| Massachusetts pushes waste-based biofuels, holds off on corn, algae, and switchgrass In a decision that environmentalists are praising and biofuel producers are fuming about, Massachusetts has announced that waste-based biofuels are the only ones guaranteed to meet the state's renewable fuel standards. The ruling could potentially leave algae-, switchgrass-, and corn-based producers high and dry, although it's not quite the ban that some news outlets have called it, says Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources spokesperson Lisa Capone. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Plastic, plastic everywhere, nor any bite to eat: Pacific albatrosses feast on garbage patch offerings As harbingers of ill fate in maritime lore, albatross have, themselves, come to be an indicator for modern-day oceanic pollution. Snatching up floating and near-surface food, Laysan albatross ( Phoebastria immutabilis ) in especially trash-strewn tides now pick up a more dangerous repast than they are accustomed to. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Fallout Forensics: Carbon 14 test could help fight illegal ivory trade The illegal trade in "protected" wildlife and their body parts is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business that is quickly supplanting the drug trade and gun-running as organized crime's most profitable venture. Nothing embodies this trend better than ivory . Despite more than 20 years of trade bans, illegal ivory still floods the world market and brings ever-increasing prices from consumers in China, Japan and the U.S., putting African and Asian elephants in constant danger of poaching and extinction. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Gorillas in the list: New extinction fears for central African gorillas Illegal logging, the bushmeat trade, mining, the charcoal trade and a new strain of the Ebola virus could drive gorillas into extinction in central Africa in as little as 15 years, according to a new report from the U.N. and Interpol.Three of the four gorilla subspecies are already considered critically endangered, and the fourth is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Texas: Presidential Plane Landing at Lyndon B. Johnson Historic Park The National Park Service will formally acquire the JetStar aircraft Lyndon B. Johnson used as vice president and president. nytimes.com |