A U.S. startup has developed a process that uses concentrated solar heat to vaporize biomass into synthetic fuels, a system the company says is cleaner and more efficient and can produce twice as much fuel per ton of biomass as existing systems. In the process, a network of solar mirrors direct sunlight at a mounted gasifying unit, heating ceramic tubes to 1,200 to 1,300 degrees C. Any biomass, such as wood and crop waste, that is passed through the tubes becomes vaporized and is converted into synthetic gas, the company says. At such extreme temperatures, the process leaves behind little tar residue, which the developers say can be expensive to get rid of and can kill the catalysts that reform the product into liquid fuel later in the process. And unlike other gasification processes — in which the heating comes from the burning of 30 to 35 percent of the biomass — this system requires no biomass to heat the unit, said Alan Weimer, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who is working with Colorado-based Sundrop Fuels to commercialize the process.

More than one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with consumer goods used in developed nations is actually emitted in other nations where the products are made, according to a new study. In the U.S., about 2.5 tons of carbon produced per person annually — or about 11 percent of U.S. per capita emissions — are emitted elsewhere, researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science say. In Europe, it’s about four tons of carbon per person. In fact, in smaller European nations like Switzerland, the emissions associated with products manufactured outside the borders exceed the actual emissions produced at home. Using 2004 trade data from 113 countries and regions, the authors of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were able to

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Steven Davis/Carnegie Institution for Science'Outsourcing' Carbon Emissions construct a global model of the flow of “imported” and “exported” emissions, most of which are “outsourced” to developing nations. The biggest “importer” by far is China, they said. “Just like the electricity that you use in your home probably causes CO2 emissions at a coal-burning power plant somewhere else, we found that the products imported by the developed countries of western Europe, Japan, and the United States cause substantial emissions in other countries, especially China,” said lead author Steven Davis.

Researchers at IBM and Stanford University say they have found a way to produce plastics that can be recycled continuously or used as higher-value products such as for the pharmaceutical industry. By using organic catalysts in the production of plastic polymers, rather than metal catalysts, the scientists say it is possible to produce a new class of plastics that will not degrade as quickly when recycled, according to a paper published in the journal Macromolecules. “If you use organic reactants, you can make certain types of new polymers that are quite different and have other properties plastics don’t have,” said Chandrasekhar Narayan, who leads the IBM science and technology team in San Jose, Calif. Researchers say these plastics can replace those that are difficult to recycle, such as polyethylene terephthatlate (PET), which is used in common products such as plastic beverage bottles. Currently, the 13 billion plastic bottles tossed away annually in the U.S. can not be reused as bottles, and are difficult to recycle. Narayan predicted that bottles using the new plastics could be recycled for use as automobile parts and that the new plastics could also be used to deliver drugs to treat cancer.

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile last month moved the city of Concepcion, the city closest to the quake’s epicenter, 10 feet to the west and shifted cities across the continent, according to an analysis of global positioning satellite (GPS) data. Santiago, Chile’s capital city, moved nearly a foot, and Buenos Aires, the Argentinean capital located on the other side of the continent, shifted about an inch, say researchers at Ohio State University, one of four universities and several agencies that have been studying the measurements since the Feb. 27 quake. Valparaiso, Chile, shifted 11 inches to the west and and Mendoza, Argentina, moved

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University of HawaiiSeismic effects of Feb. 27 earthquake 3.5 inches in the same direction, said Michael Bevis, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State who has measured crustal motion and deformation in the central and southern Andes since 1993. The massive quake occurred when the Nazca tectonic plate was subducted beneath the adjacent South American plate. Researchers compared GPS locations known prior to the quake with those recorded 10 days later. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, dozens of aftershocks have occurred in the days since the initial quake, some exceeding a magnitude of 6.0.

Wind power generation in Texas is growing so quickly that it is testing the limits of the state’s electrical grid. The state set a record on March 5 when wind turbines generated 6,272 megawatts of energy, or about 19 percent of the electricity on the state’s main power grid. That peak far exceeded the 6.2 percent average for wind power in Texas, whose 9,410 megawatts of total wind capacity make it the nation’s wind power leader. But wind power’s growth poses a critical challenge for the state’s booming wind industry, which includes a 180-megawatt wind farm completed last fall near Corpus Christi in South Texas. On some days wind turbines are slowed or shut down because the state doesn’t have enough transmission wires to send the energy from remote areas, where wind resources are great, to cities that need it, including Dallas and Houston. The state is planning to spend more than $5 billion to expand and update its transmission system.

A California-based startup company claims it has developed an improved version of the internal combustion engine that boosts gas mileage by more than 50 percent and enabled a prototype vehicle to get 64 miles per gallon on the highway in recent test drives. Transonic Combustion, backed by Vinod Khosla and other venture capitalists, says it has invented a new fuel injection system that heats and pressurizes gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, placing the fuel in a “supercritical” state that allows for clean and fast combustion. Once the fuel is injected into the piston, the heat and pressure enable the fuel to combust Transonic CombustionTransonic Combustion’s new fuel-injection technology without a spark. Ignition also can be timed to occur just when the piston reaches its optimal point, further improving fuel efficiency. Transonic said that it plans to build its first factory in 2013 and begin producing cars in 2014. One key question is what impact the increased temperature and pressure of the gasoline will have on the life expectancy of an engine. William Green, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Transonic’s new engine is one of many being developed to significantly boost the fuel efficiency of engines. “It’s a time of renaissance for internal combustion engines,” said Green.

Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem. BY JON R. LUOMA

Methane, a gas with at least 25 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, is leaking through a layer of thawing, sub-sea permafrost that has long acted as a barrier over a reservoir of methane in the East Siberian Arctic, according to a new study. Further destabilization of the permafrost barrier on the Arctic shelf “could trigger abrupt climate warming,” scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center said. Sizable methane leaks have recently been discovered in other Arctic regions, and the University of Alaska researchers took air and water measurements of methane at 5,000 sites from 2003 to 2008 along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. The scientists say that roughly 7 to 11 million tons of methane are now leaking through the shelf in East Siberia annually, a small amount compared to man-made carbon-dioxide levels released worldwide. Levels of methane in the atmosphere above the Arctic have reached 1.85 parts per million, nearly three times the global average, and methane levels in East Siberia are 2 parts per million or more, said Natalia Shakhova, a researcher at the University of Fairbanks and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Science. “Our concern is that the sub-sea has been showing signs of destabilization already,” Shakhova told reporters. “It if further destabilizes, the methane emissions... would be significantly larger.” The methane was formed by the decay of plant matter that accumulated in the soil of the Arctic shelf when it was peatland above sea level.

The World Resources Institute has launched a website that maps forests in the southern United States, which produce more pulp for paper than any place on Earth. Using satellite imagery, GoogleEarth technology, and decades of forest data, the site — SeeSouthernForests.org — depicts threats to the region’s forests including pest and pathogen outbreaks, wildfire, logging, and human development, the leading cause of deforestation in the South. About 27 percent of forests in the region are owned by companies and financial institutions, while individuals and families still

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NASADeforestation and urbanization of Atlanta, Georgia own about 60 percent. “Surveys indicate that most families want to pass their forests on to the next generation,” said Todd Gartner, manager of Conservation Incentives at the American Forest Foundation. “However, with increasing development pressure, market-based incentives are needed to ensure that private forests remain as forests.” WRI officials hope the new online resource will illustrate the history of these forests, and help landowners better understand how numerous forces are affecting the region.

Four Democratic U.S. senators have asked the Obama administration to stop investment in wind power and other renewable energy projects until the government ensures that the projects primarily use U.S. labor and materials. The senators, led by U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, introduced legislation requiring that economic stimulus funds only be spent on clean-energy projects that use materials made in the U.S. and that create a majority of jobs in America. The four senators also asked Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to apply the so-called “Buy America” provision to all future energy projects funded under the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program. The senators are attempting to require “Buy America” provisions after learning that 75 percent of the $2 billion spent on wind energy projects supported by the stimulus program reportedly went to foreign companies. Schumer said that a $1.5 billion West Texas wind project using Chinese-built turbines would create 3,000 jobs in China and only 300 in the United States. But the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group, harshly criticized the senators’ actions, saying that invoking the “Buy America” provision would “torpedo one of the most successful job creation efforts of the Recovery Act” by driving away foreign investment in U.S. wind farms.

Normal.dotm 0 0 1 43 246 Yale University 2 1 302 12.1 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable       {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";       mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;       mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;       mso-style-noshow:yes;       mso-style-parent:"";       mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;       mso-para-margin:0in;       mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;       mso-pagination:widow-orphan;       font-size:12.0pt;       font-family:"Times New Roman";       mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;       mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;       mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";       mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;       mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;       mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;       mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";       mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The obscenely profitable market for bluefin tuna in Japan has led to years of overfishing and left the world’s bluefin population badly depleted. A ban on the bluefin trade, if adopted at international talks this month, would go a long way toward giving this magnificent fish a chance to recover. BY CARL SAFINA

The British government will introduce legislation that would tie new, subsidized loans for energy efficiency to a house, rather than a current owner, a move that could make energy retrofits far more affordable for most homeowners. Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband said the new legislation would enable homeowners to take out long-term loans at lower interest rates and thus encourage homeowners to make energy-efficiency improvements that they might otherwise not have made had they planned to sell their houses in a few years. “The key thing is... to ensure that the repayments are attached to the house, not the person,” said Miliband. Marian Spain, director of strategy at the Energy Saving Trust — which advises the government — said local governments could set rates for subsidized energy efficiency loans at levels that would enable households to repay their loans from resulting energy savings. Meanwhile, in Sweden, the government announced that it would build 2,000 large wind turbines over the next decade to help the country meet its goal of generating 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Although they have grown up during an era when global warming has emerged as a major issue, Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are relatively apathetic about the threat, according to a new survey. And even when they do think about it, young Americans are just as divided as older Americans about whether global warming is real, according to results of the survey conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Adults under 35 are significantly less likely than older Americans to say they have thought about global warming, with 22 percent saying they have never thought about the issue. Only 38 percent of younger Americans say they had previously thought about global warming either “a lot” or “some,” compared to 51 percent of those aged 35 to 59. And 54 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 said they were not at all worried or not very worried about global warming. Nearly two-thirds of younger Americans said they were unsure whether global warming is real, with 20 percent saying they didn't know enough to make a judgment and 40 percent saying that there is a lot of disagreement among scientists on the issue. Watch a debate on the ramifications of the poll. Watch a debate on the ramifications of the poll.

Bill Gross made his fortune in the Silicon Valley, creating his Idealab business incubator and launching start-ups like GoTo.com. Now Gross has turned his attention to renewable energy, and in a big way. He has founded the electric car company, Aptera, and created Energy Innovations, which is developing advanced photovoltaic technology. But his biggest success to date is eSolar, which builds industrial-scale solar power plants. Using sophisticated software and imaging technology, eSolar deploys tens of thousands of mirrors IdealabBill Gross. to focus the sun’s rays on a water-filled boiler that heats steam to create electricity. The company has signed deals to build major solar installations, including one in China that will generate electricity equivalent to the output of two large nuclear power plants. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Gross discusses the future of solar energy, his relationship with Google, and how to keep solar power from spreading into pristine desert.
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After making his fortune with Idealab and a host of technology start-ups, Bill Gross has turned his attention to renewable energy. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Gross talks about the solar power plant technology his company eSolar is developing and about the future of solar. BY TODD WOODY

After sequencing the mitochondrial DNA of an ancient polar bear, scientists have determined that the great Arctic bears probably split off from brown bears roughly 150,000 years ago, far more recently than previous estimates. The ancient bear’s DNA was decoded after scientists on Norway’s Spitzbergen Archipelago made a rare find of a polar bear jawbone estimated to be 110,000 to 130,000 old. By comparing the ancient bear’s DNA with that of two modern polar bears and four brown bears, researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo estimated that polar bears split off from brown bears 150,000 years ago at a time when a colder climate made it advantageous for polar bears to specialize in Arctic living. Scientists say the research shows that polar bears — which can successful breed with brown bears — may survive in some form during the present era of warming by mating with brown bears. In a separate study, scientists have determined that Costa Rica’s golden tree frog, which went extinct in the late 1980s, was the victim of an outbreak of chytrid fungus exacerbated by extremely dry weather associated with an El Nino weather pattern. Some scientists have blamed the frog’s demise on global warming, but the recent study suggests warming was not the chief culprit. Both studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Male frogs exposed to atrazine, an herbicide commonly found in U.S. waters, can become completely feminized by the time they are adults, a new study says. The hormonal reversal can be so complete, in fact, that these frogs can mate with other male frogs and lay eggs, according to the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The weed killer, produced by Swiss-based Sygenta, was re-approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2006. But recent studies show the chemical may interfere with the hormone systems of fish, birds, rats, and frogs. The most recent research, conducted by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, WikimediaThe African clawed frog examined the effects on 40 African clawed frogs exposed to the chemical as tadpoles. While all of the frogs carried male chromosomes initially, about 10 percent became “functionally female” as they developed, and were able to produce viable eggs after mating, said Tyrone Hayes, the lead author. The other 90 percent retained male characteristics, but often had lower testosterone levels. “It’s a chemical... that causes hormone havoc,” Hayes said.

These images vividly illustrate that the tsunami waves generated by the recent Chilean earthquake were far less severe than the waves created by a massive earthquake in Chile in 1960, the largest quake ever recorded. A model created by the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Agency's Center for Tsunami Research in the hours after the recent earthquake, which measured 8.8 on the Richter Scale, provided an accurate forecast of the relatively mild tsunami waves that eventually reached Hawaii and other Pacific coastal communities. Using seismic information, wave measurements collected from

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NOAATsunamis triggered by Chile earthquakes, 1960 and 2010 buoy-based equipment, and computer modeling technology, NOAA was able to forecast the maximum wave amplitude, wave arrival time, and the extent of wave inundation. The image, at right, shows the power of the tsunami waves from the recent quake, with larger waves in red and orange and smaller waves in yellow. Using historical data, NOAA researchers used the same software to illustrate the extent of a tsunami triggered by the 1960 quake — 9.5 on the Richter Scale — whose tsunami waves killed 61 people in Hawaii and another 185 in Japan. The image at left shows the power of the 1960 quake, with extremely large waves depicted in black, gray, and purple. The image shows that high waves, in dark red, swept across the entire Pacific following the 1960 quake.

Even though China does not border the Arctic Ocean, Chinese officials and scientists are quietly preparing to exploit the commercial and strategic opportunities that will arise from an ice-free Arctic in summer, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The report said that by 2013 China is expected to complete construction of a high-tech icebreaker for polar exploration and that China is seeking a more active role in the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body that deals with issues faced by Arctic nations. Some Chinese researchers are urging a shift from scientific study of the Arctic to the study of resource exploration, according the report. Linda Jakobson, the report’s author, said that China is “keen to have the right to access natural resources” in the Arctic, including oil and minerals. China, whose economy is heavily reliant on shipping, would benefit greatly from an ice-free Arctic, which would cut the Shanghai-Hamburg shipping route by 4,000 miles and would avoid pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa. The Arctic is expected to be largely ice-free in summer within a decade or two.

Coral reef ecosystems within marine protected areas are more likely to remain healthy and even recover from overfishing and other threats, according to a new study. In an analysis of reefs worldwide, researchers at the University of North Carolina found that prevention of overfishing and other activities — such as pollution from sediment and nutrient runoff, and damage from anchors — helps restore populations of overharvested fish and invertebrates, and thus indirectly protects coral reef food webs. The study, which was published in the journal PloS ONE, is the first comprehensive global analysis of the role of marine protected areas in preventing coral reef decline. The researchers compiled

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PLoS ONEGlobal survey of coral reefs a database of 8,534 live coral reef surveys from 1969 to 2006, and compared changes to coral reefs within 310 marine protected areas and in unprotected areas. Typically, coral cover within the protected zones remained constant, while cover on unprotected reefs declined. Additionally, researchers found that coral reef recovery does not begin immediately, even within marine protected areas. “Several years later, however, rates of coral cover decline slowed and then stabilized so that further losses stopped,” the authors said.