Oil Alternative Bio-Breakthrough Can Reduce
Fossil Fuel Use R
esearchers at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, attest they have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen in a method that can be performed using any
source of biomass. “Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil fuels,” projects Y. H. Percival Zhang, the associate professor of biological systems engineering who is spearheading the initiative. This environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen utilizes renewable natural resources, releases almost zero greenhouse gases and doesn’t require costly heavy metals. Most hydrogen for commercial use is produced from natural gas, which
is expensive to manufacture and generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. “It really doesn’t make sense to use non-renewable natural resources to produce hydrogen,” says Zhang. “We think this discovery is a game- changer in the world of alternative energy.”
Scrub Up Cleaning the Environment
a Step at a Time U
nilever, one of the world’s largest consumer product companies, which
makes Vaseline and Dove soaps, is doing away with a longtime manufacturing pro- cess because scientists and environmental
groups are concerned that it contributes to polluting oceans. The company has decided to phase out the use of plastic micro-beads as a scrubbing agent in all personal care products by 2015. Small pieces of plastic material under five millimeters in diameter, referred to as micro-plastics, originate from a variety of different sources, including the breakdown of larger plastic materials in the water, the shedding of synthetic fibers from textiles during domestic clothes washing, and the micro-beads used for their abrasive properties in a range of consumer and industrial products.
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Killing Fields Neonicotinoid Pesticides Threaten Birds and Insects, Too
C
ontroversial neonicotinoid
pesticides linked to catastrophic honeybee declines in North America and Europe may also kill other creatures, posing ecological threats even graver than feared, according to a new report by the American Bird Conservancy. It claims that dangers to birds and stream- dwelling and soil-dwelling insects accidentally exposed to the chemicals have been underestimated by regulators and downplayed by industry. “The environmental persistence
of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise environmental concerns that go well beyond bees,” according to the report co-authors, pesticide policy expert Cynthia Palmer and pesticide toxicologist Pierre Mineau, Ph.D., who both work for the nonprofit. They note that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency typically sets guidelines for bird exposures using laboratory tests on just two species, which ignores widely varying sensitivities among hundreds of other species. Scott Black, executive director
of the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group, says that integrated pest management (IPM), which combines precisely targeted chemical use with other, non-chemical means of pest control, can deliver industrial-scale yields in an environmentally sustainable way. To the detriment of wildlife, “[Our nation] has moved away from IPM, from scouting a farm, putting in habitat for beneficial insects and spraying only if there’s damage,” he warns. “With neonicotinoids, they don’t do that anymore,” instead returning to indiscriminate blanket spraying.
Primary source:
Tinyurl.com/ ABCBirdReport
NaturalAwakeningsSA.com September 2013 13
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