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01/12/06 EPA promises more accurate measurements of fuel economy
(Click
here to read the article).
Here is the more critical Consumer Reports article
(Click
here to read the article) |
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11/30/05 Is it possible that another country will save us
from the insane and corrupt system of agricultural subsidies by suing
the U.S.?
(Click
here to read the article)
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11/23/05 Finally, someone in the mainstream media is talking
about the carnage brought upon our country and our health by the
industrial megafarms that exist only because of our tax money stolen
from our pockets by the politicians we elect. To sustain their unnatural
existence, these megafarms, whether they're raising crops or animals,
require enormous quantities of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics
simply to survive. The result? Pollution, erosion and diseases that
spread easily among factory-raised, immune-deficient animals.
These megafarms waste enormous quantities of natural gas, crude oil, and
coal to produce undifferentiated commodities, corn, soybeans and sugar,
we do not need. In Florida, the sugar plantations are the single
biggest reason for the demise of Everglades. In Iowa, there is massive
erosion of top soil after corn/soybean rotations and the wholesale
pollution of groundwater with nitrates and herbicides. At Iowa
State University, Professor Fred Kirschenmann of the Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture was just ousted from his chair position because
he was perceived as too soft on organic farming. In the meantime, Iowa's
farming communities are ravaged by poverty and emptied out of young
people. The average farmer's age is 56 years and his wife usually
works in a city to get an extra income and health insurance.
(Click
here to read the article)
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11/17/05 California is at the forefront of energy efficiency
(Click
here to read the article)
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11/10/05 The not-so-intelligent designers are out!
(Click
here to read the article)
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11/07/05 "In the latest effort, the National Association of
Evangelicals, a nonprofit organization that includes 45,000 churches
serving 30 million people across the country, is circulating among its
leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers
to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions."
(Click
here to read the article)
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11/01/05 Organic and natural food is the fastest growing part of
the stagnant food industry, and this is good. Now many big
corporations want a piece of this pie, and this may be tricky.
(Click
here to read the article)
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10/26/05 One of the rare, merely mildly confused and only
somewhat incomplete, popular press articles about biofuels. The
author does not comment on the time scale of conversion of cellulose to
sugars, and the competing growth of bacteria that transform these sugars
into undesired byproducts. How does one make an aseptic batch of
straw? At what cost? Surely higher that the 55 c per gallon listed
as the cost of making cellulosic ethanol from straw... Of course these
details are essential to running an industrial process, not an expensive
small-scale pilot in a heavily subsidized garage. (Click
here to read the article)
|
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10/26/05 China may be trying to curb the wholesale environmental
damage its economic growth has caused (Click
here to read the article)
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09/18/05 Dr. Suzuki worries most about how people have become
estranged from nature, habituated to seeing the world "through a
fragmented lens," as he puts it, and oblivious to the fact that the
economic abundance of the modern world depends on the health of its air,
soil and water. (Click
here to read the article)
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09/27/05 As predicted several months ago (see the May notes), the
big SUV's are going, going, gone...(Click
here to read the article)
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09/27/05 More expensive hydrocarbons = more expensive everything
else. Time out to think a little? (Click
here to read the article)
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09/25/05 It turns out that we can drive less (Click
here to read the article)
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09/24/05 Cow dung for fuel (Click
here to read the article)
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09/18/05 Writing about science is difficult (Click
here to read the article)
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08/28/05 Amazon deforestation slows? Hmm...(Click
here to read the article)
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08/28/05 "In the past, we never thought of the capacity of
resources," she said. "We only focused on development."
(Click
here to read the article)
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05/15/05 Even though I have spoken publicly about benefits of
nuclear power, I am deeply worried that getting the energy drug addict
(US) another fix will prevent him from a long-overdue medical
treatment (energy conservation and efficiency)
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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05/10/05
The chief executive of the
General Electric Company, Jeffrey R. Immelt, pushed the company
squarely into the global warming debate on Monday,
asking the government for a clear energy policy
and saying later in an interview that he expected Washington to
eventually impose controls on carbon emissions.
(Click
here to read the article)
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05/10/05
Ecology, historically a small science, is getting much
bigger and at the same time much smaller.
(Click
here to read the article)
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05/05/05 Ford and GM credit rating is reduced to junk status.
Is it good or bad? Are these U.S. car companies the harbingers of what is
going to happen to the rest of the energy-wasting U.S. economy?
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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05/03/05 While sales of the U.S. made SUVs have plummeted, at
Toyota, sales of the all-new Avalon full-size sedan were up 166
percent over last year and the gas-electric
Prius hybrid saw sales gain 196 percent.
(Click
here to read the article)
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04/27/05
"Getting people to pay attention is Dr. Jackson's mission.
In scientific journals, in talks at places as diverse as Unesco
headquarters and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Dr. Jackson is telling
everyone around about a world slipping into
ecological degradation. "
(Click
here to read the article)
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04/21/05 Mr. Greenspan is beginning to see the light.
So why exactly did he support the recent tax cut?
(Click
here to read the article)
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04/21/05 Marla Ruzicka
(probably originally Różycka), is a young hero, and the latest
collateral damage in a conflict of which she was not a part. She
burned alive trying to help the forgotten survivors of previous
collateral damage inflicted by us on so many innocent people, and
conveniently omitted from our own discussions.
(Click
here to read the article)
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04/18/05 When you despair at what is going on around you, just
look at this incredibly brave young woman who lost her life doing what
she believed in, and do something as well!
(Click
here to read the article)
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04/17/05 The per capita purchasing power in the U.S. is higher
than in Europe, and that's good. The level of cheap credit
extended to the U.S. by the world is also very high. So, an
increasing part of our purchasing power is borrowed, and that's bad.
Also the out-of-pocket cost of medical care in the U.S. is high. The author is obviously very proud of the U.S. and glosses over our
exploding current-account and long-term debt, as well as medical care
costs, and that's really
bad....
(Click
here to read the article)
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03/26/06 Geogreening by example
(Click
here to read the article)
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03/25/05 Canada's vital gas pipeline may out compete the new
American Alaska pipeline. Both cannot be built at the same time
because of lack of resources (stainless steel pipes) and crews.
Also Canada will soon stop exporting natural gas to the U.S.
Good or bad? (Click
here to read the article)
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03/25/05 Hybrid cars are also handy when it comes to reduce
gasoline consumption
(Click
here to read the article)
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03/25/05 Even though I fundamentally disagree with the premise
of this article (subsurface CO2 sequestration is good), I
am posting it as a positive development, for the same reasons as the
oil peak article below
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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03/25/05 The main stream media are beginning to notice that
conventional oil is running out. The NYT estimate of the world
oil peak in 2006 agrees exactly with my estimate published in
the Spring 2005 CE24 notes.
(Click
here to read the article)
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03/15/05 New nuclear plants?
It is not certain, of course, whether anyone in the United
States will order a new reactor in the next few years, although high
prices for natural gas and uncertainty about what rules will apply to
coal plants are creating interest.
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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03/14/05
The new E.P.A. rule is intended to cut
mercury emissions to 38 tons, a 21 percent reduction from 1999
levels, in 2010 and to as little as 15 tons, or about a 69 percent
reduction, in 2018, according to the draft of the final rule sent to
Bush administration budget officials this weekend for final vetting.
(Click
here to read the article)
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03/01/05 Bush signs on to help clean air
in China, India U.S.-Germany pact to cut coal emissions
(Click
here to read the article)
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02/28/05 Nuclear waste repository on a tribal ground: Good or
Bad?
(Click
here to read the article)
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02/27/05 Education saves lives:
"Americans with more income or education have better health
than Americans with less; a Swedish Ph.D. graduate has longer life
expectancy than a Swede with a master's degree; a British civil
servant at the top of the employment hierarchy has greater longevity
than one not quite at the top; health has been improving for Russians
with university education, getting worse for those without."
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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02/06/05 President Bush will seek deep cuts in farm and
commodity programs in his new budget and in a major policy shift will
propose overall limits on subsidy payments to farmers, administration
officials said Saturday. (Click
here to read the article)
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1/31/05
Nuclear energy advocates who have said a proposed nuclear
waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada must be opened before a
new power reactor can be ordered are now backing away from that
position, as completion of the repository looks later and less certain
and the prospect for new reactors improves.
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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1/30/05 The geo-greens believe that, going forward, if we
put all our focus on reducing the price of oil - by conservation, by
developing renewable and alternative energies and by expanding nuclear
power - we will force more reform than by any other strategy.
(Click
here to read the article)
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1/27/05 Do you want to have a nuclear plant in your backyard?
Perhaps, yes.
(Click
here to read the article)
|
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1/15/05 Mr. French seems to be bewildered by China's audacious desire
to build a few nuclear power plants. He may not be aware that China's
huge population density, and rapid industrial growth, leave no other
alternatives. Of course, China could continue to burn even more
sulfur-laden coal to produce electricity, choke all of its big cities,
and poison the air globally. Luckily, the Chinese government has
different plans. Mr. French underestimates
the reliable electrical energy produced by the U.S. nuclear power
plants by a factor of 1000, making their
output roughly equal to all renewable electricity sources other than
hydropower. If the U.S. wants to remain competitive in the world, it
will have to start building new nuclear power plants soon.
(Click
here to read the article)
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