Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
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)
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
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
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.
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
The Elf Queen, the sun and the Tower of Tomorrow
Silicon and sun (and sea sponges)
Cheap, superefficient solar
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.
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
The real scoop on biofuels /
As investors covet ethanol, farmers resist /
McCain’s farm flip
Dawn of the “solar salon” in US living rooms /
GE Energy Korea: ‘Switch to renewable power before you’re forced to’ /
False dawn of solar power /
China: massive capital for renewable power
Controlling carbon and CO2 emissions requires, at root, finding some other way to generate electricity, to power vehicles, and to heat spaces. Fortunately for the future of mankind, there is a plethora of well-developed technologies in existence just waiting for mankind to start using them on a vast scale. The big problem is getting past the inertia of previous ways of doing things.
Biocrude? Algae-to-oil project /
‘WTO must set rules for biofuel trade’ /
Ethanol could corrode pumps, testers say /
Turning forest slash into cash /
Europe set for biodiesel boom -Goldman Sachs
