Dried up

The world’s highest ski run dried up six years ahead of schedule. Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier was nearly 18,000 feet up and about 18,000 years old. Researchers knew it was shrinking due to changing climate, but they thought it had a few more years remaining. HowStuffWorks has a good overview of glaciers and climate change here that you will find either interesting or laughable.

Hollywood and food – Stephen Colbert speaking with Meryl Streep about her role as Julia Child:

Hollywood has such an influence, especially over kids. Are you afraid that portraying Julia Child is going to make cooking seem cool? That teenagers are going to start having braising parties? Do you feel responsibility as an actress, because I hold Hollywood responsible for our nation’s ills.

Panless cakes: What do you call a pancake if it isn’t made in a pan?

I haven’t heard much about composting toilets in years. I used one a couple of times when I lived in Maine. Here’s a story about composting toilets in public parks. Good stuff. The toilets are even made by Clivus Multrum, the company I knew back in the 1970s.

For a much wetter report on waste, did you ever hear about the study of illicit drug use conducted via wastewater? This particular story is only about a month old, but I’ve read of similar work in the past.

The cost of a carbon tax for agriculture? Here’s the summary from Stu Ellis of the University of Illinois Extension service:

Under a carbon tax program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, agriculture’s consumption of fuel and fertilizers will result in higher production costs for corn and soybean production, estimated at $4.52 per acre or a 3.3% increase in average production costs. Livestock costs would be higher by 1% on hog confinement operations. Beef and dairy operations which install digesters, could recapture $100 per cow per year savings because of the various proposals for reducing greenhouse gases.

Posted in It's life.