TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Flame Off!: Turning Natural Gas Pollution into Gasoline As if burning oil and all of its derivatives wasn't bad enough for the environment, there's also the natural gas that bubbles up as the oil is pumped out. This byproduct cannot be easily harvested in many cases--some oil fields are far from pipelines that can transport it and other options are very expensive. As a result, oil companies either release it into the atmosphere--a process known as venting--or burn it in a flare. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Hey, Green Spender: Top 100 Eco-Barons Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are first and second on a list of 100 wealthy individuals who have made hefty investments in clean technology or environmental causes. The Times of London news organization, which examined dossiers of the world’s richest people, says the 100 tycoons on its Green List are together worth $375 billion.According to the Times, Buffett, who runs the Berkshire Hathaway investment firm, has poured $230 million into BYD, a Hong Kong company that makes batteries for electric cars. He also holds a major stake in MidAmerican Energy, a large wind energy utility. Gates has invested in several renewable fuels companies, including Pacific Ethanol and Sapphire Energy; the latter intends to produce gasoline from algae. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Seedy Solution: China Tries to Keep Nature from Raining on the Asian Games Feeling confident after recent successful attempts to control rainfall in the country, China is planning to seed clouds around the 16th Asian Games next year with chemicals that will keep it from raining on its parade, or at least the games' opening and closing ceremonies.Even though the November 2010 games to be held in Guangzhou's 80,000-seat Guangdong Olympic Stadium will take place during southern China's supposed dry season, the Olympic Council of Asia, the continent's main sports governing body, announced earlier this week that liquid nitrogen, dry ice and silver iodide will be used to all but eliminate any chance of precipitation. [More] rss.sciam.com |
The U.S. Must Prioritize Its Carbon Strategy [Extended version] The House of Representatives passed the American Climate and Energy Security Act in June and sent it to the Senate. The House bill, running to 1,428 pages, aspires in one breathtaking stroke to take on renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), nuclear power, electric vehicles, carbon cap-and-trade, power transmission, energy efficiency and climate adaptation. It ranges from grand vision to minuscule details such as technical specifications on lighting fixtures.What’s missing in this sprawling draft is prioritization. The bill rightly recognizes that America and the rest of the world require a fundamental overhaul in energy technology and use. The insecurity of global oil supply lines, the growing global scarcity of conventional fossil fuels and the urgency to reduce carbon emissions all point to the need for a fundamental energy overhaul. Yet to accomplish such a worldwide, fundamental energy overhaul, we will need to keep our eye on the big picture--the technology systems that will make a large and lasting difference--and not get mired in excruciating details. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Eco-Dos: Green Beauty Salons and Hair Products Are a Growing Business Dear EarthTalk: As I understand it, hair salons are pretty toxic enterprises on many counts. Are there any efforts underway to green up that industry? --Paula Howe, San Francisco, CA [More] rss.sciam.com |