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| EcoWorld Magazine 2005 |
 A Bridge Across the Americas- Jack Ewing, 12-19-05 The concept of wildlife corridors has been around for about 20 years, but has found perhaps its most inspiring expression in the accomplishments in Central America. In this region, seven governments have agreed to coordinate their efforts to encourage a huge system of interconnected parks, reserves and wildlife corridors that literally link North America to South America. Not only is the scale of this undertaking unusual, but the means whereby Central American biological corridors are being established are innovative and sustainable. Costa Rica provides a particularly excellent case for how biocorridors can be encouraged using a variety of means... |
 Trees Water & People- Brook & Gaurav Bhagat, 11-22-05 Established in 1998, and building on the lessons learned by earlier reforestation groups, Trees Water & People (TWP) got local communities not only involved in planting trees, but in establishing local commercial tree nurseries financed through micro-credit loans, and in developing comprehensive watershed management skills. But recognizing that the flip side of reforesting is slowing deforestation, and in an attempt to improve the health of people throughout Central America, TWP's greatest innovation has been to pioneer introducing a stove that burns half the fuel of conventional cooking fires, while producing almost no indoor smoke. ... |
 The Nuclear Option?- Edward Wheeler, 11-08-05 There isn't enough electricity being produced in the world at a time when world demand for electricity is skyrocketing, with no end in sight. Shall we remove entire mountain ranges so we can burn abundant coal - or risk another Three Mile Island? Shall we melt the icecaps and inundate the world as we burn another 10,000 quadrillion BTUs of fossil fuel - or risk another Chernobyl? Shall we destroy the last great rivers behind hydro-electric dams - or hope the nuclear waste is safe enough under Yucca Mountain? Nuclear power is emissions-free, and safer than ever. But is it safe enough to be a better transitional fuel than the alternatives, as we wait for non-hydro renewables to develop? Pick your poison... |
 Can Arctic Rivers Save the Aral Sea?- Ed Ring, 11-06-05 To spend somewhere between 25-50 billion dollars to refill the Aral Sea and turn the Aral Basin into a cornucopia of fishing, agriculture, forestry - a new example to the world of the old adage "water, wealth, contentment, health" - does seem like a bargain. And that's about all it would cost to build two canals to drain water from the Volga and Ob rivers and move enough south to refill the Aral Sea in about 25-50 years. But maybe this international effort could yield additional benefits - saving the banks of the Caspian Sea from rising waters, and removing fresh water from the Arctic Ocean to preserve the gulf stream current... |
 Kilimanjaro's Melting Glaciers, 10-28-05- Dan Hall, 10-28-05 The three-story-high sheer face of the Furtwangler Glacier appeared instantly as we crested the volcanic rim. It�s an odd feature - a giant piece of ice sitting squarely on dirt. At one time not long ago, its translucent fingers spilled down the Western Breach, grabbing at solidified lava, but now it is just an oddly shaped chunk of shrinking ice sitting on the periphery of the crater. Two years ago a large section of this frozen mass caved in, accelerating its pending demise. This was the catalyst that spurred me to action... |
 The 100% Electric Car- Ed Ring, 10-15-05 Hybrid cars, which combine the power of an electric motor with a gasoline engine, are often presented as a transitional technology that will eventually be supplanted by fuel cell cars. This argument rests on an assumption which may or may not be valid � that on-board hydrogen, used to create electricity using fuel cells � is a better electricity storage medium than batteries. Examining this assumption reveals some strong challenges to the idea that batteries are going to go away, or that hydrogen fuel cells are the only future vehicle technology... |
 China's Energy Outlook- Jeffery Logan, 9-16-05 China and India both have over a billion citizens. Each of these colossal countries by itself holds nearly a fifth of all humanity within its borders. But although India and China are nearly equal in their massive populations, China's economy is more than twice that of India's. China's economic clout in the world is being felt as never before, and right behind China is India - together nearly 2.5 billion people! The combined energy consumption of China and India is raising the ante for energy producers to the tune of ten quadrillion BTUs every few years. These rapidly industrializing, massive nations are turning the global energy economy on its ears... |
 Profitable Reforestation- Ed Ring, 8-31-05 A mixed forest of mature tropical hardwoods, cut scientifically on a rotation where "corridors of light" are created as trees are selectively removed, mimics the natural ecosystem of the original forest. Selecting a specific pioneer species of tree to serve as the monocultural tree crop as the terrain is transitioned from cleared land to forest is a necessary intermediate step. This transitional tree can immediately stabilize the soil and retain moisture, improving the quality of the land so diverse native trees can be reestablished. It can also provide income to finance the reforestation of the native trees... |
 Jatropha in Africa- Keith Parsons, 8-21-05 The African continent, which at 29 million square kilometers in size is nearly as large as Asia, is relatively sparsely populated by comparison. It is also a continent of spectacular natural wealth, having vast reserves of land with climates ideal for growing Jatropha. Over half of the land in Africa is considered suitable for Jatropha cultivation. If only 2% of that land was used to cultivate Jatropha, it would yield as much oil per year as U.S. oil companies expect - best case - to remove per year from Alaska's north slope over the next 20 years. And after 20 years, these fields of Jatropha would still be producing oil, whereas the Alaskan oil fields would be dry... |
 The Radical Center- Brook & Gaurav Bhagat, 7-09-05 Where is the radical center in this debate over how we live, build, interact, impact? One place they can be found is on the new ranch, and the New Ranch can be anywhere. The new ranch managers are environmentalists working together with ranchers instead of fighting. The Quivira Coalition brought together ranchers and environmentalists in the Southwest USA. There are coalitions everywhere, open forums and concerted efforts, mobilizing the political middle where common grounds meet and the political extremes with their conflicting ideologically driven agendas are simply irrelevant. Properly managed, running range cattle can actually improve ecosystem quality... |
 Photovoltaics- Daniela Muhawi, 7-08-05 The ultimate renewable? The problem with photovoltaics remains the costs. But two things mitigate this factor: First of all, photovoltaics are being bought as fast as they can be made. They may not be competitive with electricity derived from natural gas or other conventional sources, but this fact seems to have no impact on world demand for photovoltaics. The market worldwide is growing at 30% per year with no end in sight. Current world output of photovoltaics stands at about 1 gigawatt per year, and the installed base of photovoltaics in the world is probably just under 10 gigawatts. A second factor which mitigates the cost of photovoltaics is the cost to operate and replace them is far more competitive than the cost to install them... |
 Chemophobia- Ed Wheeler, 7-06-05 The foundation of toxicology is dose equals poison, and today this foundation is often ignored. Actuarial arguments, framed in actuarial terms, are not callous attempts to "use comparison to deprecate the risk," they are essential to setting any rational strategy. If the risk of chemicals were put in perspective, Americans would have just gone in and cleaned up the superfund sites, instead of spending hundreds of billions in courtroom fees and salaries for bureaucrats, and done almost nothing...... |
 India's Energy Outlook,- Gordon Feller, 6-17-05 Diversity and a democratic heritage in India distinguish her from many other rapidly emerging nations, and these attributes will hopefully be a source of strength, adaptability and peaceful growth as she addresses her energy challenges for the new century. But this is not a certainty. Democracy and diversity are valuable assets only if there is a shared national will and national vision embracing inspiration over demogoguery, creativity over conformity, inclusiveness over tribalism, ecumenicalism over extremism, and participation and leadership from the grassroots to the top... |
 Mangroves Stop Tsunami- Mohammed Mesbahi, 4-06-05 Few people realize how dependent tropical coastal regions are on Mangrove forests; trees that grow in sand and salt water and form a buffer miles in depth between ocean storms and tidal waves and the land and human communities just inland. Fewer still realize the havoc wreaked on Mangrove forests by commercial aquaculture. In just the last few decades over 30% of the world's Mangrove forests, covering thousands of miles of coastline, have been destroyed to make room for shrimp farms... |
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