I’ve never fully climbed aboard the biofuel bandwagon. There are just far too many hurdles to . If you rely on corn or sugarcane to produce ethanol fuel additives, food prices will skyrocket – we saw a glimpse of that back in 2007. The biggest problem, however, is ramping up production. A 2009 report estimated that biofuels made up just over 2 million tons of oil equivalent for transport in the European Union while conventional fossil fuels made up more than 310 million tons. The more environmentally sensible way of making biofuels is the so called ‘biomass-to-liquid’ approach, which involves using the left over bits of crop plants to make ‘green gasoline’. This type of biofuel made up about 2,000 tons of the 310 million tons of fuel used in the EU in 2009. As wonderful an idea as it is, biomass fuels are not currently a viable alternative.

I’m happy to be a skeptic, but less comfortable as a cynic. Thus, I decided to check in on to see what the biofuel gang was up to, and even from a skeptic’s viewpoint things are getting interesting. James Dumesic, an engineer at the University of Wisconsin, and his colleagues described a technique that can convert a chemical found in beer, coffee and chocolate directly into liquid hydrocarbons that could be used for fuel.

-valerolactone (GVL) is an aromatic organic liquid that has been proposed to be useful as a fuel additive that can be blended with gasoline. It is reported to be as efficient as ethanol as a fuel additive, but that’s not what we’re talking aboit today.

Dumesic’s paper, published in the most recent issue of Science, describes a method of converting GVL efficiently to a state that can be used directly as transportation fuels without blending. Dumesic’s group describes an improved method to create GVL from two acids which are formed when other acids are used to break down cellulose – plentiful in biomass – into sugars. In effect, what Dumesic has made the whole process more efficient. Rather than making a biofuel that can serve as a fuel additive – reducing the amount of gasoline used in your car – they have developed a process of making a biofuel that can replace the gasoline used in your car.

And that’s not all! The carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct of the process is released as a pure, pressurised steam that Dumesic claims “can potentially be captured and then treated or sequestered to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the process”. Green and clean.

The problem? Well there are a few, but the biggest is still production. You aren’t going to see Dumesic’s biofuel at the pump any time soon. Virent, Dumesic’s spin-off company, was producing one liter of their previous generation biofuel a day in 2009. Even with the more efficient process, their output isn’t likely to get to significant levels any time soon. Still and all, it is baby steps isn’t it?

Image credit

photo credit: Ecovillage at Ithaca, ecovillageithaca.org

Often times, my posts here at The Greenists are inspired by a word or phrase I hear in passing and wonder what it means. I then do a little basic research and a little while later, voila — I’ve got myself a post. Of course, this means a lot of my writing here comes off as Green Topics for Dummies, but hey — I’m a dummy about a lot of stuff, and we can all use a little basic knowledge sometimes. Right? We’ll go with that.

Anyway, I don’t remember where I heard a reference to ecovillages (though I can assure you it was NOT the 1996 Pauly Shore gem known as Bio-Dome), but hear it I did, and so set out to find out what they really are.

Essentially, ecovillages are small communities of people who share common spiritual, economic, and ecological values. Often they see the modern lifestyles embraced by much of the world, including factory farming, consumerism and urban sprawl, as a threat to the natural order of life. Ecovillages are an alternative to modern living, and the goal is often to minimize ecological impact as much as possible. Read more…

I was working really hard to find a different topic to write about, I really was. Pacing about the apartment, zooming around the internet, looking for ideas. But I just couldn’t shake off the Slate piece I read this morning. Really, don’t even bother reading the rest of what I’ve written here; just go read the source (fantastic title, too.)

For everyone looking for ways to get people, all people to care about environmental issues, look no further. We can now stand up to all those who willfully ignore the facts or decide it just doesn’t matter to them, look them in the eye and say “Dude, your son’s gonna have a small penis.”

Read more…

Answer: No. Not yet, anyway.

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time on The Greenists!

No, no, stick around. I’m only kidding. We’ve been hearing a lot about this idea of clean coal lately, with President Obama making it a key part of his energy strategy, and I’ve been seeing commercials for it all over the place. So I decided to do a little research and see if there’s any merit to this. Read more…

I wrote a post inspired by whaling on my personal blog last week and with your forbearance today, I’d like to follow that train of thought and, in the process, change my scientist’s hat for a philosopher’s.

Down on my side of the world, the sinking of the Sea Shepherd ship Ady Gil has received a lot of press and reignited the debate over Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.  Despite prohibitions put in place in the 1980’s by the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese have continued to hunt whales in the waters of Antarctica for ‘research purposes’ (read thinly veiled commercial whaling), much to the chagrin of environmental groups and the Australian and other governments.

Sea Shepherd is a fringe environmental group that confronts whaling vessels and seeks to stop them from killing whales using whatever means necessary. They’ve rammed whaling ships, used lasers to blind sailors, scuttled ships in harbour, and destroyed nets. The group self-identifies as environmental pirates and has been labeled as terrorists by Japanese whalers and Glenn Beck alike. Read more…

Environmentalism, I think we can all agree, is about many things. Responsibility. Health. Saving money, in many cases. Making sure future generations don’t have to struggle to survive in a wasteland. Although it’s controversial in many settings, at its heart, environmentalism is all about peace and love.

So why does it cause so much fighting? Read more…

As an environmentally-minded person, one of the biggest decisions you must make is whether or not to eat meat. Here at The Greenists, we’re aware that a vegetarian diet is much less taxing on the planet than an omnivorous one, and we know how much better it is to eat locally-grown food, but we do not judge others if they choose to eat meat. Heck, I still eat meat, though I’ve cut down my consumption of chicken and pork to only a couple of times a week. I do stay away from red meat, partially because of cholesterol concerns.

Anyway, I just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a popular and somewhat controversial book by Michael Pollan, and I recommend reading it if you’re curious about where your food comes from, or about food in general. In the book, Pollan narrates his quest to track a meal from start to finish, from the live animals to the slaughter to the processing to the plate. It gave me a lot to think about when I visit the grocery store, to say the least.

But it was the last part of the book — the part where Pollan goes hunting for his own meat — that stuck with me the most. Read more…

Here at The Greenists, we write a lot about renewable energy — wind, solar, and other methods that, if used effectively, can allow us to enjoy the comforts to which we’ve become accustomed while also treating our planet a little gentler. Those types of energy are making a surge in popularity right now, but the fact is that coal still supplies a large chunk of our energy. Whether we like it or not, coal is a big part of our lives — it’s still used to produce almost half the energy generated in the United States.

Why is coal so popular? Easy: It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it can be used to create many things. Unfortunately, the way we get coal is not very earth-friendly. The easiest and cheapest way to mine it is to first get a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency, get a bunch of dynamite, and then blow the top off a mountain. It doesn’t take an environmental expert to realize this is not the healthiest thing for our planet or for us; however, according to some experts, the damage may be more widespread than we thought. Read more…

By now you probably already know the basics about the climate change conference: It was held in Copenhagen, it was attended by 193 world leaders, it included a lot of debate about the role of industrialized vs. developing nations, and it’s over now. So now you’re probably wondering … what exactly did these world leaders walk away with?

I’m so glad you asked.

Read more…

It’s no secret that environmental awareness has finally gone mainstream. One area where this is increasingly apparent is green cleaning products. In the past year or two, my local big box retailers have moved the Seventh Generation cleaners out of what my Rush Limbaugh-loving father would consider the “hippie foods” section and incorporated them alongside their popular-since-the-Hoover-administration counterparts in the heart of the store. Not wanting to be left out, familiar brands like Clorox have started selling new products sporting new labels that tout a commitment to natural ingredients and enviro-friendliness. And while these changes are, of course, a sign of progress, the modern world has made me a bit of a cynic, so I can’t help eyeing them with a dose of skepticism.

My wariness is warranted. With so many companies jumping on the green bandwagon, how can we separate the real thing from the green sheen?

Read more…