Greenedia.com Daily Blog Report: Greenland melting fast, White House opposes the Governator, Jay Leno driving the Hydrogen 7

This is a selection of today’s most notable blog articles from Greenedia.com where you will find the most extensive collection of environmental blogs, videos and podcasts on the web.

Greenland melting 150% faster than average

According to a post from the De Smog Blog, Greenland is reportedly melting much faster than previously thought. Kevin Grandia, the author of the post, stated that “NASA released new data today showing that the high altitude regions of Greenland are melting at 150% faster than the 20 year average.” He also mentioned that the amount of snow that has melted this year over Greenland could cover the total surface of the U.S more than twice.

Grandia states that the ice sheet covering Greenland is akin to a ticking time bomb. If the ice sheet vanished, “it would raise sea levels by 20 feet.”

The comprehensive NASA study used satellite data to compare average snow melting from 1988-2006 with what has taken place during the past summer. The post quotes Marco Tedesco, a NASA research scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Tedesco commented that “When snow melts at those high altitudes and then refreezes, it can absorb up to four times more energy than fresh, unthawed snow. This can affect Earth's energy budget by changing how much radiation from the sun is absorbed by the Earth versus that reflected back into the atmosphere.”

The findings were reported in the September 25th issue of the American Geophysical Union’s Eos newspaper.

White House opposing Schwarzenegger



Top environmental blog TreeHugger is alleging that the Bush Administration has undertaken a concerted effort to discredit California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stance on regulating vehicle emissions. Additionally, the post reports that the White House is currently trying to “generate opposition to California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.” The news was originally reported by the Washington Post, who obtained the documents from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.



According to the post, the documents in question are part of an e-mail correspondence between Department of Transportation Officials and staffers at the White House. The e-mails “highlight efforts that administration officials have made to stir up public opposition to the waiver.” TreeHugger also confirmed that rather than attacking California’s request for the waiver to regulate vehicle emissions, Bush administration officials “quietly reached out to two dozen congressional offices and a handful of governors to try to undermine it.” It has been reported that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters orchestrated the campaign.



BMW enlists Jay Leno for Hydrogen 7

The latest post from Inhabitat, a popular environmental blog, has outlined some of the exciting details surrounding BMW’s new Hydrogen 7 luxury sedan. BMW has enlisted the help of TV personality and well-known car enthusiast Jay Leno to help promote the car as a suitable alternative to traditional fossil-fuel-based vehicles. The Hydrogen 9 is “an all hydrogen-powered luxury sedan that produces zero emissions. The Hydrogen 7 is not a concept vehicle, but an actual production model vehicle that has completed the entire product development line.”


The Hydrogen 7 also contains a unique feature which BMW hopes will help it bridge the gap between Hydrogen-powered and traditional vehicles- the sedan contains a separate tank for traditional gasoline. Additionally, the post reported that “unlike most other hydrogen powered vehicles, BMW is choosing to take the less travelled path of using liquid hydrogen rather than hydrogen based fuel cells.”

The BMW Hydrogen 7 runs on a 12 cylinder, 260 horsepower engine. The post states that the engine is capable of “a very respectable top speed of 140 miles per hour.” A full tank will allow the car to travel approximately 125 miles without refuelling.



Greener airplane wings

Green Car Congress, a widely read environmental blog focusing on sustainable mobility, is reporting that a new aluminium-fibre combination material for aircraft wings is set to significantly reduce the weight of commercial planes. The material will reduce emissions-per-flight by a significant margin. The new material is called Central Reinforced Aluminium, and has been trademarked under the name CentrAL. Green Car Congress stated that “the new CentrAl aluminium constructions are stronger than the carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) constructions that have recently been used in aircraft wings such as the Boeing 787.” While the material is significantly stronger than existing materials, it is nearly immune to a condition known as “metal fatigue.”


According to the post, metal fatigue is a phenomenon that “affects materials after long-term exposure to cyclic loading. As a result of varying loads, fractures eventually occur.” Aircraft manufacturers adopting CentrAL will see weight “reduced by another 20% compared to CFRP constructions.”


The post explained that “the CentrAl concept comprises a central layer of fiber metal laminate (FML), sandwiched between one or more thick layers of high-quality aluminum.”  Additionally, CentrAL is also cheaper to manufacture and maintain than traditional CFRP.

T
he CentrAL project is a joint venture between Alcoa, GTM Advanced Structures (based in The Hague), and the Delft University of Technology Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. GTM and Alcoa are currently demonstrating the new technology to international experts at the Conference on Damage Tolerance of Aircraft structures which is being held in Delft, Holland  from September 25-28.

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