Archive for August, 2007 Page 9 of 9

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Progress: Scientists Figure Out How to Grow Gas From Bacteria

Published at August 14, 2007 in Saving The Environment. 0 Comments

LS9_x220.jpgIn our current quest to stop giving the kings of Saudi Arabia billions of dollars to build yachts and bombs via our love affair with gasoline, some scientists at a company called LS9 claim to have figured out a way to grow petroleum from bacteria. The exciting prospect could shoot us to energy independence in a matter of years, as LS9 says their tech will be ready for the prime time in just a few years.

How does it work?

The company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you’re left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel.

What does that all mean? I don’t know, I’m no doctor. I just know that if we could grow our own gas it would solve a lot of problems. [Technology Review via The Raw Feed]

Introduction to The Fatty Cares

Published at August 14, 2007 in Saving The Environment. 0 Comments

As a Cornell University Alum from the Agriculture and Life Sciences School, I spent about 50 % of my coursework in the Environmental fields. Related courses include Forest Ecology, Carbon Budgets of the Tropical Rainforest (Graduate Level), Ethnobotany, Current Topics in Natural Resources, Current Environmental Crises, etc.

Not that the above proves anything, but there are few simple observations and studies that are pretty simple and comprehensive at the same time that basically proves that within the last 100 years (since the Industrial Revolution), there has been an increase in Global Temperature. Most non-scientific people, just assumes, okay, so it will get hotter out, slowly. However, this is not the case.

As Al Gore said in “An Inconvenient Truth“, this ‘change’ will not just warm the planet, but cause a shift in the global currents and Trade-winds, which essentially operate to sustain the climates that exist today. Simply put, when climates change, so does the vegetation, which affects quality of life. However, as one climate changes, the earth needs to balance itself out, so as one area of the world temperature rises along with it’s humidity, another area will get cooler and dryer.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the implications. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that these changes are already happening. It doesn’t take a genius to look at the Climactic changes of the past millions of years and realize that while we are in the most unstable era of our time, the temperature increase is happening at an ‘alarming’ rate.

So, this blog will be a record of:

  1. Proof of the Global Climate Change Phenomena
  2. Proof that there are People out there trying to Stop this and/or make a difference
  3. Proof that there are People and Governments out there who don’t care
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