Latest Articles
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Can words describe how bad corn ethanol is?
Well, maybe my words can't describe how bad corn ethanol is, or Mayor Bloomberg's, or those of top scientists, but I think I have found someone's words that do: Opus's from Bloom Country.
First, however, the lastest grim news from Fortune: "The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike." Yes, "plans for as many as 50 new ethanol plants have been shelved in recent months." Why?
Spurred by an ethanol plant construction binge, corn prices have gone stratospheric, soaring from below $2 a bushel in 2006 to over $5.25 a bushel today. As a result, it's become difficult for ethanol plants to make a healthy profit, even with oil at $100 a barrel.
If you can't make money with oil at $100 a barrel, you are not much of an alternative fuel.
But I know what you're thinking -- if corn ethanol is so bad, what's wrong with plants being scrapped? Well, the corn ethanol business is here to stay. The corn ethanol mandate from the most recent energy bill requires doubling supply from current levels. Fortune explains what that means:
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Power plants’ costs doubled since 2000
According to a new index by Cambridge Energy Research Associates:
The cost of building a U.S. power plant has risen 130 percent since 2000, and 27 percent in the 12 months to October 2007 alone.
CERA's Candida Scott explains most of the implications:
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Green advocates urged to be reasonable
In last month’s print edition of The American Prospect, Chris Mooney had an article called "This will mean the world to us," about what a new president and Congress could and should do on climate change. The editors asked me to write a letter in response, which is in this month’s issue. It’s semi-on the […]
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Tina Fey: ‘Bitch is the new black’
If you watch to the end of this, you’ll find a spirited defense of Hillary Clinton. I was recently scolded for only posting Obama videos, but the thing is, all the interesting/funny videos this campaign have been from Obama supporters. I’m glad Tina Fey (who I worship) helped me balance the scales. Now, somebody send […]
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Even more numbers to illuminate the vast ocean
Perhaps because it was released the same week as Ben Halpern and colleagues' excellent human impacts map, the new U.N. report "In Dead Water" has been met with little fanfare. It's too bad, because the report is a natural complement to the scientists' graphic illustration of the intersection between humans and the seas.
"In Dead Water" takes a big-picture look at the five primary threats facing the oceans: pollution, climate change, overfishing, invasive species, and habitat loss. You can download the report here (PDF); I plucked out some of its major findings in an oceanic ode to the Harper's Index. With apologies to Lewis Lapham:
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Will.i.am. releases new video for Obama
Among those I know, reaction to this new will.i.am video has been unanimous: “Is that Theo Huxtable?!”
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Forbes says that Frankenfruits are already here
In the mid-’90s, amid much fuss, a biotech firm called Calgene introduced the Flav’r Saver tomato. Genetically engineered to last longer on the shelf, the Flav’r Saver didn’t turn out to have much “flav’r” to save. To make a long story short, consumers generally steered clear of it; farmers had trouble growing it; Calgene burned […]
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Tracking whaling ships and whale sharks
Anti-whaling activists planted tracking devices on Japanese whaling ships as part of a campaign to disrupt the annual hunt, and the Australian customs ship that had been monitoring the hunt returned to port with photographs and video to use for future legal action ...
... a study showed that commercial fishing forced fish to evolve into meeker, less active creatures that carry fewer eggs. Bolder and more adventuresome fish were more likely to be caught by gillnets ...
... the butterflyfish, a common resident of coral reefs, was in danger of extinction because it could only eat one species of coral, Acropora hyacinthus, which is highly vulnerable ...
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Scientist with concerns about chemical removed from EPA panel
An award-winning toxicologist was removed from a U.S. EPA panel reviewing the potential health dangers of deca, a flame retardant widely used in electronics, after the American Chemistry Council claimed she was biased. Deborah Rice had testified for the Maine legislature in support of a state ban on deca; EPA officials cited “the perception of […]
