Energy
Fat from surplus, spoiled, or nonfood-grade butter could add to supply of biobased fuel for diesel engines, researchers discover
By Michael Bernstein
eurekalert; American Chemical Society 2010-07-28
Moral licensing is emerging field of study that probes good/bad balance sheet in our heads that allows us to order Quarter Pounder and fries - with Diet Coke
By Michael S. Rosenwald
The Washington Post 2010-07-18
Competing interests - jobs, drinking water safety, water depletion - push Delaware River group to reconsider rules on fracking; drilling firm names chemicals it uses
By Geoff Mulvhill and Marc Levy
The Associated Press; Chicago Tribune 2010-07-14
Water taint, environmental woes, human health problems trail natural gas fracking, which takes 3-8 million gallons of water per well and is used in 90 percent of wells
By Christopher Bateman
Vanity Fair 2010-06-21
Industrial beef, pork, poultry groups tell lawmakers to end, not extend ethanol subsidies, due to expire at end of 2010
By Philip Brasher
The Des Moines Register 2010-04-29
With practicality in mind, growing number of homeowners let sun provide cheap hot water
By Gwendolyn Bounds
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2010-01-28
Analysis: Improving Energy Star ratings for appliance efficiency
Energy Star/Energy Guide program for rating energy efficiency of appliances is inaccurate, unreliable and oversimplified, with manufacturers' claims left unverified. More helpful is EU version. A dishwasher there, for example, is rated on total energy and water consumption, cleaning performance, drying performance, size and noise. At a glance, shopper gets sense of how this dishwasher stacks up against others. And: Energy Star loopholes create skewed ratings (click 'See also').
By Harry Sawyers
Popular Mechanics 2009-08-13
Mountaintop removal battle tests Obama's clean energy vow
Battle over mountaintop removal coal mining will test Barack Obama, who vowed clean energy economy but in May oversaw EPA's OK of 42 permits for mining method that devastates landscapes, uproots hundreds of communities. Peak shearing of up to 1,000 feet buries streams, damages water systems. It deposits selenium, which can cause reproductive ills in humans and is deforming fish, downstream from mine fill sites. Meanwhile, Senate takes up bill (click 'See also') to prohibit mining companies from dumping debris in streams. Almost half of America's electricity is coal-powered.
By Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian (UK) 2009-08-04
Utility turns food waste to energy, compost
Utility uses food waste from San Francisco, Contra Costa County restaurants, commercial food processors to produce green renewable energy, compost. Organic waste is single largest single component of urban municipal solid waste; in U.S., more than 30 million tons of food waste - 18 percent of waste stream - are sent to landfills annually; less than three percent of food waste is diverted from landfills. And: Buying food simply to chuck it is waste of land, water, energy put into growing, processing and transporting it (click 'See also').
Environment News Service 2009-07-15
Opinion: Fighting malnutrition of poverty with fortified foods
Chronic malnutrition in West Africa worsened by high food prices, less money sent home from workers abroad. Lack of micronutrients - iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine - last year may have caused extra 44 million children permanent impairment. Americans typically get micronutrients from fortified foods; same strategy possible in Africa. And: Adding iodide to salt could increase global IQ 1 billion points (click 'See also').
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2009-05-26
EPA to limit power plants' fish-tainting sludge discharge
EPA moves to limit power plants' discharge of selenium-tainted sludge into waterways. Toxin once was spewed into air, but air-pollution controls now capture it as coal ash or sludge. As with mercury, poison builds rapidly in animals' bodies. Birds that eat tainted fish may have deformed beaks, jaws and problems producing viable eggs; humans who eat fish can suffer neurological damage, hair, nail loss. And: Study links deformed fish to selenium-tainted water near mountain-removal coal mining sites (click 'See also').
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post 2009-05-03
After 16 years, Ecuadorian water pollution case in judge's hands
In Ecuador, judge will decide whether Texaco is to blame for pollution of rain forest waterways where tens of thousands used water for drinking, cooking, bathing and some later died. Farm worker activist conducts 'toxic tours' to one massive sludge pool (of hundreds) where waste was dumped into leaky unlined pit. Study under way on effects of pollution on fishing, agriculture. And: Chevron shareholders want report on protection of people, environment in countries where it operates (click 'See also').
By Juan Forero
The Washington Post 2009-04-27
Food to fuel, plans UK supermarket chain
Sainsbury's will turn unsold food into electricity. Food waste - 42 tons weekly - from 28 Scottish stores now, all sites by summer, will become biofuel. Goal: Zero landfill use by end of year. One ton food waste will power 500 homes, save three tons CO2. And: Thirty percent of U.S. food wasted (click 'See also').
BBC News 2009-01-21
Opinion: Tennesee spill shows myth of 'clean coal'
Coal ash spill 50 times larger than that of Exxon-Valdez - now covering 400 acres with toxic sludge oozing toward drinking water for some in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama - calls out 'clean coal' myth. Human nature is to take cheap way today and leave mess for future, but that mess is now. And: High levels of arsenic detected in water near spill; EPA, TVA advise avoiding activities that could stir up drying dust - children playing outside, pets outdoors (click 'See also').
The editors
The Anniston Star 2008-12-30
Coffee for humans, and grounds for fuel
Researchers transform old coffee grounds into biofuel. Spent coffee grounds contain oil similar to other biofuel crops - rapeseed, palm, soybean oil - but high anti-oxidant levels make them more stable. Grounds could add 340 million gallons of biodiesel (which smells like coffee) to global fuel supply, make $8 million-plus a year in U.S.
By Michael Bernstein
American Chemical Society 2008-12-10
Food waste, sewage will power Flint's bus fleet
Sweden town's power production from restaurant waste, slaughterhouse waste and sewage inspires town in Rust Belt to try similar plan for bus fuel. Michigan's governor, whose grandfather was Swedish, learned about alternative fuel technology from diplomat who grew up in Flint.
By Kari Lydersen
The Washington Post 2008-11-02
Fish no match for biofuels byproducts
As biofuels plants open, pollution follows. In Alabama, substance resembling salad dressing repeatedly fouled waterways near the state's first biofuels plant, and for 20 miles downstream, fish died with oil around them. In Missouri's bootheel, illegal dumping kills 25,000 fish and wipes out population of endangered mussel.
By Brenda Goodman
The New York Times 2008-03-11
Much mercury
Eating fish laden with mercury can cause brain damage in adults and fetuses - a Stanford student was temporarily disabled by his four-can-a-day tuna diet. Coal-fired power plants, which supply half the nation's energy, in 2005, dumped nearly 50 tons into the air, which washed into waterways, then into fish. Safe seafood choices: salmon, shrimp, flounder, scallops, anchovies and sardines.
By Larry Wheeler
Gannett News Service, USA Today 2007-10-31
Pass along
With global demand, drought-related crop failure and corn for ethanol replacing food crops, prices rise for wheat, dairy, corn, high-fructose corn syrup and crude oil; processed food and manufacturers begin shrinking packages and/or raising prices, and sales fall.
By Anjali Cordiero
The Wall Street Journal 2007-09-26
Opinion: Gorilla warfare
Though armed and hungry guerrillas with a taste for wild meat often spell doom for mountain gorillas, it's Africa's demand for charcoal - cooking fuel -- that truly is endangering them, leveling forests and spoiling water for drinking and habitats, paleontologist says.
By Richard Leakey
BBC News 2007-09-10
Opinion: Mountaintop mining
Bush administration's proposed legalization of high-altitude strip mining, with follow-up poisoning of Appalachian drinking water and fish habitats with dumped leftovers, will add converts to reaffirmation of Clean Water Act protections.
The editors
The New York Times (may require subscription) 2007-08-27
Grocery bill:
Food prices squeezing family budgets; experts blame high prices for corn, planted over more acreage for animal feed and to feed ethanol craze, as well as fuel costs for transportation.
By Brad Hem
Houston Chronicle (TX) 0000-00-00
Review: No time
Judging from plastic bottles clogging the landfills and SUVs clogging the highways, the news that we're killing ourselves and our world hasn't kicked in, so that makes "The 11th Hour," an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary, essential viewing.
By Manohla Dargis
The New York Times 2007-08-17
Locavore's dilemma:
Local food advocates trumpet food miles, but the Life Cycle Assessment, with comprehensive accounting of all resources that go into food network, from fertilizer to electricity, offers clearer picture; meanwhile, air shipping is the most fuel-intensive, and the fastest growing sector of food transport.
By Drake Bennett
The Boston Globe
Saving water
Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Läckeby Water Group join other food, drink producers in UN agreement to use water more efficiently; lack of access to clean water and sanitation undermines humanitarian, social, environmental, and economic goals.
By Ahmed ElAmin
foodproductiondaily.com
OPINION
Current agricultural policies distort food costs, waste billions of taxpayer dollars, and subsidize a handful of large farming operations that raise a few selected crops - and subvert subsistence farmers across the globe by dumping cheap surplus goods at below-market prices.
By Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Ron Kind
The Modesto Bee (CA) 2007-07-15