The e-waste stream is growing: what are the costs and opportunities created by the increasing amount of electronic waste we create?
Tag: ethanol
Poop Power: New Plant Makes Ethanol From Cow Manure
A new plant in Tulare County, California, is in the poop power business: it turns ample dairy cow manure from the area into ethanol (and water for crops).
Full Planet, Empty Plates: Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?
The massive diversion of grain to fuel cars has helped drive up food prices, leaving low-income consumers everywhere to suffer some of the most severe food price inflation in history. As of mid-2012, world wheat, corn, and soybean prices were roughly double their historical levels.
Food to Fuel… the Right Way [Infographic]
The phrase “food to fuel” often refers to production of corn-based ethanol or soy-based biodiesel… not exactly most efficient use of these commodities. But there are situations when food to fuel represents a smart use of resources: when that food will go to a landfill. While the capture of landfill gas has become more prevalent, why spend the money and other resources shipping it there? Why not just direct food waste to energy production?
Falling Gasoline Consumption Means US Can Just Say "No" to New Pipelines and Food-to-Fuel
Freeing America from its dependence on oil from unstable parts of the world is an admirable goal, but many of the proposed solutions—including the push for more home-grown biofuels and for the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast—are harmful and simply unnecessary. Gasoline use in the United States is falling, and the trends already driving it down are likely to continue into the future, making both the mirage of beneficial biofuels and the construction of a new pipeline to import incredibly dirty oil seem ever more out of touch with reality.
Global Grain Stocks Drop Dangerously Low as 2012 Consumption Exceeded Production
2012 continued a disturbing trend in global agriculture: grain consumption outweighed production, forcing a drawdown in reserves.
Five Organizations Bringing Clean Cooking Technologies to the Developing World
Cooking’s a killer activity in the developing world: millions die from smoke inhalation, and forests are stripped bare as billions gather wood for their stoves (or for making charcoal for cooking). Take a look at five organizations working to address these multiple challenges.
Biofuels For Transportation: Been There, Done That
There is a great deal of controversy about the wisdom of diverting a significant percentage of the US corn crop into the production of ethanol to fuel cars. Something like [ … ]
The Limits and Potential of Plant-Based Energy
By Lester R. Brown As oil and natural gas reserves are being depleted, the world’s attention is increasingly turning to plant-based energy sources. These include food crops, forest industry byproducts, [ … ]
Cars and People Compete for Grain
By Lester R. Brown At a time when excessive pressures on the earth’s land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland [ … ]
Five for Friday: Green Blog Posts for the Week (5/28/10)
While the Gulf oil spill continues to dominate the headlines, and the green blog space (as it should… this is a calamitous, and potentially game-changing event), even a cursory scan [ … ]
U.S. Feeds One Quarter of its Grain to Cars While Hunger is on the Rise
The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More [ … ]
Driving Unsustainability: How GM planned for obsolescence
I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s very little that’s sustainable about the company known as GM. It’s frustrating and sad, because I was raised in the auto city and [ … ]