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What lessons can America learn from Brazil’s energy independence?

Alcohol can lead to all kinds of unintended consequences -- but who knew it could lead to energy independence? Apparently, the Brazilians did. Processing sugar cane into ethanol is expected to help Brazil meet its rising energy demands in a big way. According to an article in the New York Times, officials expect that within a year the country will become fully energy self-sufficient, thanks largely to putting sugar in gas tanks.

Brazil's story is encouraging, but it's hard to know precisely what conclusions to draw for North Americans.

What a Tangled Webby We Weave

Grist nominated for Webby Award — go vote for us! You know how people say, “It’s an honor just to be nominated”? Yeah, well, eff that! We wanna win! So […]

Hell Bent for Leather

Chinese villagers attack polluting leather factories and sewage plant Environmental protests are increasingly common in China, where environmental protection often takes a backseat to cronyism and profit-making. But a group […]

Machu, Machu Man

Enter Grist‘s sweepstakes to win a fantabulous South American eco-trip Grist‘s Great Peru Giveaway is testing our editorial chops by demanding repeated spellings of Machu Picchu. In terms of double-consonant […]

Jeremy Rifkin calls it for hydrogen fuel cells

In an interview with the EU Observer, Jeremy Rifkin says the world is on the verge of a fundamental change:

"We are on the cusp of a new energy regime that will alter our way of life as fundamentally as the introduction of coal and steam power in the 19th century and the shift to oil and the internal combustion engine in the 20th century", argues Mr Rifkin in an interview with the EUobserver.

"The hydrogen era looms on the horizon and the first major industrial nation to harness its full potential will set the pace for economic development for the remainder of the century."

The way I see it, he's right about renewable energy, at least in the long-term. But on the storage end, the struggle is between hydrogen fuel cells and advanced lithium/ion/nano/whatever batteries.

Which do y'all think it will be? Fuel cells or batteries?

(via EnergyBulletin)

Project Energy on WCCO

I don't remember how I came across this. Nor do I know why a local Twin Cities TV station in Minnesota is doing better work on this issue than the national networks. Regardless: check out "Project Energy" from WCCO. There's a whole series of friendly, accessible, and bizarrely progressive segments on the end of oil, the price of gasoline, energy-saving tips, the benefits of mass transit, and more. There's even one on the moral aspects of personal energy choices, with random bits of utilitarianism and Kantian ethics floating around!

If every local station across the country did a series like this, we would be in a much better place. As I say over and over, it's not enough to have facts on your side -- you need trusted voices spreading those facts, and no voice is more trusted and familiar than local TV news.

(Really well-designed website, too. Go Minnesota!)

More on the Center for Consumer Freedom

A while back, Chris asked, "Is FishScam.com a scam?" The short answer is Yes, but there's more to the story.

As a couple of readers pointed out, FishScam is one of many projects of the Center for Consumer Freedom. This SourceWatch page on the CCF is good background. I've also written a little on how the CCF is a background player in the recent "eco-terrorism" scare.

Today, Carl Pope wonders how and why Richard Berman, the driving force behind CCF, seems suddenly flush with cash, buying full-page ads in the New Yorker defending mercury in fish and full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post bashing organized labor. These ads are not cheap, to say the least.

You should read the whole post, but the nut of Pope's theory is that it's tied to the departure of Tom DeLay and the general crumbling of the Republican power structure in Washington:

My own guess is that Abramoff's guilty plea, DeLay's departure, and Berman's sudden wealth are connected. For years, corporate polluters could simply get their business done in Congress by having Jack Abramoff take members of Congress like DeLay on golf trips. Now that the junket strategy has run into trouble, the polluters are back in full public-relations mode, trying to discredit physicians, public health groups, environmentalists, and workers' advocates. Their hope: That we'll have no more credibility with the public than their departed Hammer, Tom DeLay, does.

If it's true, we can expect a flurry of flimflam in coming months. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see anything.

U.S. News & World Report hops on the bandwagon

There's nothing much new in it, but this U.S. News & World Report story on the evolving politics of climate change is yet more evidence that the subject is now squarely on the mainstream media's radar.

Grist nominated for Webby

Grist has been nominated for a Webby award in the magazine category. While the Webbys proper are decided by, uh ... who knows who, there are also the People's Choice awards, which y'all can vote for.

So if you haven't registered, register. And if you haven't logged in, log in. And if you haven't voted, go vote! (For us.)

And when you're done with that, register under a different email address and vote again!

Ha ha! No, no, I kid. That would be cheating. And nobody does that. After all, it would upset the highly scientific nature of these awards.

Anyway, go vote for us. I'll beg if I have to.

Now playing: dh love life

Move over Current TV, lookout Treehugger TV ... here comes Daryl TV! Actually, that's dh love life, Daryl Hannah's weekly video blog, which covers a range of green topics.

Now playing is a piece on vegan junkfood. Previous episodes covered biodiesel and a natural products expo. Upcoming episodes will feature green building and a skater/farmer (organic I presume).

I'm hooked.

(Via TH)