100-dollar crude is good and bad news for environment
Paris (AFP) Jan 3, 2008
Surging oil prices are a mixed blessing for the environment, experts say.
Clean renewable energy and recycling are getting a major boost from 100-dollar-a-barrel crude -- but so are coal, a massive contributor to global warming, and nuclear power, which remains shadowed by safety concerns.
Oil briefly topped 100 dollars on Wednesday, driven by escalating energy demand in China, stagnant ... read more
Japan to buy China emissions quotas: report
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 3, 2008
Japan has agreed to buy greenhouse gas emissions quotas from China as part of efforts to meet its Kyoto Protocol target, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Thursday.
The two countries will seek a formal accord on the plan during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan, scheduled for late March, the newspaper said.
Japan plans to use the so-called clean development mechanism, under whic ... more
Analysis: Venezuelan oil production down
Miami (UPI) Jan 3, 2008
Venezuela's oil industry shrank by more than 5 percent in 2007, according to the Venezuelan National Bank, raising concerns the Venezuelan government is not investing enough of its petroleum wealth in the sector.
Oil production was off 5.3 percent in 2007 from the previous year and contributed $3.14 billion to the country's gross domestic product, down from both 2006 and 2005 when the s ... more
Chinese major aircraft makers to build big planes: report
Beijing (AFP) Jan 3, 2008
China's two major aircraft makers are likely to join forces as part of the nation's ambitious efforts to build a domestic passenger jet that would rival Boeing and Airbus, state media said Thursday.
China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I) and AVIC II, both state-owned, may consolidate their commercial aircraft manufacturing businesses and set up a new firm to assemble the plane, the China Da ... more
Life At The Jolt
Tempe AZ (SPX) Jan 04, 2008
Researchers at the Biodesign Institute are using the tiniest organisms on the planet 'bacteria' as a viable option to make electricity. In a new study featured in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering, lead author Andrew Kato Marcus and colleagues Cesar Torres and Bruce Rittmann have gained critical insights that may lead to commercialization of a promising microbial fuel cell (MFC) techn ... more
Mobile Metal Atoms
Siegen, Germany (SPX) Jan 04, 2008
Mobile phones, notebook computers, iPods-the boom in portable computing and communications devices is dependent on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to deliver power. These batteries offer the highest energy density, allow laptops to function for useful amounts of time, and do not display a memory effect when compared to other types of rechargeable batteries. However, modern rechargeable batter ... more
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ENERGY TECH
Protests over approval for British coal power plant
ENERGY TECH
Smithsonian Scientists Highlight Environmental Impacts Of Biofuels
TECH SPACE
Smaller Is Stronger - Now Scientists Know Why
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Indonesian landslide, floods toll at 107 dead: health ministry
Jakarta (AFP) Jan 2, 2008
Landslides and floods that struck Indonesia's main island of Java last week killed 107 people and left 12 missing, a health ministry official said Wednesday, as waters receded in the worst hit areas.
Torrential rains across Central and East Java provinces triggered landslides that engulfed homes and floods along the island's longest river which displaced tens of thousands of people, hundreds ... more
Syria presses Turkey over Euphrates water supplies: agency
Ankara (AFP) Jan 2, 2008
Visiting Syrian Deputy Premier Abdullah Dardari urged Turkey Wednesday to let more water flow into his country from the Euphrates river, Anatolia news agency reported.
Dardari said after talks with Turkish officials that the recent drought in Syria had hit water supplies, the agency reported.
Syria and Iraq often complain that their northern neighbour Turkey -- with a series of dams buil ... more
Fisheries Should Be Regarded As A Part Of The Maritime Environment
Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Jan 03, 2008
Professional fishery is in many sea areas a serious ecological threat to the maritime environment. On the other hand, changes in the environment, e.g. the increase of fish-eating animals like seals and cormorants, may impact the fisheries. One of the new guiding principles of political decision-making in fishery issues is that a holistic "ecosystems approach" should be used instead of traditiona ... more
Carbon Sink Capacity In Northern Forests Reduced By Global Warming
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 03, 2008
An international study investigating the carbon sink capacity of northern terrestrial ecosystems discovered that the duration of the net carbon uptake period (CUP) has on average decreased due to warmer autumn temperatures. Net carbon uptake of northern ecosystems is decreasing in response to autumnal warming according to findings recently published January 3rd, in the journal Nature.
The ... more
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CLIMATE SCIENCE
Scientists Find Good News About Methane Bubbling Up From the Ocean Floor Near Santa Barbara
CAR TECH
California sues US for blocking car emissions rules
CHIP TECH
UCLA Scientists Working To Create Smaller, Faster Integrated Circuits
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Hybrid Semiconductors Show Zero Thermal Expansion
Argonne IL (SPX) Jan 03, 2008
The fan in your computer is there to keep the microprocessor chip from heating to the point where its component materials start to expand, inducing cracks that interrupt the flow of electricity - and not incidentally, ruin the chip. Thermal expansion can also separate semiconducting materials from the substrate, reduce performance through changes in the electronic structure of the material or wa ... more
Clark School Researchers Develop Two-Dimensional Invisibility Cloak
College Park MD (SPX) Jan 03, 2008
Harry Potter may not have talked much about plasmonics in J. K. Rowling's fantasy series, but University of Maryland researchers are using this emerging technology to develop an invisibility cloak that exists beyond the world of bespectacled teenage wizards.
A research team at Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering comprised of Professor Christopher Davis, Research Scientist Igor ... more
Energy Bill Biofuels Mandates Will Be Achievable With Biotechnology Advances
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 03, 2008
The new renewable fuel standard (RFS) calling for production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 will help accelerate development of advanced industrial biotechnology applications necessary to economically produce these volumes of biofuels, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) said.
"The RFS could add as much as $170 billion to the U.S. economy in advanced technology develop ... more
China a big, but not only, contributor to record oil prices: analysts
Beijing (AFP) Jan 2, 2008
China's unquenchable thirst for oil is contributing to sustained high prices, but it is not the main factor in crude's latest surge toward new records, analysts said Wednesday.
Speculative trading, geopolitics such as unrest in the Middle East and US efforts to fill its oil reserves, as well as the weakness in the US currency, are more important reasons for crude nearing 100 dollars a barrel ... more
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ENERGY TECH
Eco-Tec's Biogas Purification Technology Part Of RGMRM's Innovative Greenhouse Gas-to-Energy Project
ENERGY TECH
First US Commercial Wave Energy Power Purchase Agreement
ENERGY TECH
Researchers Investigate Supercritical Method Of Converting Chicken Fat And Tall Oil Fatty Acid Into Biodiesel
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