Best of the Web 9/14

RENEWABLE NATURAL GAS CHAMPION JOANNA UNDERWOOD HONORED BY NGVAMERICA – EV President Joanna Underwood has been honored with a lifetime achievement award from NGVAmerica, a national organization promoting natural gas as a clean, domestic, safe and abundant transportation fuel. A pioneering figure in the environmental movement since the early 1970s, Underwood was an early champion of natural gas as an alternative vehicle fuel. In recent years, she has been a prominent advocate of the renewable form of natural gas (RNG) made from organic waste. Today, RNG powers trucks and buses in at least nine states, and projects producing RNG in landfills and anaerobic digesters are expanding.

Read more and watch NGVAmerica’s tribute video to Underwood here.

UNITED STATES CHALLENGED TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE BY 50% BY 2030 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg have announced the United States’ first-ever national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50-percent reduction by 2030. As part of the effort, the federal government will lead a new partnership with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector and local, state and tribal governments to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve overall food security and conserve our nation’s natural resources. Check out the official news release and read more here.

EGYPT TO ALLOCATE LAND, PRODUCE METHANE GAS FROM ORGANIC WASTE – Methane gas taken from organic waste in villages will provide an alternative to butane gas in a new project announced by Egypt’s Local Development Minister Major General Adel Labib. The project was initially implemented in the Ahwa and al-Waqf villages in Beni Suef in June. This move will significantly help in getting rid of organic waste and solving the problem of sewege and contaminated groundwater in villages, as well as provide an alternative to butane gas, the minister said. Read more of the story here.

SIMPLY BREATHING THE AIR KILLS 3.3 MILLION PEOPLE EVERY YEAR – Air pollution kills 3.3 million people per year. And that number could double by 2050 if nothing is done to clean up the dangerous levels of tiny particles, toxins, and ozone that blanket many countries, especially in Asia. These are the startling new findings published in the journal Nature by a team of researchers led by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.

In the US, the 54,905 deaths that scientists said were related to air pollution in 2010 tended to be linked to agricultural practices: Ammonia and waste from animals combine with other chemicals from power plants and car exhaust to create the killer smog in American cities. Read more.