BP’s Green Credentials Stained by Spreading Oil Slick in Gulf

Jakarta Globe, Chris Kahn, April 30, 2010

BP's greenwashed image is being tarnished by a catastrophic oil spill. (AFP Photo)

New York. Oil giant BP brands itself a friend of the environment, an energy company that goes “beyond petroleum.”

That image, worth billions of dollars, is being sullied by the company’s inability to contain a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

As the expanding oil slick threatens marshlands and wildlife along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, BP faces perhaps the biggest public relations challenge an oil company has experienced in the United States since the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska in 1989.

BP’s environmentally friendly image — its logo is a green and yellow sunburst — has outlasted past accidents, including a Texas refinery blast and Alaska pipeline spill. But last week’s deadly explosion on a BP-operated oil rig and the looming environmental damage are shaping up to be a major problem.

Since the accident, BP’s stock market value has declined by roughly $25 billion.

Marketing experts and environmentalists say BP’s response so far has been superior to Exxon’s treatment of the Valdez crash. BP devoted most of its home page on its Web site to the disaster, and it’s held regular news conferences.

But BP also appeared to initially play down the extent of the oil spill. It estimated that 1,000 barrels of oil were seeping from the sea bed each day. The government later corrected that figure to five times as much.

BP has had its share of recent high-profile accidents, including an explosion at a BP refinery in Texas City in 2005 that killed 15 people and injured 170. Regulators in October hit BP with a record $87 million fine for failing to correct safety hazards at the plant. BP has contested the fine.

The costs could be much higher this time. Besides cleanup expenses now running at $6 million a day, BP faces potential fines and costs to ensure better safety on the rigs it operates in the Gulf. And there will be legal costs. Two lawsuits have already been filed related to the blast and potential damage to the commercial shrimping industry.

Eileen Campbell, chief executive of market research company Millward Brown, said BP risks becoming associated with photos of oil-soaked wildlife. That would stand in stark contrast to the green image that BP took years to build. The company has invested in solar and wind energy projects. It devoted $500 million on biofuels research, and CEO Tony Hayward supports capping carbon emissions. It spent nearly $76 million in the United States on radio and TV last year, according to Kantar Media.

The company’s efforts have contributed to a brand name worth about $17.3 billion, marketing firm Millward Brown said.

BP is considered the most environmentally friendly of major oil companies, the firm said. In contrast, Exxon’s brand is based more on its reputation for innovation, corporate citizenship and communication with shareholders.

In the grand scheme, BP hasn’t gone much beyond its core business of petroleum. Of its $73 billion in revenue in the first quarter, about $72.3 billion of that came from the exploration, production, refining and marketing of oil and natural gas. The rest came from “other businesses” such as solar and wind energy.

David Oesting, an Alaska lawyer representing the plaintiffs in a class-action suit that followed the Valdez crash, doesn’t believe BP will suffer as much as Exxon.

Exxon eventually spent more than $4.3 billion on the cleanup and on lawsuits to compensate residents. Two decades later, it continues to pay for the damages. Oesting said he won $1 billion in the suit, and years later he’s still cutting checks to the victims.

BP will benefit from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which was established after the Valdez crash by collecting 8 cents from the industry for every barrel of oil produced or imported to the United States. The fund has about $1.6 billion available to cover damages suffered by coastal residents, fishermen and other affected businesses, according to the US Coast Guard.

BP now is at the front lines of what is likely to be a renewed attack on Big Oil.

The Obama administration last month endorsed a plan to allow more drilling along the East and Gulf coasts. Edward Markey, chairman of a House energy committee, has asked the heads of BP and four other oil companies to testify about the spill.

Richard Charter, policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, said the rig explosion will reverberate for years in public debates about whether to expand offshore drilling. He said the unfolding environmental damage along Louisiana’s coast will linger in the American public’s memory.

“It will remind people that there is a risk with this kind of industrialization of the coast,” he said.

Associated Press

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill (whitish swirl at lower right) approaches the Mississippi Delta region in April 2010. Industry experts say the spill may rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. (Photo: NASA)

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We only have one earth

English.news.cn, 2010-04-29 16:18:14

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- How much do you know about the blue Earth that we live on? This generous planet feeds billions of human beings and other innumerable creatures year by year. However, what do we do for this self-giving donator?

Human activities are impacting on an increasing number of endangered species. Meanwhile, air pollution, shortage of energy resources and desertification has created problems for mankind;s development and existence.

Please don’t wait until the day we pass the point of no return and then show regret.

The following photos show the status quo of our Earth. Maybe we can do more to protect our amazing planet and its environment.

The most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth created to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer of our planet. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite. (Photo Source: bbs.huanqiu.com)

Read More ....

West Java Mountain Observed After Tremor Report

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 28 April, 2010 | 19:57 WIB

Gunung Geulis (Beautiful Mountain), located in Tanjung Sari, one of Sumedang's sub district. (Photo: SUMEDANG DAILY PHOTO)

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The geological disaster management office of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department suggested on Wednesday (28/4) the cause of series of unknown explosions and earthquake-like tremors near a mountain in West Java, after one day of field observation following report from residents.

The agency's headquarter in Bandung said the explosions and tremors which according to residents had occurred for five times since Wednesday (21/4) were impacts of seismic movement around Mount Geulis, im Sumedang regency, 40 kilometers east of Bandung .

Residents said the no impacts in previous explosions which heard and felt in four villages, but Wednesday's explosion cracked walls on two houses and broke table glass in a village, head of the Tanjungsari Subdistrict Deni Tanrus said.

Head of The Geological Disaster Mitiagation Office I Gede Suantika said observers had found no cracks on the ground in the area which could harm residents and advised them to remain calm but alert as geological staff continue their work around Mount Geulis with georadar device.

Gede said there were two similar incidents prior to the report from Sumedang the first in Lampung Province and then in Wonogiri Central Java, both in 2006.

SIGIT ZULMUNIR | AHMAD FIKRI

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The Old Map of the Bandung City and the Mountain Range around it

From the map, we can see some of the volcanoes which surround Bandung. They are: Panganten Mt. (on the west side), Burangrang Mt. (on the northwest side), Tangkuban Perahu Mt. (on the north side), Bukit Tunggul Mt. (on the northeast side), Tampomas Mt. (on the east side), Manglayang Mt. (on the east side), Bukit Jarian Mt. (on the east side), Mandalawangi Mt. (on the east side), Guntur Mt. (on the southeast side), Cikuray Mt. (on the southeast side), Papandayan Mt. (on the southeast side), Wayang Mt. (on the south side), Geulis Mt. (on the south side), Malabar Mt. (on the south side), Patuha Mt. (on the southwest side)

Volcano spews 'sand and ash over Guatemala'

Yahoo/AFP, Tue Apr 27, 5:12 am ET

AFP/File – A volcano spews smoke and ash south of Guatemala City. The Santiaguito volcano has showered sand and …

GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) – The Santiaguito volcano showered sand and ash Monday over a large area of western Guatemala in an "unusual" and "violent" eruption, the national seismological institute said.

Winds were carrying the ash in a northeasterly direction from the volcano, 2,500 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level in the province ofQuetzaltenango, 206 kilometers (123 miles) west of the capital, it said.

The ash plume spread across six provinces, raising fears of damage to crops, the institute said, while classes were suspended at schools in three provinces.

The national disaster reduction coordination agency CONRED increased its alert level to orange, one level below the maximum red, its director Alejandro Maldonado said.

The volcanic activity propelled gray ash more than 27,000 feet (8,300 meters) into the air, and Conred advisedcivil aviation authorities to ban flying within 15 kilometers (nine miles) of the volcano.

Santiaguito's worst eruption occurred in 1929 when 2,500 people were killed.

After the Aceh Quake, Mud Volcano Causes Concern

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, April 26, 2010

A new undersea mud volcano is erupting off Aceh following a massive earthquake there earlier this month, a 15-member geological assessment team sent to the province has confirmed.

Officials, however, were quick to add that the new volcano was unlikely to pose a threat.

“Based on our visual observations, the volcano is not dangerous. But we are going to conduct an in-depth analysis this week of the samples we collected, so we will have a definitive answer,” said Ridwan Djamaluddin, director for mitigation and regional development at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT).

Ridwan said the volcano, located near Banyak Island off the coast of Singkil district, was currently 30 meters in diameter and eight meters tall.

Local residents have claimed the seabed in the area has risen dramatically since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on April 7.

Before the quake, the waters around Gosong Turak reef were 20 meters to 30 meters deep, but now were just five, said Mufliadi, a Banyak Island resident.

Villagers have reported seeing an undersea fissure spewing out mud and rocks, and are worried an undersea volcano could be forming, he said.

Mufliadi said the phenomenon was first noted a week after the earthquake by a fisherman who had been trawling for sea cucumbers in the waters around Pailana Island, just off Banyak Island.

“He was shocked and came back to tell us what he had seen because that site is a prime fishing spot for local fishermen,” but now there are no fish there, Mufliadi said.

The geologists, who traveled to the province last week at the request of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, confirmed there were no fish in the area.

“The fish around the area have gone and the water has become turbid,” Ridwan said, adding that the water temperature had risen from 27 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees.

To prevent worried residents from fleeing the area, Ridwan said the team would work quickly to analyze the samples it had collected.

“We still have to conduct an in-depth analysis of this,” he said, adding that if the mud and rocks contained methane, it would be dangerous.

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Scientists Discover Underwater Asphalt Volcanoes

Scientists Discover Underwater Asphalt Volcanoes

National Science Foundation, April 25, 2010

Impressive landmarks hidden for 40,000 years rise from sea-floor

About 10 miles off the Santa Barbara coast, at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel, a series of impressive landmarks rise from the sea floor.

They've been there for 40,000 years, but have remained hidden in the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean--until now.

They're called asphalt volcanoes.

Scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of California at Davis, University of Sydney and University of Rhode Island, have identified the series of unusual volcanoes.

The largest of these undersea Ice Age domes lies at a depth of 700 feet (220 meters), too deep for scuba diving, which explains why the volcanoes have never before been spotted by humans, says Don Rice, director of NSF's Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research.

Diagram showing formation of an asphalt volcano and associated release of methane and oil.

"They're larger than a football-field-long and as tall as a six-story building," says David Valentine, a geoscientist at UCSB and the lead author of a paper published on-line this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. "They're massive features, and are made completely out of asphalt."

Valentine and colleagues first viewed the volcanoes during a 2007 dive on the research submersible Alvin. Valentine credits Ed Keller, an earth scientist at UCSB, with guiding him and colleagues to the site.

"Ed had looked at some bathymetry [sea floor topography] studies conducted in the 1990s and noted some very unusual features," Valentine says.

Based on Keller's research, Valentine and other scientists took Alvin into the area in 2007 and discovered the source of the mystery.

Using the sub's robotic arm, the researchers broke off samples and brought them to labs at UCSB and WHOI for testing.

In 2009, Valentine and colleagues made two more dives to the area in Alvin. They also conducted a detailed survey of the area using an autonomous underwater vehicle, Sentry, which takes photos as it glides about nine feet above the ocean floor.

"When you 'fly' Sentry over the sea floor, you can see all of the cracking of the asphalt and flow features," says Valentine. "All the textures are visible of a once-flowing liquid that has solidified in place.

"That's one of the reasons we're calling them volcanoes, because they have so many features that are indicative of a lava flow."

Tests showed that these aren't your typical lava volcanoes, however, found in Hawaii and elsewhere around the Pacific Rim.

Using a mass spectrometer, carbon dating, microscopic fossils, and comprehensive, two-dimensional gas chromatography, the scientists determined that the structures are asphalt. They were formed when petroleum flowed from the sea-floor about 30,000-40,000 years ago.

Chris Reddy, a scientist at WHOI and a co-author of the paper, says that "the volcanoes underscore a little-known fact: half the oil that enters the coastal environment is from natural oil seeps like the ones off the coast of California."

The researchers also determined that the volcanoes were at one time a prolific source of methane, a greenhouse gas.

The two largest volcanoes are about a kilometer apart and have pits or depressions surrounding them. These pits, according to Valentine, are signs of "methane gas bubbling from the sub-surface."

That's not surprising, he says, considering how much petroleum was flowing there in the past.

"They were spewing out a lot of petroleum, but also lots of natural gas," he says, "which you tend to get when you have petroleum seepage in this area."

The discovery that vast amounts of methane once emanated from the volcanoes caused the scientists to wonder if there might have been an environmental impact on the area during the Ice Age.

"It became a dead zone," says Valentine. "We're hypothesizing that these features may have been a major contributor to those events."

While the volcanoes have been dormant for thousands of years, the 2009 Alvin dive revealed a few spots where gas was still bubbling.

"We think it's residual gas," says Valentine, who added that the amount of gas is so small it's harmless, and never reaches the surface.

Photo of Christopher Farwell, Sarah Bagby and David Valentine with a piece of asphalt volcano, discovered on the sea-floor of the Santa Barbara Channel.

Other co-authors of the paper are Christopher Farwell, Sarah C. Bagby, Brian A. Clark, and Morgan Soloway, all of UCSB; Robert K. Nelson, Dana Yoerger, and Richard Camilli of WHOI; Tessa M. Hill, UC Davis; Oscar Pizarro, University of Sydney; and Christopher N. Roman, University of Rhode Island.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
George Foulsham, UCSB (805) 893-3071 george.foulsham@ia.ucsb.edu

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The 'disaster' in the Gulf of Mexico is beyond a false flag

Gulf Oil is NOT Fossil Fuel ! It is an Abiotic - Self Regenerating Compound!

Ocean chemistry changing at "unprecedented rate"

Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent, WASHINGTON, Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:42am EDT

Clouds move over a resort island at the Male Atoll December 8, 2009. (Credit: Reuters/Reinhard Krause)

(Reuters) - Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported on Thursday.

"The chemistry of the ocean is changing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," the council said. "The rate of change exceeds any known to have occurred for at least the past hundreds of thousands of years."

Ocean acidification eats away at coral reefs, interferes with some fish species' ability to find their homes and can hurt commercial shellfish like mussels and oysters and keep them from forming their protective shells.

Corrosion happens when carbon dioxide is stored in the oceans and reacts with sea water to form carbonic acid. Unless carbon dioxide emissions are curbed, oceans will grow more acidic, the report said.

Oceans absorb about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide emissions, including those from burning fossil fuels, cement production and deforestation, the report said.

The increase in acidity is 0.1 points on the 14-point pH scale, which means this indicator has changed more since the start of the Industrial Revolution than at any time in the last 800,000 years, according to the report.

The council's report recommended setting up an observing network to monitor the oceans over the long term.

"A global network of robust and sustained chemical and biological observations will be necessary to establish a baseline and to detect and predict changes attributable to acidification," the report said.

ACID OCEANS AND 'AVATAR'

Scientists have been studying this growing phenomenon for years, but ocean acidification is generally a low priority at international and U.S. discussions of climate change.

A new compromise U.S. Senate bill targeting carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be unveiled on April 26.

Ocean acidification was center stage at a congressional hearing on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in the United States.

"This increase in (ocean) acidity threatens to decimate entire species, including those that are at the foundation of the marine food chain," Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey told a Commerce Committee panel. "If that occurs, the consequences are devastating."

Lautenberg said that in New Jersey, Atlantic coast businesses generate $50 billion a year and account for one of every six jobs in the state.

Sigourney Weaver, a star of the environmental-themed film "Avatar" and narrator of the documentary "Acid Test" about ocean acidification, testified about its dangers. She said people seem more aware of the problem now than they did six months ago.

"I think that the science is so indisputable and easy to understand and ... we've already run out of time to discuss this," Weaver said by telephone after her testimony. "Now we have to take action."

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Tornado kills 10 in Mississippi: officials

Reuters, BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:21pm EDT

Photo: EPA

(Reuters) - A tornado nearly a mile wide ripped through central Mississippi on Saturday, killing 10 people, including three children, and injuring dozens of others, state authorities said.

The tornado struck at least 13 counties, destroying scores of homes and trapping people inside, damaging businesses, blocking highways and knocking out power to thousands, said the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Five people died in Choctaw County, four in Yazoo County and one in Holmes County, said Greg Flynn, spokesman at the agency.

Governor Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency after the first major U.S. tornado of the year.

"It has done huge damage around Yazoo City," Barbour, who grew up in the city, told CBS television.

"We have fatalities, a number of people that we're still trying to rescue who are trapped in buildings. But it is a major, significant tornado ... and it did some huge damage and perhaps some fatalities north of here," Barbour said.

"The Hinds County Sheriff's Department is sending two dozen deputies and 100 inmates to assist with the response in Yazoo County and clear debris," the emergency agency said.

The storm system has moved to Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, said Greg Carbin, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(Reporting by Peggy Gargis; Writing by Matthew Bigg; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Magnet motor demonstrated at Delft University

Pure Energy Systems News, by Sterling D. Allan

Turkish inventor, Muammer Yildiz, demonstrates his magnet motor

Turkish inventor, Muammer Yildiz, recently demonstrated his magnet motor that he alleged runs on the power of magnets alone at a University in the Netherlands. The motor is shown turning a fan at a high speed, and no wires can be seen going to the device; then the device is disassembled in front of the group.

How many magnet motor stories have we had here in our news service in the last eight years? Several a month.

How many times have we featured a story of of an all-magnet motor being demonstrated at a University?

Never.

Until now.

History was made recently at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands as Muammer Yildiz demonstrated his all-magnet motor turning a fan at high speed with his all magnet motor. No wires could be seen running to the device being observed by around 30 scientists in the room.

After running for more than 10 minutes at a constant speed, the device was shut off then disassembled in front of the group so they could see that no batteries were hidden in the device. "Free Energy is possible", he told the group.

Here's the video that was produced by EuroStaete Media Group on April 20.

The wind speed and air density were measured, and the output was estimated to be around 250 Watts (not mentioned in the video). Also, after the video was turned off, the fan was removed from the device, and several people tried stopping the shaft with their hands but were unable to.

From what I've been told, this is the fourth or fifth demonstration Yildiz has given around Europe; and he's going to be hanging around through May 12 for a demonstration in Germany.

Jury Still Out

All this certainly looks promising.

Before concluding that sufficient evidence has been given that this is a bona fide magnet motor, two things need to be yet shown. Apparently most demonstrations Yildiz has given do not show the motor going longer than 10-15 minutes. The size of the core is such that it could house a hidden battery and motor that could possibly provide that much power. That needs to be ruled out.

Second, the possibility of magnet depletion being the source of energy needs to be analyzed and ruled out. That would be interesting science but not practical for energy generation.

NASA Reveals Solar Dynamics Observatory's First Fiery Images

POPSCI, by Clay Dillow, 04.21.2010 at 3:23 pm

SDO's Ultraviolet Sun NASA

More than three months after being hurled into orbit, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is snapping some breathtaking images of the Sun, the first of which NASA released this afternoon. The mission designers have to be happy with them: the pics capture huge looping prominences lashing out from the surface and the kinds of massive explosions one might expect from a giant, churning ball of cosmic gas.

SDO launched in February to help researchers on the ground gain a better understanding of how processes taking place on the sun affect life on Earth. NASA and its international partners hope that in time SDO provides a wealth of solar data that will help them predict solar weather more accurately than current means allow. SDO views the sun with a resolution ten times greater than that of an HD video camera and carries four telescopes as well as instruments for measuring magnetic motions on the surface and ultraviolet energy output.

Science aside, NASA researchers must be pretty pleased with what SDO is sending back thus far if only from an aesthetic standpoint.

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The Great Global Warming Blunder

How Mother Nature Fooled the World’s Top Climate Scientists

Today (April 20) is the official release date of my new book entitled: “The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World’s Top Climate Scientists“, published by Encounter Books.

About one-half of Blunder is a non-technical description of our new peer reviewed and soon-to-be-published research which supports the opinion that a majority of Americans already hold: that warming in recent decades is mostly due to a natural cycle in the climate system — not to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning.

Believe it or not, this potential natural explanation for recent warming has never been seriously researched by climate scientists. The main reason they have ignored this possibility is that they cannot think of what might have caused it.

You see, climate researchers are rather myopic. They think that the only way for global-average temperatures to change is for the climate system to be forced ‘externally’…by a change in the output of the sun, or by a large volcanic eruption. These are events which occur external to the normal, internal operation of the climate system.

But what they have ignored is the potential for the climate system to cause its own climate change. Climate change is simply what the system does, owing to its complex, dynamic, chaotic internal behavior.

As I travel around the country, I find that the public instinctively understands the possibility that there are natural climate cycles. Unfortunately, it is the climate “experts” who have difficulty grasping the concept. This is why I am taking my case to the public in this book. The climate research community long ago took the wrong fork in the road, and I am afraid that it might be too late for them to turn back.

NATURE’S SUNSHADE: CLOUDS

The most obvious way for warming to be caused naturally is for small, natural fluctuations in the circulation patterns of the atmosphere and ocean to result in a 1% or 2% decrease in global cloud cover. Clouds are the Earth’s sunshade, and if cloud cover changes for any reason, you have global warming — or global cooling.

How could the experts have missed such a simple explanation? Because they have convinced themselves that only a temperature change can cause a cloud cover change, and not the other way around. The issue is one of causation. They have not accounted for cloud changes causing temperature changes.

The experts have simply mixed up cause and effect when observing how clouds and temperature vary. The book reveals a simple way to determine the direction of causation from satellite observations of global average temperature and cloud variations. And that new tool should fundamentally change how we view the climate system.

Blunder also addresses a second major mistake that results from ignoring the effect of natural cloud variations on temperature: it results in the illusion that the climate system is very sensitive. The experts claim that, since our climate system is very sensitive, then our carbon dioxide emissions are all that is needed to explain global warming. There is no need to look for alternative explanations.

But I show that the experts have merely reasoned themselves in a circle on this subject. When properly interpreted, our satellite observations actually reveal that the system is quite IN-sensitive. And an insensitive climate system means that nature does not really care whether you travel by jet, or how many hamburgers or steaks you eat.

CARBON DIOXIDE: FRIEND OR FOE?

The supposed explanation that global warming is due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide from our burning of fossil fuels turns out to be based upon little more than circumstantial evidence. It is partly a symptom of our rather primitive understanding of how the climate system works.

And I predict that the proposed cure for global warming – reducing greenhouse gas emissions – will someday seem as outdated as using leeches to cure human illnesses.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that scientific knowledge is continually changing, it is increasingly apparent that the politicians are not going to let little things like facts get in their way. For instance, a new draft climate change report was released by the U.S. yesterday (April 19) which, in part, says: “Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced … Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.”

You see, the legislative train left the station many years ago, and no amount of new science will slow it down as it accelerates toward its final destination: forcibly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But in Blunder I address what other scientists should have the courage to admit: that maybe putting more CO2 in the atmosphere is a good thing. Given that it is necessary for life on Earth, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is surprisingly small. We already know that nature is gobbling up 50% of what humanity produces, no matter how fast we produce it. So, it is only logical to address the possibility that nature — that life on Earth — has actually been starved for carbon dioxide.

This should give you some idea of the major themes of my new book. I am under no illusion that the book will settle the scientific debate over global warming.

To the contrary — I am hoping the debate will finally begin.

Source: Drroyspencer.com

Hydrogen Still in The Eco-Car Race

Kompas, Sunday, 18 April 2010 | 08:47 WIB

A model leans on the side of a Dodge Challenger at the Lebanon Motor Show 2010 in Beirut on April 8. The show, which runs to April 18, is one of the years largest in the Middle East with some 400 models are on display, from cost-friendly Kias and Toyotas to ultimate luxury by Maserati and Bentley.

BERLIN, KOMPAS.com – Hydrogen, one of Earth's most abundant elements, once was seen as green energy's answer to the petroleum-driven car: easy to produce, available everywhere and nonpolluting when burned.

Hydrogen energy was defeated by a mountain of obstacles — the fear of explosion by the highly flammable gas, the difficulty of carrying the fuel in large, heavy tanks in the vehicle, and the lack of a refueling network. Automakers turned to biofuels, electricity or the gas-electric hybrid.

But hydrogen, it turns out, never was completely out of the race. Now Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs claim to have brought hydrogen energy a step closer by putting it in much smaller, lighter containers.

Rather than using metal or composite cylinders of compressed gas that look like bulky scuba gear, hydrogen is packed into glass filaments which, once out of the lab, will be only slightly thicker than a human hair.

These 370 glass capillaries are bundled into a glass tube called a capillary array, about the width of a drinking straw. The scientists say 11,000 such arrays will fuel a car for 400 kilometers (240 miles), take less than half the space and weight of tanks currently installed in the few hydrogen cars now available.

"We have shown new materials that can store more hydrogen than any other system," says Dan Eliezer, chief scientist of C.En Ltd., the company based in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Israelis are developing their invention.

The scientists make no attempt to improve the standard fuel cell, which is not much different today from when it was invented more than 150 years ago. A fuel cell makes electricity from chemical reactions involving hydrogen and oxygen, producing only water vapor as a byproduct. The fuel cell can be compared with a standard car's engine, while the capillary arrays would be comparable to the gasoline tank.

The system was unveiled in Berlin at a demonstration for The Associated Press at the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, known as BAM, which has been testing the materials since 2008 and has pronounced the system safe. Also attending was a representative of Italian-based Generali Insurance, which has invested $10 million in the project.

While its backers call the technology a breakthrough, it is unlikely to gain traction without a large injection of capital to scale up development. It also would need a distribution system and the support of major car companies, which have poured billions of dollars into their own closely guarded research programs.

Auto companies "are still investing significant amounts of money in hydrogen and fuel cells," and have hundreds of researchers working on the technology, said David Hart, director of E4tech, a business and energy consultancy in London. Automakers refuse to disclose details of their research or funding.

Hart said the glass capillaries appear to be an "interesting" technology that would be "very significant" if it were to provide the energy claimed by the company. But if it means creating a new refueling infrastructure, "it may still not be the right answer for cars," he said.

Like electric cars, the driving force behind hydrogen research is the need to break away from oil and rein in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, especially carbon dioxide from industry and transport. Transportation adds about 13 percent of manmade carbon to the atmosphere.

Hydrogen boasts zero emissions. It can be produced from water through electrolysis, or harvested as the waste product of nuclear reactors and chemical plants.

"In terms of saving carbon dioxide, you do a great deal more with renewable hydrogen," said Danny Dicks, a biofuels expert from the British consultancy group Innovation Observatory. "So ultimately, hydrogen is where things ought to be driving toward."

Automakers, for now, still are focused on battery power. At the Geneva Motor Show last month, nearly all major manufacturers displayed their latest electric vehicles or plans to produce them. The few hydrogen vehicles on the floor attracted little attention.

It was not always that way.

U.S. President George W. Bush allocated $1.2 billion for hydrogen research and said in his 2003 State of the Union address: "The first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution free." The Obama administration largely scrapped the program.

In Europe, too, hydrogen is low-priority. The Dutch government, for example, recently announced a euro5 million ($6.75 million) subsidy for hydrogen, but gave eight times more for electric cars. Buyers of plug-ins get tax breaks and rebates, and cities like London and Amsterdam are planting charge-up pillars on their streets.

"Electricity is taking all the subsidy schemes. It's taking it away from hydrogen," said Robert van den Hoed of Ecofys, an independent Dutch consultancy on renewable energy.

The main reason is cost. Electric cars are road-ready and in production, while hydrogen vehicles are still experimental. Nissan's new electric car, the Leaf, will go on sale for about $25,000 in the United States, including a government rebate.

Honda has produced a roadworthy hydrogen vehicle, the FCX Clarity, but it is not for sale. Only 50 of them are available for lease in the United States at $600 per month; Honda says it intends to increase the fleet to 200 this year. Honda declines to put a sales tag on the Clarity, but some experts say the market price would be $1 million each. Toyota, a leader in electric car technology, plans to put its first hydrogen vehicle on the road in 2015.

In December, the German luxury carmaker BMW ended an experimental run of 100 hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines and retreated back into the laboratory for more research. "We learned everything we wanted to learn from this huge field test," said spokesman Tobias Hahn, and BMW is now working on the next generation.

"We are still committed to hydrogen as the long-term alternative for switching to sustainable mobility," Hahn said, speaking from Munich, adding that the biggest problem is on-board storage.

Among U.S. carmakers, General Motors produced a test fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell cars and let 5,000 people test them over a 25 month period. Like BMW, Chevrolet is withdrawing the vehicles to upgrade the technology.

A combination of plug-in electric and hydrogen may emerge as the most eco-friendly solution. "A fuel cell hybrid looks like a good long-term option," said Hart. "It's not an either-or. It's both, most likely."

Public transport also is experimenting with hydrogen. The Vancouver Winter Olympics deployed 20 fuel cell buses. The European Union and 31 industries teamed up to run a four-year trial of hydrogen buses on regular passenger routes in 10 cities ending last year, and a new generation of buses will begin operating later this year, said Frits van Drunen, who runs the project for the Dutch public transport network GVB.

"We predict that by 2017 these buses will be priced per kilometer at the same level as diesel buses," said van Drunen, interviewed at GVB's hydrogen refueling station in Amsterdam.

At BAM, the Berlin testing site, researchers guided a remote-controlled model truck around the laboratory floor powered by a fuel cell and three hydrogen-filled arrays bound together, about the thickness of a thumb. A similar device lit up a panel with 20 LED bulbs. The researchers say such devices can be built into power packs for laptop computers and even mobile phones.

BAM's research director, Kai Holtapples, said the C.En system can be on the road within two to five years if it can be developed as a replaceable rack that can be swapped at filling stations. Eventually, cars will be able to refuel with nozzles, like gas pumps today, he said. "Both systems will need some engineering, of course, but some ideas already exist."

BAM has no financial stake in the capillary array project, he said.

Moshe Stern, C.En's chief executive, said the electric car will dominate the market for years to come, but the cheap and unlimited supply of hydrogen will make it the power source of the future.

Within a few years, perhaps a decade, hydrogen fuel will shift the world's energy balance away from oil, he said.

"The real revolution is not the technical revolution, it is the political revolution," said Stern.

"We are Israelis. We know what it means to be blackmailed by oil," he said.

AFP

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