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Philanthropic landowner in Chile needs to get Chileans involved

A New York Times article documents the difficulty Douglas Tompkins is having protecting the thousands of square miles of pristine ecosystems he has purchased in Chile. From a historical perspective, what he has done is old hat. Wealthy individuals from Chinese emperors to British Lords have owned nature preserves. The problem is that things begin to unravel once the originator goes to heaven. One example is a private preserve in 1600s Europe that sheltered the last herd of Auroch. Cave paintings of these now-extinct wild cattle can be found in Southern France. Similarly, the last wild European Bison was killed by poachers on a private preserve in 1927 (they have since been reintroduced into the wild from zoos).

It could happen

Fusion too far in the future? Moving to the moon (or Mars) not an option? Nuclear a big fat no? Skeptical about the hydrogen hype?

Enter chemist Daniel Nocera. His goal: create a renewable energy source by using sunlight to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen.

From the AP (via Wired):

There is a beautiful model for this: photosynthesis. Sunlight kickstarts a reaction in which leaves break down water and carbon dioxide and turn them into oxygen and sugar, which plants use for fuel.

But plants developed this process over billions of years, and even so, it's technically not that efficient. Nocera and other scientists are trying to replicate that -- and perhaps improve on it -- in decades.

Here is where he is today:

Nocera has performed the reaction with acidic solutions, but not water yet. The catalyst he used was a compound that included the expensive metal rhodium. To be a practical energy solution, it will have to be made from inexpensive elements like iron, nickel or cobalt.

Good luck Daniel!

Swag the Dog

Cool new loot offered as inducement to donate to Grist You really want to support fresh, funny environmental journalism. And you really like swag. Donate to Grist (it’s tax-deductible!) and […]

China’s hybrid economy leads to inefficiency

This morning's Washington Post proclaims "Electrical Inefficiency A Dark Spot for China." It seems that lighting up the beautiful Bund comes at the expense of blackouts and brownouts in the less glitzy, more industrial parts of the country. But there's a simple solution:

"A lot of China's energy security problem could be solved if you improved our domestic efficiency," said Yan Maosong, an industrial engineering expert at Shanghai University who advises the central government. "From generation to transmission to power usage, in every link of the chain, our energy industry is not very efficient. Top government leaders have not paid enough attention."

Sound familiar?

Also notable was the article's attribution of China's wastefulness to it's hybrid economy -- a hybrid between "communist roots and a free-market future," that is.

… oh, and R.I.P.

In May of last year, we did a story on Freecycle, the spontaneously organized, voluntary, web-based network devoted to enabling people to give stuff away rather than throw it away.

Then in May of this year, we wrote another story, about Freecycle and its growing pains. On the one hand there was a fight to obtain the trademark to the Freecycle name. On the other hand there was controversy about a $130,000 sponsorship from Waste Management, Inc., the largest garbage company in the U.S.

Well, it appears the former fight has been won and the latter money is being put to good use.

Today we received a letter from "media relations" at Freecycle:

Sweet Chile o’ Mine

Two Americans take political heat for preserving Chilean wilderness Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivitt own more than 2,000 square miles of Patagonian wilderness, and they’re determined to preserve […]

Nukonomics 101

Efficiency much cheaper than nuke power as way to curb carbon emissions The market economics of nuclear power don’t add up to a climate-change solution, particularly when compared to simple, […]

Ursa Rager

Green groups divided over next moves to protect Yellowstone grizzlies A schism is growing in the environmental movement over Bush administration plans to remove Yellowstone’s grizzly bears from the endangered-species […]

Tiny glimmers of goodness in the energy bill

While it's probably not what J.S. had in mind when he asked if he missed anything in his list of good things about the energy bill, I might have one -- scratch that, two.

The first is that the bill contains some tax breaks for those savvy consumers who buy energy-efficient home appliances -- some advice on how to snag the breaks, which can be worth up to $500 a year.

The second is that the bill is drawing attention to the biodiesel debate, thanks to its subsidies requirements for ethanol production -- which leads to cartoons like this one.

On a side note, and making the awkward segue from biodiesel to regular diesel, Michael D. Tusiani notes in the Washington Post this morning that the tax credit for diesel engines matches the one for hybrids at $3,400.

Science and environmentalism: outsourced

Twice now I've tried to make a simple point about evolution, science, and the environment, and, reading them over, twice I've failed.

Luckily (via Wolcott), the delightfully named blogger Kung Fu Monkey has done it for me: