Brazil defends ethanol in food-versus-fuel fight: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says the bad publicity is unwarranted and uninformed. Many biofuel experts agree. Critics, they say, fail to distinguish between the different kinds of ethanol. Brazilian ethanol from sugar cane is up to eight times more energy efficient to produce than ethanol derived from corn, beets, wheat, or other temperate crops. [CSM]
Oxygen-starved ocean ‘deserts’ emerging: Underwater “deserts” are emerging in tropical oceans as the oxygen vanishes from seawater, warns a new study. One of the consequences of a changing climate, the warmer oceans, is causing a decrease in the oxygen concentration and creating oxygen-starved, or “hypoxic” conditions underwater. [Telegraph]
Breeding toxins from dead PCs: Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash. [Guardian]
Air Pollution Impedes Bees’ Ability to Find Flowers: Air pollution interferes with the ability of bees and other insects to follow the scent of flowers to their source, undermining the essential process of pollination, a study by three University of Virginia researchers suggests. [Washington Post]
Antarctic Penguins Reveal Steady DDT Levels: Although use of the pesticide DDT was banned in the Northern Hemisphere in the 1970s, and DDT levels in the Arctic have declined steadily since then, new measurements show that DDT levels in Antarctic Adélie penguins have remained constant. [Discovery]
Leave a Comment