CO2 Emissions Causing Ocean Acidification at Unprecedented Rate

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“April 22, 2010 — Unless man-made carbon dioxide emissions are substantially curbed, or atmospheric carbon dioxide is controlled by some other means, the oceans will continue to become more acidic, says the summary of a congressionally requested study by the National Research Council. The long-term consequences are unknown, but a federal program under development is a positive move toward understanding and responding to the problem.”

Source: National Academies.org Weekly Highlights, April 23, 2010

Wetlands: US EPA website

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Wetlands US EPA

"Overall, this site is useful for background information about the state of US wetlands. Undergraduates and researchers would particularly benefit from this information and from the numerous links to additional resources allowing them to further expand their investigation of this subject."

Information from the Clean Water Act and scientific documents — about floodplains, watersheds, urban stormwaters, restoration, pollution management

From Choice Reviews online or Choice, April, 2010, Vol 47(8), p.1512.

Environmental Justice — “yearling” journal

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Environmental Justice is offering free full text access until May 15th, of their special issue in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Environmental Justice

MaryAnn Liebert is the publisher. This is Vol. 2, issue 4:

What Did Environmental Justice Look Like in 1970?
Author: M. Egan

Remembering April 22, 1970
Author: L. Mighetto

Reflections on Earth Day
Author: D.N. Pellow

Reflections on Earth Day 1970 and Beyond
Author: P.C. Rosier

The Environment versus the Poor: Personal Reflections on Earth Day 1970
Author: K. Shrader-Frechette

Earth Day at 40
Author: P. Wapner

A Reflection on Earth Day Celebrations: What Exactly Are We Celebrating?
Author: L.W. Da

Birth of a Sustainable Nation, The Environmental Justice and Environmental Health Movements in the United States
Author: S. Hood Washington

GreenFILE — free database from EBSCO

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“EBSCO’s GreenFILE is a free database offering access to research-related information on human impacts to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government, and general interest titles include content about the environmental effects of individuals, corporations, and local /national governments and what can be done on each level to minimize the negative impact. Topics covered include global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and recycling. Articles are retrieved from 600 titles with nearly 300,000 articles, including full-text access from more than 4,600 open access titles. The same general search of terms and concepts related to green or sustainable buildings (including libraries), architecture, design, etc., provides nearly 3,900 records from academic journals, magazines, books/monographs, book reviews, reports, and government documents.”

Online, Mar/Apr 2010, p. 23 or http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=8&did=1980426771&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1272476313&clientId=17210&aid=1
Libraries Taking the ‘LEED’: GREEN LIBRARIES LEADING IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
Frederick Stoss. Online. Medford: Mar/Apr 2010. Vol. 34, Iss. 2; pg. 20, 8 pgs

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

Environment Yale Magazine

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Environment Yale Magazine

"The Journal of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies has a new, sleek looking website for the Fall 2009 issue. The "Past Issues" are still available on the previous environment: Yale website, however, and the issues go all the way back to the spring of 2002. The journal is published twice per year, and exists in both print and online formats. Some of the features of the journal include "Bookshelf" and "Class Notes and Obituaries", available in PDF format in the past issues. The current issue, Fall 2009, has some fascinating articles, i.e. "The Problem with Plastics", which includes a list on the right side of the page of a dozen or so steps you can take to avoid toxic chemicals; "Pond Scum Prized Again as Potential Biofuel"; and "Can China Save the Amur Tiger?", which discusses the promise of "tiger recovery in the same way China committed to panda conservation 30 years ago" due to a "dramatic expansion of [tiger] habitat and population." [KMG]

Source: The Scout Report, Univ. of Wisconsin, March 26, 2010

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.

New Toxicology Tutorial Available from NLM (National Library of Medicine)

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New Toxicology Tutorial Available

Source: Special Libraries Association, ERMD Newsletter, Winter 2010.

“ToxLearn, a new NLM resource, is now available. http://toxlearn.nlm.nih.gov

ToxLearn is a multi-module online learning tool that provides an introduction to toxicology. It can be used as an ancillary curriculum to a first-level undergraduate toxicology course, and can provide users of NLM’s toxicology databases with a working knowledge of basic toxicology principles. ToxLearn modules will be made available as they are completed. Module 1 covers “Toxicology and Dose Response.”