KAKE - Go Green

Green Headlines From KAKE
	Report: Energy Loans Could Cost $3 Billon 1 Comment An independent review finds the government could lose about $3 billion on Energy Department loans for green energy programs — far less than the $10 billion Congress set aside for the high-risk program. (Full Story)
	'Lorax' Gets Green Tie-Ins 1 Comment Universal Pictures will begin promoting its latest movie featuring the character from the rhyming children's books this month with a host of commercial tie-ins for eco-friendly products. (Full Story)
	Electric Car Maker Fisker Lays Off Workers 0 Comments An electric car maker that received a half-billion-dollar loan from the federal government has laid off workers in Delaware and California. (Full Story)
	Survey: Recycling Up Statewide In Kansas 2 Comments The number of Kansans who recycle reached 85 percent in 2011, up from 65 percent the last time the survey was administered in 2005. (Full Story)
	White House To Review Energy Department Loans 1 Comment The White House on Friday ordered an independent review of clean-energy loans made by the Energy Department, its latest response to questions and criticism over a half-billion-dollar loan to a California solar company that eventually went bankrupt. (Full Story)
	Companies Sued For Calling Bottles Biodegradable 0 Comments The California attorney general's office on Wednesday sued three companies over allegations they misled consumers by marketing plastic water bottles as biodegradable. (Full Story)
	Manhattan Defeats Lawrence In Energy Contest 0 Comments The Manhattan/Kansas State group won a $100,000 prize in the "university" category of an energy efficiency contest. (Full Story)
	City Passes Pay As You Throw Trash Plan 31 Comments The Wichita City Council approved a pay as you throw trash plan with a vote of 6 to 1. (Full Story)
	Group Sues To Block Oil Pipeline 9 Comments Three conservation groups are suing to halt preliminary work on a proposed 1,700-mile-long oil pipeline from the tar sands of western Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The pipeline would pass through Kansas. (Full Story)
	Wind Farm Creating Concern For Some Kansas Farmers 18 Comments Not everyone is pleased the Kansas landscape is about to change drastically. (Full Story)
More Headlines

World's biggest offshore wind farm officially connected to the Grid
The world's biggest offshore wind farm was officially opened today after record-fast construction in the middle of the Irish Sea. The 102 turbines of the two connected Walney wind farms cover an area of 73 square-kilometres and were formally connected to the National Grid in a ceremony today. With a capacity of 367.2MW, the huge project can provide low-carbon, green electricity to 320,000 homes. The generating capacity of each turbine, supplied by Siemens Wind Power, is 3.6MW, and the rotor diameter of the turbines is 107m for Walney 1 and 120m for Walney 2, with a maximum height of 150m from sea level to blade tip.
Himalayan Ice melt less than thought
Estimates from satellite monitoring suggest the melt rate from the Himalayas and other high-altitude Asian mountains in recent years was much less than what scientists on the ground had estimated, but those monitoring the satellite data warn not to jump to the skeptical conclusion. The region's ice melt from 2003-2010 was estimated at 4 billion tons a year, far less than earlier estimates of around 50 billion tons, according to the study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
The Decline of Wild Salmon
The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific (Oncorhynchus) salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon. Chinook are an anadromous fish native to the north Pacific Ocean and the river systems of western North America ranging from California to Alaska. Scientists have found that only about ten percent of the fall-run Chinook salmon spawning in California's Mokelumne River are naturally produced wild salmon. A massive influx of hatchery-raised fish that return to spawn in the wild is masking the fact that too few wild fish are returning to sustain a natural population in the river. The study, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, highlights the danger of relying on ordinary census techniques to evaluate the health of wild salmon populations and their habitats. Most hatchery fish in California are unmarked and therefore undetectable in population surveys. For this study, the researchers were able to identify hatchery fish by using a novel technique to detect traces of a hatchery diet preserved in the ear bones of adult fish.
Marguerite Bay Glaciation
Marguerite Bay or Margaret Bay is an extensive bay on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is bounded on the north by Adelaide Island and on the south by Wordie Ice Shelf, George VI Sound and Alexander Island. A new paper reports glacial geological data that provide evidence for the timing of ice-sheet retreat and thinning at the end of the last glaciation (~10,000 years ago) in Marguerite Bay. The length of time that rock outcrops have been exposed was dated which allow dating of the thinning of the ice sheet, and the record from seabed sediments. This then allows the determination of how the ice sheet retreated across the continental shelf. The dating shows a surprising pattern. About 9,600 years ago, the ice in Marguerite Bay appears to have thinned very quickly indeed, an observation that turns out to be consistent with several other datasets from the same area (ice-shelf collapse histories, raised beaches and lake sediment cores).
Sturgeon Thunder
A giant among Wisconsin's inland freshwater fishes, the bottom dwelling lake sturgeon is a living fossil - a relic from the Middle Ages of fish evolution. This ancient species made its first appearance about 100 million years ago in the Upper Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, just about the time that the dinosaurs made their abrupt exit from Earth's ever-changing stage. Today the lake sturgeon retains many primitive characteristics that have been lost or modified in other modern-day fishes. Research into the mysterious sounds that lake sturgeon produce resumes in April, or whenever the water warms to a temperature conducive for fish spawning, which is the best time to experience sturgeon thunder. In spring, Ron Bruch, a biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Chris Bocast, an acoustic ecologist with the UW Sea Grant Institute, will conduct additional biological examinations and collect detailed field recordings of the infrasonic sounds of this ancient fish.
Zebra Stripes as Bug Repellant
On the plains of Africa, the zebra are not the only creature roaming in herds. There are a great number of other species, not least of all, the dreaded horsefly. Zebras, like all horse species, have large bodies which they cannot always reach with their mouths, hooves, or tails, making them an inviting prey for blood-sucking, flying insects. More than the lion, the horsefly is the bane of zebra's existence. This, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, is why zebras evolved to having stripes. The black and white stripes effectively deter the horseflies by making the zebras less attractive.
Cambridge University reveals breakthrough for super-efficient solar cells
New solar cells could increase the maximum efficiency of solar panels by over 25%, according to scientists from the University of Cambridge. Scientists from the Cavendish Laboratory, the University's Department of Physics, have developed a novel type of solar cell which could harvest energy from the sun much more efficiently than traditional designs. The research, published today, could dramatically improve the amount of useful energy created by solar panels.