20 Nov 2009:
Using Enzymes from Termites
To Make Biofuel from Plants and Wood Waste
A U.S. company has come up with a new way of producing biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural waste:
Using enzymes from the guts of termites to more efficiently produce ethanol. The startup company, ZeaChem, says using the enzymes from the wood-eating insects has achieved ethanol yields in the laboratory 35 percent higher than other producers of cellulosic ethanol, according to
MIT Technology Review. ZeaChem uses acid to break the cellulose into sugars, but instead of fermenting the sugars into ethanol using yeast — as is customarily done — the company feeds the sugars to an acetogen bacteria found in termites. The bacteria turns the sugars into acetic acid, which produces ethanol when combined with hydrogen. “It’s not the obvious, direct route, but there is a high yield potential,” said an official from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. ZeaChem’s CEO said the company has produced 135 gallons of ethanol per ton of cellulosic feedstock.
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19 Nov 2009:
Kenya Evicts Squatters
From Beleaguered Mau Forest
The Kenyan government has begun evicting an estimated
30,000 families that have squatted illegally in the vital Mau forest and caused major environmental damage to the one-million-acre woodland. The Mau forest, located in the Rift valley, is Kenya’s largest water catchment area, the source of at least a dozen rivers that feed Lake Victoria, the Masai Mara nature reserve, and the tea fields of Kericho. Over the last 20 years, however, squatters and officials in the government of ex-President Daniel Arap Moi moved into the Mau and have destroyed roughly a quarter of the forest by clearing the land for timber production and agriculture. The forest destruction has created large-scale soil erosion and caused aquifer levels to fall, exacerbating a recent drought that caused many rivers to run dry. Prime Minister Raila Odinga has made clearing the Mau of squatters and restoring the forest the nation’s top environmental priority. Already, officials report, 3,500 squatters have moved out of the forest after being served with eviction notices.
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17 Nov 2009:
Increase In GM Crops
Leads to Jump in Herbicide Use
The widespread use of genetically modified crops engineered to tolerate herbicides has led to a sharp increase of the chemicals in the U.S. and is
creating herbicide-resistant “super weeds” and an increase in chemical residues in U.S. food, according to a new report. As more farmers have adopted variations of corn, soy beans, and cotton bred to tolerate weed killer in recent years, the use of herbicides has increased steadily, with herbicide use growing by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, according to a report released by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety. Forty-six percent of that increase occurred during 2007 and 2008. The most popular genetically modified crops are known as “Roundup ready” for their ability to survive after being sprayed with the well known herbicide, Roundup. Officials with the Biotechnology
Industry Organization said herbicide-resistant crops make it easier for farmers to manage weed problems. But Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, called the increase in herbicide use “bad news for farmers, human health and the environment,” in part because it has led to an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds. The report said the use of insecticides has actually decreased by 64 million pounds since 1996 because many
genetically modified crops carry traits that make them resistant to insects.
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29 Oct 2009:
Solar Power Potential
Is Huge in Developing Countries
The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be
one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California. To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.” Eckhart and other experts said that in addition to finding financing to help low-income residents install solar panels, a major challenge is purchasing and replacing the batteries to store electricity at night and on cloudy days. Another significant hurdle is replacing the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs and old, inefficient appliances and computers often used by village households. One expert who has installed off-the-grid solar arrays in Africa and China said in regions where villagers use compact fluorescent bulbs and efficient appliances the cost of installing an adequate solar array and battery can be 75 percent cheaper.
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22 Oct 2009:
Food Recycling Program
A Major Success in San Francisco
San Francisco’s new food recycling program — the first in the U.S. that requires all food waste from homes, apartments, businesses, and restaurants to be recycled and composted —
has been enthusiastically embraced by city residents, officials say. Although the program was officially launched on Wednesday, city officials say residents have been recycling food for weeks and are already setting aside about half of the city’s 500 tons of daily food waste. The city requires residents and businesses to place food scraps in sealed buckets, and then collects the buckets and trucks them to San Francisco’s Organics Annex, where the food waste is composted. The compost is sold as fertilizer to area farms and vineyards. Seattle was the first U.S. city to require all households to recycle food waste, but San Francisco’s law covers businesses and apartments. Jared Blumenthal, the city’s environmental officer, said residents have strongly backed the food recycling plan because — overwhelmed by bad environmental news — this gives them something concrete to do. “This is not rocket science,” he said. “This is putting some food scraps into a different pile and turning them into compost.”
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21 Oct 2009:
Genetically Modified Crops
Needed to Avert Food Crisis, Panel Says
Further development of genetically modified (GM) crops will be needed to
feed the estimated 9 billion people who will live on the planet by mid-century, according to a report from the U.K.’s Royal Society. The report said that rising populations, the impacts of climate change, and projected water shortages mean that new, drought-resistant and highly productive food plants must be developed to feed the world. The report said other economic and technological changes — such as improved irrigation and crop management — also will be necessary. The Royal Society scientists concluded that the development of new crops is an urgent priority if
global agriculture and land-use problems are to be solved. The scientists’ conclusions drew fire from opponents of GM crops, who contend that the technique is
unsustainable and could cause major environmental harm.
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14 Oct 2009:
Salt Marshes and Mangroves
Cited as Vital in Combating Climate Change
Salt marshes, sea grasses, mangroves, and other forms of marine vegetation withdraw and store an enormous amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
should be preserved and restored by creating a new global fund, according to a U.N. report. The study, calling for the creation of a “Blue Carbon” initiative, said that although such marine vegetation covers less than 1 percent of the world’s seabed, these plants are estimated to store 1.6 billion tons of CO2 every year — more than half of all carbon buried in the ocean floor. The U.N. report said that these vital marine habitats are being destroyed at a rapid rate, with parts of Asia losing up to 90 percent of their mangrove forests since 1940 and an estimated 2 to 7 percent of salt marshes, sea grasses, and mangroves lost annually to human development. But the report said that such ecosystems can be restored, and that the restoration of large areas of marine vegetation, coupled with efforts to preserve tropical forests, could reduce global carbon emissions by 25 percent.
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07 Oct 2009:
U.S. Colleges Going Green
Despite Falling Endowments, Study Says
A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities supported green initiatives during the last year despite declining endowments, according to a report released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. Twenty-six of 332 schools evaluated in the College Sustainability Report Card received the highest-possible grade of A-minus through sustainable management of campus operations and endowment practices. Now in its fourth year, the College Sustainability Report Card evaluates schools in nine categories, including climate change and energy, food and recycling, and green building. Among the schools called sustainability leaders are the University of Pennsylvania, which purchases 45 percent of its electricity from wind power; the University of New Hampshire, which buys produce from an on-campus organic garden; Oberlin College, which powers one building entirely by solar energy; Arizona State University, which operates 137 electric and 170 biofuel-powered vehicles; the University of Colorado, which retrofitted more than 75 buildings for energy efficiency; and Yale University, which has installed 10 micro-wind turbines on campus.
See the full report here.
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01 Oct 2009:
Drought in India
is Worst Since 1972, Government Says
With India’s four-month monsoon season now officially over, the nation’s meteorological department has announced that the country
is experiencing the worst drought in 37 years, with rains 23 percent
UNEP
below normal. Especially hard-hit have been the region’s major rice- and cereal-growing regions in the northern and western states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, where rains this year were 36 percent below normal. That region is also rapidly depleting its underground water supplies, as farmers with inexpensive diesel pumps extract irrigation water at an unsustainable rate, a trend that scientists warn could threaten Indian agriculture in the coming decades. The Indian government says the country has 52 million tons of wheat and rice in reserve, enough to last a year. But the drought and feeble monsoon rains have caused economic hardship for many of the 600 million Indians who still depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
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29 Sep 2009:
Stockholm’s Congestion Pricing
Reduces Traffic and Boosts Alternative Cars
Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan — which charges motorists for driving in the city center during rush hour — has cut CO2 emissions in the congestion zone by 14 percent, reduced traffic in the inner city by 18 percent, increased ridership on public transport, and
spurred the use of alternative fuel vehicles, according to a new study. Instituted on a permanent basis in 2007 in a 24-square-kilometer (9 square-mile) area, the congestion pricing program exempted alternative fuel vehicles from the $1.50 to $3 per-trip surcharge. As a result, the number of registered alternative fuel vehicles in the city jumped from five percent of the vehicle fleet in 2006 to 14 percent in 2008, according to a study by the Stockholm Traffic Association. The association said that the reduction in traffic and emissions is not related to the recession, as sales in Stockholm’s retail core have actually increased. Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan is managed by I.B.M., which has set up a series of 18 gateways into the city center that read transponders on cars and levy the congestion toll.
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29 Sep 2009:
Third World Population Growth
Contributes Little to Rising CO2 Emissions
Rapid population growth in the developing world
does not significantly contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions and focusing on the population explosion in poor countries diverts attention from the far more serious issue of over-consumption in rich countries, according to a new study. The study, conducted by the
International Institute for Environment and Development, analyzed population growth and CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2005 and concluded that rising populations in sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions have had a negligible impact on global warming. The study said that although sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 18.5 percent of world population growth, it had only 2.4 percent of the growth in C02 emissions. Overall, low-income nations accounted for 52 percent of population growth and 13 percent of growth in emissions, while
high-income nations accounted for just 7 percent of population growth but 29 percent of emissions growth. The study, published in the journal
Environment and Urbanization, said that a child born in the U.S. or Europe will contribute thousands of times more CO2 emissions than a poor child in Africa. World population is now 6.8 billion and is expected to rise to 9 billion this century.
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08 Sep 2009:
Half of Fish Consumption
Attributed to Aquaculture, Study Finds
Production of farmed fish has nearly tripled in volume since 1995 and aquaculture
now provides 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new study. The study said that while aquaculture does provide some environmental benefits, the quantity of fishmeal and fish oil needed to produce the feed for carnivorous farmed fish — such as Atlantic salmon — is extracting a heavy toll on smaller species such as sardines and anchovies. Published in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study said that the feed for aquaculture fish now consumes 68 percent of the fishmeal and 88 percent of the fish oil produced globally. The authors recommended that fish oil used in fish feed be reduced and replaced with omega-3 oils extracted from algae or genetically modified land plants. The authors said that a four percent reduction in the fish oil used in salmon feed would cut the amount of wild fish needed to produce one pound of salmon from five pounds to 3.9 pounds. The study also encouraged greater development of fish farms raising tilapia, carp, and other fish with a vegetarian diet.
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17 Aug 2009:
Chinese Air Pollution
Contributing to Drought, Study Says
Severe air pollution in China’s heavily industrialized east
is impeding the formation of rain clouds and contributing to a drought in northern China, according to a new study. The study, which looked at rainfall and pollution patterns for the past 50 years, concluded that pollution has reduced the number of days of light rain in eastern China by 23 percent. Atmospheric scientist Yun Qian of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said that the large number of aerosols in China’s polluted skies has led to the formation of rain droplets that are up to 50 percent smaller than rain droplets in clean skies. The smaller droplets do not as readily form rain clouds, which means that lighter rainfalls valuable to agriculture — ranging from a drizzle to accumulations of .4 inch per day — are occurring less frequently, according to the study, published in the
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Qian said his research “suggests that reducing air pollution might help ease the drought in north China.” Meanwhile, a new U.N. study says
major improvements in irrigation efficiency are needed to avoid large-scale food shortages that would effect 1.5 billion people in China, India, and Pakistan.
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12 Aug 2009:
General Motors’ ‘Volt’ Car
Will Get up to 230 Miles Per Gallon, GM Says
The electric Chevrolet Volt
will achieve a fuel rating of 230 miles per gallon in city driving and will get more than 100 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving, according to General Motors. GM
Chevrolet
The Chevy Volt
Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said drivers will achieve the higher fuel economy rating when relying primarily on the electric engine, which can run 40 miles on a charge before a small gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery. The Volt is scheduled to come to market in 2011, and General Motors is counting on the car to help change its image as a producer of outmoded gas guzzlers. “Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy will be a game changer for us,” Henderson told reporters and analysts. Toyota’s Hybrid Prius gets roughly 50 miles per gallon in city driving, and Nissan is developing an all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, that it claims will get the equivalent of 367 miles per gallon. Henderson said the Volt’s battery can be recharged in 8 hours using a regular electrical outlet, but be acknowledged that city dwellers — a prime audience for the Volt — at this point have no way to charge the Volt if they park on the street.
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11 Aug 2009:
Satellite Data Confirm
Rapid Depletion of Indian Groundwater
A pair of satellites that measures changes in the earth’s gravity has shown that the intense irrigation of a 1,200-mile swath of northern India
is depleting groundwater at a rate of 1.5 to 4 inches per year. The satellites, part of a joint U.S.-German mission known as GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), show that the region — inhabited by 600 million people heavily dependent on irrigated agriculture — is withdrawing 13 cubic miles of water per year from underground aquifers. Reporting in the journal
Geophysical Research Letters, U.S. and Indian scientists analyzed satellite data from 2002 to 2008 and concluded that Indian farmers are pumping out groundwater 70 percent faster than estimated by the Central Ground Water Board of India in the 1990s. The GRACE satellites, orbiting in tandem and flying roughly 135 miles apart, use sophisticated instruments to detect changes in the earth’s gravitational pull, mainly due to water moving on or under the surface. The satellites, which have been used to measure the rapid thinning of ice sheets in the Arctic, “can help regional water managers by giving them a holistic view” of major aquifers, according to James Famiglietti, a University of California hydrologist who worked in the Indian project.
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27 Jul 2009:
Chilean Salmon Industry
Using Massive Amounts of Antibiotics
The Chilean government has reported that the country’s salmon farmers
use roughly 350 times more antibiotics to control disease in fish pens than the Norwegian salmon farming industry. Chile’s Economy Ministry said that the country’s salmon operations used 718,000 pounds of antibiotics in 2008 and 850,000 pounds in 2007 — 350 to 600 times more than the roughly 2,000 pounds used in all of Norway’s salmon farms in 2008. Norway remains the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon and has developed vaccines to better control disease outbreaks in fish cages, where thousands of Atlantic salmon swim in tightly packed conditions. The Chilean salmon industry, the world’s second largest, has been plagued by outbreaks of infectious diseases that have killed tens of thousands of farmed salmon. Chile is the largest supplier of farmed salmon to the U.S., but concerns about environmental conditions at Chile’s fish farms have caused Wal-Mart and Safeway to recently reduce purchases of Chilean salmon.
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16 Jul 2009:
Home Solar Arrays
Expand Rapidly in California
The number of California homes with solar panels
has grown from 500 a decade ago to 50,000 today, helping California produce 500 megawatts of solar-powered electricity — equivalent to a major coal-fired power plant — during peak solar periods in early afternoon. The lobbying group Environment California reported that the state’s solar market has more than doubled in the past three years, making the state by far the largest solar power generator in the United States. New Jersey is second, with a peak
production of 70 megawatts. Still, the expansion of solar power in California is far behind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal of a “million solar roofs,” and the number of home solar arrays remains small. The city with the most solar roofs, San Diego, only has 2,262 homes with solar photovoltaic panels. Environmental advocates say that a key to far more rapid expansion of solar power is a so-called feed-in tariff, which would allow homeowners who install extra solar capacity to sell electricity back to utilities at a favorable rate.
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16 Jul 2009:
Wal-Mart Labels
Will Rate Sustainability of Products
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is planning
to place labels on products that will rate them for sustainability, including their carbon footprint, the quantity of water used in their production, and the air pollution left in their wake. Wal-Mart said it will soon ask its 100,000 global suppliers 15 questions about the environmental practices of their companies, including whether the firms have publicly set greenhouse gas reduction targets. Wal-Mart will then use that information, along with independent verification of a supplier’s claims, to give products in its stores an overall sustainability score, including a numerical index that rates goods on their climate impact, pesticide use, and overall environmental damage. Environmental groups praised Wal-Mart’s plan, saying it would force the company’s suppliers to produce their products in less environmentally harmful ways. Wal-Mart has taken several major steps to make its massive operation more environmentally friendly, including significantly reducing packaging, cutting energy use in its stores, and selling only concentrated laundry detergent that uses 50 percent less water in its manufacture.
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13 Jul 2009:
Concern for Crop Safety
Leads to Damaging Farming Practices
Concerned about outbreaks of E. coli bacteria, farming groups and food buyers have instituted
a series of environmentally damaging agricultural practices in California and could soon be replicating the program nationwide, the
San Francisco Chronicle reports. The practices — spurred by a 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach that killed four people and left 35 with acute kidney failure — include poisoning or draining irrigation ponds, creating 450-dirt buffers around fields, and killing amphibians and wildlife in and around cropland. The new practices are being implemented by the large growers and major corporate buyers of greens that are washed, bagged, and distributed nationwide. So far the new practices are mainly being carried out in California, but the prepackaged greens industry has submitted a proposal to have similar rules apply at farms nationwide. Critics contend the new agricultural practices not only cause environmental harm, but do little to improve food safety. “Sanitizing American agriculture, aside from being impossible, is foolhardy,” said
author Michael Pollan who has written extensively on the food industry.
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30 Apr 2009:
Dubai’s Urban Sprawl
In these photographs, NASA satellites capture the
explosive growth of Dubai on the Persian Gulf between 2002 and 2008. These false-color thermal images of Dubai — one of the 7 United Arab
Emirates — depict vegetated areas in red, buildings in gray, and the desert in beige. The image at left, taken in October 2002, shows the early stages of construction of Palm Jumeirah, a vast commercial development built by dredging 3.9 billion cubic feet of sand from the gulf and depositing it in the shape of a giant palm tree. The finished look of Palm Jumeirah — which contains shops, hotels, and apartments and is protected from the gulf by 7 miles of rocky breakwater — can be seen in the image at right, taken in November 2008. That recent image also shows the exponential growth of Dubai, a city-state of 1.2 million and a major commercial hub in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. Just to the east of Palm Jumeirah, the fairways of an irrigated golf course, pictured in red, can be seen.
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