Asia

Two “Extinct” Species Discovered

First there was Swinshoe’s softshell turtle, and then the Javan Elephant. Is this more commonplace than we might believe?

Frankly, no. Despite the occasional hubbub over an animal science has lost track of– say, the Coelacanth– we’ve witnessed something extraordinary. Swinshoe’s turtle was previously believed to be extinct in the wild, with only three remaining in captivity, and therefore every one of these 300-pound turtles is a critical find.

Continue reading: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in media: Stumble Upon.

Building Ban for Beijing Olympics

All building sites in Beijing will be shut three weeks before the start of the Olympic Games, as the city tries to clear its skies of pollution.

Digging, pouring of concrete and outdoor spray-painting will also be banned under plans announced by the Environmental Protection Bureau.

The move follows mounting concern that athletes may suffer from Beijing’s noxious atmosphere.

Continue reading: BBC. Hot in media: Care2 News Network.

China ‘Now Top Carbon Polluter’

China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

Continue reading: BBC. Hot in media: Digg.

South America

Amazon Tribe Enlists Google in Battle with Illegal Loggers

You may know it as Google, but in bamboo-and-thatch roundhouses deep in the Amazon rainforest the iconic brand goes by another name. The Surui people, one of the most remote on Earth, call it ragogmakan – “messenger” – and they’re banking on the search engine to save them and their ancestral lands from extinction.

The tribe – whose first contact with the modern world was less than 40 years ago – are replacing their bows and arrows with hi-tech gadgets in their battle for survival. They have already begun using satnav on their traditional trails through the trees. And Google Earth has just agreed to provide high-resolution satellite images of their forest home.

Continue Reading: The Independent. Hot in media: Digg.

GOING, GOING, GONE? New Satellite Images Reveal a Shrinking Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon may be on the rise, according to high-resolution images released by an agency of the Brazilian government. The images suggest an end to a widely hailed three-year decline in the rate of deforestation and have spurred a public controversy among high-level Brazilian officials, writes Tim Hirsch, author of “The Incredible Shrinking Amazon Rainforest” in the May/June 2008 issue of World Watch magazine.

Deforestation accounts for approximately one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for significant species loss worldwide. Recent anti-deforestation measures under the administration of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have led to a marked drop in the rate of forest loss over the past three years.

Continue reading: ENN. Take action: Petition to save the Amazon.

Africa

Dockers Refuse to Unload China Arms Shipment for Zimbabwe

South African dockers are refusing to unload a Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tonnes of small arms destined for Zimbabwe.

The arms, including three million rounds of ammunition suitable for AK47s and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, were ordered by the Zimbabwean military at the time of the March 29 election – which Britain and other Western powers have accused Robert Mugabe of trying to rig.

Continue reading: Times Online. Hot in media: Digg.

Middle East

Bahrain World Trade Center Activates Wind Turbines

You may remember that about a year ago we brought you news of the Bahrain World Trade Center, which was designed to have three giant turbines provide power to the building. Well, this past Tuesday, the project was finally completed, with the final testing and installation of the enormous wind turbines which power the building. This week, Bahrain WTC has, for the first time, activated all three 29m-diameter turbines at the same time!

Continue Reading: Inhabitat. Hot in media: Digg.

North America

Canada Leads Way with Ban on Baby Bottles Containing Bisphenol A

The government announced Friday that Canada will be the first country to ban plastic baby bottles with bisphenol A after concluding the chemical is toxic.

Health Minister Tony Clement unveiled the “precautionary and prudent” move while trying to calm fears with a limited ban of the widely used chemical, also found in hard plastic sports bottles and tin cans of food and infant formula. Most Canadians “need not be concerned” about the health effects of bisphenol A, but Clement said “this is not the case for newborns and infants.”

Continue reading: The Gazette.

Europe

Biofuel Rule Will Do More Harm Than Good, Oxfam Says

U.K. fuels for cars and trucks must contain biofuels starting today, a move that may do more harm than good to the environment and drive food prices higher, charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace said.

Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, suppliers must ensure that 2.5 percent of fuel sold at U.K. pumps consists of biofuels, which are made from crops and grasses. The requirement will rise to 5 percent by 2010. The Department for Transport says the plan will cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 2.5 million metric tons a year.

Continue reading: Bloomberg. Hot in media: Digg.

Global

Millions Of Pounds Of Trash Found On Ocean Beaches

Ocean Conservancy released its annual report on trash in the ocean with new data from the 2007 International Coastal Cleanup the most comprehensive snapshot of the harmful impacts of marine debris. The mission of Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup is to engage people to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of debris and to change the behaviors that cause pollution.

This year, more than 378,000 volunteers participated in cleanups around every major body of water around the globe. Volunteers record the trash found on land and underwater allowing Ocean Conservancy a global snapshot of the problem.

Continue reading: Science Daily. Hot in media: Care2 News Network.

From http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=76003

Klare points out that China will soon have the world’s largest fleet of automobiles - in decade or so - as they are following our model of auto-centric development. He had hoped that China would leapfrog oil to more sustainable mobility solutions but that is not happening.

Klare suggests that the logical thing for net importers to do is to aggressively conserve energy, wean themselves form petroleum automobiles, and ramp up renewables and oil alternatives. Not sure why he does not suggest ecocities development and localization.

Klare makes the following points:

• The U.S. is the single largest user of oil in the world
• In February, President Bush presented Congress the largest military budget since World War II - $515B not including $60B for Iraq and Afghanistan.
• A lot of the $515B is for highly sophisticated weaponry, e.g., Stealth Bombers
• This sophisticated weaponry is not to fight guerrillas in the streets of Baghdad but to fight a future enemy
• U.S. documents suggest that this future enemy is China who is also building up their military infrastructure
• If we have a cold war with China, very little attention and money will go to environmental and social causes
• Hence the number #1 thing environmental and peace activists should be working on is energy cooperation with China.

I asked him about Iran. Klare says he believes there is a 50% chance that the United States will attack Iran before the November elections. He points out that Dick Cheney was in Oman three weeks preparing for military engagement in the straight of Hormuz through which 30% of the world’s oil flows. Oman happens to be right across the straight of Hormuz from Iran.

That’s scary stuff. Obviously, we need to localize our transportation systems such that we are no longer using so much imported oil. And corn-based ethanol is not an environmentally or economically viable option, especially when you consider the impact on the price and availability of food. The smartest thing we can do is reconfigure our city ala the eco city model for less transportation and energy consumption. The extent we need transportation, it should be electrified and highly biased towards public and mass transit with the power coming from a largely renewable energy grid. We’re a long way a way from that but it is possible and we need to get started now. That is why the Community Choice Energy initiatives in California are so important.

Former Director of Central Intelligence and Under-Secretary of the Navy R. James Woolsey tested the fuel himself by driving to the Worldwide Energy Conference & Trade Show in an unmodified 2008 Ford F450 fueled by 100% algal biodiesel.

Solazyme is a synthetic biology company using novel methods to produce algae biodiesel. I reported on the company back in January, when they made head turns with their algal-powered Mercedes at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. While the Mercedes was only powered by B20 (20% biodiesel), Solazyme was already highlighting the cold-weather benefits of their fuel. It looks like Wolfson was also impressed:

“The DoD’s requested testing of the Soladiesel fuel showed superior performance especially in terms of its cold temperature properties,” said Wolfson. “Greater performance in cold temperatures means our biodiesel and other algae-based fuels could help the military in remote northern locations like Alaska and North Dakota, as well as in hot climates, while reducing dependence on petroleum. We look forward to continuing to work with the DoD on Soladiesel and other algal based fuels, and are pleased to be presenting at the DESC conference.”

Solazyme has already been working with Chevron, after their “biodiesel feedstock development and testing agreement” was established in January. What isn’t apparent is when Solazyme’s algal biodiesel will be commercially available, and how it compares to other production methods (like the algae biodiesel facility that went online April 1st in Texas) in terms of energy balance, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.

Solazyme’s novel method grows algae in the absence of light. Since algae need light to make sugar to then make oil—which is how the organisms store energy—Solazyme just feeds them sugar, skipping the entire photosynthetic process.

While this achieves a 1000-fold increase in productivity, it has two obvious problems: no carbon is sequestered in the growing process, and it requires a source of sugar. That source is currently sugarcane, but Solazyme says cellulosic feedstocks could also be used at some future date.

I’m in contact with Solazyme now, and if more information becomes available I’ll be adding it in another post. See Solazyme’s press release here.

For more on Solazyme’s algae biodiesel production, see:

• First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible
• Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process (+Video)
• Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Data source: TomDispatch.com

The United States Air Force is well on their way to becoming coal-powered. On Monday, the USAF carried out a transcontinental test flight using a 50-50 blend of standard jet fuel and coal-based ’synfuel’.

“The Air Force is taking a leadership role in testing and certifying the use of synthetic fuel in aircraft,” Secretary Wynne said. “We’re working very closely with our Army and Navy colleagues to ensure that this fuel is capable of operating in all of our aircraft. This is especially important because JP-8 military jet fuel is commonly used in the battlefield by the Army and Marines tactical vehicles and generators, as well as our respective aircraft.”

While synthetic fuel has the capacity to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it could also double CO2 emissions produced by military flight. At the time of this writing, synfuel is made via Fischer-Tropsch process from either coal or natural gas to produce a somewhat cleaner burning but extremely greenhouse-gas intensive product.

The Air Force may be underscoring a recently hyped green image, but it seems that economic considerations are largely at play here:

The Defense Department is the largest energy consumer in the United States, racking up an energy bill of $13.6 billion last year, up from $10.9 billion the year before. The military services and other components of the defense establishment consume the equivalent of 340,000 barrels of oil a day, or 1.5 percent of total U.S. energy consumption.

The Air Force hopes to certify the 50-50 synfuel blend for all its aircraft within the next 5 years, making them 50% coal-powered by 2011.

Any way that we could just stockpile a few extra barrels of oil instead?

C-17 uses synthetic fuel blend on transcontinental flight (Dec. 18, 2007)
U.S. Military Bases Going Green (Dec. 17, 2007)

Photo Credit

“The report warns that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars over water and increased instability from hunger, worsening diseases, rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. ‘The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism,’ the 35-page report predicts.

‘Climate change exacerbates already unstable situations,’ former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gordon Sullivan said. ‘Everybody needs to start paying attention to what's going on. I don't think this is a particularly hard sell in the Pentagon. ... We're paying attention to what those security implications are.’

Gen. Anthony Zinni, President Bush's former Middle East envoy, said in the report: ‘It's not hard to make the connection between climate change and instability, or climate change and terrorism.’”