Weather, Water, Energy 1-05-06

Lot of articles around the Earth Policy Institute report on the way corn use for ethanol may decrease its use for, you know, eating and make it more expensive for those who get to consume it, like poor people. The ethanol folks, of course, deny the problem, saying there's plenty more land to grow corn on (nothing going on weather-wise that might make growing corn more difficult, you know). After reading this quote, I think it's worth looking into that sawgrass or sugar cane stuff: "But the grain it takes to fill a 25-gallon tank with ethanol just once would feed one person for a whole year. Converting the entire U.S. grain harvest to ethanol would satisfy only 16 percent of U.S. auto fuel needs." . . . Warm weather, less oxygen in sea water, cool water species of fish, global warming--not a great combo for keeping that species alive or at least in its eco niche. . . . El Nino (tilde challenged) hasn't had the drought-ending effect on AZ that was initially hoped for. . . . Really good article on solar and how state initiatives in CA are having the economy of scale effects on prices that everyone's advocated for decades (h/t Grist). . . . Speaking of Grist, a nice link here to German decisions to back off use of palm oil for fuel when it was clear that that would mean whacking down more rainforest. . . . There are no "good" oil companies when it comes to global warming, but ExxonMobil really is the worst. This very thorough post details its global warming disinfo campaign. And pay attention well to this quote: "ExxonMobil needs to be held accountable for its cynical disinformation campaign on global warming. Consumers, shareholders and Congress should let the company know loud and clear that its behavior on this issue is unacceptable and must change." . . . Glaciers melting big time in India and Tibet. . . . And Denmark has set goals for bio-ethanol use by 2025 to reduce its dependence on petro. Do they like corn?