The Recovery Scenario is more than just wishful thinking. Rather,
it's an irrational, optimistic belief in fundamental human
sanity.
The trend lines, for those who are paying attention, are quite
bleak. But the ApocoDocs remember that Lake Erie was declared
dead from pollution back in the 70s, yet managed to recover. So
we have hope that we haven't tipped past the tipping point in the
natural world, and that humankind can wake up and repair the
damage we've done. Or, if we have indeed passed some tipping point,
we can move quickly enough to mitigate the impending harm.
Recovery will require sacrifice. This will be difficult for the
generations spoiled by the last fifty years of cheap energy,
bountiful resources, and seemingly limitless capacity for
economic growth. Like a spoiled boy stomping his little foot,
they will believe that they have the natural right to commute
alone in SUVs, the right to convenience at the expense of nature,
the right to dispose of anything they no longer want, the right
to eat fresh fruit in January. Perhaps like that spoiled boy, we
can grow up, and realize that there are limits.
Recovery will require a societal awakening. We need to become
disgusted with ourselves, and embarrassed by what we've done. We
must identify the polluters, and demand they stop -- recognizing
that consumer prices will rise. We will need to find social
systems and economic rewards to motivating right action, and
disregard namecalling regarding "tree huggers" and
"eco-nazis." We must
recognize that occasional terrorist outbreaks are nothing
compared to the terror of environmental collapse.
Recovery will require political action. Small farms should get
more tax benefits than factory farms, penalties for waste must be
devised, carbon taxes must continue to be developed. Mostly, it
will require a common vision that extends beyond the next
political cycle.
Recovery will require scientific action. We must listen to
experts, even if it hurts. It will require encouraging engineers
to develop small-scale and large-scale solutions. It will require
the wealthy world to provide affordable options to the poor
world, so they don't repeat our mistakes.
Above all, recovery will require recognition -- that we all face
up to what we've done, what we're doing, and what will happen if
we don't change. This may be the most difficult task ahead of us.
We are hypothesizing, over the next ten years, the following
scenario:
- Leaders are elected who are willing to risk their offices to
save humanity.
- Small-scale farming, even backyard gardening, is encouraged by
tax benefits and small-business loans
- Small-scale energy options -- backyard wind and solar power --
are similarly encouraged
- The EPA is given power to meaningfully penalize toxic
effluviant
- Genetically modified crops are labeled as such
- Over five years, federal gasoline taxes rise to $5/gallon, to
be used for environmental reparations
- Telecommuting replaces commuting for most white-collar jobs
- Internet/cellphone systems are developed to allow share-a-ride,
bring-the-groceries, and other means of making any drive serve
multiple purposes
- Intense efforts are initiated, regardless of the cost, to scrub
CO2
from coal-fired plants
- An increase in vegetarian diets decreases the demand for beef
- Rainforest logging is stopped worldwide, via support from the
developed nations
- Local, community-based systems for sharing large tools,
tillers, canoes, and more, decreases idle consumption
- Recycling increases, but more importantly, biodegradable
materials are used at the consumer level: no more plastic sacks,
no more plastic plates, no more plastic cups
- A toxin tax is developed, to build the "true cost" of poisoning
the world into the economy
- Public health systems worldwide integrate to recognize and
respond to viral and bacterial outbreaks
- We acknowledge that we have to pay, for the next fifty years,
for the environmental and economic debt accumulated during the
wild party of the last fifty years.
If we can make these, and other changes, then we can help repair
the world. The enemies of recovery are those who have a vested
interest in maintaining the current, wasteful, toxic,
unsustainable system. These enemies have trillions of dollars of
investment in that system, and will struggle mightily -- as they
did on climate warming for the last thirty years -- to confuse
the issue, ridicule the opposition, lobby state and federal
politicians, and avoid responsibility.
We must not let them.
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| Recent Recovery News |
Go green and stay out of the red
Environmental measures could be the answer to combating the downturn with new research launched today showing that waste prevention, using less raw material and energy recovery will be crucial to saving UK companies money in the face of economic recession.... The research, says Envirowise, shows growing recognition that waste minimisation and resource efficiency have become business imperatives in the current economic climate if companies are going to reduce costs and keep up their green credentials.
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Slow Food movement could finally be picking up speed in the United States
Slow Food USA is about to make its first major foray into the U.S. cultural and political scenes. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend Slow Food Nation over Labour Day weekend in San Francisco, a Woodstock-like festival and symposium meant to underscore the connection between planet and plate.
It's the first serious test of whether Slow Food - a philosophy born in Europe and often hobbled by a snob factor - can evolve into a movement capable of altering the appetite of the average American....
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PANIQuiz for August 18-25 now available
What is Ecojel? Why has the Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit against the EPA? What does Carbonfootprint.com have to say about Madonna's world tour carbon footprint? According to the Institute of Polar Environment, how is arsenic getting into Antarctic soil? These questions and more, for your entertainment and dismay.
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Future for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution
Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade understanding the fundamental reaction of photosynthesis that evolved in cyanobacteria 3.7 billion years ago, which for the first time used water molecules as a source of electrons to transport energy derived from sunlight, while converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.... For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates.
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New rays of hope for solar power's future
"From five miles away, the Nevada Solar One power plant seems a mirage, a silver lake amid waves of 110 degree F. desert heat. Driving nearer, the rippling image morphs into a sea of mirrors angled to the sun.
As the first commercial "concentrating solar power" or CSP plant built in 17 years, Nevada Solar One marks the reemergence and updating of a decades-old technology that could play a large new role in US power production, many observers say...
Spread in military rows across 300 acres of sun-baked earth, Nevada Solar One’s trough-shaped parabolic mirrors are the core of this CSP plant – also called a "solar thermal" plant. The mirrors focus sunlight onto receiver tubes, heating a fluid that, at 735 degrees F., flows through a heat exchanger to a steam generator that supplies 64 megawatts of electricity to 14,000 Las Vegas homes."
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Biodiesel Byproduct Converted Into Omega-3 Fatty Acids
The typical American diet often lacks omega-3 fatty acids despite clinical research that shows their potential human health benefits. Zhiyou Wen, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, found a way to grow these compounds using a byproduct of the emerging biodiesel industry.
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A new biopesticide for the organic food boom
With the boom in consumption of organic foods creating a pressing need for natural insecticides and herbicides that can be used on crops certified as "organic," biopesticide pioneer Pam G. Marrone, Ph.D., is reporting development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of the giant knotweed.... "The product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment," says Marrone... The new biopesticide has active compounds that alert plant defenses to combat a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals.
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Japan to launch carbon footprint labelling scheme
Japan is to carry carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products in an ambitious scheme to persuade companies and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The labels, to appear on dozens of items including food and drink, detergents and electrical appliances from next spring, will go further than similar labels already in use elsewhere.
They will provide detailed breakdowns of each product's carbon footprint under a government-approved calculation and labeling system now being discussed by the trade ministry and around 30 firms.
The labels will show how much carbon dioxide is emitted during the manufacture, distribution and disposal of each product, the ministry said.
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A better way to make hydrogen from biofuels
Researchers here have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently.
A new catalyst makes hydrogen from ethanol with 90 percent yield, at a workable temperature, and using inexpensive ingredients.
Umit Ozkan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, said that the new catalyst is much less expensive than others being developed around the world, because it does not contain precious metals, such as platinum or rhodium. "Rhodium is used most often for this kind of catalyst, and it costs around $9,000 an ounce," Ozkan said. "Our catalyst costs around $9 a kilogram."
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Green catalysts provide promise for cleaning toxins and pollutants
Tetra-Amido Macrocyclic Ligands (TAMLs) are environmentally friendly catalysts with a host of applications for reducing and cleaning up pollutants, and a prime example of "green chemistry".... The oxidation catalysts are the first highly effective mimics of peroxidase enzymes. When partnered with hydrogen peroxide, they are able to convert harmful pollutants into less toxic substances.
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Green burials cost less and are earth-friendly
"...Though burials come in many shades, the greenest involve cemeteries that look less like golf courses and more like nature preserves, caskets made of cardboard and bodies that aren't juiced up with embalming fluids -- all at a fraction of the cost of a traditional burial... Not confined to the tree huggers of the Pacific Northwest, green cemeteries have opened in places such as the South Carolina foothills and northeastern Ohio."
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National Trust cuts plastic bags by 95 per cent with 5p charge
Its clampdown on the "plastic poison", blamed for harming wildlife and blighting the environment, follows similar successes at High Street stores and supermarkets across the country.... Thousands of customers have opted to either recycle old bags or invest in hessian and canvas, and the Government has warned of a mandatory charge for those retailers who do not get onboard the anti-waste bandwagon.
The National Trust as part of a wider campaign to become more environmentally-friendly.
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High gas prices cut driving for 8th month: government
Americans scaled back their driving during June by almost 5 percent in response to soaring fuel costs, the government said on Wednesday -- a day after announcing the biggest six-month drop in U.S. petroleum demand in 26 years...."Changes in consumer behavior have essentially erased five years of growth in gasoline demand," the American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday in a separate report that showed gasoline use during the first seven months of 2008 fell by 2.1 percent to the lowest level for the period in five years.
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First Ever National Initiative to Establish Sustainable Agriculture Standard (SCS-001) Enters Next Important Phase
Sustainability is widely understood to encompass environmental, social, and economic parameters, dating back to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. For agricultural products, safety and quality parameters are also a key part of the sustainability discussion. SCS-001, the draft standard that will serve as the starting point for discussions, also addresses the impacts of product packaging, the responsibilities of the supply chain, and agricultural practices that can minimize greenhouse gases.
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Victory gardens popular again
In the days of my childhood, during World War II, Victory Gardens were the height of popularity and patriotism. Now Americans' thinking has come full circle, and I see and hear the term "victory garden" frequently.
Victory gardens, where Americans raised their own fruit and vegetables, often the first time for many, were commonplace during those war years. Some also planted flowers for cheer in an uncertain world of black-outs and food shortages and rationing.... Today, with gas and food, not necessarily rationed, but definitely at higher prices, more people have been thinking about raising and preserving their own food this summer. The term of 65 years ago came to someone's mind, so they're referred to these as Victory Gardens again, when people, who have never done so or rarely, begin planting gardens.
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Humpback whales make a comeback
Humpback whales are making a comeback more than 40 years after a ban on commercial hunting was brought in to save them from extinction.
Marine biologists estimate that the number of humpbacks worldwide may have grown to more than 40,000 adults and about 15,000 juveniles, following the ban that began in the 1960s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has revised its classification of the whales as "vulnerable" to "of least concern" on its latest annual list of endangered animals.
The southern right whale population has also begun to recover -- the number of these is believed to have doubled from 7,500 in 1997.
Randall Reeves of the IUCN said: "This is a great conservation success and shows what needs to be done to ensure these ocean giants survive."
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"Anti-noise" silences wind turbines
IWU researchers have developed an active damping system for wind turbines.... "These systems react autonomously to any change in frequency and damp the noise -- regardless of how fast the wind generator is turning," says Illgen. The key components of this system are piezo actuators. These devices convert electric current into mechanical motion and generate "negative vibrations," or a kind of anti-noise that precisely counteracts the vibrations of the wind turbine and cancels them out.
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Landmark Ruling Requires Aggressive Action to Protect Puget Sound from Stormwater
In a landmark decision, the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board today issued a ruling requiring that cities and counties around Puget Sound take more aggressive steps to reduce stormwater runoff. The board struck down provisions in two regionwide permits as inadequate, and concluded that greater use of "low impact development" techniques is required to meet the governing legal standards. The permits are issued by the state Department of Ecology, which must now reissue them.
"This is a great day for Puget Sound," said Kathy Fletcher, Executive Director of People for Puget Sound. "This ruling gets us one big step closer to the Puget Sound Partnership's goal of recovering Puget Sound by 2020."
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Recyclers are cashing in on the fortune in your bin
... Many are locked into 20 to 30-year contracts with recycling companies and are unable to cash in on the higher cost of plastic and copper.
As the cost of commodities rises it increasingly makes sense for manufacturers to retrieve materials from rubbish instead of buying them new. Town hall leaders have told The Times that the sector is missing out on millions of pounds that would come from trading commodities themselves or negotiating better contracts. They said that such profits could go to improving local services and even cutting bills... Westminster council, which has a seven-year contract to share profits as prices rise, believes that town halls are sitting on a fortune. "Where there's muck there's brass," Mark Banks, Westminster's waste strategy manager, said. Any profit made will be ploughed back into services or to lower council tax rises, he said.
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Military wants to lead U.S. into the green
"The U.S. military has a history of fostering change, from racial integration to development of the Internet. Now, Pentagon officials say their green energy efforts will help America fight global warming. By size alone, the Defence Department can make waves. It accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption."
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Massive Numbers Of Critically Endangered Western Lowland Gorillas Discovered In Republic Of Congo
"The world's population of critically endangered western lowland gorillas recently received a huge boost when the Wildlife Conservation Society released a census showing massive numbers of these secretive great apes alive and well in the Republic of Congo."
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Polluted Ganges must be cleaned, gurus demand
"A coalition of gurus has issued an ultimatum to India's fragile Government: purify the chronically polluted Ganges, the river revered by Hindus, or face protests and political ruin.
Ganga Raksha Manch, a newly formed alliance of celebrity holy men, is demanding urgent action to cleanse the holy waterway, which has become a noxious cocktail of human and industrial waste, before a general election that must be held before May."
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Genetically Modified Root Systems Result In Plants That Survive With Little Water
"A part of the global food crisis is the inefficiency of current irrigation methods. More irrigated water evaporates than reaches the roots of crops, amounting to an enormous waste of water and energy. Tel Aviv University researchers, however, are investigating a new solution that turns the problem upside-down, getting to the root of the issue. They are genetically modifying plants' root systems to improve their ability to find the water essential to their survival."
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Pickens, Gore Sidestep Differences in Alternative-Energy Quest
"The most unlikely alliance in this election year hasn't come out of any political campaign. It's in the convergence of interests between billionaire oilman and Republican Party backer T. Boone Pickens and former vice president turned environmentalist Al Gore.
Gore, the Democratic Party's 2000 standard-bearer, and Pickens, who helped bankroll the group that questioned Democrat John Kerry's war record in the 2004 presidential race, are pursuing separate paths toward a shared goal: cutting U.S. dependence on oil."
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Senate Passes Bill That Would Protect Great Lakes
Efforts to protect the Great Lakes from those who may covet their vast quantities of water for an increasingly thirsty world took a major step forward Friday as the Senate passed legislation endorsing the Great Lakes Basin Compact.
The broad multi-state agreement would ban most diversion of Great Lakes water to any place outside the basin and would mandate conservation efforts inside it. Despite what some criticized as significant loopholes in the measure, House leaders said the bill would be a priority after the five-week congressional recess, and President Bush has said he would sign it.
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The emerging scientific discipline of aeroecology
Organisms that use the aerosphere, specifically arthropods, birds and bats, are also influenced by an increasing number of anthropogenic or man-made conditions and structures, notably lighted towns and cities, air pollution, skyscrapers, aircraft, radio and television towers, plus a recent proliferation of communication towers and wind turbines that dot the Earth's landscape.
In addition, human-altered landscapes increasing are characterized by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, and assorted industrial activities that are rapidly and irreversibly transforming the quantity and quality of available terrestrial and aquatic habitats which airborne organisms rely upon. These conditions are known to influence navigational cues, sources of food, water, nesting and roosting habitats--factors that can, in turn, alter the structure and function of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the assemblages of organisms.
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Host of new pylons to carry wind farm power
A report due this autumn will warn that if Britain is serious about a low-carbon economy then it must string potentially thousands of miles of new high-voltage power cables across the country. The infrastructure is vital, experts say, because most renewable energy will be generated in remote areas such as northern Scotland or the North Sea – whereas most consumers live in southern Britain.... "We are moving from a system dominated by a small number of large power stations to something far more diverse. Our network needs to adapt rapidly to those changes."
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Building a Greener America
"Forget the common icons of global warming. Fuming tailpipes and industrial smokestacks, it turns out, are less culpable for climate change than a set of offenders hidden in plain sight: buildings. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, buildings are responsible for almost half of all annual greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., consuming more than three-quarters of all the electricity produced by American power plants."
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Major Discovery From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution
"In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine."
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Online Hitchhiking
"If you're really trying to save on gas you might like to know that there's a new way to hitchhike... ZimRide allows people to find rides online."
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Northern Wildfire Smoke May Delay Arctic Warming
The Arctic may get some temporary relief from global warming if the annual North American wildfire season intensifies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado and NOAA. Smoke transported to the Arctic from northern forest fires may cool the surface for several weeks to months at a time, according to the most detailed analysis yet of how smoke influences the Arctic climate relative to the amount of snow and ice cover.
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Green, Greener, Greenest
"...Green is good for the planet, but also for a college's public image. In a Princeton Review survey this year of 10,300 college applicants, 63 percent said that a college's commitment to the environment could affect their decision to go there."
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New Material May Help Autos Turn Heat Into Electricity
"Researchers have invented a new material that will make cars even more efficient, by converting heat wasted through engine exhaust into electricity. In the current issue of the journal Science, they describe a material with twice the efficiency of anything currently on the market."
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Cow power could generate electricity for millions, US study shows
"...Scientists have calculated for the first time how much of a country's electricity needs could be provided from the manure of cattle and other livestock. They estimate that 3 per cent of America's total electricity demand could be created from animal waste, enough to power millions of homes and businesses... Broken down and then burnt, the scientists estimate that the manure from hundreds of millions of livestock in America could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year."
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Paying to save tropical forests could reduce carbon emissions
Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests.
It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate. If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between 2 and 10 percent.
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Sockeye come back in record numbers
One of the great fish surprises in years has landed in the Northwest: Sockeye salmon, an ocean-going species that starts and ends its life hundreds of river miles inland, have swum their way up the Columbia River this summer in numbers unseen in five decades.
No one knows exactly why. Some say it's because federal courts ordered the release of extra water over dams in 2006 and 2007 to make passage easier when the fish were young and migrating to sea. Others cite improved ocean conditions.
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A recession will give ecological development a new life
"This is an opportunity to think strategically about development," says environmental adviser Chris Baines. "Sites where biodiversity is being lost may have a reprieve, and this breathing space is the opportunity to think about establishing a green infrastructure ahead of a restart in building and to analyse the social implications to families of such high-density housing without significant green space. There are opportunities for tree-planting, wetlands for flood management, energy crops, adventure playgrounds."
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An Oilman's Bet Against Oil
"...perhaps the strangest role the 80-year-old, Oklahoma-born Pickens has fashioned for himself is his current one: the billionaire speculator as energy wise man, an oil-and-gas magnate as champion of wind power, and a lifetime Republican who has become a fellow traveler among environmentally minded Democrats -- even though he helped finance the "Swift boat" ads that savaged the campaign of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.)."
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Energy efficiency schemes 'could save British business 2.5 billion pounds a year'
[Energy efficiencies] would also cut 22 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere....
"Our research shows that energy efficiency measures, not job cuts or salary freezes, are the cost-cutting steps businesses are considering first during this economically challenging time. It's an encouraging sign that wise companies are realising that cutting carbon and being green is the easiest way to make a business lean," he adds.
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PANIQuiz for the week ending July 20 now online
What did the WWF recently ask cruise ships in the Baltic Sea to
stop doing? Antarctic worms, sea spiders, urchins and other marine creatures
are now being threatened by what? What is the current concern regarding the "fish Ebola" detected in
Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio?
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A dash of lime -- a new twist that may cut CO2 levels back to pre-industrial levels
Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere... [I]t could be made workable by locating [lime production] in regions that have a combination of low-cost 'stranded' energy considered too remote to be economically viable to exploit – like flared natural gas or solar energy in deserts – and that are rich in limestone, making it feasible for calcination to take place on site.
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Trying to Build a Greener Britain, Home by Home
"...people... have reduced their carbon footprint by half in the last five years and turned Hove ... from the archetype of a traditional British seaside town into the prototype of a green village. Their efforts are gaining traction here, and recognition around Britain, as a model of easily replicated ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The British government is debating a plan to put some version of smart metering on all 46 million gas and electricity meters in the country’s homes."
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Frogs With Disease-resistance Genes May Escape Extinction
"As frog populations die off around the world, researchers have identified certain genes that can help the amphibians develop resistance to harmful bacteria and disease. The discovery may provide new strategies to protect frog populations in the wild. New research examines how genes encoding the major histocompatibility (MHC) complex affect the ability of frogs to resist infection by a bacterium that is commonly associated with frog population declines."
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Ocean floor could store century of US carbon emissions
The Juan de Fuca plate, which comprises the ocean floor a few hundred kilometres from the coasts of Washington and Oregon, contains layers of basalt that geologists think might be suitable for long-term sequestration of CO2 as part of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system.... The region identified could potentially store around 208bn tonnes of liquefied CO2, the researchers said, a figure that could rise to 250bn tonnes depending on how much of the gas reacted with the rocks to form carbonates.
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We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed
Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.... [T]he 2008 State of the Future report runs to 6,300 pages and draws on contributions from 2,500 experts around the globe.
Its warning is all the more stark for eschewing doom and gloom. "The future continues to get better for most of the world," it concludes, "but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."
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Good News about Four-dollar Gas? Fewer Traffic Deaths
An analysis of yearly vehicle deaths compared to gas prices found death rates drop significantly as people slow down and drive less. If gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, traffic deaths could drop by more than 1,000 per month nationwide, said Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of UAB's Lister Hill Center for Health Policy and a co-author on the new findings.... "For every 10 percent rise in gas prices, fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent. The effects are even more dramatic for teen drivers."
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Living in a world without waste
"The Mayor of Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, has urged politicians around the world to follow his lead and make their towns "Zero Waste"... Kamikatsu may be a backwater in the wooded hills and rice terraces of south-eastern Japan but it's become a world leader on waste policy.
There are no waste collections from households at all. People have to take full responsibility for everything they throw away.
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How to cut your paper footprint
"Each of us throws away, on average, a quarter of a ton of paper every year... No one likes to think of trees being felled, but many of us have a cosy image in our heads that it all comes from recycling or "sustainable" woodlands growing in neat rows, perhaps somewhere in Sweden. It's a myth. Globally, 70 per cent of the 335 million tons of paper the world uses each year comes from natural, un-farmed sources."
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GM installs world's biggest rooftop solar panels
The largest rooftop solar power station in the world is being built in Spain. With a capacity of 12 megawatts of power, the station is made up of 85,000 lightweight panels covering an area of two million square feet.
Manufactured in rolls, rather like carpet, the photovoltaic panels are to be installed on the roof of a General Motors car factory in Zaragoza, eastern Spain.
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Could Pond Scum Undo Pollution, Fight Global Warming And Alleviate World Hunger?
"Three plant biologists at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology are obsessed with duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant with an unassuming name. Now they have convinced the federal government to focus its attention on duckweed's tremendous potential for cleaning up pollution, combating global warming and feeding the world."
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