Read the full post at Biopact.

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are 43 per cent above the International Energy Agency’s average for developed countries per unit of GDP. 68 percent of this amount is related to stationary energy and transport.

The country’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has now been allocated A$59.6 million (€36.6/US$49.6 million) over four years to increase research into renewable and non-renewable natural resources which can produce low emission transport fuels.

Read the full post at Biopact.

A few years ago, energy experts would have laughed if you said biofuels were going to attract massive investments and even impact OPEC decisions. Today, there is no longer a doubt that this is happening.

Fuad Siala, alternative energy sources analyst at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said at the World Refining & Fuels Conference organised by Hart energy conferences in Brussels yesterday that increased use of biofuels and other measures that steer consumers away from oil could prompt OPEC to rethink its investment plans.

Read the full post at Biopact.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – the principal man-made cause of global warming – continue to rise, with the world producing today 16 percent more CO2 than in 1990, according to the Little Green Data Book 2007, launched today on the occasion of the 15th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-15), which is focusing its deliberations on issues of energy and climate change.

In its eighth annual edition, the World Bank’s Little Green Data Book 2007 [*.pdf] is a pocket-sized quick reference on key environmental and development data for over 200 countries, based on the World Development Indicators 2007. Country, regional, and income group profiles provide a baseline for comparison on the state of the environment and its linkages with the economy and people.

Read the full article at Grainnet.

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) called May 9 for the new Farm Bill to contain specific pro-biodiesel provisions, including a Biodiesel Incentive Program and Biodiesel Fuel Education Program.

Read the full story in the South African Independent.

As biodiesel plants sprout up all over Europe to produce cleaner transport fuel in a bid to curb climate change, the industry is wondering what to do with growing quantities of a glutinous by-product – glycerine.

Using in situ bioremediation to destroy pesticides in impacted soil is a cheaper, more permanent alternative to “dig-and-dump” treatment methods, write Alan Seech, PhD, and James Mueller, PhD, in the May issue of EP.

Take a look at The Why Files’ excellent explanation of carbon sequestration.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Last harvest, Jeff Miller packed organic vegetables into his pickup truck and drove to a farmers market in Palatine. Up at dawn. Behind a stall. Every Saturday, like clockwork. By the end of the season, the Grayslake farmer had pocketed $3,500.

Not bad for a novice working a 2-acre incubator farm. But Miller’s proceeds fell far short of the potential that Illinois farmers see if they could fully tap into the state’s organic produce market, with annual sales of $500 million. Instead, they produce about 5 percent of the organic food consumed in the state, they say, and 95 percent comes from other states.

“Ideally, I’d like to move to a 5-acre farm,” Miller said. “To do that we need more farmers markets, more marketing, more shipping and storage.”

After years toiling on tiny farms, organic growers such as Miller might finally get the help they need. For the first time in Illinois, a diverse set of allies, including green activists, small farmers, urban food-policy planners and, most recently, the Illinois Farm Bureau, has joined forces to change the way Illinois residents put food on the table.

Read the full article in American Scientist.

There’s an old joke about asking the way to somewhere and being told it would be best not to start from where you are. It’s a good way to frame some thoughts about whether our present system of scholarly communication aids the progress of science or gets in the way.

If we could start now, equipped with the World Wide Web, computers in every laboratory or institution and a global view of the scientific research effort, would we come up with the system for communicating knowledge that we have today? The system we have, which originated as an exchange of letters and lectures among scattered peers, does some things well. But in its current form — a leviathan feeding on an interaction of market forces within and outside science — one can hardly argue that the system satisfies the needs of a modern scientific community. And new developments in the way science is done will make it even less fit for its original purpose in the years ahead.