Biodiesel Production

So I think biodiesel is the car power of the future, perhaps in addition to some other technologies, but centrally biodiesel. Here‘s a new way they’re working on to produce it, using the waste grease from fast food restaurants, cafeterias, etc. which is essentially free. Via Treehugger.

Organic Demand

Here‘s an interesting article from the AP about how America’s organic food consumption is greater than the ability of American farmers to produce organic food. Thus, producers of the organic food products have to look outside the country for their ingredients a lot of the time. It also addresses how it’s hard for conventional farms to switch to organic, and how some organizations are providing some help.

First few links

Some of the places I get my green news:

treehugger.com, a blog about environmental stuff, top notch

hugg.com, a digg-inspired spinoff of treehugger

del.icio.us/popular/green, /environment, and /sustainibility, although these don’t change all that frequently.

I am picking up new green sites as I go, but here are my top catches today:

The Renewable Planet uses the ubiquitous Google Maps to plot out sites that are significant with regard to renewable energy. Doesn’t seem to be very populated yet, but great potential.

Maps of biodiesel and ethanol stations around the United States from MapMuse. I don’t own a car yet (holding off on the carbon footprint and the insurance bills; my bike works fine), but when I do, I really want to use this stuff. Biodiesel is a straight fuel alternative, and ethanol I’m gathering is a fuel additive that makes the fuel run cleaner and less polluting. Rock on.

That’s all for today, but I check this stuff in increasing volume every day now, so stay tuned.

Green Questions is live!

Philosophy is the study of everything. That’s my favorite definition, at least. We are all, for practical social purposes, physical beings. And what does the entirety of a physical being depend on, if not its environment?

These days we hear all sorts of hubbub about climate crises and rising oil costs, environmental iniatives and sensationalist chicken-littling. A lot of us feel like we should do something. A lot of us don’t. I fall into the former category, and I hope you do too. If you don’t, keep reading, and I hope I can sway you.

I’ve been working with 10-yr.-olds recently, and whenever one of them hears the words “global warming” he yells “GLOBAL WARMING! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!” I always feel like telling him that he’s missing the point (of course he doesn’t care). We are all going to die someday; that has nothing to do with global climate change. But what is it that is so frightening about it? Should you and I be scared? And if we are concerned, what should we do about it? I feel like a lot of people feel like “Oh no! I should do something! But, as I don’t know what I should do, and don’t really feel like changing my lifestyle anyway, I won’t do anything.” I want to provide in this blog some insight in to what you and I can do to help the environment in which we live, and why we should. Enjoy.