Author Archives: Caroline McDonald

About Caroline McDonald

Caroline McDonald is a writer and former senior editor of the Risk Management Monitor and Risk Management magazine.
Игроки всегда ценят удобный и стабильный доступ к играм. Для этого идеально подходит зеркало Вавады, которое позволяет обходить любые ограничения, обеспечивая доступ ко всем бонусам и слотам. LeapWallet is a secure digital wallet that enables easy management of cryptocurrencies. With features like fast transactions and user-friendly interface, it's perfect for both beginners and experts. Check it out at leapwallet.lu.

Gasification Gets a Big Customer

Posted on by

Recently I wrote about the large number of garbage trains traveling in and out of the Greater Metropolitan New York area every day. The derailment of 10 garbage cars on one of those trains was the reason that two tracks had to be replaced, stopping train service on the line—my line—for several days.

A letter to the editor of our local newspaper pointed out that the CSX garbage train makes the trip four times daily to and from the Bronx and ultimately to landfills in Virginia.

buy vibramycin online www.northwestmed.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/vibramycin.html no prescription pharmacy

That’s a whole lot of garbage going into landfills.

buy ivermectin online www.northwestmed.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/ivermectin.html no prescription pharmacy

Research found that while strides have been made with a process called “gasification”—which uses a chemical reaction to convert just about any garbage into gas products such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide—it has not been found to be economically feasible to be used on a widespread basis.

But there could be a future for gasification, according to an article in The New York Times, Aug. 17.

The article stated that a company called Sierra Energy has been testing a waste-to-energy system for several years that converts trash—any trash, from food waste to syringes and electronics—to a product known as “syngas,” short for synthetic gas. This gas can be used as fuel to generate electricity or made into diesel fuel or ethanol.

This could be of value, especially since there has been controversy about using corn and other food crops for fuel.

The article states that while it may be a while before the process will be used at the consumer level, the U.S. Army is interested enough to sign up as the company’s first customer.

The military is looking for ways to reduce its oil consumption, and to make it easier to supply the front lines with fuel used in its vehicles and generators.

buy amoxicillin online www.northwestmed.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/amoxicillin.html no prescription pharmacy

“These days, the supply lines are in the battlefield,” Sharon E. Burke, assistant secretary of defense for operational efficiency plans and programs told The Times. “And we consume a lot of fuel, which makes us a big target.”

When I wrote the previous blog on July 31, I wasn’t expecting to be writing about the topic again so soon. I’m happy to do so, however, and I believe that with the Army’s involvement, it won’t be long before the massive amounts of garbage we produce will provide a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels.

On Thin Ice

Posted on by

Truck in Snow

You may have seen “Ice Road Truckers” on the History Channel. If not, it might be worth your time to watch an episode. I’m not a regular viewer, but for me the show is an occasional guilty pleasure. And now it’s in its seventh season, so I’m not the only one who’s watching.

It’s also a look at basic risk management in some of the toughest conditions on the planet—semis traveling on seasonal routes in remote areas of Alaska and Canada. This season follows drivers for the Polar Bear trucking company located in Manitoba, Canada. Seven truckers, often making their trips alone, drive fully loaded semis over frozen lakes, battling the elements to deliver building supplies, heavy equipment, gravel—you name it. Conditions are desolate and often 55 degrees below zero.

To take it even further, Polar Bear and a rival company—owned by a former, and bitter, Polar Bear employee—are competing for delivery assignments. Not completing an assignment means no pay for the drivers, more work for the competition and also that a village somewhere doesn’t get a delivery of badly needed supplies.

I know from personal experience that when it gets down to the 20s and teens here in New York, all kinds of things can happen to heavy equipment. With my commuter train, for instance, engines need to be kept running all night to make sure the trains are operational on cold, icy mornings; and signaling equipment can go on the blink, delaying trains and throwing off schedules. I can’t imagine what it must be like at 55 degrees below zero!

The Polar Bear trucking company can only do so much for drivers who must maneuver icy roads over a frozen lake. The drivers themselves put their lives on the line to make their deliveries. As more and more trucks traverse the roads, the ice highways become pitted. Friction from trucks and temperature changes mean the ice also gets thinner—producing hair-raising episodes, where the ice is moving and trucks get stuck in giant pools of melt. Will they get the truck out? Or will it go right through the ice? Anyway, you get the idea.

Cast member Joey “The King of Obsolete” Barnes has a large collection of vintage CATs and trucks from the 1930s to 1970s. Many are unique pieces of equipment that he has reassembled from miscellaneous parts. In one episode, Joey uses one of his reconstructed trucks to help another driver pull a semi, hauling a flatbed of heavy equipment, out of a deep patch of melting ice. In the same episode, driver Art Burke discovers his truck is having fuel pump and/or fuel line problems. He never really figures out which, but to start the truck and keep it running, he has to manually feed fuel to the engine. Sure enough, the truck again doesn’t start—in the middle of a vast ice landscape—but Art somehow manages to get fuel to the engine and keep it going.

Since it’s impossible for me to watch a show like this without thinking about the risk management implications, I noted two distinct risk management styles. Joey keeps a lot of heavy equipment and spare parts and is ready for any emergency. To stay on schedule, Art heads out over the treacherous ice, knowing he is having engine trouble, but trusting his skills and experience to get him through. Not only do these drivers have to foresee and manage dangerous risks, but the camera and production crew are often traveling right alongside them. And so their safety and liability is an issue as well.

I’m sure that risk managers can relate to these disparate styles. Oddly, they both work, even in these extreme conditions, because both Joey and Art both know their jobs, the conditions and equipment so well. It’s risk management in its most raw form and there are lessons to be gleaned. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself and be prepared for a nail-biter.

 

Top 10 Global Risks Underscore Business Concerns

Posted on by

Risk managers around the world appear to be closely aligned when it comes to top concerns for their organization, according to findings of two studies.

One was preliminary results of a study, Global Risk Management Research, which is due in September by Accenture. Executives from 446 organizations across eight industries were asked what they see as the biggest risks over the next two years. Out of a list of 10 “external pressures,” legal risks topped the chart at 62%. Second on the list were business risks at 52%, and third were regulatory requirements at 49%.

There was a tie at 46% between the fifth, sixth and seventh concerns, which were credit risks, operational risks and strategic risks.

Interestingly, the 2013 Global Risk Management Survey by Aon Risk Solutions found that of 1,415 respondents from 70 countries and a broad range of industry sectors, the top concern was economic slowdown/slow recovery. Second was regulatory/legislative changes and third was increasing competition.

Last on the Accenture study’s list was reputational risk at 38%. I find this surprising, given the financial crisis and ongoing examples of tarnished reputations over the past few years for a variety of reasons. The Aon study, however, listed damage to reputation as the fourth concern.

In a slowly recovering economic environment, with more and more organizations merging and acquiring other companies, and expanding across the globe, the top concerns of both of these studies make sense. In fact, other surveys and experts I’ve talked to indicate that M&As more often than not result in legal actions and trigger other business risks and regulatory requirements.


Illustration courtesy of Accenture

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Posted on by

Last week I wrote about a train derailment on the line I take to work every day. It was the third derailment in only a few months for the MTA. It turns out that two sets of tracks were destroyed as the result of a derailment of 10 cars on a CSX train hauling garbage at night.

The MTA responded promptly and by the next morning had plans in place, using buses and a subway line to get people to work in Manhattan. That was a Friday, and by Monday garbage had been removed from the tracks and one track was replaced so that service could mostly be restored. The second track was back a few days later.

But a recent letter to the editor of our local newspaper gave the incident a new perspective.

The reader pointed out that a CSX garbage train makes a trip four times each day to and from the Bronx, through Albany, to Virginia.

He stated, “The garbage is loaded next door to two gas-fired electric generating plants,” and pointed out that “every advanced country is converting garbage to gas for electric production – we are not.” Instead, we are hauling it to faraway locales to be placed in landfills.

Randy Leonard wrote in a column for The New York Times in September 2012 that strides have been made with a process called plasma arc gasification, developed by the U.S. Air Force. The gasification process was designed as an alternative to the open pit burns of garbage that some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans claim made them sick.

He noted that David Robau, an environmental scientist for the Air Force, “tours the country promoting a system that sounds too good to be true: It devours municipal garbage, recycles metals, blasts toxic contaminants and produces electricity and usable byproducts — all with drastic reductions in emissions.”

New York City and some waste companies are interested in the process, which is favored by some because it can destroy medical waste, asbestos, hydrocarbons and PCBs, he said.

Robau added that not all environmentalists are convinced, believing that complete disposal of waste will discourage recycling and development of renewable products. They also feel that gasification will still create toxic substances such as dioxins.

David Wolman reported in Wired Magazine, February 2012 that a huge garbage operation in Northern Oregon has included a plasma gasification facility. It is run by a startup company called S4 Energy Solutions – the first commercial plant in the U.S. to use the process to convert household garbage into gas products like hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The products can be burned as fuel or sold for other industrial applications.

So far gasification has not taken off, because the value of the product has yet to offset the energy required to power the high temperature furnaces needed to melt the trash. But I have faith (fingers crossed) that eventually solutions to many of the issues at hand will be found.

After all, garbage is cheap fuel.

As open land gets scarce and water tables are threatened, we will realize that capping landfills is not a long-term solution. Fossil fuels will also become too expensive, making that cheap fuel look better and better. In fact, I predict that we will eventually be mining garbage out of our landfills.

It’s only a matter of time.