Humans are hogging the Sun's energy.

[waltky]

Gonna grow our own fuel, cut down on greenhouse gasses...

US, China Working on Biofuels Pact
Nov 16, 2007: -- The United States and China are working on a pact to promote use of ethanol and other biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and could announce an agreement as early as next month, an American official said Friday.

The agreement would call for cooperation in research, producing crops for fuel and other areas, said Alexander Karsner, an assistant U.S. energy secretary. He was in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials on promoting use of renewable energy sources. The United States and China are the world's biggest oil consumers and producers of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists say trap the sun's heat and are raising global temperatures.

Karsner said he and Chinese officials talked about a meeting next month in Indonesia of environment officials from 80 countries to discuss a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on emissions reductions. He said he did not bring up Washington's insistence that Beijing, a major emissions source, accept binding limits. China has rejected emissions caps but says it will try to curb gas production. A biofuels agreement could be announced at the Dec. 12 meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, a high-level U.S.-Chinese forum on trade and other issues, Karsner said. He declined to give details, saying they still are being discussed.

It would be Washington's first such pact in Asia, following similar agreements with Brazil and Sweden, Karsner told reporters. "China is a natural, as would be India, to enhance cooperation on biofuels," he said. China has promoted wind power and other alternative energy in hopes of reducing environmental damage from heavy use of coal and oil to fuel its booming economy. The communist government also wants to curb reliance on imported energy, which it sees as a strategic weakness. China already is the third-largest producer of biofuels after the United States and Brazil, which account for 80 percent of global production, according to Karsner.

Source

[waltky]

Might Our Cars Soon Be Solar-Powered?...

Could the Solar Bug Bring the Sun to the Car Market?
Oct. 17, 2007 - Some Entrepreneurs are Trying to Create an Affordable Renewable-Energy Vehicle

In the local airport parking lot, Steve Titus clicks shut the lightweight fiberglass door of his fireman-yellow "Solar Bug." It looks like another bug -- a Volkswagen one -- that got sliced in half by a band saw, then pinched front to back by the Jolly Green Giant. Titus straddles the saddle-style seat and revs the Hi-Torque Pancake motor. It whirs away quietly, reaching a top speed of 40 miles per hour in a few seconds. On display at a recent alternative-car expo here, this is Titus's second and latest rendering of a solar-powered car concept. It gets up to a fourth of its 60-mile capacity from 200 watts of roof-mounted solar panels.

Titus is among those entrepreneurs trying to create and market an affordable, renewable-energy vehicle – a step beyond gas-electric hybrids. The ranks of potential buyers for such cars are growing by leaps and bounds, say many car-industry analysts. But don't look for them on normal streets just yet, they add quickly. Limitations of batteries and solar panels -- though lessening -- are still issues, among others. Yet "fringe markets" -- such as commuters within small towns, seniors in retirement villages, and users of industry fleets -- are in a position to drive the first sales boomlet for such cars, analysts say.

Until then, Titus and other inventor-tinkerer types are offering a peek into the future of transportation in America – well before the major car companies. "Garage tinkerers like Titus are the tip of an iceberg of innovation demonstrating the direction of the national, global trend," says Steven Letendre, professor of business, economics, and environment at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., who lectures widely on the future of electric and hybrid cars and solar energy.

MORE

[waltky]

Don't deforest for biofuel...

Report Warns Rush To Grow More Biofuel Could Worsen Global Warming
November 20, 2007 - Expanding biofuel crop plantations through deforestation worsens global warming and harms local livelihoods and the environment, says the International Institute for Environment and Development in a new report.

The report, "Up In Smoke? Asia and the Pacific", presents new evidence that biofuels could turn into a rush for "fools gold" across Asia as huge social and environmental costs outweigh the benefits.

The report cites one example, as farmers in Indonesia have expanded the development of oil palm plantations and deforested an estimated six million hectares of land. As a result of deforestation, some of which is for palm oil plantations, Indonesia is now the third-largest global emitter of carbon dioxide, after the U.S. and China.

Deforestation is already the second-largest contributor to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "Deforestation to make way for large-scale mono-cropping obliterates the green credentials of biofuels by actually increasing the amount of emissions rather than reducing them," the report explained.

The economic attraction of biofuels is also leading to conflict between crops grown for food and those grown for fuel. Increasingly, the result is expected to be both greater competition for land and higher food prices, the report concludes.

Report Warns Rush To Grow More Biofuel Could Worsen Global Warming | November 20, 2007 | AHN

[waltky]

Oil from pond scum??

Oil from algae? Scientists seek green gold
Thurs., Nov. 29, 2007 - Microorganisms can be turned into biodiesel, and the cost is going down

The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's lab at the University of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research. Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.

Some varieties of algae are as much as 50 percent oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon. "If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be. And there's a lot of people who think you can," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP LLC, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc.

Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently. Over the past two years they've enjoyed an upsurge in funding from governments, the Pentagon, big oil companies, utilities and venture capital firms. The federal government halted its main algae research program nearly a decade ago, but technology has advanced and oil prices have climbed since then, and an Energy Department lab announced in late October that it was partnering with Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, in the hunt for better strains of algae.

More Oil from algae? Scientists seek green gold - Going green - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Some background on CO2 levels...

50 years on: The Keeling Curve legacy
Saturday, 1 December 2007, It is a scientific icon, which belongs, some claim, alongside E=mc2 and the double helix.

Its name - the Keeling Curve - may be scarcely known outside scientific circles, but the jagged upward slope showing rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere has become one of the most famous graphs in science, and a potent symbol of our times. It was 50 years ago that a young American scientist, Charles David Keeling, began tracking CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere at two of the world's last wildernesses - the South Pole and the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.

His very precise measurements produced a remarkable data set, which first sounded alarm bells over the build-up of the gas in the atmosphere, and eventually led to the tracking of greenhouse gases worldwide. The curve set the scene for the debate over climate change, and policies, sometimes controversial, that address the human contribution to the greenhouse effect.

"It wasn't until Keeling came along and started measuring CO2 that we got the evidence that CO2 was increasing from human activities," says Professor Andrew Watkinson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. "The graph is iconic from a climate perspective." Dr Alistair Manning of the UK Met Office agrees. "It was the first real indication that CO2 levels were rising," he says. "That therefore started scientists thinking about the impact such a change would have on the climate."

'Tireless work'

[waltky]

Maybe the algae bloom idea isn't such a good one after all...

Iron In Oceans Not A Solution For Global Warming, Says Research
Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 25 of the world's top scientists write on the latest developments in space, medicine, biology,earth science, physics and neuroscience.

Fertilizing the ocean with iron or other nutrients to cause large algal blooms, has been proposed as a possible solution to global warming because the growing algae absorb carbon dioxide but research performed at Stanford and Oregon State Universities and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggests that ocean fertilization may not be an effective method of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, this process, which is analogous to adding fertilizer to a lawn to help the grass grow, only reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if the carbon incorporated into the algae sinks to deeper waters. This process, which scientists call the “Biological Pump”, has been thought to be dependent on the abundance of algae in the top layers of the ocean. The more algae in a bloom, the more carbon is transported, or “pumped”, from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.

To test this theory, researchers compared the abundance of algae in the surface waters of the world’s oceans with the amount of carbon actually sinking to deep water. They found clear seasonal patterns in both algal abundance and carbon sinking rates. However, the relationship between the two was surprising: less carbon was transported to deep water during a summertime bloom than during the rest of the year. This analysis has never been done before and required designing specialized mathematical algorithms. “By jumping a mathematical hurdle we found a new globally synchronous signal,” said Dr. Lutz.

“This discovery is very surprising”, said lead author Dr. Michael Lutz, now at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “If, during natural plankton blooms, less carbon actually sinks to deep water than during the rest of the year, then it suggests that the Biological Pump leaks. More material is recycled in shallow water and less sinks to depth, which makes sense if you consider how this ecosystem has evolved in a way to minimize loss”, said Lutz. “Ocean fertilization schemes, which resemble an artificial summer, may not remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as has been suggested because they ignore the natural processes revealed by this research.” This study closely follows a September Ocean Iron Fertilization symposium at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) attended by leading scientists, international lawyers, policy makers, and concerned representatives from government, business, academia and environmental organizations.

MORE

[waltky]

An anomaly?...

Philippines Recorded Coldest Temperature
December 2, 2007 - Residents in the Philippines were advised its now time to take out those sweaters and thick blankets as the north winds have finally arrived bringing colder temperatures.

The Philippine Atmospheric and Astronomical Services Administration on Sunday announced Metro Manila registered a record-low temperature on Saturday morning to as low as 19 degrees celcius.

Leny Ruiz, Pagasa weather specialist, said the public must prepare for colder weather in the coming days as Christmas season arrives.

Ruiz said, "We recorded a temperature of 19 degrees Celcius, that's the coldest so far. But we expect the weather to get cold in the next few days," A weather bulletin issued by Pagasa shows temperature in Manila would range from 21 to 29 decrees celcius.

She adds, the weather bureau has not spotted any weather disturbances near the Philippine territory so the public can expect a fair weather. "As of this time the Pacific appears clear. We don't see any disturbance forming," Ruiz said.

Philippines Recorded Coldest Temperature | December 3, 2007 | AHN

[waltky]

Sahara dust blocking out sunlight...

Sahara dust cooling North Atlantic
Dec. 14, 2007 -- U.S. researchers say dust from the Sahara Desert was responsible for one-third of the drop in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures between 2005 and 2006.

Seasonal dust storms may have contributed to the difference in hurricane activity between the two years, NASA said Friday in a release. Images captured last November by an instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite shows Saharan dust blowing off the west coast of Africa and over the Canary Islands.

The report said heat from warm ocean surfaces is known to fuel hurricanes, leading to stronger and more frequent storms. In 2006, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic remained relatively cool and the season saw only five hurricanes, compared to 15 hurricanes in 2005 when the ocean surface was warmer.

NASA scientists William Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim said airborne Saharan dust over the Atlantic blocked sunlight from reaching the ocean surface. The findings, published in the the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters, provides the first quantitative estimate of dust's role in cooling the entire North Atlantic and brings attention to dust as a potentially important influence on hurricane activities, NASA said.

Source

[waltky]

Global hunger may become a bigger problem...

Wheat Prices Surge to Record High
Dec 17, 2007 - Wheat Prices Climb to Record Above $10 Per Bushel As Strong Demand Depletes US Supply

Wheat prices surged above $10 a bushel for the first time ever Monday amid concerns that strong demand globally could result in a grain shortage in the United States next year worsening food price inflation. Other commodities markets mostly declined, with energy, other agricultural futures and metals moving lower. Wheat supplies in the U.S. have dwindled this year as one wheat crop after another around the world has been damaged by poor weather, most recently in Australia and Argentina. That's sent buyers scrambling for stockpiles at any cost. U.S. wheat exporters already have sold more than 90 percent of the 1.175 billion bushels the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects will be exported during the whole marketing year, which ends in June 2008.

Wheat prices crossing the $10 a bushel threshold won't immediately translate into a spike in retail prices for bread, cereal, cookies and other products, experts say. That due partly because companies like Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc., ConAgra Foods Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. typically protect themselves from price volatility with long-term supply contracts. But analysts say consumers should expect that higher wheat prices will eventually work their way into the grocery aisle.

A bushel of wheat for March delivery surged to a record $10.095 on the Chicago Board of Trade early in the day before shedding 13.5 cents to settle at $9.66 a bushel as profit-taking set in. Wheat prices have hit a record high each of the past three trading sessions and have doubled since the start of the year, when wheat traded for about $5 a bushel. Food prices rose at a 4.1 percent annual rate in the three months ended in November largely due to higher milk, egg and meat prices, according to the Labor Department's latest index of consumer prices. Wheat, corn and soybeans are used to feed livestock; as those costs go up, so does the retail cost to consumers.

MORE

See also:

UN warns on soaring food prices
Monday, 17 December 2007, Droughts have affected harvests, pushing prices up

The soaring cost of food is threatening millions of people in poor countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. Food prices have risen an unprecedented 40% in the last year and many nations may be unable to cope, the agency says.

It is calling for help for farmers in poor countries to buy seeds and fertiliser, and for a review of the impact of bio-fuels on food production. The FAO says 37 countries face food crises due to conflict and disaster.

"Without support for poor farmers and their families in the hardest-hit countries, they will not be able to cope," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. The agency's food price index has jumped almost 40% from last year, hitting its highest level since its inception in 1990.

Urgent action

[waltky]

Human effect on coral reefs...

Growing human population endangering Caribbean coral reefs
Washington, Jan 9, 2008 : A new study has suggested that coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered significant changes due to the proximal effects of growing human population in the region.

"The human expansion in coastal areas inevitably poses severe risks to the maintenance of complex ecosystems such as coral reefs," said author Camilo Mora from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. "The continuing degradation of coral reefs may be soon beyond repair, if threats are not identified and rapidly controlled," he added.

Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, the study monitored coral reefs, including corals, fishes and macro algae, in 322 sites across 13 countries throughout the Caribbean. The study showed clearly that the number of people living in close proximity to coral reefs is the main driver of the mortality of corals, loss of fish biomass and increases in macro algae abundance. Additionally, the area of cultivated land was the main driver of increases in macroalgae. Warmer temperatures further accelerated the coral mortality.

"It is well acknowledged that coral reefs are declining worldwide but the driving forces remain hotly debated," said author Camilo Mora at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. "In the Caribbean alone, these losses are endangering a large number of species, from corals to sharks, and jeopardizing over 4 billion dollars in services worth from fisheries, tourism and coastal protection," he added.

More Growing human population endangering Caribbean coral reefs