Pete Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish. (Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)
Oil from the big spill in the Gulf of Mexico is starting to turn up in places people did not expect.
That’s making it tough for cleanup crews to stay one step ahead of the oil.
Shawn Allee reports some scientists hope supercomputers might help.<
Transcript
Oil from the big spill in the Gulf of Mexico is starting to turn up in places people did not expect.
That’s making it tough for cleanup crews to stay one step ahead of the oil.
Shawn Allee reports some scientists hope supercomputers might help.
Scientists want to put together a 3D picture of what the gulf oil plume looks like, and they’re using new computer code and supercomputers to do it.
The numbers are getting crunched at Argonne national laboratory outside Chicago.
Pete Beckman runs the computing center there.
He says satellites and water samples give us some information, but we could really use a more complete picture.
“If we know for example that, because of eddies and currents, that things will accumulate at a particular map location, well, that’s where you would send the booms to soak up the oil. If you can concentrate your resources in one place, you’re much more effective.”
Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish.
GM will build three new crossover SUVs at the Lansing plant. Production will start this fall. (Photo by Dustin Dwyer)
GM chose materials inside the Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant to minimize indoor air pollution. (Photo by Dustin Dwyer)
GM says its new Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant is the first auto manufacturing plant in the world to get a gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. (Photo by Dustin Dwyer)
A new assembly plant from one of Detroit’s Big Three car companies is getting attention for its “green” qualities. Big Three automakers may not rank at the top of most environmentalists’ list for companies of the year. But some say the new auto plant is a sign that environmentally-sensitive manufacturing has finally gone main-stream. It’s not just because building green plants is the right thing to do. Really, it comes down to a different kind of green. The GLRC’s Dustin Dwyer has the story:
Transcript
A new assembly plant from one of Detroit’s Big Three car companies is getting attention
for its “green” qualities. Big Three automakers may not rank at the top of most
environmentalists’ list for companies of the year. But some say the new auto plant is a
sign that environmentally-sensitive manufacturing has finally gone main-stream. It’s not
just because building green plants is the right thing to do. Really, it comes down to a
different kind of green. The GLRC’s Dustin Dwyer has the story:
The first thing you notice about the smell of General Motors’ newest plant is how much
you don’t notice it. The plant smells like nothing at all. Not paint, grease or even that
new car smell. GM says it specifically selected materials for its new Lansing Delta Township
Plant in Michigan to limit indoor air pollution. And there’s a lot more to not notice about the plant.
Like how much space it doesn’t use.
On a tour with reporters, GM Environmental Engineer Bridget Bernal points out that less
than half of the plant’s 1,100-acre lot has been developed. The rest is left green, including
75 acres for habitat preservation:
“And basically in that 75 acres, we have a couple of pretty large wetlands, along with
some smaller wetlands. We have a rather large wood lot. And we’ve got a significant area
that’s being developed as native prairie.”
GM says it only planted native species on the site. And it planned ditches and culverts to
help filter water as it drains into other areas. A quarter of the materials used to build the
facility was recycled. The plant uses 45 percent less total energy than a traditional plant.
And, on the day GM gave reporter tours, it rained. Even that gets used. The water is
collected in cisterns, and used for flushing. GM says the plant saves a total of more than 4
million gallons of water per year.
Put together, all these elements were enough to win GM a LEED Gold Certification from
the U.S. Green Building Council.
Kimberly Hoskin is director of the council’s new construction program. She says she’d
been traveling a lot for work when one of her colleagues asked if she’d be willing to take
a trip to an event Lansing, Michigan.
“And I said, ‘Well, who’s it for? And she said, well, General Motors.’ General Motors, a
factory, is getting a LEED Gold Certification? Yes, I’ll go. Of course I’ll go. This is really
exciting.”
GM is not the first auto company to use green elements in an auto plant design. Ford’s
Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan was built earlier this decade with a 10-acre “living”
roof that helped manage storm water runoff.
But Hoskin says, out of about 560 buildings in the nation that have been certified by the
Green Building Council, only five are manufacturing facilities, and GM says the Lansing
facility is the first auto assembly plant to get Gold, the agency’s top rating.
But for GM, the green elements of the Lansing Delta Assembly Plant aren’t just about the
environment. They’re about cold, hard cash. The lower energy use alone will save GM a
million dollars a year. That gives people like Hoskin comfort that the plant isn’t just a
public relations move by GM and it increases the chances that we’ll see more green plants
in the future.
Sean McAlinden is Chief Economist with the Center for Automotive Research:
“As we slowly replace our old big 3 plants, many of which are very elderly, they’re all
going to look like this. They’re all going to be green plants. In fact, some of them will
keep getting greener.”
That’s good news for places where there’s a lot of auto manufacturing, but many people
are not ready to absolve GM of all of its environmental sins.
David Friedman is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says a green plant is nice,
but the real problem is still the product:
“Over eight times the impact on the environment when it comes to global warming is
once that vehicle leaves that plant. That’s the biggest step that we need automakers to
take and to improve the fuel economy of all of their cars and trucks.”
GM, and other automakers, say they are working to make cars cleaner. High gas prices
may force even more changes as sales of big pickups and SUVs drop off. Ultimately, car
makers’ profits could depend on building cleaner cars, just as keeping manufacturing
costs down will depend on having cleaner plants.
That could change the way auto companies think about environmental improvements
because going green will be about more than just doing the right thing, or protecting the
brand image. It will be about protecting the bottom line. What’s sustainable for the
environment will also be sustainable for the business, and both will show a lot more
green.
For years, advertisers have used the great outdoors as a marketing
tool. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston
thinks it’s time we starting selling something else.
Transcript
For years, advertisers have used the great outdoors as a marketing
tool. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston
thinks it’s time we starting selling something else:
I saw the most amazing commercial on television last week. The whole
thing was a series of video clips of wild animals and their offspring
playing in their natural habitats. There was a really cute shot of a
baby hippo playing with its mom in the water. And then it showed a
baby elephant struggling to climb over a tree lying on the ground.
All of a sudden this big maternal trunk swings down and wraps itself
around the baby elephant’s backside and gentle lifts it over the
tree. It was adorable.
Then there were baby seals frolicking on the
ice and fox cubs playing in a field. There was no voice over on the
commercial – just the sound of Bryan Adams voice singing “Forever
Young”. It was beautiful. The final scene was a mother lion sitting
proudly, looking straight at the camera, while a lion cub nestled in
her front paws. It really took your breath away.
The image of the lion and her cub faded and was replaced with a
package of Pampers disposable diapers. An announcer voice simply
said, “Forever Young”.
I couldn’t t believe what I was seeing. Disposable diapers are
arguably one of the most environmentally damaging products we’ve come
up, and here we are using wild animals to sell them.
But it doesn’t matter because it looks good. It’s like this other
commercial for a sports utility vehicle I’ve seen lately. The truck
meanders in slow motion through a pristine forest, while a giant
grizzly bear stands on its haunches and sings opera. The entire scene
is bliss. And then you realize that that wildest thing SUVs drivers
are likely to see is the mall parking lot on a Saturday morning.
But it doesn’t matter because image is everything. That’s why SUVs
are the hottest selling item right now. As long as looks good and
projects the right image well then let’s buy it.
Forget about the fact that all these hot convenience items are
ripping up the planet. They make life easier and they make you feel
great. Who cares if we destroy the environment in the process? We can
always create a new world with the magic of computer animation and
some marketing wizardry.
Or – maybe we actually use all this marketing know-how to clean up
the mess we’ve made. I think it’s time we started selling that idea.
Host Tag: Suzanne Elston is a syndicated columnist living in Courtice, Ontario.
Pete Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish. (Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)
