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A new way to waste energy

Last week, the NYT's Andy Revkin blogged about a federal laboratory that says it can take atmospheric carbon dioxide and turn it into gasoline:

One selling point with Los Alamos's "Green Freedom" concept, and similar ones, is that reusing the carbon atoms in the captured CO2 molecules as a fuel ingredient avoids the need to find huge repositories for the greenhouse gas.

The only problem with that exciting statement is that it is almost certainly not true, a point I will come back to.

Now the NYT has published an article on the subject that also overhypes the technology:

There is, however, a major caveat that explains why no one has built a carbon-dioxide-to-gasoline factory: it requires a great deal of energy.

To deal with that problem, the Los Alamos scientists say they have developed a number of innovations ...

Even with those improvements, providing the energy to produce gasoline on a commercial scale -- say, 750,000 gallons a day -- would require a dedicated power plant, preferably a nuclear one, the scientists say.

Nations launch new combined effort to save mountain gorillas

The three African nations that still have mountain gorilla populations have agreed to cooperate on a new plan to save the critically endangered primates. Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo hatched a 10-year program to enhance security in the parks and forests that the gorillas call home, as well as other measures. […]

Wolverine goes green in new movie

Marvel at this: X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be an environmentally friendly production. This fourth movie based on the Marvel Comics characters is currently being filmed in New Zealand, and the producers have agreed to work with the local Queenstown Lakes District Council on a "green screen" initiative. As part of the project, the council will […]

Mayor urges Londoners to boycott bottled water

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has joined the anti-bottle brigade, exhorting Londoners to drink from the sink and declaring that bottled water served to restaurant patrons costs 500 times more than tap water and is 300 times more damaging to the environment.

Sunscreen may be contributing to coral bleaching, Lake Mead could run out of water by 2021, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Réservez, S’il Vous Plait The Lotion in the Ocean Put Your Hyde in Park Dead Mead The Velorution Will Be Incentivized Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: My Three Sins The Wonder Down Under

Seeking ideas for good green listening

For my personal benefit, and I begrudgingly suppose for the benefit of others, too, I hereby disrupt your happy Gristmillery to ask for your most highly recommended, can't-live-without podcasts (besides Grist's, of course) on the topic of anything green, anything local ag, or anything activism-related. Do leave any suggestions in the comments section, with links, pretty please.

Twenty-seven yoots arrested protesting construction of coal gas plant

A while back, Al Gore wondered publicly why young people aren’t out protesting in front of coal plants. Well, here you go: On Monday, a group of young people chained themselves together to prevent construction of a South Florida power plant — 27 of them were arrested. [UPDATE: According to Matt in comments, it was […]

Fidel Castro’s resignation may boost biofuels in Cuba

Fidel Castro’s step down after 49 years as Cuba’s leader may have implications for biofuels in the country. Castro was outspokenly critical of U.S. biofuel policy, and blocked a proposed expansion by ag giant Archer Daniels Midland into Cuba in the 1990s. But Fidel’s brother Raul, who will assume leadership of Cuba, is a biofuels […]

Notable quotable

“I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs. … I think this economy is down because we built too many houses, and the economy is adjusting.” — President George W. Bush, demonstrating his economic acumen

What happens when a group’s position statement does not reflect its members accurately?

A while back, I blogged on the huge number of scientific organizations that had put out position statements supporting the mainstream theory of human-induced global warming.

Many commenters on my post and around the internet have suggested that one can't trust a statement put out by a professional organization. They argue that these statements are not voted on by the membership, but generally drafted by an ad hoc committee and adopted by the organization's leadership.

If this small clique of members turned out to be advocates, the hypothesis goes, then the resulting statement will not reflect the overall views of the organization.

It occurred to me, however, that this is a testable hypothesis. How do we test it, you ask? We have a professional organization try to put out a statement that its members don't agree with. What would happen?