Editor’s Note: Tell us what you really think, Dr. Wheeler! This scathing, one-sided opinion piece, which could air on any number of American right-wing talk radio shows where environmentalists are routinely derided as “whackos,” nonetheless raises interesting points. To develop policies governing production of food, energy, water, based on the “precautionary principle” [...]

India Gives Biofuels a Chance to Grow

A Small Scale Biodiesel Refinery

Editor’s Note: Critics of biofuel point out the energy and water necessary to produce the feedstock often can exceed the energy value of the fuel produced. But these studies usually ignore the value of the plant mass as animal feed or fertilizer, once [...]

Will Fuel Cells Ever Be Clean, Cheap, Efficient?

Shanghai’s Ultra-Modern Skyline
Rising to Meet the 21st Century

Editor’s Note: Public and private investment in fuel cell development in China over the next few years is projected to be over (US)$500 million. The initial priority is to develop fuel cells for transportation applications, beginning with busses and [...]

RELEASE THE RIVERS: Let the Volga & Ob Refill the Aral Sea

Kyrgyzstan, the Switzerland of Central Asia
Headwaters of the Syr Darya River

The Aral Sea used to be an endless expanse of bountiful waters. Now only burning sands remain, and graveyards of ghost ships. On the salt-saturated seabed where the sea once ran deep, [...]

How To Reduce Startup Costs & Reach Economic Sustainability

The verdant countryside of Costa Rica

Editor’s Note: Throughout the tropics, forests have been devastated by demands from growing human populations for fuel and building materials. Equally significant has been the removal of trees by industrial logging operations. In Central America, these forces have caused [...]