Latest Articles

Philanthropic landowner in Chile needs to get Chileans involved

A New York Times article documents the difficulty Douglas Tompkins is having protecting the thousands of square miles of pristine ecosystems he has purchased in Chile. From a historical perspective, what he has done is old hat. Wealthy individuals from Chinese emperors to British Lords have owned nature preserves. The problem is that things begin to unravel once the originator goes to heaven. One example is a private preserve in 1600s Europe that sheltered the last herd of Auroch. Cave paintings of these now-extinct wild cattle can be found in Southern France. Similarly, the last wild European Bison was killed by poachers on a private preserve in 1927 (they have since been reintroduced into the wild from zoos).

It could happen

Fusion too far in the future? Moving to the moon (or Mars) not an option? Nuclear a big fat no? Skeptical about the hydrogen hype?

Enter chemist Daniel Nocera. His goal: create a renewable energy source by using sunlight to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen.

From the AP (via Wired):

There is a beautiful model for this: photosynthesis. Sunlight kickstarts a reaction in which leaves break down water and carbon dioxide and turn them into oxygen and sugar, which plants use for fuel.

But plants developed this process over billions of years, and even so, it's technically not that efficient. Nocera and other scientists are trying to replicate that -- and perhaps improve on it -- in decades.

Here is where he is today:

Nocera has performed the reaction with acidic solutions, but not water yet. The catalyst he used was a compound that included the expensive metal rhodium. To be a practical energy solution, it will have to be made from inexpensive elements like iron, nickel or cobalt.

Good luck Daniel!

Brits consider radical plan to measure personal emissions

Credit or debit … or planet? What would you be willing to do to slow climate change? Oh sure, you might drive and fly less. You might already have, like me, signed up for a green-energy plan. But would you hand over an ID card every time you filled up your gas tank? Would you […]

Prius-toric

Team achieves 110 mpg in Toyota Prius If you thought fuel efficiency was cool, wait ’til you meet … Xtreme fuel efficiency! Rawk! Ahem. A team of five oddly obsessive middle-aged American men, seeking to break the unofficial mileage record set in Japan, recently drove a factory Toyota Prius 1,397 miles on one tank of […]

Inspect Your Gadget

Impending regulation in Europe may de-toxify electronics worldwide As the clock ticks down toward a tough new environmental regulation in Europe, electronics manufacturers worldwide are busily reworking their supply chains to create less-toxic gadgets. In July 2006, the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) rule will go into effect across all 25 member nations of the […]

The Migrate Outdoors

As the world gets hotter, migratory animals move north Reports are piling up of odd animal sightings in northern regions: salmon swimming through the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia; birds like the Cape May warbler moving from U.S. spruce forests to cooler Canadian climes; a fish usually found off the coasts of Africa or […]

Swag the Dog

Cool new loot offered as inducement to donate to Grist You really want to support fresh, funny environmental journalism. And you really like swag. Donate to Grist (it’s tax-deductible!) and you could kill two pollutocrats with one stone. For each $50 you give, you’ll get a chance to win one of 10 Global Warming Survival […]

China’s hybrid economy leads to inefficiency

This morning's Washington Post proclaims "Electrical Inefficiency A Dark Spot for China." It seems that lighting up the beautiful Bund comes at the expense of blackouts and brownouts in the less glitzy, more industrial parts of the country. But there's a simple solution:

"A lot of China's energy security problem could be solved if you improved our domestic efficiency," said Yan Maosong, an industrial engineering expert at Shanghai University who advises the central government. "From generation to transmission to power usage, in every link of the chain, our energy industry is not very efficient. Top government leaders have not paid enough attention."

Sound familiar?

Also notable was the article's attribution of China's wastefulness to it's hybrid economy -- a hybrid between "communist roots and a free-market future," that is.

… oh, and R.I.P.

In May of last year, we did a story on Freecycle, the spontaneously organized, voluntary, web-based network devoted to enabling people to give stuff away rather than throw it away.

Then in May of this year, we wrote another story, about Freecycle and its growing pains. On the one hand there was a fight to obtain the trademark to the Freecycle name. On the other hand there was controversy about a $130,000 sponsorship from Waste Management, Inc., the largest garbage company in the U.S.

Well, it appears the former fight has been won and the latter money is being put to good use.

Today we received a letter from "media relations" at Freecycle:

Umbra on computer recycling

Dear Umbra, Do you have any suggestions for locating a computer-recycling service in the Piedmont area of North Carolina? Janet Fortune Dearest Janet, Frankly, I couldn’t even have located the Piedmont area of North Carolina before you wrote. With today’s technology, however, such ignorance is no barrier to giving advice. The rest of you, listen […]