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A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.

• Is first eInk magazine an e-waste misstep? - Fast Company
  Esquire’s experimental eInk issue will make an ecological mess, according to a Fast Company calculation, which says producing the magazine would lead to electronics waste and emit as much carbon dioxide as 15 Hummers over a year.

• Tying wind power to power lines - Greentech Media
  Wind energy can be cheaper than solar, but tying it to the grid remains a costly challenge. Still, some investors see the problem as an opportunity to profit.



Electronic ink is engineered to make thin, flexible digital displays, potentially replacing paper publications and devices such as this Amazon Kindle.

(Credit: Amazon)

• Manure could provide as much energy as renewables - Earth2Tech
  
  Converting manure to biogas could provide some 3 percent of the nation’s need for electricity, about the same provided currently by renewables including wind and solar, according to Texas researchers.

• Oil could make Arctic rich, Texas-style - The Independent
  
  Deep in the heart of the Arctic may lie one-fifth of the world’s reserves of oil and natural gas, enough to feed America’s appetite for oil for a dozen years. But exploiting the oil comes with a price.

• GE teams up with Abu Dhabi on clean tech - Cleantech Group
  
  GE will pour $50 million into Abu Dhabi’s clean-tech efforts, which include a research center for the $22 billion, zero-waste Masdar City.

• ‘Hot’ granite countertops leak radiation - The New York Times
  
  Some granite kitchen countertops emit uranium and radon. Although the cancer risk from them may be one in a million, a new crop of lawsuits may follow.

• Greening health care, one thermometer at a time - Washington Post
  
  Hospitals are aiming to improve energy efficiency and reduce toxic waste, by eliminating potentially harmful plastics from IV bags and mercury from thermometers.