Editor’s note: Today we inaugurate the first ever best-of Gas 2.0 series with our most Dugg stories of 2008. During the rest of the week look for the most up-voted reddit, most Stumbled, and most viewed stories of year as well. As a special bonus, we’ll finish off the week by handing out the first ever (yet sure to be highly coveted) Gas 2.0 Post of the Year Award.
Ah, Digg. That beautiful beast. There are some who say she even controls the internet as we know it. In her all-knowing and random wisdom, she giveth and she taketh away. Actually, if truth be known, she mostly taketh. Yet when she does giveth, man does she giveth in a huge way. For that we pay her tribute by exposing the loins of her Gas 2.0 grace. Uhhh… ick. Sorry.
So, before I make myself sick, let me present you with a stroll down the Gas 2.0 memory lane.
Editor’s Note: John is one of the newest additions to the Gas 2.0 writing team. Welcome John!
When Greg Steltenpohl, Chairman and Co-founder of Adina, the San Francisco-based healthy beverage company, does something, one might say he takes it to the extreme.
His company’s tagline, “Drink No Evil”, even applies to their vehicles — including a delivery fleet of electric cars and full-size school bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO), which Adina uses at their tasting events.
I recently had a chance to interview him about his company’s transportation options. Several interesting topics popped up in our chat, including corporate responsibility, greenwashing, and the importance of outreach. Read on to hear more.
According to The Guardian, Fatih Birol, Chief Economist with the International Energy Agency (IEA), has candidly revealed his position that world oil demand will start outpacing supply “around 2020.”
Peak Oil — that most controversial and elusive of concepts. Everybody seems to have their own opinion. There are experts on both sides who alternately claim we have at least 30 years before we reach it and those who claim we’ve already reached it.
So, for a top-level official in an agency with the respect of the IEA to state that we’ll reach an oil supply plateau around 2020 is pretty substantial news — especially considering that his own agency has previously stated that the date was 2030.
It’s been widely reported that President-elect Obama is preparing to announce his selection of Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Chu to serve as his Secretary of Energy. The pick has been hailed by environmental groups, scientists, and even Chinese newspapers. Indeed, looking over one of his old lectures, you can get a good sense of what we have to look forward to under his tenure.
So I came home from work today and saw a woman riding a bike loaded to the gills with cardboard boxes on a heavy duty bike trailer. At first I thought it was just another one of the local crazies that rides their bikes from one side of the town to the other all day long, but I’d never seen her before, and if you’ve lived in my town for as many years as I have, you get to know who our crazies are.
I watched her ride her bike around my neighborhood (it’s a small neighborhood) with a bit of a detached interest as I unloaded things from my car. She stopped every now and then, picked a package out of her clown-car-stuffed trailer and dropped it off at various neighbors’ doors.
To drive or to fly? That is the question. Researchers at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo have predicted that pollution from cars will be the chief global warming agent for the next 100 years. So the green answer is to fly.
The study carried out by CICERO monitored known pollutants in different transport sectors (air, ground, rail, and shipping), and how the global emissions in the year 2000 affects current global temperature. The good news is that pollution from aviation is rather short lived, and not directly linked to long term global warming. According to researcher Jan Fuglestvedt, “air transport has several strong, but short lasting, effects on global temperature.” Read the rest of this entry »
Great Britain hopes that algae-based biofuels can reduce automotive and aviation emissions by 2030, and cut overall emissions by 80% by 2050.
While food-based biofuels are taking the heat for rising food prices, other solutions - like algae - are gaining a more serious following. For example, the UK’s Carbon Trust has announced plans for a project to make algae bio-fuels a commercial reality by the year 2020
But the situation is much more than some “food vs fuel” finger pointing. The fact that transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions is major driving factor - pun intended: it’s also the fastest growing cause of carbon emissions in the UK. If the government’s target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050 is to be met, then initiatives like this are crucial.
The program, called “SmartBiking,” encourages bikers to interact in novel ways including through a Facebook app called “I crossed your path.”
According to Christine Outram, the principal research assistant on the project, the Facebook app creates a “social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections.”
In this world, it’s easy to argue that one can never be too neurotic about our future, as our species has repeatedly shown a lack of foresight into the consequences of its actions. However, in this case, I must argue against his views on lithium’s sustainability. Lithium-ion batteries will only be superceded by superior technology, not by lithium shortage. Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s Zaproot features GO blogs Ecoworldly, Planetsave, and Gas 2.0, and discusses European efforts to address obesity, Ford’s increasing “green” efforts, and Robert De Niro’s restaurant servering an endangered species. Read the rest of this entry »
As governments the world over move to make biofuel mandates, concessions and tax breaks for corn farmers and biofuel industry leaders, a group of scientists is calling for sustainable practices in an industry that that is being driven as an alternative to fossil fuel independence.
The power plant in Boardman, Oregon, is the state’s only coal-fired facility — and also the the state’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. To deal with this problem, Portland General Electric and Columbia Energy Partners have started a pilot project to turn the otherwise nasty emissions into biodiesel, ethanol, and even livestock feed.
The paint fumes contain volatile organic compounds which act as greenhouse gases and pollutants. Typically, these gases would be incinerated, which while better than leaving the VOC’s alone, still produces excessive amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Ford has developed a much cleaner process to dispose of the gases.
As the global market for biofuels heats up, much of the demand for biodiesel is being satisfied by clearing virgin rainforests to create oil palm plantations. But, as it turns out, these plantations are an awful substitute for rainforests.
This is a guest post by Meg Hamill who works at the Environmental non-profit LandPaths, in Sonoma County, California.
Leaders in the aviation industry join together, committing to bring sustainable practices into their fuel supply chain.
For those of us who have taken a flight recently, it’s obvious that the airlines are in trouble. Who ever would have thought that we’d be paying extra for a pillow? Or an aisle seat? With the rise in oil prices, many airlines are seeking out creative ways to stay afloat. Some of these companies are going straight to the heart of the issue, and beginning to investigate a more sustainable fuel supply.
While Boeing has been researching biofuels in the aviation industry for some time, last week’s formation of a new collaborative group ratchets up their commitment to the issue, and brings some key players to the table.
Gas 2.0 digs into the viscous world of biofuels and the fast-paced transit arena, exploring the technologies and substances that are the future of transportation.
