Category Archives: Announcements

Green Energy Portal from the DOE

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To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has opened the Green Energy Portal. It offers to all — scientists, students and the public — quick access to research and development in the area of renewable energy. There are thousands of full-text documents.

"The DOE Green Energy portal is part of the DOE Open Government Plan, which furthers the Administration’s Open Government Initiative. DOE Green Energy contains both current and historical research, including bibliographic citations, technical reports and patent information on different types of renewable energy resources and energy conservation. Subject areas include but are not limited to solar, wind, bioenergy, hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal and wave power, and energy storage."

Source: Email from Tim Byrne at OSTI byrnet@osti.gov

This is most likely a just a short cut, but I trust that most all of these documents and their indexing is available via NTIS, NTRL, Science.gov and/or the DOE’s Information Bridge.

Green Chemistry & Techology funding from EPA & NSF

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EPA’s Office of Research and Development is currently requesting proposals for Phase I SBIR funding. Green chemistry technologies may be submitted under "Innovation in Manufacturing" or other topics, as appropriate. EPA will accept proposals from March 25 to May 11, 2010. Information is available at www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir/

In addition, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will be accepting proposals for SBIR funding for Environ-mental Technologies. NSF will accept proposals from May 9 to June 9, 2010. Information is available at www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir/

A notice from the EPA’s Green Chemistry Program

World Water Day, Monday, March 22, 2010

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From Joanna Luz Siegel:

Amazing photos from Nat’l Geographic:
And the entire NG special issue available for download:
In honor of World Water Day, the Laureate of the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize was announced: “Dr Rita Colwell, distinguished Professor from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S., has been named the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate. Dr Colwell has shown how changes in climate, adverse weather events, shifts in ocean circulation and other ecological processes can create conditions that allow infectious diseases to spread, and through that link she has led the ability to craft preemptive policies to minimise outbreaks.”

Read more at: http://www.siwi.org/SWP2010 The prize will be awarded in September during World Water Week.

EPA’s HERO — public risk assessments database

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"US environment agency releases public database on risk assessments – 25 Mar 2010

The US’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the release of the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database. HERO seeks to provide access to the scientific studies used in making key regulatory decisions, including EPA’s periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six major pollutants. It is part of the open government directive to conduct business with transparency, participation and collaboration.

The publicly accessible HERO database is projected to provide an easy way to review the scientific literature behind EPA science assessments, which are used to support agency decision-making. It includes more than 300,000 scientific articles including the authors, titles, dates and abstracts. In addition, through a keyword search, anyone can see information from the articles that were used to develop specific risk assessments.

HERO includes peer-reviewed literature used by EPA to develop its Integrated Science Assessments (ISA) that feed into the NAAQS review. It also includes references and data from the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a database that supports critical agency policymaking for chemical regulation. More information on the database is available at http://www.epa.gov/hero "

Source: Knowledgespeak Newletter 3/25/10 & CHMINF Listserv.

Environmental Research Letters — accompanying data published free

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UK Environmental journal allows authors to publish raw data files alongside their articles – 22 Feb 2010

"Non-profit scientific publisher Institute of Physics (IOP) Publishing, UK, has announced that its open access journal, Environmental Research Letters, now provides authors with the ability to publish raw data files alongside their article, for free.

Yu Song et al. from Peking University, China, are the first authors to take advantage of this newly available option. In their paper, ‘A new emission inventory for nonagricultural open fires in Asia from 2000 to 2009’ the authors combine MODIS burned product (MCD45A1) with other data to produce a comprehensive dataset. The dataset presented in this work is being made available to download for free as supplementary material to the article and is available at http://www.iop.org/EJ/mmedia/1748-9326/5/1/014014/.

Environmental Research Letters seeks to provide a coherent and integrated approach including research articles, perspectives, news and editorials, as well as meeting notices for the environmental science community. The journal now offers all authors the option to publish their raw data as supplementary data material alongside their article, if they wish to."

"Search for more environmental science related books/journals"

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter

NTRL — an expanded version of NTIS Government Reports Index

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Besides NTIS, available via Engineering Village/Elsevier, Princeton University now has access to: NTRL (National Technical Reports Library)National Technical Information Service. Over 500,000 documents are available in full-text from departments such as Department of Energy, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

NTRS differs from NTIS in that it covers more years, mainly from 1960, but as far back as 1800. The database is updated daily and there is full text for about 25% of the reports.

Source: P.U.’s Engineering Library and Database Management Group

Springer offers free environmental sciences articles

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“The Environmental Sciences Reading Room is a FREE service that will provide you with unlimited access to our Environmental journals, 6 times a year. No charge, no catch!

Access is free, quick and easy. Just follow this link and enter the Reading Room today! “

Selection for January – February 2010

The following Environmental journals have been selected and will be available to you until the end of February 2010:

  • Environmental Health
    • Aerobiologia
    • Microbial Ecology
  • Global Change – Climate Change
    • Oecologia
    • Energy Efficiency
  • Pollution & Remediation
    • Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health
    • Water, Air, & Soil Pollution
  • Environmental Management
    • Environmental Management
    • The Environmentalist
  • Sustainability
    • Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy
  • Aquatic Sciences
    • Estuaries and Coasts
    • Aquaculture International

Make sure to add this page to your favorites and to forward this link your colleagues! www.springer.com/environmentalreadingroom

Please note that you will continue to have unlimited access if your library or institution has an online subscription.

Princeton University now has subscriptions to all the Springer journals.

Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming

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This book is available free on the Web, compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2009:

Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming introduces a new generation of writers and photographers with a personal connection to global warming. The 67 essays and images in this anthology are drawn from nearly 1,000 submissions about beloved places, people, plants, animals, and activities at risk from a changing climate—and the efforts that individuals are making to save what they love. A foreword by author Barbara Kingsolver serves as a powerful call to action.
The essays we selected represent a variety of perspectives, voices, and experiences. The authors follow in the long tradition of great American environmental writers, like Henry David Thoreau, who have broadened our awareness and sharpened our perspective about the world we share. And they are inspiring action to protect our planet from global warming. They are Thoreau’s legacy.

Source: Email from Union of Concerned Scientists [action@ucsusa.org] June 22, 2009.

The Institute of Physics on the science behind climate change

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UK Institute of Physics publishes briefing note on climate change – 08 Dec 2009

“The Institute of Physics (IOP) has published a physics briefing note to help understand the science behind climate change as several world leaders have gathered in Copenhagen to discuss environmental issues.

Prof. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, President of the IOP, has expressed hope that world leaders will appreciate the major contribution science can make to our understanding of all aspects of global change, including climate change. Science can improve our predictions of what might happen; physics can provide critical, objective analysis of new schemes. Physics along with technology can develop new and more efficient energy sources, and find ways of minimising waste (of all kinds).

Prof. Burnell further states that climate models are the best tools available for understanding changes in climate, and from these models it seems we are entering an unprecedentedly difficult period for the human race. Science can diagnose the problem and it can work to remedy it, but it can do neither without support from world leaders.

These comments accompany the publication of a briefing note from IOP which summarises advances in human understanding of the climate and the work being done to create a low-carbon energy infrastructure. It includes comment from some of the UK’s leading climate experts.

Search for more such environment related initiatives in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Click here to read the original press release »”

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter.

Earth & Environmental Sciences — Springer ebooks now available!

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cda_displayimage.jpgPrinceton University Library now has a subscription to Springer’s collection of titles for the Earth and Environmental Sciences, from 2005-2010. This link will take you directly to the collection as a database:

http://www.springerlink.com/earth-and-environmental-science/?sortorder=asc&cb=2005&ce=2009

We have access to all the titles with the “green light”.

SpringerLink offers free access to search, tables of content, abstracts, and alerting services. Now Princeton has full-text access to the articles published in the journals and the book chapters…in selected subject areas. We will have access soon to the Physics and Astronomy collection from Springer.