The Sustainability Almanac is a weekly newsletter produced by the Sustainability Office. It's a great way to find out about all the sustainability-related events on campus and in the area!
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Current Issue
May 24-31
Scientists have developed a robot fish equipped with sensors that monitor water quality and detect pollutants emitted from ships and pipelines.This is an innovative method for combatting and dealing with oceanic pollution. The robotic fish can reduce the time it takes to discover chemicals and oil spills from days to seconds.
The process of turning saltwater into potable drinking water, or desalination, is expanding in capabilities and efficiencies. In cases when desalination threatens wildlife and ecosystems, as in the California Desert construction a new technique can employ an energy-efficient seawater distillation membrane designed to yield greater amounts of potable water, and less briny discharge. This is a fascinating article because it sheds some light regarding why it isn't expanded more if its such a successful method for producing drinking water to many nations with water shortages. Desalination is a resource-intensive process that requires a great deal of energy, so many nations, including the U.S., can't afford to implement it on a massive scale.
For wine enthusiasts, Food and Wine explores the economic, environmenal, and quality benefits of putting wine on tap. Kegged wine, is cheaper to transfer and requires less expensive resources. Putting wine on tap actually also improves the taste of some wines. As unlike kegs, cork exposes wine to oxygen. That's a good thing for the handful of wines with flavors that improve during bottle aging, but oxygen dulls most wines made to be drunk right away -- that is, about 90 percent of all wines.
The current issue continues here.
