June 2009
(25th June 2009)
I have written an op-ed on diarrhoea for The New Statesman, which is here.
→ Algae
(23rd June 2009)
So I was reading this news release about an apparently innovative algae-to-biofuel project which uses wastewater. The wastewater's nutrients feed the algae which is turned into feedstock. I'm not quite sure how it then becomes fuel. Anyway while trying to understand it, I came across two things I didn't know but probably should have. Firstly, that Severn Trent Plc does not only run ...
(23rd June 2009)
In far too many wastewater treatment plants, the methane that is created by digesting sewage sludge is simply burned off in flares, because plants don't know what else to do with it. It's an environmentally unfriendly practice, methane being a greenhouse gas, but it's also a waste of a perfectly good energy source. Only a third of UK wastewater treatment plants use the methane, usually ...
→ Twinning
(22nd June 2009)
Many thanks to Miss Molly Mackey for sending me this story from BBC Coventry about the up-until-five-minutes-ago-unknown-to-me concept of toilet twinning. I'm not sure why the participation of the Right Reverend Christopher Cocksworth made it headline news, but never mind. Good for him and the good citizens of Leamington Spa.
→ Methane
(22nd June 2009)
Methane is one of six greenhouses gases recently listed as being of great concern by the EPA. A quarter of American methane is produced by cows, either belching or farting. The Huffington Post wonders why Obama won't regulate cow burps.
(17th June 2009)
The Obama administration's new report on Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States may not seem revolutionary, but to me it is groundbreaking. It's rare to see a high-profile government report stating quite so categorically that, infrastructurally speaking, the US - and much of the developed world - is in trouble. To quote: "The nation’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure is aging. In ...
→ Sewers
(17th June 2009)
Sewers, as I keep saying, are highly dangerous places, because wastewater/shit is highly dangerous stuff. It may be 2009, but wastewater operatives still die on the job, such as these two unfortunate Italians who weren't wearing the proper safety equipment when they entered a tank in Riva Ligure, and were killed by toxic gases. A worker who tried to assist them was hospitalized from ...