e360 Video Report

When The Water Ends:
Africa’s Climate Conflicts

As temperatures rise and water supplies dry up, semi-nomadic tribes along the Kenyan-Ethiopian border increasingly are coming into conflict with each other. A Yale Environment 360 video report from East Africa focuses on a phenomenon that climate scientists say will be more and more common in the 21st century: how worsening drought will pit groups — and nations — against one another.
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03 Jan 2011: Enzyme Mix Could Cut Key Step
For Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Scientists Say

U.S. researchers have used a combination of enzymes that consume cellulose from nonfood products to produce a high-quality hydrogen gas, a potential breakthrough in efforts to use biofuels to power hydrogen fuel cells. Scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Georgia combined 14 enzymes, a coenzyme, materials from nonfood sources, and heated water to produce a hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell. The researchers say the process generates the highest hydrogen yield reported from cellulosic materials. While researchers used wood chips in their experiments, they say agricultural waste or switchgrass could also be employed. “Using cellulose instead of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to include biomass,” said Jonathan Mielenz at the Oak Ridge Laboratory. Meanwhile, the Australian airline Qantas this month is expected to announce plans to build the world’s second commercial-scale power plant to produce green jet fuel using food and household waste.
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03 Jan 2011: Building of Coal-Fired Plants
Continued to Lag in 2010 in the U.S.

For the second year in a row, construction did not begin on a single new coal-fired power plant in the U.S. in 2010, reflecting a growing shift toward natural gas and renewable energy. The Washington Post reports that a combination of new shale gas discoveries, low natural gas prices, the recession, and opposition from environmental groups has impeded the construction of new coal power plants. “Coal is a dead man walkin’,” said Kevin Parker, global head of asset management at Deutsche Bank. “Banks won’t finance them. The EPA is coming after them... And the economics to make it clean don’t work.” Despite helping to kill climate legislation in the U.S. Congress last year, the coal industry faces long-term pressures — including efforts in half of the states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — that are likely to lead to the phasing out of older coal plants and limited construction of new ones, the Post reported. From 2000 to 2008, construction started on 19 coal-fired power plants, but last year utilities abandoned plans to build 38 new ones while announcing they would retire 48 aging plants.
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Interview: As Arctic Ocean Melts,
A Refuge Plan for the Polar Bear

With the Arctic Ocean heading toward a largely ice-free state in summer by mid-century, scientists are looking closely at areas that may retain remnant sea ice and help preserve ice-dependent creatures. Researchers have identified a key spot north of Canada and Greenland, which they say could be a kind of Noah’s Ark in the age of global warming. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Stephanie Pfirman, an Arctic ice expert and co-chair of the Environmental Science Department at Barnard College, describes how the refuge could harbor substantial numbers of polar bears, ringed seals, and other Arctic creatures until the end of the 21st century and, possibly, beyond. The good news, says Pfirman, is that if humanity begins to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, the ice refuges could preserve Arctic species and enable them to repopulate the region if ice levels eventually recover.
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Rare Elephant Filmed in Cambodian Forest

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has released what it says is the first high-quality video footage of the elusive Asian elephant in the wild in Cambodia, where civil war and environmental degradation have made sightings of the animal rare. The video, shot by photographer Allan Michaud in August, captures a male Asian elephant feeding on grass near a road in the Seima Protection Forest, a recently created, 1,100-square-mile conservation area located in the foothills of the Annamite mountains, along Cambodia’s eastern border with Vietnam. According to a 2006 study by the WCS and the Cambodian government, about 116 wild Asian elephants live in the protected area, but most photos of the animal have been taken by camera traps. Edward Pollard of the WCS’s Cambodia Program called the footage “visual confirmation that Seima is vitally important for biodiversity.”
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Interview: The U.S. Military is
Moving to Cut Its Oil Dependency

When it comes to energy consumption, no single part of the U.S. government comes close to the Defense Department, with military operations accounting for about 80 percent of total federal energy use. Pentagon leaders say this reliance on fossil fuels is a threat to troops, as supplying increasingly energy-hungry forces exposes fuel supply lines to attack and makes troops more vulnerable to energy disruptions. As head of a new energy office at the Pentagon, Sharon Burke is charged with finding ways for the U.S. military to cut its dangerous dependency on oil. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Burke talks about the new green technologies that are being tested and the challenges she faces – cultural as well as technological – in implementing them in the field.
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22 Dec 2010: Honeybee-Destroying Mites
Are Targeted Using Genetic Technique

UK scientists have developed a genetic technique to cause the self-destruction of a deadly mite that has played a role in the decimation of honeybee populations worldwide through so-called colony collapse disorder. In laboratory tests, researchers at the University of Aberdeen and the UK’s National Bee Unit were able to target and disable specific genes in the varroa mite, a parasite that has killed millions of bees across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. and caused significant harm to the honey industry. “This approach targets the mites without harming the bees or, indeed, any other animal,” said Alan Bowman, lead author of the study published in the journal Parasites and Vectors. Researchers hope the technique will be approved for general use within five to 10 years. The mites, which look like tiny brown crabs, attach themselves to honeybees, draining the insects of their blood and weakening their immune systems. According to researchers, 1,000 mites can destroy a colony of 50,000 bees.
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