Environmental, Health and Safety News

Free webinar: Product Stewardship You Can Use Today

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:51:00 +0000

Laura B - Citizens generate household hazardous wastes year round but HHW collection programs are often scheduled just a few times a year. Over the past few years several options have been created that HHW programs can use to help fill in the gaps between collection events, either by referring citizens to collection sites or hosting a collection box at their facility.

Join US EPA Region 5 and the Product Stewardship Institute for an informational webinar on product stewardship programs that citizens can use year round to manage their waste electronics, CFL bulbs, rechargeable batteries, or mercury thermostats. During this webinar attendees will hear from representatives of several established national programs that are offering collection opportunities today. Invited speakers include representatives from US EPA's Plug-in to eCycling program, Home Depot, Lowes, the Thermostat Recycling Corporation and Call2Recycle.

Overlay of Chernobyl cloud if it had happened in Chicago,

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:15:00 +0000

Built by BERG, the BBC Dimensions site allows you to overlay the geographies of historical events and significant places onto more familiar locales. Here's the Apollo 11 Moon walk positioned over the Statue of Liberty, the size of the radiation cloud if Chernobyl had happened in Chicago, and the Marianas Trench stretching from Manhattan's West Village to Sunset Park in Brooklyn.

Source: kottke.org

White House Fingers PlayStation As Obesity Culprit

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:30:00 +0000

/. "The winners of the childhood obesity infographic design contest sponsored by GOOD and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative are in, and the overall winner calls out Sony's PlayStation as a major milestone on its timeline of childhood obesity (together with Coke, Pepsi, mall food courts, fructose and high sugar tariffs, TV, McDonald's, and other fast food). " /.
Best Overall Infographic: Jenn Cash

Somewhat ironically, the First Lady's other anti-childhood obesity efforts include a $60,000 video game contest.

1/2 cost of current reactors & uses almost all nuclear fuel.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:22:00 +0000

Here are details of the subcritical accelerator driven thorium nuclear reactor designed by Nobel Laureate Carlo Rubbia.

This reactor was given a supportive article by the UK Telegraph. It has been extensively studied for over 15 years and is expected to have half the cost of existing light water reactors and burn up almost all of the nuclear fuel.

The Norwegian group Aker Solutions has bought Dr Rubbia's patent for the thorium fuel-cycle, and is working on his design for a proton accelerator at its UK operation. They are raising 100 million pounds ($150 million USD) for the next stage of an estimated 2 billion pound ($3 billion USD) project to develop the first commercial unit.

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Renewable Home - The Future from nothing

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:13:00 +0000

Record 1-in-6 Getting Government Aid

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:33:00 +0000

More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid...HTML clipboard
The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014.

More than 40 million people get food stamps.

Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance

The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36% in two years, to $273 billion.

Jobless benefits have soared from $43 billion to $160 billion.

The food stamps program has risen 80%, to $70 billion.

Welfare is up 24%, to $22 billion.

Read full at USA Today

How Analyst kill resources and markets - "Oil Should Be Around $10 a Barrel"

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:27:00 +0000

This is a perfect example of how 'Analyst' collapse markets, reserves and resources... Gold!
CBNC - "Oil Should Be Around $10 a Barrel: Analyst"

"I honestly think that if there were no investors using oil as an asset that the price of oil right now would be $10 or $15 or $18, but it wouldn't be anywhere near where it is,"

The price of a barrel of oil would be closer to $10 if the commodity wasn't traded as an investment instrument, given the record-high levels of U.S. oil inventories, Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover, told CNBC Monday.

China and Russia will cooperate on floating Nuclear

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:43:00 +0000

(Reuters) - China and Russia have agreed to expand nuclear power cooperation in seven areas, including building floating nuclear power plants, exploring uranium mines, eliminating old plants and developing markets abroad, the China Atomic Energy Authority said.

NBF - China and Russia have agreed to expand nuclear power cooperation in seven areas, including building floating nuclear power plants, exploring uranium mines, eliminating old plants and developing markets abroad, the China Atomic Energy Authority said. -

They will also cooperate on molten-core catcher technologies, which improve nuclear safety.

Brownfields grant application software program

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:31:00 +0000

Technical Assistance to Brownfields communities (TAB) easy brownfields grant application (EZ) software program

TAB EZ is a grant writing tool to be used for preparation of EPA brownfields grant proposals. Currently, TAB EZ only addresses assessment and cleanup grants; RLF grant proposal outlines may be added at a later date.

While we put a lot of information from the guidelines into TAB EZ, there is also information we did not include. Please read the guidelines at the EPA brownfields web page. Also, a copy of the guidelines can be found in TAB EZ under "Resources".

BIG - Thermoelectric Chip converts Waste Heat to Electricity for less than $1 per watt

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:57:00 +0000

From NBF
Alphabet Energy has a a thermoelectric chip that can be inserted into any exhaust flue or engine to convert heat into electrical power... says its innovation is in both the choice of material and proprietary technology that gives it low thermal conductivity, and makes it highly suitable for both scale and miniaturization—for use in small devices as well as in large factory flues. The device is connected by wire to the plant's electrical system or to the grid, so it feeds in power converted by heat in real time. Only a year old, Alphabet has the ambitious goal of leading what it believes could be a $200 billion global market for technology at the core of waste heat recovery systems.

Alphabet says its chip is produced in a way that's similar to how microchips for electronic devices are made. Tapping into the semiconductor industry's economies of scale will allow the company to slash costs enough to install its systems for "well under $1 a watt," said Scullin, compared to installation costs double or triple that amount for some competing waste heat recapture systems.

Depending on the flow rate, chemical composition, and temperatures of the exhaust coming out of an industrial flue, he said, Alphabet's technology could deliver a payback time of two to four years for a manufacturer.

According to Scullin, Alphabet plans to complete a pilot installation at an industrial facility with a large waste heat source next year, with an aim of winning commercial customers by 2012. So far, most of the potential customers in discussion with Alphabet are multinational corporations

Recycled Energy Development (RED) aims to retrofit large factories to convert waste heat into electricity and useful thermal energy (typically steam or hot water), and then sell it to the grid, host, or nearby facilities. HTML clipboard

Cogeneration (also called combined heat and power) systems, can generate electricity or mechanical power and useful heat at a facility that requires thermal energy, or convert waste energy on-site into electricity and mechanical energy. In 2008, the Oak Ridge researchers reported that the 3,300 cogeneration sites in the United States accounted for nearly 9 percent of the country's total electricity generating capacity, and called for a push to raise that to 20 percent by 2030—a level already exceeded by some European countries. Cogeneration accounted in 2008 for more than half of total national power production in Denmark, nearly 40 percent in Finland and more than 30 percent in Russia, according to the Oak Ridge report.

One reason the U.S. trails much of the pack in tapping power from waste heat, said Casten, is that regulations generally bar utilities from reaping financial rewards from efficiency gains—they're required to pass the savings along to rate-payers, robbing of them of the incentive to invest. In addition, higher taxes on energy in the European Union make energy efficiency and conservation more valuable, said Casten.

Direct conversion of wet algae to biodiesel

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:22:00 +0000

Researchers at the University of Michigan have published the feasibility of a two-step hydrolysis-solvolysis process to produce biodiesel directly from wet algal biomass, eliminating the need for costly biomass drying, organic solvent extraction and catalysts. The paper on the process was published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

"Additional research and process optimization are likely to improve yields and reduce process inputs (e.g. ethanol), thereby minimizing the overall environmental impact of algal biodiesel production. To be economically viable, biodiesel yields must be above 95 percent and preferably higher than current norms achieved with alkali-catalyzed processes."

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine. (Via Laura B)

Li-Ion Batteries Get Green Seal of Approval

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:53:00 +0000

/. "It is not an easy task to compare the environmental effects of battery powered cars to those caused by conventionally fueled automobiles. The degree to which manufacture, usage and disposal of the batteries used to store the necessary electrical energy are detrimental to the environment is not exactly known. Now, for the first time, a team of Empa scientists have made a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) or ecobalance of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, in particular the chemically improved (i.e. more environmentally friendly) version of the ones most frequently used in electric vehicles. Researchers decided to find out for sure. They calculated the ecological footprints of electric cars fitted with Li-ion batteries, taking into account all possible relevant factors, from those associated with the production of individual parts all the way through to the scrapping of the vehicle and the disposal of the remains, including the operation of the vehicle during its lifetime." \.

2 Million Smart Meters and Counting

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:19:00 +0000

Secretary Steven Chu visited Battelle headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, today to make a big announcement about our nation's electrical grid: an impressive two million smart grid meters have been installed across the country – thanks to the Recovery Act.

Secretary Chu says "will give consumers choice and promote energy savings, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy resources."

In fact, an analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that the implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than four percent annually by 2030 – that would mean consumers around the country would see savings of over $20 billion each year.

To learn more about smart grid technologies, visit http://www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm

“Zero-Liquid-Discharge” Wastewater Recycling

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:05:00 +0000

David Schaller "Zero-Liquid-Discharge" Wastewater Recycling in Cloudcroft, NM. After a drought in 2006 left the small high desert community of Cloudcroft, NM, completely without water, the town decided to move away from its existing traditional gas chlorination treatment method to a fully reclaimed, recycled "zero liquid discharge" system. Using photovoltaics to provide power to the plant, the reuse system is a groundbreaking trifecta of water conservation, safety and environmental innovation. The Cloudcroft reuse system uses a membrane bioreactor (MBR), a multi-barrier filtration system, and MIOX on-site sodium hypochlorite to treat the wastewater.

Natural waters from local sources will be blended in and disinfected with MIOX mixed oxidants to better-than-drinking-water standards.
Read full here

Protesting all protesters... a madman at Discovery Channel

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:51:00 +0000

I felt ill this morning reading the headlines that "Environmental fanatic killed after taking hostages at Discovery Channel" (NY Post)

Environmental protectionism at it's worst...
The idea of an individual who promotes themselves as someone who wants to protect people and the planet...and then threatens to harm others, goes against the very nature and intent of protecting. Making it worse, news networks across our nation will be giving a this protester airtime...Just as he wanted.

This protesters actions leave a horrible legacy of hate and harm...and the idea that it is tied to 'environmental protection' just sickens me.

First rule: Do no harm.
I have meet 1000's of people in my lifetime who have made an huge impact on our air, water and overall environmental quality.
NONE were protesters.
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My father (pictured right) went to UW Madison in 1969 during the peak protesting movement in our nations history.

I asked my father if he ever protested at these rallies.

He said that "he was too busy working on ways to help" and "could not understand the anger and conflict in these people promoting themselves as peaceful"

He graduated in four years with a 4.0 GDP and went on to become one of the most successful Environmental Engineers in Wisconsin history.

Co-founding one of the first environmental professional protection groups (FET).

Educating 1000's to follow his leadership, compassion and logic through formal actions that have made Wisconsin one of the cleanest and most protected regions in the U.S.

Not by protesting, but by offering greater incentives and inarguable programs to protect and improve our environment.

That is environmental protection at it's greatest.

Facts about Wind Energy’s Emissions Savings (webinar)

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:07:00 +0000

AWEA (Free Webinar) Recent data and analyses have made it clear that the emissions savings from adding wind energy to the grid are even larger than had been commonly thought. In addition to each kWh of wind energy directly offsetting a kWh that would have been produced by a fossil-fired power plant, new analyses show that wind plants further reduce emissions by forcing the most polluting and inflexible power plants offline and causing them to be replaced by more efficient and flexible types of generation.
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At the same time, and in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the fossil fuel industry has launched an increasingly desperate misinformation campaign to convince the American public that wind energy does not actually reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, we feel compelled to set the record straight on the matter, once and for all.

The Fossil Fuel Industry's Desperate War Against Facts
Not to be deterred by indisputable data, numerous refutations, or the laws of physics, the fossil fuel lobby has doubled down on their desperate effort to muddy the waters about one of the universally recognized and uncontestable benefits of wind energy: that wind energy reduces the use of fossil fuels as well as the emissions and other environmental damage associated with producing and using these fuels.

For those who have not been following this misinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry, here is a brief synopsis. Back in March 2010, AWEA heard public reports that the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS), a lobby group representing the oil and natural gas industry, was working on a report that would attempt to claim that adding wind energy to the grid had somehow increased power plant emissions in Colorado.

Perplexed at how anyone would attempt to make that claim, AWEA decided to take a look at the relevant data, namely the U.S. Department of Energy's data tracking emissions from Colorado's power plants over time. The government's data, reproduced in the table below, show that as wind energy jumped from providing 2.5% of Colorado's electricity in 2007 to 6.1% of the state's electricity in 2008, carbon dioxide emissions fell by 4.4%, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions fell by 6%, coal use fell by 3% (571,000 tons), and electric sector natural gas use fell by 14%.1

Two conclusions were apparent from looking at this data:
1. the claim the fossil fuel industry was planning to make had no basis in fact, and
2. the fossil industry was understandably frustrated that they were losing market share to wind energy.

Read full and get more background on the topics that will be covered can be found here:

Click here to register for this important webinar.

WasteCap & AROW to host a webinar on organics recycling.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:26:00 +0000

WasteCap is partnering with AROW to host a webinar on organics recycling. This webinar will explore three different techniques for approaching food waste recycling, particularly from a commercial perspective. Register here

Michael Keleman of InSinkErator will discuss the use of anaerobic food digesters as a viable option for food waste diversion from landfills. Discarding food waste in a disposer for transportation to a wastewater treatment facility is one option for keeping food scraps out of landfills. Michael will discuss how this technique is being expanded for commercial use, and share a pilot study that was done with Outpost Natural Foods grocery stores to divert its food scraps from solid waste landfill disposal.

Heidi Ringhofer of Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) will speak about the source separated organics material composting programs that WLSSD has implemented. After passing a Solid Waste Ordinance in September 2006, WLSSD now approaches waste management with goals of resource recovery and pollution prevention. Heidi will discuss the innovative approach WLSSD is taking to help both residential and business customers reduce the amount of food waste they produce and send to landfills.

Dean Stewart of Sanimax will talk about the viability of organic waste collection programs. Sanimax is collecting organic waste such as outdated fruits, vegetables and bakery items, and diverting them from landfill by bringing them to commercial composting sites and bio-digestion operations. Dean will share a case study of the food scraps Sanimax is now collecting from Wal-Marts across Wisconsin and Minnesota and how it fits in its model of reclaim, renew and return.

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View past WasteCap Webinar Series on YouTube

LED's Ten Times Better than Incandescent - 135 Lumens per Watt

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:46:00 +0000

NextBigFuture:

Previously white LEDs had a max of about 60 lumens per watt but the new White LEDs have 135 lumens per watt and match the best lighting alternatives
The new LED can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics - White light emitting diodes with super-high luminous efficacy

With these design improvements and the resulting enhancements in luminous efficacy, the new white LEDs provide further evidence that solid-state lighting can meet a wide variety of our future lighting requirements. Narukawa said that, although these LEDs are expensive compared to commercialized LEDs, he predicts that the price will come down in the future.

See full at NextBigFuture

1 in 6 Americans in Government Anti-Poverty Programs

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:09:00 +0000

HTML clipboardGovernment anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA today shows

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. "Private physicians are already indicating that they're at their limit," says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

Bio Degradable Consumer Products 'so 1950's

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:25:00 +0000

1953 DJ De Pree - 'We will be good stewards of the environment.' a remarkably progressive businessman for his era.

He was very conscious of his company's responsibility to society and to its employees. He introduced a universal bonus system in 1949 and eventually stock ownership, once the company went public in 1970. The beakers are an illustration of the Kira fabric's life cycle—the first textile to be created from corn. HTML clipboard

The first beaker (left) shows corn kernels, then corn starch, then liquified, then purified, then synthesized into a corn-based polymer, then woven to a textile, and then the last beaker shows that when composted the fabric simply returns to the soil.

Aaron Britt at Dwell: The scion of the Dow Chemical family Alden B. Dow. He did over a hundred buildings in a town of about 40,000 from the 1930s to the 1970s, and never had I seen a town whose aesthetic and feel owed such a debt to just one architect. I got a great tour of the Alden B. Dow home and studio (go if you can!) as well as a tour of town from the home and studio's director Craig McDonald. Have a look at this slideshow to see what I did.

DOE Biomass Program FREE Webinar Series

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:11:00 +0000

DOE Progress Alert The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Biomass Program is hosting a Webinar on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, from 2:00–4:30 p.m. EDT entitled "The Promise and Challenge of Algae as a Renewable Source of Biofuels." This Web conference marks the first in the Biomass Program's Webinar series, which will cover many of the program's activities and feature "Hot Topics" discussions relevant to the development of renewable fuels, power, and products from biomass resources.

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This Webinar will focus on the program's approach to algal biofuels research and development and will include presentations from four of its recently funded consortia, comprised of more than 65 partners across the United States. This session will also discuss highlights from the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, which was released by DOE in June 2010.

The Biomass Program welcomes interested stakeholders from industry, academia, research institutions, government, non-profits, other organizations, and the general public. Presenters include Joanne Morello of DOE's Biomass Program and representatives from the National Alliance For Advanced Biofuels and Bio-Products (NAABB), the Center for Algae Biotechnology Commercialization (CAB-Comm), the Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium (SABC), and Cellana, LLC.

Registration:
This Webinar is free to all participants, but be sure to register in advance to secure your spot.

GLAS webinar to learn more and ask questions

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:08:00 +0000

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Accountability System (GLAS) is the primary mechanism for collecting information to monitor and report on Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) progress. GLAS is a Web-based project tracking system that will be available to the public to provide transparency and accountability for how GLRI funds are being
used. Read more at http://greatlakesrestoration.us/?p=1028

Webinar links below

Watch the GLAS demonstration video which shows the key information and capabilities of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Accountability System (GLAS).
http://greatlakesrestoration.us/?p=851

Draft Clean Water Strategy is released

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:40:00 +0000

EPA -

"The Coming Together for Clean Water event and online discussion gave us a lot to think about regarding how EPA can most effectively pursue our nation's clean water goals. After a lot of consideration, we've developed this draft strategy to outline how we hope to accomplish those goals."

We're pleased to share this draft with you and welcome your comments. The draft strategy will be available for comment until September 17.

After that, we'll start developing the final strategy, which we hope to have ready by late 2010. Coming Together for Clean Water Disc Draft Aug 2010 FINAL

German Secret to saving economy

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:02:00 +0000

American jobs, recently even white-collar jobs, have been, and are now being, transferred to low-wage workers in other countries.

Since 2000, the U.S. has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs, with 2.1 million of those jobs being lost in the last two years alone. Since 2001, over 42,400 factories have closed in the U.S., and another 90,000 are considered to be at severe risk of closing. The last time so few people were employed in manufacturing was in 1941, before World War II spending pulled that sector out of its Great Depression slump.

As a result of the loss of all these outsourced jobs, poverty in America is going to keep getting worse if they cannot be brought back, and ever more American children are as a result going to be raised in poverty and violence, with ever more hellish societal and personal consequences.

"The key to understanding the current situation is to understand that house prices, jobs, wages, and pensions in the US are all being attacked with original-issue debt dollar junk. This will continue until the middle class has been completely wiped out."

But Germans don't

The Germans still slap import taxes on stuff that their companies might be tempted to manufacture abroad, and by this means and others, the German government protects German jobs and incomes. As a result, last quarter saw more German GDP growth than at anytime since the reunification of the country. Plus, their unemployment rate during the recent recession was never anywhere near as high as ours in America.

The German government subsidized worker salaries after it asked employers to cut their hours down to 30 or even 20 a week (rather than terminate any of them) if there wasn't enough work to keep all of them busy full time. This enabled all workers to keep on spending just as they had been, and so a German recession was for the most part, by this two means, avoided. In short, high-wage countries like Germany figured out a way to compete with China and Mexico.

The proof of this: In 2008, Germany ran a $267-billion trade surplus, while the United States ran a $568-billion trade deficit.

Will the 2013 solar flare return us to the Stone Age?

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:35:00 +0000

Fox Business News Channel brought the "top physicist" (right after Al Gore, Lee Smolin, and Joe Romm) Michio Kaku who explained that we're doomed in 3 years:

Every 11 years the [Sun's] north pole and the south pole flip, releasing a burst of radiation. But, every 100 years or so, a monster Tsunami from the Sun emerges which could literally cause trillions in property damage. […]

It could paralyze the economy of the planet Earth. In 1859 we had a gigantic solar storm which knocked out telegraph wires back then, 150 years ago. If that had happened today it would knock out almost all our satellites, knock out power stations, there would be food riots around the country because refrigeration would stop, airplanes would probably crash without radar. […]

And again, this is a once in a century, once in two centuries storm…

We do have them and we have to worry about them. […]

We'd be thrown back 100 years.

Every 100 years, we're thrown back 100 years just by the solar storms, we're told. Because there are dozens of types of similar catastrophes, it is clear that every 100 years, we're thrown back several millennia. ;-)

Why 2013?
Well, it's simple. The Solar Cycle 24 is predicted to reach its maximum in May 2013. And this maximum has to be spectacular, some people said.

In reality, such a maximum occurs every 11 years and just very recently, we thought that the ongoing solar cycle would be one of the least active ones: the sunspot number at the maximum was predicted to be e.g. 90, the lowest peak in 1928, and many people used it to argue that the reduced activity will induce a substantial cooling on Earth. A low activity would also seem to imply a low intensity and frequency of the solar storms and flares.

Nevertheless, two months ago, "NASA" warned of the 2013 apocalypse:

Telegraph, Telegraph video, WUWT, Google News

Read more at The Reference Frame