Photo by Pete Oxford From a die-hard ecologist's standpoint, the unequivocal answer is simple: No. Tourism invites hordes of people to trample over the delicate island ecosystems, the ever-growing industry attracts migrant workers to join an already unsustainable population which combined with the gaggle of visitors usurps the Galapagos' limited resources. Not to mention the extensive fossil fuel-frying air travel you'll most like......
Photo by Pete Oxford From a die-hard ecologist's standpoint, the unequivocal answer is simple: No. Tourism invites hordes of people to trample over the delicate island ecosystems, the ever-growing industry attracts migrant workers to join an already unsustainable population which combined with the gaggle of visitors usurps the Galapagos' limited resources. Not to mention the extensive fossil fuel-frying air travel you'll most like......
Today we have a special treat: Two opposing opinions about geological carbon sequestration. That's where you capture carbon being freed by fossil fuel-burning power plants and inject it deep underground. Peter Montague, executive director of Environmental Research Foundation in New Brunswick, New Jersey (www.rachel.org), doesn't think much of this idea and he has some compelling reasons why. To get the other point of view visit Discovery Tech where Kurt Zenz House and Julie Shoemaker argue that we need to bury carbon dioxide underground. But first, here's Peter Montague: Whenever we burn fossil fuels (gasoline, natural gas, oil, or coal)...
Until some carbon taxes or a cap-and-trade system pushes fossil fuel prices up to where they probably should be (if all the environmental factors are taken into consideration) any small thing that reduces the cost of generating electricity from renewable energy sources is great news. A claim that a new wind turbine design could reduce the cost of generating electricity from wind power by 50%, and possibly double or triple a turbine’s output in the process is even better news. This is how it could happen: ......
The town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet near Barcelona in Spain wants to do its part in fighting global warming. But the densely packed town - 124,000 people crammed into 1.5 square miles - doesn't have enough land to dedicate tracts exclusively to the wind farms or solar panels that could help ease residents' dependency on fossil fuel. So the city council found the space required to install 462 solar panels in an unlikely spot. In the absence of flat expanses of land in the town, local politicians decided to use the local graveyard. The southward facing panels rest...
Recently the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland unveiled a massive concerted effort to become the electric vehicle capitol of the United States! This groundbreaking development heralds a nine-step plan that includes everything from buying fully electric vehicles for all government transportation to expediting the approval of charging outlets throughout the bay area, including those located on the street. The creation of this essential infrastructure marks a huge step towards the acceptance of electric vehicles as a viable alternative to those that run on fossil fuel. (more…)...
I have never understood why the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of the Energy Star rating system; it is not as if the American government really believes that Carbon Dioxide is a problem, and yet in the interest of reducing fossil fuel use the EPA suggests that everybody seal their houses tight as a drum to reduce heat loss or gain. By not insisting on some form of ventilation system, the EPA is probably poisoning people with Energy Star. But nobody cares about air quality and health in America, only about the price of gas. Let me correct...
It is not everyday that a well-known car manufacturer releases a concept vehicle that makes everyone’s head turn, but that’s exactly what Honda did last week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The FC Sport is a hydrogen fuel cell three seater based on the same technology deployed in the FCX Clarity. Hardly your run-of-the mill hydrogen-powered vehicle, the FC Sport is a high-powered sports car designed to show that new greener technologies can compete against any fossil-fuel powered engine. (more…)...
Energy Outlook The US Geological Survey released a report estimating that 85 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of technically recoverable gas hydrates are accessible on the Alaskan North Slope. If produced over 20 years and combined with the conventional gas supply from the North Slope, which has been waiting for a pipeline south for many years, this deposit could supply up to a third of total US natural gas consumption. But that barely scratches the surface of the overall potential of gas hydrates. The reason this announcement is so significant lies in the words “technically recoverable.” Geologists have known about...
photo: Julian Last month British newspaper The Guardian started a greenwashing column to turn the spotlight on the dubious claims of environmental benefits that some companies put forth. In the latest of these columns, Fred Pearce takes on BP, showing how that company hasn’t really gotten ‘beyond petroleum’ at all. Check it out, as similar claims can be made about pretty much every fossil fuel company: Despite any efforts they’ve made in ......
Brian Lam, bastard, has taken a Tesla Roadster out for a spin.I can't afford this car. If I wanted something similar to this in shape, feel and performance, I'd probably buy a used Elise for $30k if I could get over the bug eyes. But I can assure you that a Tesla is still a hell of a a car, by electric or gas terms, even if its just a bit more portly and more expensive than a comparable Lotus. I mean, its fast. It's electric. It's efficient. It's sexy. And you can actually buy it if you're rich....
Eco Factor: Hybrid vehicle powered by lithium polymer batteries. Electricity alone cannot provide the speed and distance we require sustaining our lives in future. Hybrids can take over conventional fossil fuel vehicles without making us too slow in the process. Cobus Marx has designed a futuristic vehicle called the EVA (Electric Vehicle Africa) that can carry two passengers on its three wheels and a hybrid engine. The vehicle enhances the possibilities of a cost-effective alternative approach to a personal transport vehicle. The vehicle is based on the future needs of the urbanized user who needs extended range at a...
With the auto industry flailing about, everyone all of a sudden thinks they're an expert, acting completely flabbergasted none of the domestic automakers have magically fixed everything yesterday. This kind of hit-and-run punditry has always been on display in Thomas Friedman's work regularly equating GM to a crack dealer in the most sensationalist analogy ever. Then came yesterday's column in the New York Times displaying an even greater lack of understanding of the depth and breadth of the global auto industry than usual. In the column, Friedman believes GM should get Steve Jobs to design an "iCar" — then today,...
That the $100-billion fast food industry rests on a foundation of corn has been known more through inference and observation than hard scientific fact — until now. Chemical analysis from restaurants across the United States shows that nearly every cow or chicken used in fast food is raised on a diet of corn, prompting fresh criticism of the government's role in subsidizing poor eating habits. "People had talked about what they observed or found out about, as individual journalists or individual consumers," said University of Hawaii geobiologist and study co-author A. Hope Jahren. "We got national data on how...
Filed under: Transportation Like it or not California, it's about time you folks ponied up for a serious rail system. With the recent passage of Proposition 1A, the wheels have started to churn on a sophisticated bullet train system that will eventually link San Diego in the south with Sacramento in the north, with stops at most every major city in between (LA and San Francisco included). The 800-mile network of trains would operate at upwards of 220mph and cost around $45 billion to construct, but it'll create 320,000 permanent jobs by 2030 and reduce the state's reliance on fossil...
photo: Barack Obama and Joe Biden Barack Obama comes to office having to deal with the most difficult circumstances since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Perhaps even more difficult, since the environmental bill from 200 years of unchecked of fossil fuel burning has finally come due and Obama will have to deal with the convergence of deep financial crisis and deep environmental crisis at the same time. Indeed the only way out of either is by addressing them as a whole. And to make it worse, now is perhaps last chance to act before global warming fundamentally changes the planet into...
