By Levi Novey •
May 25, 2008
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Have you ever heard of LAN airlines? If you haven’t ever traveled to South or Central America, then probably not. Here though, LAN is one of the big boys.
They recently sent us a press release announcing that they were the first airline in Latin America to sign the IATA’s Green Aviation Partners agreement, which will commit the company to reducing carbon dioxide emissions through various methods. At first I thought, that’s good. That’s very good. Then I thought, “so just what is the Green Aviation Partners agreement? And who is the IATA? Am I buying into a greenwashing effort by LAN Airlines?”
By Max Lindberg •
April 8, 2008
Would I put you on? It’s true, algae-based biofuels are being produced from CO2 emitted from smokstacks.
It’s happening through a company called GreenFuel, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.
GreenFuel has been partnering with Arizona Public Service Company to create biofuels from algae grown using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a power plant. The companies successfully grew algae at APS’ Redhawk natural gas power plant in Arizona, and is moving their tests to a coal-fired power plant at Farmington, NM.
According to a release from APS, algae at Redhawk grew at levels 37 times higher than corn and 140 times higher than soybeans, which are now used to create biofuels.
Of all car companies, Bentley Motors is embarking on a new green, carbon dioxide-reduction strategy. Announced at this year’s Geneva “auto salon,” the strategy aims, by 2012, to cut emissions and fuel consumption by 15 percent, and to introduce a new powertrain that slashes fuel requirements by 40 percent.
Photo courtesy of Dan Smith via Wikimedia Commons.
By Max Lindberg •
February 23, 2008
A pronounced lack of growth rate among some corals in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef leads scientists to believe this is the first sign of ocean acidification, something scientists world wide are beginning to fear.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolves in seawater, that increases acidity, making it more difficult for marine organisms to grow and maintain their shells.
Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences have studied porites, a common coral species growing along the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef, and discovered that calcification had slowed by 21% over the past 16 years. Calcification is the process used by corals to extract calcium carbonate from seawater to build their shells.
Florida this week boosted its supply of renewable energy when its largest solar power array went online.
The Sunshine Energy Solar Array was dedicated Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Power & Light (FPL) officials. The facility is located on a former landfill in Sarasota County.
The Sunshine array is not only Florida’s largest, but the second largest in the entire Southeast U.S. The array of 1,200 solar panels covers more than 28,000 square feet of Rothenbach Park, and is expected to generate about 250 kilowatts of electricity.
That’s enough to power 55 homes and prevent the annual release of more than 654,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air, according to FPL.
There’s good news for the future of green-collar employment, but it comes with a caveat: maximizing job growth in green industries will require the right public policy support. That means law-makers need to approve measures such as a renewable portfolio standard, incentives for renewable energy, public education programs and adequate funding for research and development.
If such measures are put in place, the U.S. could see as many as one out of every four [...]
Can better energy efficiency help us reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and curb our greenhouse gas emissions? Maybe not as much as some hope.
While some people tout better and more energy-efficient technology as one solution to our current fuel and climate challenges, their expectations might be overblown. A new study from the UK Energy Research Centre, for example, finds that improved efficiency sometimes creates a tendency to use more energy, or [...]
If you’ve ever wondered about your impact on global warming while shopping for a t-shirt, bath towel, camera or printer, wonder no more. Cooler says it not only has the answer, but can help you offset whatever climate damage your shopping spree might have inflicted.
Cooler’s solution is actually two: one aimed at retailers and manufacturers that want to reduce their carbon footprint and better appeal
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A booming airline industry might be great for the economy, but it’s wreaking increasing havoc with the environment. Aviation today spews out only 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, but the segment is expanding fast — faster, in fact, than any improvements in efficiency are likely to keep pace with. According to the Christian Science Monitor,
"Efficiency is only set to improve at 1 or 2 percent per year at best,
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