Pitts Report » Environment http://www.pittsreport.com NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:20:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 WHILE OBAMA DESTROYS ECONOMY, Petro China buys full Interest in Canadian oil Sands Project http://www.pittsreport.com/2012/01/after-u-s-balks-petro-china-buys-full-interest-in-canadian-oil-sands-project/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2012/01/after-u-s-balks-petro-china-buys-full-interest-in-canadian-oil-sands-project/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:29:51 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=77146

DESTROYING THE US ECONOMY:

1. After U.S. Balks, Petro China buys full Interest in Canadian oil Sands Project

2.     China buys total control of Canada oil sands

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3.             Obama Blocks Canada’s Keystone Pipeline : Oil Soars 34% in 2 …

www.freak-search.com/…/obama_blocks_canadas_keystone_pipeline…
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4 days ago – Oil hits $ 102.00 Wed after a low of $ 76.00 in October right before Obama blocked the Keystone Pipeline.

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3      China’s CNOOC Buys Another Canadian oil Sands Producer

4.      State owned China Companies buy oil sands as Obama Halts Pipeline and Exploration

 

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  1. Senator Questions $2-Billion Loan to Brazil for Offshore Drilling as …

    cnsnews.com › NewsCached
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    Mar 21, 2011 – The Obama administration has approved only three permits for drilling new deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico since it lifted its moratorium … When Vitter first inquired about the loan to Brazil’s Petrobras two years ago, the …

  2. Obama: Drill, Brazil, Drill! – Patriot Update

    patriotupdate.com/4566/obama-drill-brazil-drillCached
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    Mar 22, 2011 – Obama wants to develop Brazilian offshore oil to help the Brazilian economy … We already gave George Soros 2 Billion dollars to drill in Brazil! ….. a bunch of time and money and just give Petrobras permits to drill in the Gulf. …

  3. Michelle Malkin » Let’s export Ken Salazar to Brazil

    michellemalkin.com/2011/03/23/lets-export-ken-salazar-to-brazil/Cached
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    Mar 23, 2011 – Gulf Oil CEO: Obama ‘Hypocritical’ on Brazil Drilling…..Obama was in Brazil giving them 2 billion dollars to drill in waters his own countrymen …

  4. Barry Soetoro gives Mexico and Brazli billions to drill for Our …

    www.chimpout.com/…/showthread.php?…gives…billions-to-drill…G…Cached
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    9 posts - 7 authors - Last post: Mar 26, 2011

    Default. Here is the links. http://www.hawaiian-tv.com/showthread.php?t=1899. Obama giving Brazil 2 billion of our money to drill in gulf…

  1. Obama Praises Brazilian Oil Industry While He Blocks Drilling Here …

    www.thegatewaypundit.com/…/obama-praises-brazilian-oil-industry-…Cached
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    Mar 18, 2011 – Because George Soros invested in the Brazilian Oil Industry so… Obama blocks drilling at home to drive up prices, gives $10 Billion in …

  2. Obama: Drill, Brazil, Drill! (US will then buy your oil)

    www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2692496/postsCached
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    Mar 21, 2011 – 2 posted on 03/21/2011 5:49:43 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say … To: Sun. obama wants Brazil to drill OUR oil, right out of the Gulf of Mexico. … We just loaned Brazil $2 Billion for exploration. 13 posted … Obama gave away what we could not afford to give away. Besides …

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  1. Obama Blocks US Companies From Drilling Off Coasts – Cuba Will …

    www.thegatewaypundit.com/…/obama-will-block-us-companies-fro…Cached
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    Dec 1, 2010 – Obama Blocks US Companies From Drilling Off Coasts – Cuba Will Proceed With … However, Cuba is exploring and potentially developing these oil fields, …. You have just increased the share price of my Canadian oil stocks! …

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2          EPA Blocks Oil Drilling in Alaska

blog.heritage.org/2011/04/25/epa-blocks-oil-drilling-in-alaska/Cached
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Apr 25, 2011 – 91 Responses to EPA Blocks Oil Drilling in Alaska. Stirling …. Pingback: Obama’s EPA Rules Force Shell To Abandon Oil Drilling Plans …

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Anita Dunn Loves Chairman Mao

wn.com/Anita_Dunn_Loves_Chairman_Mao
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Anita Dunn Loves Chairman Mao on WN Network delivers the latest Videos and … Obama Cabinet Member Anita Dunn: Mao Tse Tung “Favorite Philosopher”; Truth …. The Daily Mail The author of a controversial book that has rocked the White …… entire Long March route in 2002–2003 located a woman whom they believe …

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1        Caught on Tape: Democrats Plan to Destroy US Economy

March 22, 2011

By CMAC

Caught on Tape: Democrats Plan to Destroy US EconomyTHE BLAZE BUSINESS INSIDER ATLAS SHRUGS PAMELA GELLER NEW ZEAL The Left’s Economic Terrorism Playbook: The Chase Campaign by a Coalition of Unions, Community Groups, Lawmakers and Students to Take Down US Capitalism and Redistribute Wealth & Power Politics     WatchRevealed — The Left’s Economic Terrorism Playbook: The Chase Campaign by a Coalition…
Read more » 

Posted in Politics, Videos | Edit | No Comments »

2         Democrats ‘Negotiate’ to Destroy the US Economy

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.pittsreport.com/2012/01/after-u-s-balks-petro-china-buys-full-interest-in-canadian-oil-sands-project/feed/ 0 The hype over Hurricane Irene is overblown http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/08/the-hype-over-hurricane-irene-is-overblown/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/08/the-hype-over-hurricane-irene-is-overblown/#comments Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:33:12 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=70804

G+

“The storm

cannot master its own strength.”

Dr. Simon Atkins Dr. Simon Atkins CEO, Advanced Forecasting Corporation [AFC]

The hype over Hurricane Irene is overblown, predicts the CEO of Advanced Forecasting Corporation.

“North of Delaware, most hurricane force winds will very likely be gusts, not sustained winds.”

o    The demise of Irene has already begun. There is no visible eye. The storm intensity is down to 99 mph. This would be a low-end category 2 or a strong category 1 storm, while 36 hours ago some predicted a catastrophic category 4 storm. Air Force Reserve aircraft have found that Irene’s eyewall has collapsed, and the central pressure has risen — rising pressure means a weakening storm.

o    The reduction in storm intensity likely confirms that this storm is not going to be as monstrous as it has been publicly forecast to be.

o    Yes, it will be windy. However, north of Delaware most hurricane force winds will very likely be gusts, not sustained winds.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/08/the-hype-over-hurricane-irene-is-overblown/feed/ 0 Missouri Basin Flooding: 100% Intentional AND NOW THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO BUY IT FROM YOU http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/07/missouri-basin-flooding-100-intentional-and-now-the-governmentt-wants-to-buy-it-from-you/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/07/missouri-basin-flooding-100-intentional-and-now-the-governmentt-wants-to-buy-it-from-you/#comments Sat, 09 Jul 2011 04:33:13 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=67185 File this one under “Now It All Makes Sense”. A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND.

 

Gulag Bound
The Radio Patriot
By: Ann Barnhardt

Double Red Alert

Missouri River Flooding

Cattle commodities broker Ann writes:

Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I’ve had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts.

1. File this one under “Now It All Makes Sense”. A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND.

Intentionally flood massive acreage of highly productive farmground. Destroy people’s communities and homes. Catch them while they are desperate and afraid and then swoop in and buy the ground cheap. Those evil sons of bitches.

2. Speaking of evil sons of bitches, George Soros appears to be “investing” in farmground through the same puppet company that he used to get into the grain elevator and fertilizer business. The company is called Ospraie Capital Management and is buying up farmground in a joint venture with Teays River Investments as a partner. Here is that announcement:

Click Here

Okay. Here’s the connection. This Ospraie outfit was a hedge fund specializing in commodities that was started and run by some cocky child who didn’t know how to trade bear markets and got his butt kicked into next week in the grain market of 2008. He also lost a fortune trying to trade RARE EARTH METALS. In fact, it was so bad that he had to shut his fund down because he had promised his investors that he would give them all of their investment money back if the fund lost more than 30% in one year. Whoopsie.

But it appears that Soros swooped in and saved the day because this Ospraie is the “co-investor” with Soros that bought the remnants of ConAgra’s trading operation and renamed it… Gavilon. In the industry, it is widely acknowledged that Ospraie IS Soros. That three-page article citation is here, copy and paste the URL into your address bar:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/12/news/companies/ospraie_demos.fortune/
index.htm

As you probably remember, Gavilon just recently bought both DeBruce Grain out of Kansas City and the biggest grain elevator company in the Pacific Northwest, thus making Soros (who is the money behind Gavilon through both his own Soros Fund Management AND his de facto control of Ospraie) the third-largest grain company in the U.S. with 280 million bushels of storage capacity, behind only Archer Daniels Midland (542 million bushels storage capacity) and Cargill (344 million bushels storage capacity). That citation is here:

http://www.world-grain.com/News/News%20Home/Features/2010/12/A%20powerful%
20signal.aspx?p=1

Bottom line: Soros, through Ospraie, is buying up farmground. Please also note that the hotlink citation above is dated June 26, 2009. My contact says this has been going on for two years – and also remember what I told you about farmground prices inflating wildly, especially in Illinois. I have personally confirmed farmground in Illinois selling for $13,000 per acre within the last month, whereas that same kind of ground in Illinois was going for $5500 per acre the day Obama was inaugurated.

Spread the word.

***

Two days ago, Ann posted the following on her website.

Missouri Basin Flooding: 100% Intentional
Posted by Ann Barnhardt – June 22, AD 2011 10:07 AM MST
The Army Corps of Engineers in collusion with Marxist-Environmentalists have engineered a flood scenario that will, is, and already has killed people and will result in property damage in the multi-multi billions of dollars. And it is all intentional.

Read “The Purposeful Flooding of America’s Heartland” HERE at AmericanThinker.com

The excuse is saving the wetland habitat of the blue-butted water auk or some taurusfimus like that.

Two points:

1. I’ll say what no one else will about the Army Corps of Engineers: that’s where all the C- state school engineering students end up. Let that reality compound over 30-40 years and you would be FAR better off letting Terry down at the local machining shop or Ricky over t’ the diesel garage run the Missouri River dam system.

TERRY AND RICKY HAVE COMMON SENSE.
TERRY AND RICKY HAVE PRACTICAL SKILL, KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITY.
TERRY AND RICKY ARE DECENT HUMAN BEINGS WHO WOULD NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ALLOW PEOPLE TO BE KILLED AND DISPLACED.
TERRY AND RICKY HATE COMMUNISTS.

2. None of this is ever going to stop until We The People start arresting these people, trying them for treason, and then putting them in prison for the rest of their lives. This will never, ever stop unless there are massive, massive personal consequences for these people.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/07/missouri-basin-flooding-100-intentional-and-now-the-governmentt-wants-to-buy-it-from-you/feed/ 2 The Purposeful Flooding of America’s Heartland (CLINTON AND OBAMA LEGACY) http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/06/the-purposeful-flooding-of-americas-heartland-clinton-and-obama-legacy/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/06/the-purposeful-flooding-of-americas-heartland-clinton-and-obama-legacy/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:23:05 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=66321 June 22, 2011By Joe Herring

AMERICAN THINKER
The Missouri River basin encompasses a vast region in the central and west-central portion of our country.  This river, our nation’s longest, collects the melt from Rocky Mountain snowpack and the runoff from our continents’ upper plains before joining the Mississippi river above St. Louis some 2,300 miles later.  It is a mighty river, and dangerous.

 

Some sixty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the process of taming the Missouri by constructing a series of six dams.  The idea was simple: massive dams at the top moderating flow to the smaller dams below, generating electricity while providing desperately needed control of the river’s devastating floods.

The stable flow of water allowed for the construction of the concrete and earthen levees that protect more than 10 million people who reside and work within the river’s reach.  It allowed millions of acres of floodplain to become useful for farming and development.  In fact, these uses were encouraged by our government, which took credit for the resulting economic boom.  By nearly all measures, the project was a great success.

But after about thirty years of operation, as the environmentalist movement gained strength throughout the seventies and eighties, the Corps received a great deal of pressure to include some specific environmental concerns into their MWCM (Master Water Control Manual, the “bible” for the operation of the dam system).  Preservation of habitat for at-risk bird and fish populations soon became a hot issue among the burgeoning environmental lobby.  The pressure to satisfy the demands of these groups grew exponentially as politicians eagerly traded their common sense for “green” political support.

Things turned absurd from there.  An idea to restore the nation’s rivers to a natural (pre-dam) state swept through the environmental movement and their allies.  Adherents enlisted the aid of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), asking for an updated “Biological Opinion” from the FWS that would make ecosystem restoration an “authorized purpose” of the dam system.  The Clinton administration threw its support behind the change, officially shifting the priorities of the Missouri River dam system from flood control, facilitation of commercial traffic, and recreation to habitat restoration, wetlands preservation, and culturally sensitive and sustainable biodiversity.

Congress created a committee to advise the Corps on how best to balance these competing priorities.  The Missouri River Recovery and Implementation Committee has seventy members.  Only four represent interests other than environmentalism.  The recommendations of the committee, as one might expect, have been somewhat less than evenhanded.

The Corps began to utilize the dam system to mimic the previous flow cycles of the original river, holding back large amounts of water upstream during the winter and early spring in order to release them rapidly as a “spring pulse.”  The water flows would then be restricted to facilitate a summer drawdown of stream levels.  This new policy was highly disruptive to bargetraffic and caused frequent localized flooding, but a multi-year drought masked the full impact of the dangerous risks the Corps was taking.

This year, despite more than double the usual amount of mountain and high plains snowpack (and the ever-present risk of strong spring storms), the true believers in the Corps have persisted in following the revised MWCM, recklessly endangering millions of residents downstream.

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt agrees, calling the management plan “flawed” and “poorly thought out.”  Sen. Blunt characterized the current flooding as “entirely preventable” and told reporters that he intends to force changes to the plan.

Perhaps tellingly, not everyone feels the same apprehension toward the imminent disaster.

Greg Pavelka, a wildlife biologist with the Corps of Engineers in Yankton, SD, told the Seattle Times that this event will leave the river in a “much more natural state than it has seen in decades,” describing the epic flooding as a “prolonged headache for small towns and farmers along its path, but a boon for endangered species.”  He went on to say, “The former function of the river is being restored in this one-year event. In the short term, it could be detrimental, but in the long term it could be very beneficial.”

At the time of this writing, the Corps is scrambling for political cover, repeatedly denying that it had any advance warning of the potential for this catastrophe.  The official word is that everything was just fine until unexpectedly heavy spring rains pushed the system past the tipping point.

On February 3, 2011, a series of e-mails from Ft. Pierre SD Director of Public Works Brad Lawrence sounded the alarm loud and clear.  In correspondence to the headquarters of the American Water Works Association in Washington, D.C., Lawrence warned that “the Corps of Engineers has failed thus far to evacuate enough water from the main stem reservoirs to meet normal runoff conditions. This year’s runoff will be anything but normal.”

In the same e-mail, he describes the consequences of the Corps failure to act as a “flood of biblical proportions.”  His e-mails were forwarded from Washington, D.C. to state emergency response coordinators nationwide.  The Corps headquarters in Omaha, NE which is responsible for the Missouri river system, claims they heard no such warning from Lawrence or anyone else.  Considering the wide distribution of this correspondence, and the likely reactions from officials in endangered states, their denials strain credulity.

Whether warned or not, the fact remains that had the Corps been true to its original mission of flood control, the dams would not have been full in preparation for a “spring pulse.”  The dams could further have easily handled the additional runoff without the need to inundate a sizeable chunk of nine states.  The Corps admits in the MWCM that they deliberately embrace this risk each year in order to maximize their re-ordered priorities.

MWCM (Sec 7-07.2.6):

Releases at higher-than-normal rates early in the season that cannot be supported by runoff forecasting techniques is inconsistent with all System purposes other than flood control. All of the other authorized purposes depend upon the accumulation of water in the System rather than the availability of vacant storage space. [Emphasis added.]

Perhaps the environmentalists of the Corps grew tired of waiting decades to realize their dream of a “restored Missouri River.”  Perhaps these elements heard the warnings and saw in them an opportunity to force an immediate re-naturalization of the river via epicflood .  At present, that is impossible to know, but to needlessly imperil the property, businesses, and lives of millions of people constitutes criminal negligence.  Given the statements of Corps personnel, and the clear evidence of their mismanagement, the possibility that there is specific intent behind their failure to act must be investigated without delay.

In recent decades, many universities have steeped their Natural Sciences curriculum in the green tea of earth-activism, producing radically eco-centric graduates who naturally seek positions with the government agencies where they can best implement their theories.  Today, many of these men and women have risen high in their fields, hiring fellow travelers to fill subordinate positions and creating a powerful echo chamber of radical environmentalist theory.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a victim/tool of the above-described process.  The horrifying consequence is water rushing from the dams on the Missouri twice as fast as the highest previous releases on record.  Floodgates that have not been opened in more than fifty years are in full operation, discharging water at a rate of 150,000 cubic feet per second toward millions of Americans downstream.

This is a mind-boggling rate of release.  Consider that 150,000 cubic feet of water would fill a football field instantly to a depth of four feet.  This amount of water, being released every second, will continue unabated for the next several months.  The levees that protect the cities and towns downstream were constructed to handle the flow rates promised at the time of the dam’s construction.  None of these levees have ever been tested at these levels, yet they must hold back millions of acre-feet of floodwater for the entire summer without failing.  In the flooding of 1993, more than a thousand levees failed.  This year’s event will be many orders of magnitude greater.

There are many well-publicized examples of absurd obeisance to the demands of radical environmentalists resulting in great economic harm.  The Great Missouri River Flood of 2011 is shaping up to be another — only this time, the price will likely be paid in lives lost as well as treasure.  Ayn Rand said, “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”

We need to begin the investigations immediately.  It seems that it is sanity, and not the river, that needs to be restored.

The author writes from Omaha, NE and may be reached at readmorejoe@gmail.com.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/06/the-purposeful-flooding-of-americas-heartland-clinton-and-obama-legacy/feed/ 0 OPINION: Crony Capitalism and Obama’s Anti-Coal Crusade http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/06/opinion-crony-capitalism-and-obamas-anti-coal-crusade/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/06/opinion-crony-capitalism-and-obamas-anti-coal-crusade/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:27:03 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=65981 Crony Capitalism and Obama’s Anti-Coal Crusade
Ed Lasky
When your electricity bill goes up 40%, a company financially linked to Barack Obama, David Axelrod, and Rahm Emanuel (and even Bill Ayers) will reap huge gains. More

AZ legislature lets Obama off the hook
June 13, 2011
What kind of heartless (and brainless) State legislature would cut off 15,000 unemployed workers from a measly $214 in weekly unemployment benefits? More

Americans in a funk as housing, jobs stall (WT)

  • Russia objects to U.S. warship in Black Sea [YAHOO]

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    • How About Extending the Voting Rights Act to the Entire Country?

    Frank Hill

    Is your vote treated the same as everyone else’s in the nation? There are rules for one part of the country and not for the rest of the nation? How can that be considered ‘fair and equal’?

    The Nation — The Obama Administration’s aggressive war on whistleblowers suffered a humiliating setback on June 9 when former NSA official Thomas Drake accepted a misdemeanor plea agreement for exceeding his authorized use of a government computer. Full Story »

    Uncle Sam’s meddling in health insurance rates is wrong and will hurt consumers

    The Christian Science Monitor – Mon Jun 13, 9:56 am ET

    Washington – On May 19, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final regulation requiring that, starting on September 1, 2011, health insurers filing for an “unreasonable” rate increase – namely one that exceeds 10 percent – must publicly justify their proposal, so that “consumers [will] know why they are paying the rates that they are.” Full Story »

    The farmer-engineers of Open Source Ecology are bringing high-tech savvy to the age-old pastoral dream. Their Global Village Construction Set project is an ongoing sustainable design experiment that aims to develop plans for the forty machines necessary to build “a self-sufficient modern life from low-grade, abundant local resources.” Things like a compressed-earth brick-making machine and a self-propelled tractor (which looks a bit like the Batmobile repurposed for plowing).

    GVCS in 2 Minutes from Adam Mitchell on Vimeo.

    As their charming video shows,

    GVCS in 2 Minutes from Adam Mitchell on Vimeo.

    the GVCS will let any motivated group of tree-hugging neckbeards eco-conscious global citizens build a “small sustainable civilization with modern comforts” from scratch. Since most of the basic machine parts are manufactured in China, this scheme won’t be much good for rebuilding society after a post peak-oil apocalypse scenario, but the OSE-ers are hoping that the final versions of the GVCS plans will not require any overseas sourcing.

    ceb

    The brick-making machine in action, courtesy of Openfarmtech.org

    The big idea behind the GVCS is its modular design: the plans are free to download from the OSE’s sprawling wiki, and all forty machines will use interchangeable parts and power sources. They call it a “life size Lego set,” which reflects that modular philosophy, but these aren’t easy snap-together tools: you’ll need some serious shop skills in order to put the plans to work.

    welding

    A brick-making machine under construction. Hope you know how to weld.

    The Open Source Ecology folks are serious innovators: They’ve prototyped eight of their forty machines so far.

    [Read more at Open Source Ecology; top image by Evan Mitchell]

    Share/Bookmark]]>     http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/02/a-life-sized-lego-set-for-creating-self-sustaining-towns/feed/ 1     Blizzard warning expands to parts of 9 states, 294 counties http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/02/blizzard-warning-expands-to-parts-of-9-states-294-counties/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/02/blizzard-warning-expands-to-parts-of-9-states-294-counties/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:36:00 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=54906
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    10. Egyptian Information Ministry tells CNN it’s shutting down mobile phone networks ahead of Tuesday march http://on.msnbc.com/eBzOis about 13 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    11. CNBCbrk Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs historic bill legalizing civil unions for gay, lesbian couples. @glaad about 14 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by BreakingNews and 100+ others
    12. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., U.S. ambassador to China, resigns; said likely to explore GOP presidential run – Politico http://politi.co/eFcpok about 14 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    13. Brent crude tops $100 a barrel for the first time since 2008, rising on anxiety over Egypt and expected higher demand – AP about 14 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    14. Egypt’s last operating Internet Service Provider is now down – BBC http://bbc.in/gsjWCQ about 14 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    15. Haiti OKs giving ex-President Aristide passport to return from exile – AFP http://bit.ly/hyI6qE about 15 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    16. Strike disrupts flights in Tunisia – Reuters http://bit.ly/fXtTxK about 15 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    17. Egyptian govt TV changes course, now showing much more of protests – Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/geA3Eb about 15 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    18. Judge who overturned Obama health law lets it stay in effect during appeal, which could take 2 years – nytimes.com http://nyti.ms/gkUbna about 15 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    19. Egypt, U.S. soccer match canceled due to unrest – U.S. Soccer Federation http://bit.ly/hOeGrm about 15 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    20. Egypt’s new VP says Mubarak asked him to begin talks with all parties for changing constitution – BBC http://bbc.in/gsjWCQ about 16 hours ago via breakingnews.com
    Share/Bookmark]]>     http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/02/blizzard-warning-expands-to-parts-of-9-states-294-counties/feed/ 0     Bringing a forest to the desert http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/01/bringing-a-forest-to-the-desert/ http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/01/bringing-a-forest-to-the-desert/#comments Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:31:21 +0000 CMAC http://www.pittsreport.com/?p=54634

    Helen

    Knight,

    technology

    reporter

    (Image: Sahara Forest Project)

    It may sound like an environmentalist’s pipe dream, but giant greenhouses could soon be popping up in some of the world’s deserts, producing fresh drinking water, food and fuel.

    The Sahara Forest Project, which aims to create green oases in desert areas, has signed a deal to build a pilot plant in Aqaba, near the Red Sea in Jordan. With funding from the Norwegian government, the team plans to begin building the pilot plant on a 200,000 square metre site in 2012.

    The world has an abundance of sunlight, seawater, carbon dioxide and arid land, says Joakim Hauge, CEO of the Sahara Forest Project. “These resources could be used for profitable and sustainable production of food, water and renewable energy, while combating the greenhouse effect through binding CO2 in new vegetation in arid areas.”

    If all goes to plan, the plant will consist of a saltwater greenhouse to grow vegetables and algae for fuel. Water piped from the Red Sea will cool air flowing into the greenhouse, providing good growing conditions for the crops. The air will then be passed over pipes containing seawater heated by the sun. The resulting hot, humid air will finally meet a series of vertical pipes containing cold seawater, causing fresh water to condense and run down the pipes to collectors below.

    This fresh water will be heated by a Concentrating Solar Power Plant to provide steam to drive a turbine, generating electricity. In turn, the electricity will be used to power the greenhouse’s pumps and fans. The water will also be used to grow crops around the greenhouse.

    Finally, excess heat generated by the solar power plant will be used to produce drinking water through desalination.

    The project has been developed by Max Fordham Consulting Engineers, Seawater Greenhouse, and Exploration Architecture, all based in London, and the Bellona Foundation in Oslo, Norway.

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