Smelly feet the price of the planet

Smelly feet may be the price we have to pay for saving the planet. A new study reported by New Scientist has discovered that nanoparticles commonly found in antibacterial socks may be raising levels of greenhouse gases. Researchers are concerned that silver nanoparticles - antibacterial agents used in a range of products, including odour-free socks - have been escaping into the water system and killing friendly bacteria often used to treat waste water. "We are trying to find out what happens when these silver nanoparticles get into the real environment," said Benjamin Colman, a chemist from Duke University who conducted the study. "These particles are developed with the express purpose of killing things." Previously, all research done on the environmental impacts of silver nanoparticles has been limited to their effects on a single microbe species within a lab.

Challenge to eat local movement

A food fight has stirred up the "locavore" movement in the US, which promotes eating of local products, after fresh challenges to claims that the practice promotes environmental sustainability. The locavore movement, which has been gaining steam rapidly since emerging in California in 2005, is now boiling over following a commentary last month suggesting that the maths underpinning the practice is flawed. Science author and journalist Stephen Budiansky stirred up the pot with a piece appearing in the New York Times arguing that locavores are mistaken on the notion that local food is better for energy conservation and the environment. "Words like 'sustainability' and 'food miles' are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use," Budiansky wrote. Budiansky has his own vegetable garden, but argues that on a commercial scale, large farms are far more energy-efficient than small ones and that transportation energy costs are often overstated by local food advocates. "It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound (about 500g) of freight 3000 miles (4827 km) by rail," says Budiansky, who calls the transportation fuel costs "a negligible amount in the overall picture."

‘Friendly’ push for Facebook to dump coal

With half a million signatures backing it up, Greenpeace fired off a letter to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg today calling for the world’s largest social network to cut ties to coal-fired power at its new data center in Oregon. “Other cloud-based companies face similar choices and challenges as you do in building data centers, yet many are making smarter and cleaner investments,” executive director of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo, writes. He points to Google and its a recent agreement to buy wind power from NextEra Energy for the next 20 years to power its data centers. The letter adds to what’s turning into a miserable week for Zuckerberg, who is also fighting a civil lawsuit by a man who claims to own a huge chunk of the social network site and is seeking to uncover “unnecessary details” about Zuckerberg’s private life. Greenpeace’s “Unfriend Coal” drive targeting Facebook falls under the environmental group’s larger Cool IT campaign, which aims to influence infrastructure choices behind the cloud-computing boom.