In early August, the Rockville City Council in Maryland voted to

ban “big-box” retail stores. Two existing stores are grandfathered, but a proposed 128,000-square-foot (11,900 m²) Costco store has been rejected.

The Brookings Institute reported in August that 18 acres (7.3 ha) of open fields or woodland in North Carolina are

being developed every hour. Most of this development is occurring around the state’s seven largest metropolitan areas.

Using a computer program that simulates North American weather on an hour-by-hour basis plus detailed information on

dioxin releases from 40,000 sources, scientists at Queens University in New York City have pinpointed specific sources of dioxin reaching the Arctic. They found that just 35 municipal waste incinerators, cement kilns, and steel plants in the eastern and central U.S. account for a third of all dioxin reaching the Nunavut Territory in northern Canada. The tracking is extremely precise, according to the researchers, allowing them to track individual “puffs” of contaminated air and where it goes. A single municipal incinerator near Harrisburg, for example, accounted for 5% of the dioxin reaching Broughton Island, just above the Arctic Circle. Critics of the report claim that the dioxin emissions data used are out-of-date and that emissions today are significantly lower. Dioxin is of particular concern in the Arctic, because native people there have high-fat-content diets, and it is in animal fat that dioxin is stored. Dioxin can be created whenever chlorine and carbon are burned together.

Canada’s government is taking action to stem climate change. On October 6, Canada’s federal cabinet formally approved a $500-million, five-year

plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan will achieve about one-third of Canada’s greenhouse gas emission reductions called for in the Kyoto climate change treaty. Under the plan, the federal government will buy up to 20% of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar, as well as provide incentives for purchases of renewable energy and a nationwide tripling of ethanol production. These actions are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65 megatonnes (72 megatons) by the year 2010. The federal government hopes to convince provincial governments to make similar commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and thus achieve Canada’s entire 200-megatonne (220-megaton) reductions as called for by the Kyoto treaty.

Newsbriefs

For the first time ever,

a hole in the stratospheric ozone layer opened up over a populated area. During two days in early September the South Pole ozone hole extended over the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, a city of 120,000 people. Residents were exposed to very high levels of ultraviolet radiation, significantly increasing risk of skin cancer. The ozone hole over the Antarctic was the largest ever recorded, expanding to 11.5 million square miles (3 billion ha)—about three times the size of the United States.

The

Permaculture Credit Union, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened this summer. The Credit Union will operate on the ethics of permaculture: care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment of surplus. Membership in this credit union will be limited to those persons who have completed a Permaculture Institute-recognized permaculture design course, are members of an affiliated regional Permaculture Institute, and/or who subscribe to permaculture ethics. For information, contact acting president/CEO Nora Haskins, 505/954-3479, or find them online at www.pcuonline.org.

Researchers at the University of Florida have demonstrated that existing stack-scrubbing technology can be applied to wood-burning boilers to remove and render insoluble volatilized heavy metals from the

incineration of CCA-treated wood (see

EBN

Vol. 6, No. 3 for background discussion). Bubbling stack exhaust through lime-water (an aqueous solution of calcium carbonate) is used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in power plants that burn high sulfur fuel, such as coal—the by-product is calcium sulfate or gypsum. The researchers applied the same general approach to wood incinerators burning CCA-treated wood, and vaporized heavy metals were reacted out into relatively insoluble salts. So, not only are the hazardous metals removed from stack emissions, the incinerator ash is less likely to leach during solid waste disposal. This research may be desperately needed in Florida, where, according to the Florida researchers, an estimated 70% of waste treated wood is incinerated, and the total amount of treated wood discarded in Florida will rise from 5 million ft³ (140,000 m³) today to 35 million ft³ (990,000 m³) in 2015!

of green buildings from the U.S. and Europe, will be traveling from its New York City origin to several other locations over the next year. The exhibit was organized by the Architectural League of New York and curated by Peter Buchanan. Details may be found online at www.archleague.org. At press time, the tour schedule was:

September 25–October 25, 2000

•The National Building Museum Washington, D.C.

November 2000– January 2001

•University of Maryland

January–March 2001 (tentative)

•University of Houston

(dates uncertain)

•Denver, Colorado

in conjunction with the AIA Convention, May 17–20, 2001

•Berkeley Art Museum

University of California-Berkeley (dates undetermined).

, the largest electric utility in Texas, has entered into a “sell all, buy all” wind power contract with FPL Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light, a $6 billion national provider of electricity-related services (15% of FPL’s energy portfolio comes from wind power, with 85% coming from renewables or natural gas). FPL will build, own, and operate 242 166-foot tall (50.6 m) wind turbines in West Texas, generating annually 500 million kilowatt-hours—enough to power about 29,000 homes. At least part of TXU’s motivation for this project comes from a state legislature directive requiring a certain percentage of power generation in Texas to be from a renewable source. Through a trial TXU “green power” consumer program, residents of nearby Waco can direct-purchase wind power at a premium rate to support further development of renewable energy.

, who has served ably as executive director of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) for 12 years, has announced his resignation. Larry plans to leave the association following the ASES Annual meeting in April 2001. He does not have definite plans for the future.