Vegetable oil carries kids across country

<div class=”landscapeimage400right”><img src=”http://www.evesgarden.org/images/vegetable_oil_bus.jpg” alt=”Project Bio Bus” title=”Project Bio Bus” width=”400” height=”265” /><div>Middlebury College students with Project Bio Bus stand on the old school bus modified to run on used vegetable oil in Middlebury, Vt. The group is touring rock climbing destinations and dropping off college friends along the way while driving across the country this summer. (AP Photo/Alden Pellett)</div></div>

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont (AP)—A group of college students has set out on a post-finals cross-country road trip that is going to smell a lot like french fries.

But at least there won’t be any squabbles over gas money: Their converted school bus is fueled by used vegetable oil from cafeterias and fast-food restaurants.

The 13 Middlebury College students said they wanted to combine their rite-of-passage road trip with an environmental message.

Vegetable oil creates less pollution than diesel fuel, said Thomas Hand, 19, who took a crash course at Middlebury in converting diesel tractor engines to run on vegetable oil.

“It’s an energy source that comes from the United States. It’s being self-sufficient,” Hand said. “Also, it’s free. It’s using some resource that was going to be thrown away and reusing it.”

The students are not the first to power their wheels with vegetable oil. Activist Joshua Tickell drove about 25,000 miles on his “Veggie Van USA” tours in the late 1990s.

The Middlebury students left campus Monday night and plan to arrive in Conway, Washington, by June 11, with plenty of stops in between to drop off classmates and do some rock climbing.

Along the way, they will be keeping an eye out for restaurants to get them there. Based on a few trial runs in Vermont, the students—several of whom are environmental studies majors—are optimistic they will find the fuel they need.

The students filter the vegetable oil and store it in two vats on the bus. To get the bus rolling, the students first start it briefly with diesel fuel to heat and lower the viscosity of the vegetable oil.

They are sure to draw attention: They will be cruising no faster than 55 mph, with “Powered by Veggie Oil” painted on the back of the bus. And the oil “smells a little bit like whatever it was used to fry—sometimes you get onion rings, french fries, chicken patties,” Hand said.

The students plan to keep people posted through journal entries and photographs on the Internet.

“It’s part of an adventure we’ll remember for the rest of our lives hopefully,” said Logan Duran.

Website for Project Bio Bus: http://www.projectbiobus.com/

*(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)*

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Turtles lured to disco death in Greece

LAGANAS, Greece (Reuters)—Disco lights are luring baby turtles to their deaths on the fringes of a Greek marine park in the Mediterranean Sea.

Environmentalists say that rare loggerhead turtles scramble out at night from eggs in the sand on beaches in the west Greek island of Zakynthos and instinctively head for the brightest horizon—normally the white foam of waves under the stars.

But neon lights from discos and cafes along the back of the beach at Laganas, built for tourists who also go for boat trips in the bay to try to spot turtles, are often fatally brighter.

“Some turtles crawl up the beach the wrong way and die of dehydration or get eaten by seabirds or dogs,” said Anders Kofoed, a Danish volunteer working for the Greek conservation group Archelon. “The park isn’t working properly.”

About 2,500 delegates will attend the World Parks Congress in the South African port of Durban from September 8 to 17 to review the state of the world’s conservation areas which now cover about 12 percent of the planet’s land surface.

The congress says its main theme will be “Benefits beyond Boundaries”—including how best to promote “alliances between protected areas and other sectors, such as tourism, forestry, water supply and perhaps mining.”

Spin-offs of tourism, including jobs in remote areas, are often positive. But others—like roads through African jungles or disco lights in Greece—can be a threat to the environment underpinning the very rationale for a park.

More and more tourists want to see creatures from quetzal birds in Central America to koalas nibbling eucalyptus leaves in Australia. But the creatures probably don’t want to see the humans.

Better than mining

“Tourism is better than mining in the Arctic or logging in the southern hemisphere,” said Samantha Smith, director of the Arctic Program at the WWF environmental group.

“The problem is that you rarely get just tourists. When you build roads into the rain forest for tourists, for instance, you also facilitate both legal and illegal logging.”

In Mozambique, the coastal resort of Ponta do Ouro just across the South African border is showing strains from ecotourists since the end of Mozambique’s civil war in 1992.

Hundreds of divers come every weekend to explore its stunning coral reefs, helped by a paved road to the South African side of the border. But most of the jobs created by the tourists are low paid and menial.

“Development here has been going very fast,” said the South African manager of one bed and breakfast near the beach.

Stricter guidelines and rules for parks are part of the answer.

WWF’s Smith said the Denali National Park in Alaska, home to grizzly bears, wolves and moose, was a good example of rules to minimise disturbances. The park includes North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet (6,194 meters).

The park, mainly a wilderness most of which is accessible only on foot, has limits for numbers of campers according to zones. And access for cars, buses and snowmobiles is restricted with roads only on the outskirts.

“These zones are a really good solution,” Smith said.

In the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard off northern Norway, ecotourism guides get training in how to “Leave No Trace,” including picking up cigarette butts.

Whale watching

In recent years, whale watching has exploded into a billion dollar business worldwide, from New Zealand to Norway, often with little regulation.

Like loggerhead turtles in Greece, whales are often harassed by boats cramming close to let tourists get the best photographs. Experts say that trips with a guide who knows about the animals cost more but are usually worth the extra cash.

“You have to be careful, you must approach whales not too fast from the side,” says Erwin Fulterer, managing director of Whale Safari in Andenes, northern Norway. He expects a record 16,000 visitors this season to watch sperm whales.

The British-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society urges respect for the mammals in its guidelines for watchers.

“Imagine how you would feel if a coach-load of tourists descended on your living room and expected to photograph your family having Sunday lunch,” it says.

Copyright 2003 Reuters.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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