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 Factory Farmed Biofuel
- Ramesh Suri
Planted in the wrong places, biofuel crops crowd out food production and drive up food prices, and encourage new rounds of deforestation in regions where deforestation is already out of control. But now we have a new concept - factory produced biofuel. In the following assessment of biofuel produced in a "bioreactor" from algae, the pitfalls of producing biofuel from algae ponds is recognized, and then the author explains the potential to produce biofuel within illuminated, enclosed containers, infused with carbon dioxide. It is possible this process will become economically viable, and result in a far higher contribution from biofuel to the ever increasing fuel requirements of civilization
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 Global Warming Data
- Richard Lindzen
What if we successfully cool the planet, avoiding climate catastrophe by banning spurious combustion, only to regret that in the process we never developed a fleet of passenger and cargo aerospaceplanes, and as a result were unable to spacelift the throw-weight necessary to prevent an asteroid from hitting our planet and wiping us out? Beware of how often you play the "we-do-this-or-we-all-perish" card while relying on the precautionary principle... |
 Central Asian Electrification
- Gordon Feller
From the windswept steppes of Turkestan far, far west to the high desert of north-east China, Central Asia is the heart of the greatest land mass on earth. Undiscovered, remote, indescribably ancient, to the western psyche this vast land is the subject of lore, myth, legend and wonder. Now Central Asia is also something else, a repository of huge energy resources that are only beginning to be tapped. From new coal fired electric power stations in Kazakhstan, to massive hydroelectric development in Tajikistan, Central Asia is not just oil from the Caspian basin, Central Asia is an electricity powerhouse... |
 India's Nuclear Power
- Avilash Roul
As a huge, technologically advanced country, soon to be the most populous nation on Earth, it should be no surprise that India has a long-standing nuclear power industry. In 1954, India's First Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, said "It is perfectly clear that atomic energy can be used for peaceful purposes," as India even then was developing nuclear technology. In 1969 after years of effort, India's first atomic power station went critical, in Tarapur, Maharashtra. Five years later, India tested an atomic bomb. There are 440 land-based nuclear power reactors today in the world. They produce 16% of the world's electricity... |
 Climate Catastrophe?
- Richard Lindzen
In order to curb CO2 emissions, we are on the verge of enacting sweeping regulations that will affect every industrial sector on earth. There's nothing wrong with many of the side benefits. Hopefully while we regulate CO2, we won't forget to also regulate carbon monoxide, lead, ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. Hopefully while we regulate CO2, we will be spurred towards faster adoption of totally clean alternative energy, and hopefully as well, we will all achieve energy independence. Still, it feels like there hasn't been enough willingness to carefully deliberate the science behind the global warming scare... |
 Bioethanol vs. Biodiesel
- Louis Strydom
In this cautionary, comprehensive assessment of biofuels, it is clear that in proper conditions they are economically viable today, and that worldwide biofuel production is poised to make a quantum leap. But when comparing the principal biodiesel crops, bioethanol versus biodiesel, the result is inconclusive. Complicating any attempt to assess the potential of biofuels are claims that "secondary treatment of cellulosic waste" can yield quantities of bioethanol equal or greater than the initial extraction of ethanol or diesel. But in most cases, this secondary extraction of ethanol from cellulose is not yet a cost-effective process... |
 Asia's Embattled Tigers
- Ambika Shankar
When one considers the habitat of tigers, intersecting with some of the most densely populated regions on earth - Southeast China, India, Sumatra - the fact that the tiger still endures is testament to the resilience of this species as well as to the myriad of efforts by conscientious humans to preserve some remnant of the majestic animals. In very recent years, however, the decline of the tigers has accelerated again. Population growth, economic growth, and growing international turmoil threaten to once again make preserving the tiger a lower priority. But once the tigers are gone, they can never come back... |
 Factory Hog Farming
- Blake Hurst
How do you manage tens of thousands of hogs, growing them from piglet to bacon in less than 18 months? Imagine how much these animals must eat, drink, and excrete. Want a "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation" near you? It's important to emphasize there are several distinct issues surrounding factory hog farming, and each of them can debated and, hopefully, resolved independently of the others. One issue is the impact factory farms have on the hog market, and on the small independent farmers who have always grown smaller quantities of hogs, perhaps more sustainably, and who can't compete with factory operations... |
 China's Wind Power
- Gordon Feller
With 20% of the world's population, China now consumes 10% of the world's energy. This means that just to come up to the international average, China will need to double its energy consumption. Wind power, like solar power, is an alternative energy resource of virtually unlimited potential. After years of heavy subsidies, especially in Europe where the will to become energy independent has been unwavering, wind power is now economically competitive with conventional energy sources. This fact, combined with the energy security of windfarms as a renewable domestic energy supply, suggest the Chinese committment to develop wind power is just beginning... |
 Ethanol in Africa
- Marianne Osterkorn
World biofuel production in 2004, which is the last year for which figures are readily available, totalled about 130 million barrels, with 95% of this total coming from bio-ethanol. Despite the fact that world biofuel production today is equivalent to only 4/10ths of one percent of the total petroleum-based fuel production, there are regions throughout the world where biofuel is an economically viable enterprise. Both on a subsistence level, allowing farmers or villages to achieve energy independence, and on a vast commercial scale, biofuel crops are being rapidly developed all over the world. Using sugar cane and cassava, the bio-ethanol industry developed so successfully by Brazil is now being emulated by the Nigerians... |
 Biodynamic Agriculture
- Ed Ring
Biodynamic farming claims to be the original and purest form of organic agriculture. Often challenged because biodynamic theories include aspects of mysticism, the practical concepts of biodynamics are the key to restoring the earth by reinvigorating ecosystems; when chemicals and corporations fail, biodynamics can bring back what has been lost or destroyed. Northern California's Ceago winery and vinegarden applies the best of biodyamics; scrupulous adherance to the practice of biodynamic agriculture, with a respectful acknowledgement of the vast gray area where realities of the seasons finally may give way to superstition... |
 Global Warming
- Edward Wheeler
Global warming is an environmental issue so cataclysmic, so complex, and so intertwined with passionate political conflicts, that it almost seems best to leave it alone - go with the conventional wisdom. In 1988 the visionary scientist and writer Freeman Dyson wrote about what was then a highly publicized scientific theory describing the ecological consequences of nuclear war. "As a scientist," he wrote, "I judge the nuclear winter theory to be a sloppy piece of work, full of gaps and unjustified assumptions. As a human being, I hope fervently it is right." Dyson wanted to believe in nuclear winter, because if people believe this, maybe humanity would avoid nuclear war. Unimpeachable motives. Bad science... |
 Growing Biofuel
- Louis Strydom
Growing biofuel, whether it's biodiesel or bioethanol, whether it's jatropha or sugar cane, is not easy. Like many clean technologies, biofuel production is a undeveloped, knowledge-intensive enterprise in an emerging industry. There are no guarantees of success. This article by biodiesel entrepreneur Louis Strydom, who is endeavoring to establish a biodiesel plantation and refinery on a massive scale in Kenya, serves as a sobering reminder of how many factors have to be aligned before commercial production of biodiesel fuel moves from dream to reality. Ultimately, biodiesel plantations have to be profitable, and the requirements for success are myriad... |
 India's Biodiesel Scene
- Satish Lele
Biofuel crops are usually grown either to make bio-diesel, a fuel for high-compression diesel engines, that is refined from the vegetable fats in a crop, or ethanol, a fuel for engines with spark-plugs, which is distilled from a crop that is fermented. It is amazing how many companies have gotten involved and how quickly a global biofuel economy is developing. Undoubtedly more people learning how to profitably grow these exciting crops will do much to alleviate fuel shortages and spread prosperity throughout the world... |
.jpg) Saving the Giant Sea Turtles
- Daniela Muhawi
Efforts to save Great Sea Turtles provide good examples of how concerned people have mobilized to help a species. If it weren't for individuals getting involved on every continent, these ancient species, with lifespans that exceed humans, who travel thousands of miles through open ocean, might well be completely extinct by now. With the help of volunteers around the world who monitor beaches where Sea Turtles establish their nests, however, the odds swing back somewhat in favor of the species. These efforts, along with the steady adoption by fishermen of nets that provide an escape for large sea animals, have given the Great Sea Turtles hope
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 India's Water Future
- Avilash Roul
Can massive canals and pipelines be part of India's strategy to more efficiently use water, by transporting cubic kilometers of water each year from wet regions to dry regions? The power necessary to move water over mountains is a daunting obstacle, but the electric power requirements aren't necessarily as great as some have claimed. To lift a cubic kilometer of water 250 meters requires about 100 megawatt-years of electricity - the output of a one relatively small generating plant. Certainly whatever solutions involving canals are ultimately chosen in India, will come alongside revitalization of traditional water management techniques... |
 Clean Coal Technology
- Gordon Feller
Coal provides nearly 50% of the electrical generating fuel in the United States and similar percentages apply around the world. Coal is more abundant than oil, in fact, there is enough coal on the earth to supply all the current energy requirements of the entire planet for hundreds of years. Coal is many times more abundant than the reserves of all other fossil fuels combined. Already coal burning is creating serious air pollution around the world, and with coal production rising with no end in sight, not just carbon dioxide but more immediate and deadly pollutants should be cleaned out of the burning process. Coal is here to stay. This is why we need clean coal technology... |
 A Bridge Across the Americas
- Jack Ewing
The concept of wildlife corridors has been around for about 20 years, but has found perhaps its most inspiring expression in the accomplishments in Central America. In this region, seven governments have agreed to coordinate their efforts to encourage a huge system of interconnected parks, reserves and wildlife corridors that literally link North America to South America. Not only is the scale of this undertaking unusual, but the means whereby Central American biological corridors are being established are innovative and sustainable. Costa Rica provides a particularly excellent case for how biocorridors can be encouraged using a variety of means... |
 Can Arctic Rivers Save the Aral Sea?
- Ed Ring
To spend somewhere between 25-50 billion dollars to refill the Aral Sea and turn the Aral Basin into a cornucopia of fishing, agriculture, forestry - a new example to the world of the old adage "water, wealth, contentment, health" - does seem like a bargain. And that's about all it would cost to build two canals to drain water from the Volga and Ob rivers and move enough south to refill the Aral Sea in about 25-50 years. But maybe this international effort could yield additional benefits - saving the banks of the Caspian Sea from rising waters, and removing fresh water from the Arctic Ocean to preserve the gulf stream current... |
 Profitable Reforestation
- Ed Ring
A mixed forest of mature tropical hardwoods, cut scientifically on a rotation where "corridors of light" are created as trees are selectively removed, mimics the natural ecosystem of the original forest. Selecting a specific pioneer species of tree to serve as the monocultural tree crop as the terrain is transitioned from cleared land to forest is a necessary intermediate step. This transitional tree can immediately stabilize the soil and retain moisture, improving the quality of the land so diverse native trees can be reestablished. It can also provide income to finance the reforestation of the native trees... |
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