Monday, July 14, 2014

Holistic Approach to Erosion Control


The holistic approach to managing erosion control for air and water quality and associated earth functions  consists of determinable chaos making possible an approach to tackle point and non-point source pollution problems.  


This approach  identifies resources that treat polluted runoff and minimize the amount of pollution generated by greenhouse gases and other toxic wastes.

 Your "Green Engineering" website addresses point source and non-point source pollution from an urban perspective

Phytoremediation mitigatine pollutant concentrated in the  contaminated atmosher of earth, soils, water, and wetlands. 

This process restores ecological balance with plants able to contain, degrade, or eliminate metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil and its derivatives, and various other contaminants from the media that contain them.

The goal of self-regulation is the maintenance of habitability.


The way we change the air with greenhouse gases and take away its natural  forest cover for farmland; the outcome is global heating

This is how Gaia keeps a habitable: planet:  Species that improve habitability flourish and those that foul the environment are set back or go extinct.

"An hour above high camp on the Southeast Ridge of Everest, Panuru Sherpa and I passed the first body. The dead climber was on his side, as if napping in the snow, his head half covered by the hood of his parka, goose down blowing from holes torn in his insulated pants. Ten minutes later we stepped around another body, her torso shrouded in a Canadian flag, an abandoned oxygen bottle holding down the flapping fabric.".

 How to fix the mess at the top of the world

The need for pure water : dislike it or not

 Dislike it they may, fracking may be a short term solution yet with long term consequences. 

A study that found hydraulic fracturing for natural gas puts drinking-water supplies in Pennsylvania at risk of contamination may renew a long-running debate between industry and activists.

 Water treatment is a global challenge were 1.7 million people die annually from diseases related to polluted water and 1.1 billion people have no access to drinking water. New technology and design, treating municipal and industrial waste-water and reusing......

Since coming into existence in 2011, Eco-Sustain Africa has contributed to conservation of endangered species by monitoring and managing the release of cheetah onto a reserve in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. We also actively participated in the rehabilitation of captive bred caracal into the wild and helped resolve human-elephant conflict at a commercial game reserve.

Not only did many of our volunteers assist with these projects but they also SustainAfrica

Planetary scale engineering might be able to combat global warming, but, as with nineteenth century medicine, the best option may simply be kind words and letting Nature take its course, says James Lovelock

Only climatologists tolerated Gaia theory as global heating slowly gained acceptance

 "The world of science has evolved to the dangerous point whee model-building has precedence over observation and measurement especially in Earth and life sciences. In certain ways modeling by scientists has become a threat to the foundation on which science has stood the acceptance that nature is always the final  arbiter.

Water treatment is a global challenge were 1.7 million people die annually from diseases related to polluted water and 1.1 billion people have no access to drinking water. New technology and design, treating municipal and industrial waste-water and that a hypothesis must always be tested by experiment and observation in the real world."

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Erosion control, and nanotechnologies (NT)


The revolutionary development of nanotechnology applications enables effective soil stabilization as well as an efficient way to control dust and prevent erosion.


A nanometer is one billionth of a meter — about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair. By this definition, any submicron-sized particle falls under the category of nanoscale materials. The National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology as understanding and controlling matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel application.

Modest application rates are useful for dust suppression and erosion control. Heavier applications can make the soil as hard and sturdy as cement, which is often used for road building or other projects requiring high durability. By adjusting the application rate, Powdered Soiltac® can remain effective from weeks to several years. Most importantly, Powdered Soiltac® is a truly biodegradable product that is completely environmentally safe to use.  offers "industry-changing" nanotechnology applications that address the growth of global water and energy demand
 offers "industry-changing" nanotechnology applications that address the growth of global water and energy demand

Nanotechnologies for environmental cleanup

Among the many applications of nanotechnology that have environmental implications, remediation of contaminated groundwater using nanoparticles containing zero-valent iron (nZVI) is one of the most prominent examples of a rapidly emerging technology with considerable potential benefits. There are, however, many uncertainties regarding the fundamental features of this technology, which have made it difficult to engineer applications for optimal performance or to assess the risk to human or ecological health.

Read more 


 ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATION OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology is an emerging field that covers a wide range of  technologies which are presently under development in nanoscale. It plays a major role in the development of innovative methods to produce new products, to substitute existing production equipment and to reformulate new materials and chemicals with improved performance resulting in less consumption of energy and materials and reduced harm to the environment as well as environmental remediation. Although, reduced consumption of energy and materials benefits the environment, nanotechnology will give possibilities to remediate problems associated with the existing processes in a more sustainable way. Environmental applications of nanotechnology address the development of solutions to the existing environmental problems, preventive measures for future problems resulting from the interactions of energy and materials with the environment, and any possible risks that may be posed by nanotechnology itself. 

 Read chapter 2


Technology Roadmap
Extensive use of fresh water for cooling of thermal power plant is becoming a serious concern in hot or dry regions. A principal advantage of wind energy for water-stressed areas is its very low consumption of water in comparison with thermal generation. This is already an important issue in China, and a growing concern in India, as well as in OECD member countries such as the (western) United States of America.
Read more 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Contaminated sediment management?

Sediment remains the number 1 pollutant of our nations waterways

"Mitigating the effects of poor soil conditions once sediment has entered the drainage system and aquatic environment is difficult, expensive and labour–intensive."

Tons of dredged sediment to be dumped on Great Barrier Reef under new plan
SYDNEY—The government agency that oversees Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on Friday approved a plan to dump vast swathes of sediment on the reef as part of a major coal port expansion — a decision that environmentalists say will endanger one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.
read more

Politicians risk future of reef for sake of progress

On Friday, federal Environment Minister Mark Butler formally delayed making a decision on a deeply controversial proposal to dredge 3 million cubic metres of sea floor and dump it in Great Barrier Reef waters.

read more

 Great Barrier Reef dredging is demonised by activists

Consistently ignored in most reactions to the federal approval of a modest dredging program at the Abbot Point coal terminal in north Queensland is a landmark raising of the environmental protection bar for the Great Barrier Reef.

 read more 



Pollution in Hackensack River sediment alters eating habits of crabs and fish

Levels of mercury and PCBs in the Hackensack River’s sediment are still so high that crabs and bluefish exhibit extremely odd behavior, making it hard for them to catch prey, researchers have found.


For many decades, mercury and PCBs from multiple Superfund sites along the Hackensack and Berry’s Creek, a tributary, have been spread throughout the tidal river system and into the surrounding marshland.
The contaminants bond to the sediment, where they can be absorbed or ingested by plankton and small worms. In turn, those creatures are eaten by larger species, such as fiddler crabs and menhaden, which are then consumed by crabs and young bluefish. As the mercury and PCBs get passed on up the food chain, they become more concentrated at each step.
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/Pollution_in_Hackensack_River_sediment_alters_eating_habits_of_crabs_and_fish.html#sthash.KxmPxGTk.dpuf
For many decades, mercury and PCBs from multiple Superfund sites along the Hackensack and Berry’s Creek, a tributary, have been spread throughout the tidal river system and into the surrounding marshland.
The contaminants bond to the sediment, where they can be absorbed or ingested by plankton and small worms. In turn, those creatures are eaten by larger species, such as fiddler crabs and menhaden, which are then consumed by crabs and young bluefish. As the mercury and PCBs get passed on up the food chain, they become more concentrated at each step.
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/Pollution_in_Hackensack_River_sediment_alters_eating_habits_of_crabs_and_fish.html#sthash.KxmPxGTk.dpuf