Environmental Sciences Information

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=19226

In Information Today, a newsletter for librarians and information industry professionals, Barbie E. Keiser, a Washington-based Information resources management consultant has written “EPA Libraries: Where do they stand now?” which outlines the situation — a saga of mistakes.

From What’s New @ the National Academies:

The U.S. opening ceremony for the International Polar Year took place at the National Academies with over 400 people in attendance. Guests viewed recent video from the polar regions and heard from polar scientists about research to begin under this initiative. High-level government officials also participated in the event. Here is the link for the PDF Overview of the projects: http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rptbriefs/IPYfinal2.pdf

Germany hosted G8 Environment Ministers Meeting 15 -17 March, 2007 - Potsdam The G8 Environment Ministers, plus the Environment Ministers from the leading emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) discussed strategic issues of climate protection and energy policy in order to give political impetus to the international climate protection negotiations planned for 2007. From the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:

http://unfccc.int/2860.php

For more on the G8 and International Environmental Policy: http://www.bmu.de/english/internationalenvironmentalpolicy/g8presidency2007/doc/38335.phphttp://www.bmu.de/english/internationalenvironmentalpolicy/g8presidency2007/doc/38335.phphttp://www.bmu.de/english/internationalenvironmentalpolicy/g8presidency2007/doc/38335.php

“Coping with Water Scarcity” is the theme of this year’s World Water Day, promoted by the United Nations. The link: World Water Day . The UN’s Water Portal can be a valuable resource. “UN-Water’s work encompasses all aspects of freshwater and sanitation. Over the years, agencies within the United Nations have developed specific expertise on an array of themes within this wide remit.” The thematic index provides access to specialist resources on many water topics, linkable from the “UN-Water” page. Via UNESCO, there are many water issues with numerous, world-wide links: http://www.unesco.org/water/waterlinks/WaterIssues/

Librarians at the Library of Congress periodically create research guides on timely topics. They are dubbed “Science Tracer Bullets Online” (Historically, they were in paper format.) This latest was released on March 17th. This is what the ResourceShelf.com announcement reads: “Web and print resources compiled by the Science, Technology and Business Division at the Library of Congress. This guide lists relevant sources of information on alternative fuel vehicles and includes electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and personal transportation vehicles, as well as the technology of fuel economy and alternative fuels. It also includes advanced autoignition and lean-burn combustion processes for improving engine fuel economy.”

These research guides include books, conference proceedings, technical reports and papers, dissertations, key journals, and databases (abstracting and indexing services). A caveat: Princeton does not necessarily have all the resouces listed, but our call numbers are likely to be the same as in the Library of Congress, and of course, we will be happy to obtain any resources lacking at Princeton, via Interlibrary Loan, or Document Delivery. Princeton will have most of the databases accessible electronically via the Main Catalog or under Articles and databases from the Library’s homepage.

World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision In the next 43 years, world population is expected to increase by our total population statistic in 1950, 2.5 billion. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Population Division provides this direct link to tables. “The world population continues its path towards population ageing and is on track to surpass 9 billion persons by 2050, as revealed by the newly released 2006 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections.” (From the press release).

The National Academy of Sciences has created a program, STS, Science & Technology for Sustainability, in the division of Policy and Global Affairs “to encourage the use of science and technology to achieve long term sustainable development.” Their various projects are linked and there are also links under the Sustainability Gateway: Sustainability - The Issue People and Their Communities Life Support Systems-Air & Water Life Support Systems - Food Economy, Business & Industry Natural Systems Institutions and Indicators Global Change

Mar. 26 The David Bradford Seminars in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Wallace Hall, Room 300 12:00 noon - 1:00p.m. “Climate Consilience and Surreal Story: Popper, Profession, and Media Engage the Science and Psychologies of Global Warming ” Bill Blakemore, News Correspondent, ABC News

Click here for summaries of the debate: “Global Warming is Not a Crisis”, by David Malakoff for NPR. One can also listen to the whole 1.5 hour debate. It was sponsored by Intelligence Squared U.S. — bringing “Oxford-style debating” to the United States. There is a link also, to brief profiles of the debaters: Michael Crichton, Richard S. Lindzen, Philip Stott, Brenda Ekwurzel, Gavin Schmidt, Richard C.J. Somerville. The moderator was Brian Lehrer.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. His lecture, entitled: “Negotiating the Post-Kyoto Climate Change Framework”, will take place in Bowen Hall, (Princeton Materials Science building), on Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 4:30, p.m. For details go to the posting on the PEI website: http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei/taplin07.htm

The Worldwatch Institute offers a unique blend of interdisciplinary research, global focus, and accessible writing that has made it a leading source of information on the interactions among key environmental, social, and economic trends. Our work revolves around the transition to an environmentally sustainable and socially just society—and how to achieve it. One can register for free e-mail updates and PDFs

The World Wildlife Fund has issued this press release: Saving the world’s natural wonders from climate change “From the Amazon to the Himalayas, ten of the world’s greatest natural wonders face destruction if the climate continues to warm at the current rate, warns WWF.

Released ahead of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Second Working Group Report, a WWF briefing — Saving the world’s natural wonders from climate change — reports on how the devastating impacts of global warming are damaging some of the world’s greatest natural wonders.

They include the: Amazon; Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs; Chihuahua Desert in Mexico and the US; hawksbill turtles in the Caribbean; Valdivian temperate rainforests in Chile; tigers and people in the Indian Sundarbans; Upper Yangtze River in China; wild salmon in the Bering Sea; melting glaciers in the Himalayas; and East African coastal forests.”

Having been directed to this Natural Resources Defense Council website from ActforChange.com, I’d like to pass the link along. Here you will find “Guides to greener living”: JOURNALS, COLUMNS & OVERVIEWS, ENERGY-SAVING TIPS, GUIDES TO CONSERVING RESOURCES, GUIDES TO PROTECTING YOUR FAMILIES’ HEALTH, TRAVEL AND RECREATION INFO, as well as a links to a “legislative watch” and “guides to capitol hill” about communicating with Congress and the legislative process.

Geotimes is a magazine featuring Earth, Energy and Environment News. One can subscribe to free, monthly online alerts. Also there is access to full text online from August 2000. The Geosciences Library has the print copy.

Energy-saving custom Google search In January 2007, a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to its popularity. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. You can set Blackle as your home page; this way every time you load your browser, you will save a little bit of energy…. From the American Library Association’s e-newsletter, “American Libraries Direct” 5/23/2007.

From the Special Libraries Association’s online monthly newsletter: SLA Connections, May 2007: In a letter of May 8th (2007) to the SLA, Mike Flynn, the EPA Director confimed that there is currently a moratorium on further closures and changes to the EPA Library Network.

He also wrote that: “EPA is committed to increasing access to environmental information through a combination of online and traditional library services via the EPA Library Network.”

PhysicsWeb is the website/online version of Physics World, published by the IOP (Institute of Physics) and while it is most definitely not a new journal, it is definitely one to consider for selected physics news summaries. The current issue, July, 2007, has information about nuclear energy, hydrogen and fuel cells, as well as coal.

World Population Day 2007: A New Urbanite Every Two Seconds

Source: Worldwatch Institute [mailer@worldwatch.org]

Every two seconds, one person joins the planet’s expanding urban population, and in 2008, for the first time in human history, a majority of people will live in cities. Last week, the UN Population Fund released its State of World Population 2007 report, which calls for a “revolution in thinking” to help cities unleash their potential to spur economic growth and solve social problems.

In this video of the launch event in Washington, D.C., Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin discusses the imperative of developing our urbanizing world sustainably in order to meet the needs of the 1.1 billion people projected to join the world’s population between now and 2030. Over half of these people may live in under-serviced slums, according to Worldwatch’s recent report State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future.

Princeton University Library keeps the latest edition(s) of this title in both Stokes Library and the Pliny Fisk collection in Firestone under the call number: HD59 .S82.

PUBLIC POLICY UPDATE

EPA Bill Heading to Senate Floor- ACTION ALERT! The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a bill to increase the EPA’s budget. That bill is now headed to the full Senate. This is good news for EPA’s libraries and laboratories, which were subject to downsizing attempts in anticipation of significant 2007 budget cuts. Visit SLA’s Legislative Action Center to find out how you can help support the EPA libraries in this bill.

Language from the Senate version of the bill states that “$2,000,000 shall be used to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration. While the committee approves of efforts to make environmental data collections available electronically, the committee does not agree to further library closures or consolidations without evidence of how the public would be served by these changes” Read full Appropriations Act S.1696

The House version of the FY 2008 Interior Appropriations bill does NOT include any language about the EPA libraries. Visit SLA’s Legislative Action Center to find out how you can help support the EPA libraries in this bill.

Related Article in Library Journal

Related Article by OMB Watch

The Mission of the UNEP: “To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

Focus areas of the UNEP:

Biodiversity, Business & Industry, Chemicals, Civil Society and NGOs, Energy, Environmental Assessment, Freshwater, Governance & Law, Land, Marine & Coastal Areas, Ozone, Sustainable Consumption, Urban Issues

International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives

Founded in 1990 in New York, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is a broad international association of local governments and related units of governance committed to sustainable development. The ICLEI provides support to their members through technical consulting and training programs, and their website also serves as a clearinghouse for this material, along with offering additional items, including research reports, newsletters, and policy briefs. On their homepage, visitors can read about their latest news, check job postings, and also learn about recent developments from their members. Most visitors will want to continue their exploration of the site by clicking over to the “Programs” area. Here they can learn about their “Cities for Climate Protection” campaign, read up on their biodiversity initiative, and take a look at their tools for creating sustainable cities. [KMG]

From the

Scout Report

Sony develops sweet little bio battery

The Washington Post this morning is reporting from Reuters in Tokyo, that Sony has developed a vegetable-based plastic-cased battery that runs on plant sugar broken down by enzymes as in photosynthesis.

Environmentalresearchweb is a community website maintained by IOP, the Institute of Physics for Science, Policy and Engagement. It offers departments on: Opinion, Research, Sustainable Futures, Journals, Jobs, Resources, Companies, and Events.
The IOP is an highly-respected British institution.

INIS Online Database from 1970 to date. This new resource was added to our Princeton University Library’s “Articles and Databases” page this summer, and contains ~2.8 million records on peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. >850,000 papers are full-text. Sponsored by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, there is world-wide coverage. Approximately 1/2 of the records come from journals, the rest are technical reports, conference proceedings, patents, theses, and preprints, known as “grey” or “non-conventional” literature. Almost 2200 journals are scanned for inclusion, but 580 are key.

The portions especially applicable to environmental sciences are:

8% economic, environmental, legal and safeguards

7% fuel cycle waste and radiochemistry

13% nuclear power and safety

Environment Index is the new, shortened title for Environmental Issues & Policy Index. This database has different emphases from Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management and LexisNexis Environmental. They concentrate on science and technology, and legal and news resources, respectively.

It has had quite a history of title changes: the following is taken from Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, or Ulrichsweb, which we have listed among our “Articles and Databases” resources:

“Title History: Former titles (until 2006): Environmental Issues & Policy Index (United States); (until Dec. 2002): Environmental Policy Index (United States); (until 2002): Environmental Knowledge Base (Online Edition) (United States); (until 2000): Environmental Periodicals Bibliography (Print Edition) (United States) (0145-3815); (until 1973): Environmental Periodicals (United States) (0046-2306)”

New Scientist [newsletter@email.newscientist.com] 4 October, 2007

Cathrine Brahic, Online Environment Reporter, writes: “World Failing On Sustainable Development ” “If the world is to start developing in a sustainable way, we are going in the wrong direction. This is the message from the first study to show the ecological impact of our changing lifestyles. The international team looked at 93 nations over the last 30 years and found that just one nation - Cuba - is developing sustainably. Cuba was the only nation found to provide a decent standard of living for their people without consuming more than its fair share of resources”…MORE

Well, it appears that we can’t read more — at least not until the issue arrives in any of these 3 libraries: Chemistry, Stokes or Engineering. (It is embargoed for 1 month from being electronically available on EBSCO, and it won’t be available on Omnifile (Wilson) or ProQuest for 6 months.)

RenewableEnergyAccess.com is “a leading online-only publication and business-to-business (B2B) community for renewable energy”. Even though, PennWell Corporation, a business-to-business (B2B) publishing corporation, has become the major owner of the website, its founders, Jim Callahan and Oliver Strube will continue to direct operations.

“RenewableEnergyAccess.com serves 50,000 registered readers by providing comprehensive industry information and insight with its daily news, weekly podcasts, and regular columns and interviews. The site covers finance, policy, and technology for renewable energies including solar power, wind power, biomass and biofuels, geothermal, hydrogen/fuel cells, and hydropower.”

Princeton University has most of the journals listed in the extended entry. However, as always, if anyone needs an article we don’t own, Interlibrary Loan or Document Delivery is encouraged.

The countries (192) that have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) an international treaty, are meeting again to update the Kyoto Protocols which are due to expire in 2012. The Union of Concerned Scientists has begun a newsletter, the Bali Bulletin to report information about this meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

Here is some background and further links.

“Nature is pleased to name Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian engineer and economist, and chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as our inaugural Newsmaker of the Year.”

From Resource Shelf # 339, Dec. 20th, comes notice of Time Magazine’s

The Best Top Ten Lists of the Year 2007

For Immediate Release: December 21, 2007 Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337 http://www.peer.org/news/newsid.php?rowid=964 Washington, DC Buried within the omnibus appropriations bill Congress sent this week to President Bush is a Christmas present for the beleaguered library network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress ordered EPA to restore library services across the country and earmarked $3 million for that purpose, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Beginning in early 2006, without public announcement or congressional approval, EPA began dismantling its network of technical and research libraries. Altogether EPA has closed regional libraries serving 23 states and its headquarters library in Washington, D.C. It has also reduced services and hours in libraries covering another 14 states. In addition, EPA has shuttered several of its specialized, technical libraries, such as its unique library dedicated to the effects of pesticides and new chemicals.

“The report language attached to the omnibus appropriations bill for the remainder of the 2008 fiscal year directs EPA to use $3 million to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration and to report within 90 days on its plans to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region.

Great Britain has done an “about-face”, and has decided to revamp its nuclear power production to decrease its carbon footprint. Additional information from IOP’s Physicsworld.com Newswire can be found here: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/32398

K-News Winter 2008 - Knovel Adds 173 New Engineering Titles

“Our new Earth Sciences subject area enables subscribers in infrastructure construction, oil and gas, civil engineering and many other fields to rely on Knovel as a single place for finding reliable answers quickly. The Earth Sciences collection currently contains 53 titles covering the following topics:

Geochemistry, Geology, Geophysics, Geodesy & Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydrology, Oceanography & Glaciology, Paleontology & Stratigraphy”

EPA LIBRARY CLOSURES HAMPERING AGENCY WORK, ARBITRATOR FINDS EPA Guilty of Bad Faith and Unfair Labor Practice in Shutting Agency Libraries

Washington, DC - A federal arbitrator has found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guilty of unfair labor practices and acting in bad faith in its national series of library closures, according to a ruling posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA is ordered to bargain with affected public employee unions before making any further changes in its library network. During the past two years, EPA has closed or reduced access to much of its network of libraries which serve both its own specialists and the public. Altogether, access to EPA libraries in 23 states has been completely lost, and several specialized collections have been shuttered, including its headquarters library.

Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:45:19 -0500 From: Lynne E. Bradley lbradley@alawash.org From: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 28, 2008 Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

Environmental Protection: EPA Needs to Ensure That Best Practices and Procedures Are Followed When Making Further Changes to Its Library Network. GAO-08-304, February 29.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-304 (60 pages)

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08304high.pdf (1 page)

Thanks to Ruth Gustafson from UC Davis reporting to the Environment & Resource Management Division of Special Library Association

“Under the initiative, CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) will work with Wikipedia to help provide accurate CAS Registry Numbers for current substances listed in Wikiprojects - Chemicals section of the Wikipedia Chemistry Portal - that are of widespread general public interest. The CAS Registry is one the most comprehensive collections of chemical substances and the CAS Registry Number is the recognised global standard for chemical substance identification.”

From Knowledgespeak Newsletter, March 18.

March 14 — The National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering held a summit on March 13 and 14 to examine the increasing importance of energy policy to the nation’s security, economic vitality, and environment. U.S. government officials and other leading experts delivered a series of presentations that will inform the upcoming study —

America’s Energy Future: Technology Opportunities, Risks, and Tradeoffs.

Summit Agenda and Presentations

News Release

America’s Energy Future Project

What You Need to Know About Energy booklet

Source: What’s New@National-Academies.org Friday, March 21.

The EPA National Library Network Report to Congress has been released.

It is dated March 26, 2008.

http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/documents/LibraryReportto_Congress.pdf

In the report it states that the EPA will receive S1 million to reopen the following libraries, which it hopes to do by September 30, 2008: EPA Libraries in Regions 5, 6 & 7, Chicago, Dallas, & Kansas City respectively, and the EPA Headquarters Repository and Chemical Library in Washington, D.C.

The new database, GreenFILE, produced by EBSCO, concentrates on human interactions with the environment. It is a small database, which indexes many different types of documents, from scholarly journal articles to recipes from popular journals. About 6% of the articles have links to full text. The searching is transparent and flexible, including limiting by scholarly titles. For research in depth, you mustn’t neglect the larger, more comprehensive databases in environmental sciences/studies and the subject database(s) most related to your topic. For more information from the announcement in Knowledgespeak Newsletter of April 2, 2008, read on…

From The Scout Report