Central Africa is not the first place energy people traditionally think of when it comes to oil. Now it appears Uganda may have up to 2 billion barrels of the stuff, according to their government. The question is what to do about it. Uganda would like to have a refinery, although some oil companies say this […]
Relative to my post, There Oughta Be a Law, on energy recovery, see this terrific article from Worldwatch, A Bridge to the Renewable Energy Future, fleshing out this “…largely overlooked but potent way to minimize fossil fuel use and the damage it causes.” On the same subject, see also this from earlier in the summer […]
One of the greatest bones of contention about extracting fossil fuels — in the industrialized world anyway — is the damage it can or will do to the environment. The industries resist the idea. Do the costs of environmental protections cripple the production of newer, more unconventional fields, as the industry has long proclaimed? Apparently […]
Three studies of rice genetics were released in major scientific journals this week, and this article from NPR examines how some scientists are harnessing this knowledge into efforts to develop new growing methods for rice plants. One study featured in the NPR piece describes the so-called “deep water” rice plants, which, scientists hope, will help […]
We are in Andalusia and it’s, no surprise, pretty hot and sunny. The Spaniards have long since figured out that it’s going to be good for them to take advantage of the sun and its brother, the wind. Our hotel in Granada had big solar thermal arrays on the roof. On the drive from Granada […]
Increases in population, pollution and transportation costs matched with decreases in farmland, water supply and market prices are some of the oft-cited causes of the global food crisis. In a recent OP-ED piece in the New York Times, Columbia University professor Dickson D. Despommier writes about how some of these challenges to growing food can […]
The recent issue of Time Magazine reflects on how America eats, what it pays for its food and the source of its food supply. Citing that: For all the grumbling you do about your weekly grocery bill, the fact is you’ve never had it so good, at least in terms of what you pay for […]
For Pete’s sake, even the last US President, a man not highly praised for his environmentalism, said America was addicted to fossil fuels. If fossil fuels are an addiction, then Canadian tar sands oil are crack. Put it another way, using the same metaphor: the US causes the massive drug violence and corruption in Mexico […]
A Gallup poll done two weeks ago reveals that of all industries, Americans rated the oil and gas worst, even worse than banking, GM and lawyers. There have been some annoyed, defensive responses from workers in the oil and gas field — understandable since most people in the industry are hard-working, honest and understandably offended at […]
The new documentary film, Sweet Crude, directed by Sandy Cioffi, offers a rare visceral look at the enormous problems facing the people of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger River delta. Everyone interested in energy knows the complexity of the problem: massive oil reserves, oil companies only too willing to get into bed with corrupt military dictators (or […]
In my family, there is the story of how, when one of my aunts sold her house, her sisters, helping her empty the place, found 27 boxes of Fab detergent squirreled away in the kitchen cupboard. In case she should ever run out, and besides it was on sale, you see. Something like this may […]
There’s a very good read, The Great Paradox of China: Green Energy and Black Skies, that appears at “Yale Environment 360.” (I wrote China – Getting Closer here late last month.) What’s the paradox? “China is on its way to becoming the world’s largest producer of renewable energy, yet it remains one of the most […]
On Friday, the New York Times reported that Iraq’s date production, has fallen to half of what it was in the 1980s, when the country was the world’s leading date producer. “Date palms have been left to die for lack of water, and fungi and pests have ruined thousands of tons of fruit because the […]
The “Financial Times” is, for my money, one of the best sources out there, consistently, for news and insight into the ever-burgeoning universe of green technology and the business of green, and all the attendant politics and economics. The good folks at the FT have just launched a new series on green tech. (Caveat: You […]
Asia’s food demand is projected to double in the next forty years. Why? By 2050, Asia’s population is projected to increase by 1.5 billion people. With this larger population, scientists predict that Asia will have to import more than 25% of its food staples in order to keep its people from starving. With new fertile […]