VISALIA, Calif., Feb. 23 — David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.
In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable.
“I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”
The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country.
By Chris Jenkins Associated Press Wednesday, February 21, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While working for General Motors in Brazil in the 1990s, Brent Dewar got a firsthand look at the country’s successful switch from an oil-based economy to ethanol. Dewar wants to see the same thing happen in the United States, and he thinks NASCAR can help. He’s lobbying officials to consider a switch from gasoline to ethanol.
“We would embrace it,” said Dewar, GM’s vice president of field sales, service and parts. “We think it would be great on a lot of fronts, because obviously it would send a signal to the public. A lot of people don’t understand the benefits of ethanol.”
Energy startup The Citizenrē Corporation’s haikulike Google ad says it all. “Solar for free,” it headlines. “No initial investment needed. Just monthly payments for power.”
Instead of making you spring for $25,000 or more in gear, Citizenrē says it will loan you a complete rooftop solar power system, install it for free and sell you back the power it generates at a fixed rate below what your utility charges. The company hopes to make back its investment with those monthly payments, augmented by federal tax credits and rebates.
Founded by a solar power veteran and a former tech company executive just 18 months ago, and still officially in a pre-launch phase, Citizenrē says it has $650 million in bank funding behind it. Enviro-actorvist Ed Begley Jr. has cut an eight-minute video for the company website, and more than 7,000 people from Maine to San Diego have already signed up for systems. And why wouldn’t they? With no upfront costs — aside from a modest security deposit — consumers can save on their electric bill and help roll back global warming at the same time.
If you own a home and saw An Inconvenient Truth, you’re already sold. You’re also wondering if the deal is a little too good to be true. Indeed, Citizenrē’s offer is generating a furor in renewable energy circles, fueled by the company’s own secrecy and an unusual business plan that combines serious technological expertise with an exuberant multilevel marketing campaign in the style of Amway, Mary Kay and Tupperware.
BERKELEY – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles, an achievement that could pave the way toward the development of a new source for energy.
The discovery, described in a study published today (Thursday, Feb. 15) in Science Express, an electronic publication of the journal Science, is a milestone in the quest for efficient ways to directly convert heat into electricity. Currently, the dominant method of power generation involves burning fossil fuels to create heat, often in the form of steam, to spin a turbine that, in turn, drives a generator that produces electricity.
An estimated 90 percent of the world’s electricity - from power plants to car engines - is created through this indirect conversion of heat. In the process, a great deal of heat is wasted and released. Anyone who has ever had a car engine fail because of a malfunctioning radiator has experienced firsthand this excess heat.
Kate Harrison’s idea of a fairy tale wedding goes something like this:
Gather more than 150 friends and relatives at an organic farm for a prewedding day of hikes and environmental tours.
Calculate the mileage guests will travel and offset their carbon dioxide emissions by donating to programs that plant trees or preserve rain forests.
Use hydrangeas, berries and other local and seasonal flowers for her bouquet and the decorations, instead of burning up fuel transporting flowers from faraway farms. Design an organic autumnal menu (same reason). Find a vintage dress to avoid the waste of a wedding gown that will never be worn again.
“It’s well worth it to start your life together in a way that’s in line with your values and beliefs,” said Ms. Harrison, 28, a graduate student at Yale, who is to marry in October. “You don’t want this event that is supposed to start your life together to come at the expense of the environment or workers in another country.”
The road to energy independence starts in a cornfield in Nebraska. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla explains why he’s betting on biofuels.
It may surprise you to learn that the most promising solution to our nation’s energy crisis begins in the bowels of a waste trough, under the slotted concrete floor of a giant pen that holds 28,000 Angus, Hereford, and Charolais beef cattle. But for some time now, I’ve been searching for a renewable fuel that could realistically replace the 140 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the US each year. And now I believe the key to producing this fuel starts with cow manure – because this waste powers a facility that turns corn into ethanol.
By Cornelia Dean The New York Times January 31, 2007
Under its new Democratic chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform took on the Bush administration’s handling of climate change science yesterday, and even the Republicans on the panel had little good to say about the administration’s actions.
By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 3, 2007
An international panel of climate scientists said yesterday that there is an overwhelming probability that human activities are warming the planet at a dangerous rate, with consequences that could soon take decades or centuries to reverse.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of scientists from 113 countries, said that based on new research over the last six years, it is 90 percent certain that human-generated greenhouse gases account for most of the global rise in temperatures over the past half-century.
