Cape Lobster Industry Faces Crisis
"Regulators say warmer seas are the reason traps in Buzzards Bay have come up increasingly empty in the last decade"
Lobstermen south of Cape Cod have seen their catches nosedive for the past decade, from more than 20 million pounds in 1997, to less than 5 million last year. In the past, overfishing, water pollution, pesticides and an outbreak of shell disease were blamed for the failure of the fishery.
But tough fishing regulations have done nothing to reverse the trend, and some scientists now believe water temperature may be the primary obstacle to recovery. "(The lobster decline) is a combination of factors that are all related back to changes in water temperature," said Robert Glenn, a senior marine fisheries biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries. It's called trophic shift- when the environment changes so dramatically that the least tolerant resident species move out, and more adaptable species move in.
To the north on Georges Bank and continuing up into Maine, lobster populations remain relatively robust. Although temperature increases have been noted in Boston and in Maine, the water is so much colder north of Nantucket Sound that it would take a huge increase in the average temperature, of 15 degrees or more, to reach levels that lobsters can't tolerate, said Glenn.
Cape Cod Time, by Doug Fraser 6/13/10
Impact of B2B Green Marketing in an Increasingly Environmentally Conscious World
One could make the point that marketing is often about answering the question: "Why would someone buy your product?" That question is often answered based on one or more of the following three variables: Cheaper, Faster, Better.
Volumes of research suggest that purchasing decisions are largely based on factors of cost, performance and quality. Today, however, there is a new variable in this mix; Green has become a category all to itself. The marketing paradigm has shifted to become: Cheaper, Faster, Better, Greener.
Steam remains a primary source of energy in manufacturing and processing. Steam supply is needed for not only heat, but hot water, sterilization, and other important systems. The typical industrial steam boiler manufacturer uses oil and gas to boil large amounts of water and turn them into steam in about two hours. Miura, with experience working under strict water conservation and emissions regulations in the Japanese market, developed a technology that could actually turn water to steam in about five minutes, prior to entering the North American market.
This technology, developed before being "green" meant something other than money or a popular frog on a children's TV show, boils the same amount of water as its counterparts. However, instead of using "one large pot," these boilers distribute a similar amount of water boiled in several smaller pots enabling faster boiling times and increased water usage efficiency.
In turn, this reduced the amount of fuel required to run these systems- an advantage that, as the cost of oil and gas began to climb, increasingly caught the attention of North American industrial boiler buyers.
We will eventually pay a higher price not to produce greener products and services. But for now, while green marketing is an increasingly important way to attract B2B customers and deliver your message, cheaper, faster and better, remain cornerstones of attracting customers.
Excerpted from The Environmental Leader, by Bob Lipp, President of Marcomm Group, Inc.
Compostable Packaging Increases Overall Rates
A survey by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition found that the use of compostable materials in packaging has the corollary effect of increasing the rate of food composting.
Pactiv, the makers of Hefty garbage bags, recently introduced the first compostable meat tray. The tray is being used by grocery stores in Seattle in order to comply with a new city-wide ban on the use of Styrofoam in stores and restaurants, which goes into effect July 1. The new tray is a bioplastic made from corn, and will be used by local Seattle supermarket chain Metropolitan Market. The new Seattle law is expected to reduce landfill waste by 6,000 tons a year.
The survey found that 72.5 percent of respondents said accepting compostable packaging allowed them to increase their overall rate of food waste tonnage, due to increased hauling efficiencies. Ninety percent of respondents said that they accept compostable packaging. Those that do not cited difficulty in certifying whether material was compostable, longer composting times and fear of contamination from regular plastics, as their reasons.
The survey also found that a large majority, 82.5 percent, said that standardized labeling of compostable materials was the most significant area of potential improvement, with responders saying they would be more likely to accept compostable packaging if it were more clearly labeled.
Source: Environmental Leader 6/24/10
Microsoft App Reduces PC Energy Use up to 80 Percent
Microsoft has created a new application with the potential to reduce energy use by personal computers by up to 80 percent, according to a report in PC World- "Sleepless in Seattle No Longer."
The system Microsoft implemented allowed computers to sleep more than 50 percent of the time. The system is composed of two components, the SleepServer and SleepNotifier programs. According to a second study on the SleepServer component, energy savings from implementing the system could range from 60-80 percent. Fifity to eighty percent of electricity use in modern buildings can be attributed to IT use, according to the second study.
Microsoft plans to present the paper at the Usenix conference in Boston. The software company recently won the Uptime Institute's Audacious Idea Award for its data center efficiency strategy. The company also recently unveiled its Hohn tool for computing home energy use.
PC World 6/10
