King Corn, But Not For Long
In 2008, the steady rise in ethanol consumption reduced U.S. demand for motor gasoline by an estimated 5 percent and accounted for 20 percent of the increase in domestic corn prices, according to a new assessment of U.S. biofuels by the Worldwatch Institute. Concerns over energy security and climate change, as well as a range of government incentives, fueled the production of an estimated 9.5 billion gallons of biofuels in the United States last year alone, a 39 percent increase over 2007.
The Worldwatch report Red, White, and Green: Transforming U.S. Biofuels offers an assessment of the policies, technologies, and market factors that have driven the rapid expansion of the biofuel industry over the past decade, but that have left some 21 percent of U.S. annual capacity idled in the first months of 2009. The report also looks at the impacts associated with large-scale production of “first-generation” biofuels such as corn-based ethanol and soy biodiesel.
“Biofuels production today can be more harmful than helpful,” said Jane Earley, co-author of the Worldwatch report. “As a renewable energy source, bioenergy should continue to be seen as a promising part of a sustainable energy future, but we must begin the transition to second- and third-generation biofuels immediately.”
Studies suggest that the environmental costs associated with the current biofuel industry—including water pollution, wildlife habitat loss, and declining freshwater resources—likely outweigh the benefits. Claims about the climate change benefits of biofuels are often inflated, as many of these fuels in production today lead to minimal, if any, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The report emphasizes that diversification of feedstocks and technologies—including production of “second-generation” fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and “third-generation” fuels such as algae biodiesel—would provide a more stable basis for large-scale biofuel production. It also argues for the increased use of biomass for electricity production, including for transportation uses by way of electric vehicles.
Three broad efforts in U.S. policy could make biofuels production more environmentally sustainable and help ensure that use of the fuels contributes to both energy security and global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report. These include spurring the rapid development of cellulosic and other advanced biofuels, developing sustainability standards upon which government support for the fuels would be conditional, and creating a holistic energy policy across all transport-related sectors.
“The state of play within the biofuels industry has changed dramatically in the last two years alone,” said Alice McKeown, report co-author. “As the economics of the fuels shift and as new policies and technologies emerge, we have the opportunity to ensure that clean and sustainable biofuels, rather than just more biofuels, are a priority.”
The steady rise of corn as a biofuel was powered almost entirely by large corporate interests. Large agribusiness companies that were more interested in profit than sustainability. We were never going to grow enough corn, to make enough fuel to power our auto industry, and the damage that our large mono-culture agriculture system does to the planet is unsustainable anyway. I am glad that 2nd and 3rd generation biofuels that use less land, less water, and are scalable are now moving in to take corns place. The problem is going to be that these large companies are going to fight the change.
Desert Dust Does Damage
It would seem that desertification caused by water shortage, or poor land usage hurts more than the immediate area around the environmental degradation. Accelerated snowmelt–precipitated by desert dust blowing into the mountains–changes how alpine plants respond to seasonal climate cues that regulate their life cycles, according to results of a new study reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). These results indicate that global warming may have a greater influence on plants’ annual growth cycles than previously thought.
More dust covers snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado than previously documented.
Current mountain dust levels are five times greater than they were before the mid-19th century, due in large part to increased human activity in deserts.
“Human use of desert landscapes is linked to the life cycles of mountain plants, and changes the environmental cues that determine when alpine meadows will be in bloom, possibly increasing plants’ sensitivity to global warming,” said Jay Fein, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research in part.
This year, 12 dust storms have painted the mountain snowpack red and advanced the retreat of snow cover, likely by more than a month across Colorado.
Scientists like Chris Landry, pictured, simulated dust effects on snowmelt in experiments.
“Desert dust is synchronizing plant growth and flowering across the alpine zone,” said Heidi Steltzer, a Colorado State University scientist who led the study. “Synchronized growth was unexpected, and may have adverse effects on plants, water quality and wildlife.”
“It’s striking how different the landscape looks as result of this desert-and-mountain interaction,” said Chris Landry, director of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (CSAS) in Silverton, Colo., who, along with Tom Painter, director of the Snow Optics Laboratory at the University of Utah, contributed to the study.
“Visitors to the mountains arriving in late June will see little remaining snow,” said Landry, “even though snow cover was extensive and deep in April. The snow that remains will be barely distinguishable from the surrounding soils.
Earlier snowmelt by desert dust, said Painter, “depletes the natural water reservoirs of mountain snowpacks and in turn affects the delivery of water to urban and agricultural areas.”
With climate change, warming and drying of the desert southwest are likely to result in even greater dust accumulation in the mountains.
In an alpine basin in the San Juan Mountains, the researchers simulated dust effects on snowmelt in experimental plots. They measured dust’s acceleration of snowmelt on the life cycles of alpine plants.
Experiments included using black fabric to absorb the Sun's energy; dust was added to other sites.
The timing of snowmelt signals to mountain plants that it’s time to start growing and flowering. When dust causes early snowmelt, plant growth does not necessarily begin soon after the snow is gone.
Instead, plants delay their life cycle until air temperatures have warmed consistently above freezing.
“Climate warming could therefore have a great effect on the timing of growth and flowering,” said Steltzer.
Competition for water and nutrient resources among plants should increase, leading to the loss of less competitive species. Delayed plant growth could increase nutrient losses, decreasing water quality.
Similarity in flowering times and plant growth will result in abundant resources for wildlife for a short time rather than staggered resources over the whole summer, Steltzer believes.
“With increasing dust deposition from drying and warming in the deserts,” she said, “the composition of alpine meadows could change as some species increase in abundance, while others are lost, possibly forever.”
Peer Pressure Is Good For The Earth
Sure peer pressure can be used to get people to buy cheap crap, or to make them drive some huge gas guzzling land tank, but peer pressure can be used for good things as well. People are more likely to enroll in conservation programs if their neighbors do–a tendency that should be exploited when it comes to protecting the environment, according to results of a new study.
The research, to be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) this week, is the first to focus on the phenomenon of social norms in the context of China’s conservation efforts, said scientist Jianguo “Jack” Liu of Michigan State University (MSU).
The study focused on a mammoth government initiative called Grain-to-Green that pays Chinese farmers to convert cropland back to forest.
“Much of the marginal cropland in rural communities has been converted from agriculture to forests through the Grain-to-Green Program, one of the largest ‘payment for ecosystem services’ programs in the world,” said Alan Tessier, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Environmental Biology.
“Results of this study show that a community’s social norms have substantial impacts on the sustainability of these conservation investments.”
Liu’s research was funded through NSF’s Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program. CNH is co-funded by three NSF Directorates: Biological Sciences; Geosciences; and Social, Economic & Behavioral Sciences.
While money is a key factor in whether people sign up for the voluntary program, peer pressure also plays a surprisingly large role, Liu said.
“That’s the power of social norms,” he said. “It’s like recycling. If you see your neighbors doing it, you’re more likely to do it.”
A representative survey of households in China’s Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas found that both government payments and social norms had “significant impacts” on citizens’ intentions of re-enrolling in the Grain to Green program.
“In other words, people’s re-enrollment intentions can be affected by the re-enrollment decisions of their neighbors and tend to conform to the majority,” says Liu.
Xiaodong Chen, a doctoral student at MSU and lead author of the paper, said government officials should leverage these social norms along with economic and demographic trends when deciding how to support conversation programs such as Grain to Green.
“We found that, without considering the social norm factor, conservation payments may not be used efficiently,” Chen said.
“But if the government considers social norms as it decides where to invest money, it could obtain more environmental benefits in communities that are supportive of these programs than in those that aren’t.”
Added co-author and MSU scientist Frank Lupi: “Simply by taking account of the social norms, more conservation can be obtained from limited conservation budgets.”
The moral of this story is, do good for the planet, and make sure your neighbors know you are doing it. Peer pressure them into changing their ways. It’s science, and it’s good for the planet.
IBM To Charge Up Battery Industry
First let me apologize for that title…in the future when you look under the hood of your super efficient electric car, or when your personal wind turbine is making more energy than you need, or when the solar cells are pumping out a bit extra it might be IBM that you count on for storing that energy. IBM is moving swiftly into the battery market.
IBM will gather many of the top minds in science, industry and technology to explore the next frontier of electrical energy storage and advanced battery systems - key technologies that will power smarter energy grids, support widespread use of electric cars, and allow for the storage of large amounts of renewable energy - at its annual Almaden Institute in San Jose, California, on August 26 and 27.
The goal of the 2009 Almaden Institute is to catalyze long-term, concerted efforts to create next-generation rechargeable batteries capable of storing ten times more energy than today’s most powerful Lithium-ion batteries. Speakers include Nobel Laureate and energy expert Burton Richter; Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla Motors; and Deborah Gordon, co-author of 2 Billion Cars.
“High density, scalable energy storage technologies are emerging as the greatest game changer for this new era of renewable energy sources and smarter grids,” said Sharon Nunes, vice president, Big Green Innovations, IBM. “Today, the vast majority of the world’s oil is burned for transportation. Energy sources, such as wind and solar power, fluctuate continuously. We believe the solution may lie in the development of an efficient, affordable energy storage network.”
IBM Research’s Almaden Institute brings together eminent, innovative thinkers from academia, government, industry, research labs and the media for an intellectually charged and vigorous dialogue that addresses fundamental challenges at the very edge of science and technology. Previous Almaden Institutes have launched major research projects in cognitive computing, service science and healthcare informatics.
Leveraging expertise in materials science, nanotechnology, green chemistry and supercomputing, scientists at IBM Research’s Almaden lab in San Jose, California, are undertaking a multi-year research initiative around a grid-scale, efficient, affordable electrical energy storage network. The team plans to explore rechargeable Lithium/Air systems, which have the greatest energy density of all practical battery systems and are inherently safer than traditional Lithium/ion systems.
IBM intends to partner with industry leaders, academia and others in this collaborative endeavor. The company would license any intellectual property that may result from this research rather than manufacturing battery cells.
IBM Research teams across the world apply advanced materials science, physics, modeling tools, materials science, physics, and integration expertise to address emerging environmental management opportunities. IBM is focused on several areas related to energy and the environment, including energy efficient technology and services, carbon management, advanced water management, intelligent utility networks and intelligent transportation systems.
The company’s focus on exploring battery technologies stems from IBM’s Big Green Innovations initiative. Announced in November 2006, as part of IBM’s investment in 10 new businesses generated by InnovationJam, Big Green Innovations has concentrated its efforts on water management, alternative energy and carbon management.
Mother Nature Not Too Happy With Us
The number of devastating natural disasters, those designated as Category 5 based on their financial and human impact, increased to 40 in 2008, the highest number on record. Of the monsoon floods, hurricanes, and typhoons that contributed to the total, only one event—the June earthquake in Japan—was not weather related.
A new snapshot of natural disasters trends based on data from 1974 to the present reveals that:
In 2008, some 750 natural disasters occurred worldwide, a 22 percent decline from the record 960 that occurred in 2007. While the number of smaller catastrophes (Categories 1 and 2) fell in 2008, major catastrophes continued an upward trend.
Worldwide, the annual average number of hydrological disaster events has tripled since the 1980s, while meteorological and climatological events have nearly doubled.
Economic losses from disasters totaled $200 billion, of which $45 billion was insured. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 was the third most expensive year ever recorded.
The new natural disasters update is based on Munich Re’s systematic recording of natural perils that began in 1974.
It seems clear to me that our poor stewardship of the earth is coming back to bite us. And not just in our wallets. Wars are starting over migrations caused by lack of water (Sudan), future wars might be caused over migration caused by sea level rise (Bangladesh/India/Pakistan). Guess the eco-slogans shouldn’t have been “save the planet” but rather “save the people.” We are really the ones at danger here.
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