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Fuck Ethanol. Burning FOOD for ENERGY is the dumbest idea i've ever heard of. There must be a better alternative than bio-fuel; which today would mean increased food costs.
That's a cool idea, but it's important to consider production quotas as well.
Currently the world consumes about 80 million barrels of oil per day, 20 million of those in the USA. Think about that: 20 MILLION barrels per day.
Tar sands, oil sands, shale, sugar cane, ethanol, etc. are all substitutes (some better and some worse), but none of them can keep up with crude oil in terms of barrels of oil produced each day.
Conservation must also be a priority, but it has to be global or it won't work.
Also, we need to work on nuclear and solar a bit more, along with wave-powered hydroelectricity.
Dubbed "bionic leaf 2.0," the technology uses solar panels to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, the scientists said in a study published in the journal Science. Once separated, hydrogen is moved into a chamber where it is consumed by bacteria, and with help from a special metal catalyst and carbon dioxide, the process generates liquid fuel. The method is an artificial version of the photosynthesis process plants use to make energy from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, scientists said. If it becomes economically viable, the technology could replace oil wells or plantations where food crops are grown for fuel, the study's lead author said. "This [new energy source] is not competing with food for agricultural land," Harvard University Professor of Energy Daniel Nocera told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Crops for fuel, rather than food
Crops such as corn and sugar cane have been increasingly cultivated to produce biofuels. About 4 percent of the world's farmland is used to grow crops for fuel rather than food, according to a University of Virginia study published in March. Tens of thousands of small-scale farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America have been displaced by plantations growing crops to make biofuels, according to GRAIN, a Barcelona-based land rights group. The new technology could help protect their land rights while also reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, Nocera said. "The [land] footprint these solar panels need is about one-tenth the size of what you would need for sugar cane," he said.
A crop in Boone County, Iowa. A new clean technology to turn sunlight into liquid fuel could drastically shrink the need for large plantations to grow crops for biofuels, while combating climate change, Harvard University researchers said on Thursday.
If governments put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions, the "bionic leaf" would appeal to investors as a cost-effective alternative energy source, the professor added. Today, however, it remains cheaper to grow biofuel crops or extract fossil fuels than to produce renewable energy, Nocera said. A carbon tax boosting U.S. gas prices to European levels -- although not yet on the cards -- would likely be enough to spur investment in the new technology, he said. "Bionic leaf 2.0" converts solar energy into liquid fuel with 10 percent efficiency, far higher than the 1 percent efficiency seen in the fastest-growing plants that use a similar process, Nocera added.
Scientists: Clean Fuel From 'Bionic Leaf' Could Ease Pressure on Farmland
Lab experiments with European perch larvae showed exposure to microplastic particles at levels present in seas inhibited hatching of fertilized eggs, stunted larval growth, reduced activity levels, and made them more susceptible to predators, increasing mortality rates, researchers said on Thursday. "For me, the key finding and biggest surprise in this study was the fact that larvae preferentially ate microplastic particles and literally stuffed themselves with the microbeads," ignoring their natural food source of zooplankton, said marine biologist Oona Lönnstedt of Uppsala University in Sweden. There is increasing concern among scientists about the effect of pervasive plastic pollution on marine ecosystems. This study was the first to look at direct effects of microplastic particles on fish development, Lönnstedt said.
Adult perch in the Baltic Sea
Microplastic particles, bits of plastic measuring no more than two-tenths of an inch (5 mm), come from large plastic trash that has fragmented into smaller pieces or from manufactured plastics of microscopic size such as microbeads in products like facial soap, body wash and toothpaste. The European perch, known for its greenish color with black stripes and orange-to-red fins, is an important commercial fish species for coastal and lake fisheries and is also popular for recreational fishing, said Peter Eklöv, an Uppsala professor of limnology, the study of inland waters.
Perch larvae exposed to microplastic particles lost their ability to use typical perch anti-predator behavior such as freezing in place, Eklöv said. "Microplastics actually seem to interfere with an animal's natural behaviors, such as feeding choices, activity rates and predator-avoidance strategies," Lönnstedt said. "This is a serious cause for concern, in particular since microplastic particles often accumulate in shallow coastal areas where many developmental stages of aquatic organisms, not just fish, can be found."
Larval perch that has ingested microplastic particles
While this study involved perch, such plastic pollution is likely harmful to many fish species. The researchers said since this study, they have conducted similar experiments with other fish, both tropical (coral reef damselfish) and temperate (pike and flounder), and all showed responses to microplastic particles very similar to the perch. "If microplastics are indeed affecting organisms both chemically and physically, then this really calls for a ban on microplastic beads in body-care products and cosmetics around the world," Lönnstedt said. The research was published in the journal Science.
Study Reveals Harm to Fish From Tiny Bit of Plastic Pollution
Fuck Ethanol. Burning FOOD for ENERGY is the dumbest idea i've ever heard of. There must be a better alternative than bio-fuel; which today would mean increased food costs.
