Mar 02 2011

EPA Postpones GHG Reporting Deadline

and has 1 comment.
On March 1, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") announced its plans to postpone the upcoming deadline for mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions, which is currently scheduled for the end of this month. EPA has not set a revised deadline, though the agency reported that it "is in the process of finalizing a user friendly online electronic reporting platform," which it plans to unveil this summer.
Categories: News
Mar 02 2011

Butanol as Gasoline Substitute from Bacteria

and has no comments yet.
Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. Because its longer hydrocarbon chain causes it to be fairly non-polar, it is more similar to gasoline than it is to ethanol. Butanol has been demonstrated to work in vehicles designed for use with gasoline without modification. University of California, Berkeley, chemists have engineered bacteria to churn out a gasoline-like biofuel (butanol) at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes, a breakthrough that could soon provide an affordable transportation fuel. The potential feedstocks are the same as for ethanol: energy crops such as sugar beets, sugar cane, corn grain, wheat and cassava, prospective non-food energy crops such as switchgrass and even guayule in North America, as well as agricultural byproducts such as straw and corn stalks.
Categories: News
Mar 02 2011

Humans vs animals – The hottest race of the year – New from BBC Earth

and has no comments yet.
Imagine a landscape in front of you as barren and endless as your eye can see. And then imagine that your task is to cross it, on foot, through eye stinging dust storms, unbearable heat and a body willing you to stop with every step. Welcome to the Sahara! Welcome to your "marathon of the sands". Aptly named the Sahara meaning "The Great Desert," it is a land-mass almost as large as Europe or the United States! Making it the largest hot desert in the world, second only to Antarctica, which although not commonly thought of as a desert because of its cold climate, is classified as such when the amount of rainfall is measured. The cheetah may be the fastest sprinter on the planet – reaching from 0 to 60mph in less than 3 seconds! But what about over long distances? In this incredible video from Life of Mammals, we see how different animals respond to the challenges of survival that require the use of their fitness and strength.
Categories: News
Mar 02 2011

World Bank proposes road to save Serengeti migration

and has 1 comment.
The World Bank has offered Tanzania an alternative to stop a major road project across the Serengeti national park that conservationists say threatens one of Africa's biggest wildlife spectacles. Conservation groups say the government's planned highway through the northern edge of the Serengeti would hinder the annual migration of some 2 million wildebeest. The World Bank's John Murray McIntire said it was ready to help the east African nation in financing an alternative route for the road that would otherwise cut through the park. "The World Bank is proposing alternatives that we believe will achieve Tanzania's development objectives while preserving the unique character of the Serengeti as part of the world's environmental heritage," the World Bank country director for Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi, told Reuters in an emailed response to questions. He said the World Bank could finance an alternative road through new development assistance to the country, dependent on officials making the request.
Categories: News
Mar 01 2011

Brazilian Belo Monte Dam Halted on Judge’s Orders

and has no comments yet.
In another twist of the Belo Monte Dam saga, a Brazilian judge has ordered that work be suspended on the massive construction project. About one month ago, construction of the dam had been approved by the Brazilian environmental agency, IBAMA. The federal judge, Ronaldo Desterro, said that IBAMA had granted approval for the Belo Monte project under pressure from Norte Energia (a.k.a. NESA), the dam's contractor. The judge also cited concerns over the dam's impact on indigenous tribes and the environment.
Categories: News
Mar 01 2011

All Vehicles are Electric Vehicles – Here’s Why

and has no comments yet.
Critics are often quick to point out that car companies are somewhat disingenuous when they use the phrase "zero emissions vehicle" when promoting their all-electric offerings. The term "elsewhere emissions vehicle" has been suggested as a more accurate description, on the basis that many electric vehicles (EVs) get their juice from coal-fired power stations...
Categories: News
Mar 01 2011

When and Where Life Began

and has no comments yet.
Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China. Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Virginia Tech in the United States and Northwest University in Xi'an, China report the discovery of the fossils in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The long-running puzzlement about the appearance of the Cambrian fauna, seemingly abruptly and from nowhere, centers on three key points: whether there really was a mass diversification of complex organisms over a relatively short period of time during the early Cambrian; what might have caused such rapid change; and what it would imply about the origin and evolution of animals. Interpretation is difficult due to a limited supply of evidence, based mainly on an incomplete fossil record and chemical signatures left in Cambrian rocks. The Lantia discovery suggests a much part of the picture.
Categories: News
Mar 01 2011

China’s take on the current issues in climate talks

and has no comments yet.
China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, wants rich nations to vow bigger cuts to emissions as part of a new international deal on fighting global warming, Beijing's top climate negotiator said on Tuesday. The negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said he expects "arduous" wrangling about that and other issues facing governments seeking to settle on the key parts of a comprehensive climate change pact at talks in Durban, South Africa, in late 2011. Above all, Xie said in a policy-setting essay in China's official People's Daily, Beijing will not budge from demanding a second lease of life for the Kyoto Protocol, the greenhouse gas emissions pact which Japan, Russia, Canada and other critics have said does too little to curb the fast-growing emissions of China and other big developing countries.
Categories: News
1 … 10 11 12