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| EcoWorld Magazine 2004 |
 Clean the Ganges- Brook & Gaurav Bhagat, 12-19-04 Over 400 million people live along the Ganges river, and in spiritual and religious significance this river has no equal. Known as the Ganga Ma, or Mother of all Hindus, the Ganges is considered sacred by Hindus. The Ganges is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. To clean the Ganges a most unusual alliance has developed, emanating from the city of Varanasi, which is considered the sacred heart of this sacred river. The Mahant at the Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi is also a scientist, a man who has enjoined the faithful to honor their river by figuring out a way to cleanse her of pollution... |
 Europe Adopts Jatropha- Candida Jones, 12-18-04 Jatropha is an example of a plant that could be grown even if it didn't yield biofuel. It is useful for restoring soil, combatting desertification, and providing fertilizer. It requires minimal inputs of water and grows in extremely poor soil. Any plant that is a cash crop anyway and costs almost nothing to grow can't be a bad candidate for an economically viable biofuel. Distilleries for biofuel exist throughout the world; biofuel is a form of solar energy harvested from the land, and wherever land and water are abundant, biofuel is cheap and the flow never wanes... |
 Beyond the Brooks Range- Daniela Muhawi, 12-18-04 The recoverable oil in Alaska's ANWR refuge, possibly amounting to as much as ten billion barrels, is enough oil to supply the entire needs of the United States for about 18 months. While that sounds trivial, it isn't - at a rate of 1.5 million barrels per day from Alaska, 7.5% of America's oil consumption could be met for over 20 years. Put another way, this much Alaskan oil could reduce American oil imports by about 15%, American imports from the Middle East by over 25%. The effect of Alaskan oil on helping manage oil prices is significant. But so what? Americans could reduce oil consumption far more than Alaska can produce oil, simply by eliminating the SUV's commercial vehicle exemptions from fuel efficiency standards, and by developing hybrid technologies, and by aggressively raising fuel efficiency requirements... |
 Deforesting to Reforesting- Fred & Amy Morgan, 12-18-04 It is common to hear about desertification, but not often is a system explained for running the process of desertification in reverse. None-the-less, when unsustainable rates of land use are replaced with over-sustainable rates of land use, the reverse is possible. By replacing pasture with a tree plantation along the fringes of forest remnants, the plantation trees can be harvested profitably, while leaving significant stands of native trees intact. As one area is profitably converted to forest, the operation can move to new marginal pastureland, and perform the same conversion back to forest. The demand for forest products worldwide, combined with the abundance of available land too depleted to support livestock, and you have a profitable formula for new forests... |
Wind Power in Germany- Gordon Feller, 12-15-04 With single wind turbines now routinely capable of three megawatts of output - enough to power 3,000 homes per turbine - and with lifetime costs in optimal areas now as low as US $.03 per kilowatt hour, wind power has become too cheap and too practical to ignore. No country on earth is more determined to realize the potential of wind energy than Germany, although the Danes and the British are giving them a run for the money. With virtually no energy resources in-country other than coal, and a national consensus that pretty much rules out nuclear power, the wealthy German nation is likely to extend its lead in wind power... |
 Genetically Modified Organisms- Edward Wheeler, 12-15-04 Wheeler can't refute the premise of anti-GMO activists, that "the bar for risk has been raised to the threshold of possible extinction itself" but he is correct that proving a negative - this GMO will never hurt anything - is nearly impossible and the consequence of unfliching adherence to the precautionary principle dooms GMO development, and many other new technologies. The challenges GMO innovations help solve; hunger, disease, scarcity, pollution, poverty, are also grave threats to humanity. Moreover it is crucial that activists distinguish between the economic issues associated with GMOs; globalization and trends towards corporate consolidation of agriculture, and the health and environmental issues surrounding GMOs. These issues are correlated, but are problematic for completely different reasons. They should be separate debates. ... |
 Hydrogen Power in China- Gordon Feller, 10-15-04 Public and private investment in fuel cell development in China over the next few years is projected to be over (US)$500 million. The priority is to develop fuel cells for transportation applications, beginning with busses and electric powered bicycles. Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, creating almost no pollution in the process. The most advanced batteries can only store about 300 watt hours per kilogram, limiting the range of battery-powered electric vehicles. A fuel cell with a hydrogen tank, by contrast, can store about 900 watt hours per kilogram, creating a viable range for bicycles and busses that don't pollute. But hydrogen fuel cell power has daunting technological hurdles that must be overcome before they can help solve pollution or energy challenges... |
 India Gives Biofuels a Chance- Brook & Gaurav Bhagat, 10-15-04 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 the fuel has been extracted. Another concern is the tradeoff between using land to grow food and using land to grow fuel. But what if a plant used to extract biofuel grew on land that was unable to support crops? What if this plant required minimal water and fertilizer inputs? Jatropha, also known as Physic Nut, is a plant which may hold such promise. Able to tolerate arid climates, rapidly growing, useful for a variety of products, Jatropha can yield up to two tons of biodiesel fuel per year per hectare... |
 Refill the Aral Sea- Ed Ring, 9-27-04 The Volga, which has its headwaters on the western slopes of the Urals, has a flow of around 240 cubic kilometers per year and flows into the Caspian Sea. The Ob-Irtysh, drawing its moisture from the vast Central Siberian Plain, has a flow of around 385 cubic kilometers per year and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. These rivers, both of which serve regions with an overabundance of water, could each have under ten percent of their flow tapped and the Aral Sea would get an extra 60 cubic kilometers per year, more than making up for the diversions that have robbed the Aral for all these years. Indeed that was the plan, fifty years ago... |
 Organic by Default- Brook & Gaurav Bhagat, 06-26-04 India's farmers are still mostly practicing organic methods, passed down for millennia. Organic fertilizer and natural pest control are the only tools available to most of these farmers, who have always lacked the financial resources to explore chemical solutions. But these farmers, whose produce is as organic as they come, cannot afford to pay the fees required to gain official certification... |
 Cooperative Reforestation- Fred Brown, 6-26-04 During the last twenty years, as the worldwide destruction of forests has raged worse than ever, restoration of forests has quietly begun. Throughout deforested regions, conversion of land from mono-crops to mixed use, sustainable agro-forestry is yielding a new and improved environment. Not virgin forest, but combined land use, where some land is returned to jungle, some is retained for grazing and agriculture, and some becomes new, sustainably harvested forest... |
 U.K. Developing Wind Energy- Gordon Feller, 6-25-04 Wind power began to be viewed as a serious contender to provide competitively priced renewable energy over 20 years ago, when search for sources of energy to replace fossil fuels began to accellerate. Since these beginnings the Europeans, particularly the Danish and the Germans, have lead the way in developing wind energy. If the U.K. government has anything to say about this, however, that is all going to change. In their favor, the British have the windiest country in Europe. They also have the seafaring tradition which may make them the first to build wind generating platforms in deep salt water, well beyond the 12 mile limit ... |
 Safe Pesticides- Daniela Muhawi, 6-25-04 Organic pesticides are becoming increasingly effective and affordable. They now command over 10% of the pesticide market in the United States. But would an environmentalist endorse an "organic" pesticide that is the product of genetic engineering? That is what a "plant incorporated protectant" is; this class of pesticide relies on genetic pesticidal material being added to the plant. Similarly, what environmentalist would feel comfortable knowing their natural pesticide was what is known as a "microbial pesticide," meaning that the pesticidal material was a fungus, or a virus, or a bacteria? ... |
 China, Canals, and Coal- Gordon Feller, 3-07-04 If each Chinese person were to consume as much energy and water as Americans, they would consume 12 times as much energy per person, and four times as much water. China will have to build as many power plants and water diversion projects as they possibly can if they wish to develop their economy to the level of the major industrialized nations, and that is exactly what they are doing. Hopefully China will take the chance to leapfrog the nations that have already attained high per capita wealth, insofar as she can build today's high-tech cars that don't pollute, and develop today's clean and renewable sources of energy generation... |
 Alien Invasion - Weedy Species- Daniela Muhawi, 3-06-04 Weedy species share the following characteristics (1) they reproduce quickly, (2) disperse widely, (3) tolerate a broad range of habitats, (4) resist eradication. Where these species become established, they kill off native species, monopolizing the ecosystem. They thrive in human dominated terrains. Wherever they go, they tend to survive and then they crowd out native species. But sometimes weedy species help native species; Pigeons who are weedy, are food for Hawks and Falcons, which are native... |
 Vandana Shiva: In Her Own Words- Paolo Scopacasa, 3-06-04 Vandana Shiva, a scientist and activist from India, has become an outspoken critic of privatization, globalization, and genetically-modified crops. Shiva is strident and at times inflamatory but her fundamental arguments are powerful and resonate with millions. It is at our peril when we no longer even ask these questions: What voice do regular people have in today's tidal wave of globalization and privatization? Who speaks for the people on the land from Asia to Africa to the Americas? Should a watershed be sold like any other asset? Are the seeds of seeds that grow someone's property? Paolo Scopacasa's lengthy interview with Vandana Shiva provides a definitive portrait of this controversial figure... |
 Bring Back DDT?- Edward Wheeler, 3-06-04 Is the globe warming? Because if it is, environmentalists, then Malaria and West Nile Virus won't be just stories on television any more. According to Wheeler, the pesticide D.D.T. has gotten a bad rap. Used responsibly, he asserts, D.D.T. is the safest, most inexpensive, and most effective pesticide ever known. Only massive over-use of D.D.T. causes the kind of harm to ecosystems and organisms that got it banned. Meanwhile throughout the tropical world, Mosquito-borne disease is on the rise. These diseases are preventable, and indeed, when D.D.T. was in widespread use, were nearly eradicated... |
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