Our ability to get more electric power with less pollution only seems to improve as time goes by.  And recent reports about a new hybrid power plant being tested at the University of California, Irvine, only adds to that bright outlook.  According to the Environmental News Service, this mini power plant, the size of a small house trailer, is the world's first to combine a fuel cell with a small, high-speed gas turbine, and provides enough electricity to power 200 homes.  The hybrid plant is pushing electrical efficiency to unprecedented levels, and best of all, emits little of the [...]

Public policy observers who want to see Americans get out of their cars and onto mass transit trains claim that increased ridership is proof that such programs deserve more funding.  But according to Randal O'Toole of the Thoreau Institute, these advocates are simply rolling down the wrong tracks.  He notes that gains in transit ridership are tiny compared to increases in auto driving, with mass transit carrying at best only 4 percent of all passenger miles even in large cities.  When you also consider that Americans travel nearly 100 times more by auto than by transit, yet spend less [...]

Is sport fishing a barbaric practice?  Well according to those in the group PETA the answer is yes, but according to a major new study, fish may be indifferent to the whole process.  And the reason: fish simply don't feel pain.  This, according to a paper in the Review of Fisheries Science, which reveals, in simple terms, that fish, because of a less developed nervous system,  don't have the grey matter to detect pain.  The research, of course, doesn't sit well with PETA, which claims its own findings contradict this assertion.  But with two of PETA's three experts known [...]

Environmental policies are supposed to help clean up the air.  But are some eco-policies actually contributing to massive air pollution in developing nations?  Well that's the question some experts are asking after the U.N. recently completed a major  study of the so-called Asian brown cloud — a 2-mile blanket of pollution over south Asia — and found that the burning of wood, cow dung, and other biomass is a primary cause of this damaging air.  The experts note that poor people in these countries must resort to such fuels to cook, heat their homes, and carry out primitive manufacturing [...]

Environmental policies are supposed to help clean up the air.  But are some eco-policies actually contributing to massive air pollution in developing nations?  Well that's the question some experts are asking after the U.N. recently completed a major  study of the so-called Asian brown cloud — a 2-mile blanket of pollution over south Asia — and found that the burning of wood, cow dung, and other biomass is a primary cause of this damaging air.  The experts note that poor people in these countries must resort to such fuels to cook, heat their homes, and carry out primitive manufacturing [...]

A rolling stone, they say,  gathers no moss.  But it appears for growing numbers of entrepreneurs, gathering moss is becoming quite popular, and this has botanists concerned.   According to a recent article in the New York Times, moss can fetch about $5 for a four ounce bag -- and this has helped spawn the gathering of perhaps 40 million pounds of the plant from our forests, much of it illegally.  Moss is important, biologists note, to healthy ecosystems -- as they are home to some 300 species of insects and provide nesting for the endangered marbled murrelet.  Since the [...]

The battle over dams and their impact on salmon is decades old, but can new technologies help solve this dilemma?  Well according to a new NOAA report, the answer is "yes", and the Bush Administration is seeking to implement some of these new techniques to balance the needs of man and nature.  The construction of new weirs, which operate kind of like water slides, is one such measure that NOAA supports and is being pursued at a cost of some $6 billion.  Another is the introduction of hatchery fish, fish that are genetically identical to their wild counterparts and [...]

Techno trash, or materials from outdated and unused computers and cell phones, continues to be a topic of concern among environmentalists.   Indeed, one survey found that less than 10 percent of techno trash is recycled each year.  Fortunately, some free-market and new technology measures are being developed, such as at England's Warwick University, where cell phone covers can now be made of biodegradable plastics containing seeds.  Some businesses such as Staples and Whole Foods Market also now take in old cell phones, and others such as Motorola have prepaid postage labels to ship all brands of cell phones to [...]

Since the days of Thomas Malthus in the 1800's, many have worried that food supplies could not keep up with population.  But according to the Population Research Institute, these pessimistic predictions about food continue to be starved for facts.  Since the 1980's, grain production has increased by more than 5% per person, and the amount of calories available each day is now at 2,800.  But even better news comes from Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, who says that even without advances in biotech, yields can be increased by as much as 70 percent in [...]

Could the Sun's role in the global warming debate be underestimated?  Well according to some physicists at Duke University, it appears that much of the warming that has taken place over the past few decades could be directly attributable to solar activity.  This is a surprising finding, as many have pinned virtually all of the warming to the output of human greenhouse gas emissions.  But the scientists, examining sun spot activity and using new statistical methods which measure the atmosphere's response to solar heating, suggest that the sun may be accountable for as much as 30 percent of the [...]

Do higher and higher gas prices spell doom for our suburbs?  Well some experts think the answer is yes.  This is because they believe that the higher gas prices signal that we are running out of oil, thus forcing more people to both drive less and live in the cities.  But according to a study by the National Center for Policy Analysis, such assessments are running on empty.  To begin, the study notes, geologists insist we have plenty of known reserves for oil, and higher gas prices may increase the sales of fuel efficient cars, numbers of telecommuters, or [...]

The European Union has adopted the precautionary principle, which basically says better safe than sorry, as a means to regulate issues of the environment.  But is this wise?  Well not according to Dr. Gary Marchant, author of the book Arbitrary and Capricious, who has this to say:  "Proponents of the precautionary principle see power in its ambiguity. It gives regulators and courts unlimited discretion, and its ambiguity undermines transparency, accountability and fundamental principles of jurisprudence. Inevitably, the "precautionary principle" provides a shaky foundation for Europe's legal decision-making. It will collapse on itself -- but not before it does serious [...]

When bugs and insects ignore the repellent you rub onto your arms and legs, it can be most annoying.  But when they ignore the insecticides placed on foods and crops, it can be devastating for many, especially in the developing world.  Fortunately scientists have developed a new technique using a chemical derived from the Sassafrases tree -- a technique that makes pesticides more effective by removing an insect's ability to exhibit resistance. Already tested on whiteflys in Spain and Australia and shown to be almost one hundred percent effective, scientists are optimistic this new technique will significantly reduce the [...]

Nearly everyone knows that cleaner air is good for your health.  But is it also good for the value of your home?  Well according to some interesting research by a pair of economists from the University of California, Berkeley and MIT, it appears that those areas which have cleaner air tend to also have higher home values.  The economists came to their conclusion by controlling for other factors likely to affect housing prices -- items such as income, population, and taxes.  When they then looked at areas which experienced a ten percent drop in particulate matter pollution they found, [...]

To many, the battle between those who believe in global warming and those who don't is one between David and Goliath -- with the underdog being those who support the theory.  But according to James Dellinger of the Capital Research Center, the facts - at least regarding funding -  reveal just the opposite is true.