Try searching Digg for biofuel: it’s not encouraging, but Coskata may be:
Coskata is a biology-based renewable energy company. Our technology enables the low-cost production of ethanol from a wide variety of input material including biomass, municipal solid waste and other carbonaceous material. Using proprietary microorganisms and patented bioreactor designs, we will produce ethanol for under US$1.00 per gallon.
Now, of course I’m trying to cut down, but I still have this house and this job…
House, car, bikes and flights offset for the year ahead plus retrospective offsetting for the bikes – I’m not about to offset my life to date!
Let’s see if they respond to my request to add skydiving, after all, I’m not giving it up…
According to Clear Offset
Aggressive riding can halve your fuel economy so much that a hard-ridden sports bike could be as damaging to the environment as a gently driven 4×4!
I’m glad I ride so gently! “Could” is quite a word in this context though. Riding a fast sports bike “hard” on the road is incredibly irresponsible: I doubt many get away with it for long.
How I miss sailing: exciting and no fuel burnt.
Must investigate carbon offsetting against skydives…
Update: Clear Offset expressed an interest. I’m collecting data from UK dropzones. We’ll see where it goes.
Stumbled on this article
The group of Dutch researchers contends that the new estimate of the mass balance of Antarctica is as reliable as the reliability given to current atmospheric models. The only improvement that could be offered would have to come from new surface mass balance observations from poorly covered high accumulation regions in coastal Antarctica. Until then, there is little evidence to disprove their conclusion that the mass of Antarctica’s grounded ice sheet steadily grew from 1980 to 2004.
The doomsday portraits of Antarctica’s glaciers reacting to a global climate change should be blurry at best. Consensus on changes in ice sheet thickness and their causes is difficult, and therefore of limited use on either side of the global warming debate. As Monaghan et al. (2006) state, “Vigorous efforts are needed to better understand this remote but important part of the planet and its role in global climate and sea level rise.”
Nanosolar reckon solar power can now be cheaper than coal:
Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal.
Some old news in the Telegraph too.
(This isn’t me!)
Yes, then. But let’s not stop living to do it.
Now, how do we get this message to the Chinese?
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Just took the KTM out to examine the driving conditions. It’s Biblical.
The A420 is closed where it bypasses the village – haven’t checked it out, yet – so people seem to be heading off into the minor roads in the region of Faringdon and Lechlade. This turns out to be a Bad Idea.
I rode to Highworth for fuel, then out to Lechlade, though Buscot to Faringdon and home. There’s quite a river, 8 inches perhaps, running across the road between Watchfield and Shrivenham. Highworth is ok on the hill. The floods from Inglesham through Buscot are spectacular.
