[ Electrofuels: Charged Microbes May “Poop Out” a Gasoline Alternative ]

Run current through genetically engineered microorganisms, and they produce gasoline substitute. Can U.S.-funded electrofuels research finish the drive from lab to market?

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[ Whisky a Go Go: Can Scotland’s Distillery Waste Boost Biofuels? ]

Scotland’s whisky industry churns out a sobering amount of waste, but it may eventually feed a heady biofuels market if Celtic Renewables’ plans succeed.

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[ What’s Behind the New Warning on Global Carbon Emissions? ]

The world is on track to dangerous global warming, but some solutions could be implemented quickly, says International Energy Agency.

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[ Tar Sands Tour: Boomtown, Scarecrows, and Spin; “We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us” ]

The words in the title above came from Pogo, and they have bounced around in the back of my brain since the 1970s when I first heard them. Many times I’ve been confronted with the truth of that quip by Pogo, the beloved character of former Disney cartoonist Walt Kelly (1913-1973), in a poster he created for the first Earth Day in 1970. No affirmation was more emphatic than an experience Mary and I shared in Canada recently.

This Earth Day, just two days after the third anniversary of BP’s fatal Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, we did something not very mindful of our Earth.…

[ Climate Change: China, U.S. Bring Toy Fire Truck to Seven-Alarm Fire ]

Global greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever. What’s to be done?

“Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map,” a special report [pdf] by the International Energy Agency (IEA), was released on Monday, and the findings are sobering. (See related story: “What’s Behind the New Warning on Global Carbon Emissions?“)

In 2012 energy-related, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached their highest levels ever at 31.6 gigatons, a data point to go along with the fact that last month CO2 surpassed the 400 parts-per-million mark for the first time in perhaps several million years.…