Peak oil – Nov 26
How to address peak oil skeptics
Friendly fire – the dark side of techno-fixes
Investment in oil E&P – an above-ground factor
How to prepare for peak oil and climate change (permaculture)
Renewable Energy
Biofuels – Nov 26
Datagro: Ethanol drives up food commodity prices
Grain-derived ethanol: the Emperor’s new clothes
Cellulosic ethanol reality check
Food & agriculture – Nov 22
Slow Food in Turin – the path toward ethical eating
Orchard thieves – thefts run into $millions
Up to 100 million acres needed for renewable energy in US
Technology – Nov 22
Should Google go nuclear? (new fusion tech, and Robert Hirsch’s nuclear past)
Geoengineering: new talk of manipulating Earth’s climate (updated)
She harnesses viruses to make things (bio-nanotech)
Waste management: One man’s trash… (plasma tech)
Breaking the H2 marriage (new catalyst)
Biofuels – Nov 19
Ethanol production spikes corn prices
100 million acres needed for energy crops
Impact of corn ethanol on grain, oilseed, and livestock sectors (study)
Analysis of the link between ethanol, energy, and crop markets
Food & agriculture – Nov 17
Eric Schlosser on America’s food industry and his new film
NYT: Why roots matter more (local food)
Research needed to balance food, energy needs
Australia importing grain – so they can export it
Energy secretary on the future of oil and the need for alternatives
If we look two or three or four decades into the future, we know that hydrocarbons alone will not meet the needs of a growing world economy. Even with all the technical expertise the world could offer and all the political will it could muster, eventually, we will run out of oil. And, even before then, the price of a dwindling supply will be prohibitive. At present, our world is overly focused on, and overly dependent upon, one source of energy. And that path is unsustainable.
Solar – Nov 12
The rise of solar: why the sun is shining on main street
Sharp expands solar cell output by factor of six
Sand Trap – silicon shortages
Jeff Vail on Energy Payback from Photovoltaics and
Investment in Complexity
Solar (2) – Nov 12
The Elf Queen, the sun and the Tower of Tomorrow
Silicon and sun (and sea sponges)
Cheap, superefficient solar
Solar Anniversary
These cycles of conservation efforts and new consumer trends prompt the nagging thought that my efforts are, but the futile offerings of an environmentalist do-gooder. It was with these thoughts that I sat down for the 17th annual Bioneers conference and took out my notebook.
Calif. proposition 87 and biofuels – Nov 6
Venture capitalists pony up in sizzling market that may get boost from Prop. 87 /
Patzek: cellulosic ethanol will not save us /
Water scarcity may dampen case for biofuel /
Lester Brown: Exploding U.S. grain demand for auto fuel /
Harvard prof: the ethanol illusion
Biofuels – Nov 2
The real scoop on biofuels /
As investors covet ethanol, farmers resist /
McCain’s farm flip
