is to get a better sense of what the small type-B’s are eating. The small type-B’s are roughly half the mass of a larger Antarctic killer whale, the type-A, which is found in more open water and hunts minke whales. Type-A males can grow to nearly 30 feet in length and weigh up to 10 tons.

In the three weeks since the female killer whale was tagged, she and her pod have traveled many hundreds of miles in the Weddell Sea, sometimes skirting the pack ice. Durban and Pitman have tagged 15 Antarctic killer whales with the 1.4-ounce satellite transmitters over the last three years, and the results have greatly expanded knowledge of their habits, preferred habitats, and migrations. Six of the tagged type-B killer whales made rapid migrations, following a nearly identical northerly trajectory, past the Falkland Islands and beyond to the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil. One of the whales made a 6,000-mile round-trip journey from the Antarctic Peninsula to Brazilian waters and back again in just 42 days. Durban and Pitman believe the whales make these previously unknown migrations for one main purpose: shedding and renewing their skin, something they would be unable to do in frigid Antarctic waters because they would lose too much heat.

Four days after the scientists tagged the whale in the Weddell Sea, the Explorer was off the western Antarctic Peninsula, in the Gerlache Strait, a breathtaking passage flanked on both sides by glaciated mountains. There, the scientists encountered some old friends — an extended family group of roughly 70 small, type-B killer whales that spend much of their time in the strait.

Durban and Pitman photographed nearly all of the whales, and Durban — who possesses a photographic memory for killer whale markings — recognized many of the individuals from earlier encounters. Durban was unable to get positioned for a tagging shot with the crossbow, but 10 days later, on the following cruise, he managed to shoot a $2,500 satellite tag, as well as a $4,500 dive-depth tag, onto two killer whales in the Gerlache Strait. The depth tag would reveal some information on feeding habits they had long been looking for.

This is the kind of work that scientists worldwide are doing as they intensify research into a marine mammal long thought of as one species but that likely, in fact, comprises several distinct species. Genetic testing, for example, shows that so-called transient, mammal-eating killer whales in the Pacific Northwest diverged from the resident, fish-eating whales a half-million years ago and should perhaps be recognized as a distinct species, despite being found now in the same waters. This is not a purely academic matter, as distinct species, evolved to live in certain regions and eat certain prey, may be more vulnerable to environmental change.

That change is happening rapidly. Many groups of these apex predators have accumulated extremely high levels of PCBs and other toxic chemicals, with potentially harmful effects on development and reproduction. Global warming is also altering their world and that of their prey. As Arctic summer sea ice melts, for example, what will become of the predator-prey relationship between gray whales and killer whales as they gray whale migration extends deeper into the Arctic Ocean?

Meanwhile, in Antarctica, Pitman and Durban continue to unlock mysteries of killer whales. Last week, the depth tag they affixed to a killer whale in the Gerlache Strait showed that the whales were repeatedly making deep, nighttime dives of up to 1,900 feet off the western Antarctic Peninsula, an indication — for the first time — that these whales were most likely eating fish and squid on or near the sea floor.

by Christopher DeMorro

Last week the California Air Resource Board voted to pass new regulations that would require automakers to put 1.4 million plug-in electric and hybrid cars on the roads by 2025. But as I pointed out in the initial post, automakers can get around making that many EV's by simply "overcomplying" with a greenhouse-gas reduction target.

By overcomplying, CARB means that automakers who reduce their overall fleet emissions by 2-grams-per-mile more than the stated goals of a 34 percent reduction from the 2016 GHG emissions standard can sell about half as many zero or low-emissions vehicles. That could cut in half the 1.4 million clean car goal, which would be a boon to automakers who see the goal of 15 percent clean car sales as largely unachievable, short of a massive and permanent gas price spike.

So, not only is CARB now mandating what kinds of cars automakers should make, but they are also leaving a massive, easily-attainable loophole that will cut the legs right out under from the overly-ambitious goal.

Do two bone-headed moves make for good policy? Probably not. CARB hasn't even left the door open for discussion of this move, and since 15 other states apply to CARB standards, this affects the whole nation, not just the Golden State.

Does anyone here really believe that by 2025, 15 percent of cars on the road will be electric or plug-in hybrids? I don't. It is far more likely that Americans will transition from huge cars into smaller, more fuel-efficient offerings that don't have a huge price premium like hybrids and EV's. Nationwide, hybrids only account for less than 3 percent of all new car sales. California expects a five-fold increase in less than 15 years. I am all for electric cars and hybrids, but the last time California mandated that automakers build and sell electric cars, it ended poorly for all involved.

Instead of mandating the cars automakers should build, CARB should instead figure out how to make electric vehicle ownership easy and affordable while at the same time increase gas taxes on the cash-strapped state to help fix up some of their many crumbling roads and bridges. The market will figure things out from there.

Only CARB has the ability to simultaneously piss off the private industry and environmentalists in one fell swoop.

by Eric Bloom

There's a lot of promise in energy management systems. Buildings produce tons of data every minute of the day, and much of it is fed into building automation or building management systems so that facility managers can monitor and control energy and operations. In our recent report, Building Energy Management Systems, we observe that these systems are starting to take that data one step further by visualizing and quantifying energy in buildings for CEOs, building occupants, and other key decision-makers. Getting this information to the right users, though, involves pulling data from a number of separate systems (lighting, HVAC, security, etc.), which becomes an exceedingly difficult process when systems communicate using different protocols, such as BACnet, LonWorks, Modbus, and many others.

Here's the problem: While it is certainly possible to tie together systems (say, an HVAC automation system based on BACnet and a lighting system based on LonWorks) into a single energy management system, the cost of the labor required to integrate systems cannot always be economically justified. Moreover, in many cases, the automation functionality of two independent systems on different protocols is often higher than a system that integrates the two, as much of the data is lost in translation.

So how did we get to this modern-day building automation Tower of Babel? BACnet was originally developed in the late 1980s in association with ASHRAE, the HVAC industry association, and is one of the leading protocols in the U.S., particularly for HVAC and lighting control systems. LonWorks, the other top protocol in the U.S., was developed in the 1990s by Echelon, one of the leading smart grid and automation technology firms in the world. While BACnet's association with ASHRAE has curried favor among HVAC vendors, LonWorks has been a favorite among lighting controls manufacturers given its rapid response time. Other protocols serve other niches or are favored by specific vendors as a way of discouraging mixing-and-matching of products from competitors.

The result is a world in which systems that perform very similar functions can't communicate with each other. Imagine if Blackberry owners couldn't call iPhone owners. That's the basic reality in the building automation systems world today.

Last week, Echelon made a major step toward breaking these barriers down through the launch of a suite of tools and products aimed at integrating systems based on LonWorks and BACnet. This is a particularly fitting move for Echelon, which is the gatekeeper of the LonWorks protocol and is carving out a leading role in developing technologies at the "edge of the grid," the interface between buildings and the utility distribution network. Through the platform, which involves hardware, software, and service components to translate between LonWorks and BACnet for rich energy management, Echelon will be able to connect with whole buildings, not just isolated systems within buildings, and prepare them to play a role in overall grid management through demand response and other types of utility programs.

Over time, automation systems will likely shift to IP networks for new buildings, doing away with the polyglot automation world of today. However, the existing building stock will continue to speak many languages, and solutions such as Echelon's will play an important role in synthesizing building energy data to make buildings smarter and more energy-efficient.

by Lynn Fang

Did you replace your Brita water filter recently, leaving you wondering about how to toss that old filter?

Inside the filter is carbon, which can't be recycled. And even if you opened your filter to toss the carbon, the outer hard plastic casing can't be tossed in with your regular recycling.

Beth Terry Leads the Way

For a long time, there was no way you could recycle your old Brita filter. In 2008, Plastic-Free Pioneer Beth Terry decided to do something about this. She wrote to Clorox, now the owner of Brita, asking them about recycling the filters. They claimed the U.S. didn't have the infrastructure for it, but Beth knew this was false because Brita in Euope had created its own recycling program, independent of community recycling programs.

So she ranted about the issue on her blog, and soon many others chimed in with the same dilemma. Beth started a Yahoo group with other bloggers, which turned into a campaign. She started a website, petition, and even collected used Brita filter cartridges from supporters.

After 16,000 petition signatures, over 600 filters collected, and the support of many other bloggers and environmental organizations, Brita finally figured out a way to recycle the filters.

Preserve's Recycling Program

Preserve is a company that makes household items from recycled no. 5 plastic, the kind of hard plastic that Brita's water filters are made from. A recycling system was formed between Preserve, Brita, and Whole Foods. It's not perfect, since they still have to use new plastic to make new filters, but it's better than tossing out the filter to a landfill. Preserve also recycles the plastic into their line of household products. The filter ingredients - activated carbon and ion exchange resin - will be regenerated or converted into energy.

Today you can recycle your old Brita filter by mailing it to Preserve, or dropping it off at any one of their Gimme 5 locations (at Whole Foods).

Recycling Instructions:

1. Dry the filter by shaking off excess water and setting it in a dry place for at least three days.
2. Wrap the filter in a plastic grocery bag, which will be recycled.
3. Find a Gimme 5 Drop-off location here. Drop the wrapped filter in the bin.
4. If there isn't a Preserve Gimme 5 location near you, simply pack your wrapped filter in a box (will be recycled) and mail it via ground shipping to:

Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045

by Glenn Meyers

Trend emerging toward lawn-free landscaping as company highlights six lawnless landscape design projects

A new revolution in landscape design, lawn free landscaping is making a growing appearance across the country. The Landscaping Network features six new projects featuring a lawn-free design style for both front and backyards.

The growing interest in eco-friendly, sustainable landscape design has opened the door to new landscaping techniques and lawn alternatives.

Covering six landscape design styles, the company's website features projects from around the country that have taken both front and backyard landscapes, and made them lawn free environments. Projects feature a country courtyard, a colorful desert garden, a family oriented backyard, a Zen garden, a modern coastal landscape and a front yard meadow.

Browse through each project for the inside scoop on project details, photos and an in-depth look at how each project was planned and executed to meet the homeowner's needs.

Going lawn free is not the only way to design sustainably, visit the site's information on sustainable landscapes for more information on lawn free landscaping and other ecological landscape design ideas for residential spaces.

This is exciting to see yards that don't require polluting 2-cycle lawnmowers. We see this as an evolution in taste and environmental stewardship.