Herbert Diess extended an apology to all Volkswagen investors and customers at the Tokyo Motor Show for the emissions test cheat scandal the company has just been thrown into.
The American Environmental Protection Agency found a software installed on Volkswagen diesel vehicles which allowed the cars to cheat emission tests, and immediately after the news broke out, the automaker’s Japanese sales dropped by a third. This was fueled most likely by the scandal, but also by the lack of new models.
The company faces a potential recall of millions of cars and an $18 billion fine. Diess promised to bring a new and better Volkswagen to the world, and that the company’s first priority is not their stocks but rebuilding trust with their customers to the brand.
Immediately after issuing the apology, Diess and Sven Stein, head of Volkswagen’s Japan division, unveiled their newest plug-in hybrid sport utility car. This scandal also prompted the delay of the release of a diesel model in Japan, from the first quarter of 2016 to the second half. Though it doesn’t use the same engine or software as the cars involved in the scandal, the company didn’t want to put customer trust in further jeopardy.
Volkswagen had initially beat Toyota to the top of the Japanese auto market on the first half of 2015, but now Toyota has reclaimed is throne. It’s yet to be seen how Volkswagen will recover as 2016 sets in.
Waterborne illness may soon be stopped by a book, but it’s not knowledge from reading that will save lives, it’s the technology behind the pages. The Drinkable Book is a new, inexpensive product that relies on nanotechnology to purify water, making even the most contaminated of water sources a safe place for people to collect and consume drinking water.
Page Drinking Paper Can Prevent Waterborne Illness With Nanotechnology
Each year all over the world, over 3.4 million people die from contracting waterborne illness after drinking contaminated water. While a book may seem to provide no help to this problem, literacy isn’t what Theresa Dankovich had in mind when she developed an inexpensive, portable book that uses nanotechnology to purify water.
Dankovich came across the idea to use the bacteria-eliminating properties of metal nanoparticles as a doctoral student in her research on paper’s material properties. Silver nanoparticles combined embedded into thick filter paper could effectively rid water of many viruses and bacteria.
After refining the technology and conducting several field tests around the globe, Dankovich will now deliver the results to the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
The Drinkable Book Treats Water to 99.9% Purity
Though Dankovich started her research at McGill University, she expanded it at the University of Virginia’s Center for Global Health by experimenting with inexpensive copper nanoparticles.
She tested the water purification paper in areas with high levels of waterborne illness, including Limpopo, South Africa before moving on to Ghana, Haiti, and Kenya to ensure the efficacy of the filtration in real world conditions rather than just relying on those simulated in a laboratory.
The researcher found that even in the most highly contaminated water sites, the Drinkable Book was able to reach 99.9 percent purity. These numbers are on par with U.S. drinking water.
Of course, some nanoparticles are leaked into the water during the process, but the researcher assures that is is well below the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization.
One Book Can Filter Out Waterborne Illness For Over Four Years
Dankovich’s Drinkable Book has come into production through her nonprofit company called pAge Drinking Paper. The company has already started collaborating with WATERisLIFE and designer Brian Gartside to develop the book.
The book is made of pages embedded with nanoparticles and printed with information regarding water safety in English and the local language where it will be distributed. The pages can easily be removed and put into a special device that will filter the water as it is being poured through.
Dankovich has also teamed up with International Enterprises in Bangladesh iDE to commercialize the book, which she hopes will not be read, but used all around the world to treat water and prevent waterborne illness.
A family-owned American dairy farm is generating enough electricity to power 1,000 homes all by using product just laying around the farm: cow poo. With the help of the Environmental Protection Agency’s AgStar unit, the farm was able to turn waste into riches while also saving the environments.
Family Farm in America Changing Cow Poop To Cash Profits
Homestead Dairy is a family farm in Plymouth, Indiana that has been in operation since 1945. But in October 2013, the farmers changed the game when it comes to dairy farming.
The American farm invested in a biogas recovery system to transform cow poo and other waste into electricity, which means profits for the farm and a load off greenhouse gases for the environment.
After installing the biogas recovery system, the farm was able to generate enough electricity to power over 1,000 homes. A local utility company handles the distribution while paying the farmers for all of that hard earned power.
Of course, there are other benefits besides the monetary ones. According to Floyd Houin, a member of the family, one of the main factors for installing the system was to help control the smell for the neighbors. Now if that doesn’t show some good, ol’ American values, we don’t know what will.
Cash Aside, the Biogas Recovery System Helps Save the Environment
While making some extra cash is a bonus, another important deciding factor for the family of farmers was properly taking care of the land and water at the farm.
Other than the stench, livestock farms also produce an effluent usually collected in open lagoons that have a major impact on the environments thanks to the emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. These lagoons can also leak or overflow into the groundwater during heavy storms.
But luckily, the farm family at Homestead Dairy were able to negate these less-than-pleasant effects of owning a livestock farm by setting up an anaerobic digester. This giant digester is basically a shed that traps both the smell and the greenhouse gases, using the heat to speed up the process of decomposition.
It’s with these anaerobic digesters that cash can be made and the environment can be saved.
A Better Source of Electricity Lays in The Hands of Farmers Across the U.S.
Thanks to Homestead’s environmental friendly nature, they and the other farms equipped with biogas recovery systems have eliminated a whopping three million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in just one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
With over 8,000 dairy and swine farms in the U.S., the EPA estimates that the amount of electricity generated by the farms could power over a million homes. In essence, this would be the same impact as taking four million automobiles off the road.
However, with a solution there’s always another problem and with biogas recovery, that new problem comes in the form of financing. With such a monumental upfront cost (around $6 million if you’re wanting numbers), a load of continuous maintenance for upkeep, and stingy utility companies unwilling to pay out, the biogas recovery systems may not seem like a sound investment for a bank loan.
Though not for lack of problems, when the systems are up and operational, they do in fact pay off as seen in the shining example of Homestead Dairy.
The Benefits of Digesters and Why Other Farms Should Consider Them
Homestead’s list of good things the digester has churned up for them isn’t limited to cash, a working relationship with the electricity company, decreased odors and less greenhouse gases. The digester also provides the family with a better yield of corn from the 4,500 acres of fields on the farm.
In addition to the environmental savings, the farmers save on the cost of manure as the digester turns the manure into nutrient-rich fertilizer.
While the Homestead farm may seem to have had some luck with a grant that helped sponsor the cost and a local power company interested in expanding energy supplies, they also had to put in hard work to keep their business profitable. This includes hours of maintenance on the digester and creative solutions, such as offering food processing plants lower rates to dump their waste (more fuel for their digester!) rather than at landfills that charge more.
The family says it will took about five years to pay off the investment, but they strongly believe in the powers of the facility. In fact, they see such power and value they are planning on building a second facility.
Though the technology does seem costly at first, the amount a farm can save (and generate in extra income) is perhaps a fact to consider when a farmer can turn cow poo into profits for both the farm and the environment.
Honeybees are essential to the survival of the ecosystem, and when the honeybees start to die it’s said that it’s a sign of the beginning of the end. Without these tiny yellow pests flowers would be pollinated, and the plant life on earth would slowly die out. It comes as no surprise that an organization like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would seek to protect these valuable insects from harmful insecticides used by farmers.
On Thursday the EPA proposed that while Honeybees are near farms that have plants in bloom, the farms cannot use any type of insecticide during the time that the bees are feeding.
For Farmers this may big changes to the way they farm
A ban on pesticides means that farmers will by law not be allowed to use any type of pesticide when they are within a specific radius of the at risk honeybees. Thousands of different chemicals that farmers typically use, will all be off limits if the EPA is granted permission to enforce their policy. This is not the first time that the EPA has placed caveats on what farmers must do to prevent harm to the insects. In 2013 the EPA required specific labels for pesticides in order to prevent the use of more harmful choice in pesticide according to Jim Jones Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, “Multiple factors play a role in bee colony declines, including pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking action to protect bees from pesticide exposure, and these label changes will further our efforts.”
Not the first time that efforts have been made to protect the honeybees
For years the EPA has been making strides to protect these creatures, because they of all organizations understand how critical the insects are to the ecosystem. In 2014 the EPA awarded 500 million dollars to Penn State, Louisiana State, and the University of Vermont to find new ways to keep the Bees safe. Jim Jones explained the justification for spending so much to keep honeybees safe, “These collaborative projects can provide innovative solutions to reduce pesticide risks to pollinators and crops. Initiatives such as these will encourage others to adopt promising technologies and practices across the nation to reduce pesticide risk while maximizing crop production and protecting public health.”
The EPA understands the concerns that farmers have about reducing pesticide use, but more importantly know that the risk of losing swaths of honeybees trumps any other concerns.
The researcher found that even in the most highly contaminated water sites, the Drinkable Book was able to reach 99.9 percent purity. These numbers are on par with U.S. drinking water.
