·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the press release.

When it comes to doing their part for the environment, Americans may be “greener” than they think – with many participating in more than two “green” activities regularly. A new study entitled “Moving Consumers from Green Interest to Green Action,” conducted by Insight Research Group in partnership with HGTV and the Natural Resources Defense Council, set out to gain an in-depth understanding of people’s relationship to green and how it fits into their lives. The research found that more than 84 percent of respondents believe “it is a moral obligation” to care for the environment and 86 percent already participate in at least one green activity such as conserving energy at home, recycling, driving a fuel efficient car, buying recycled products or picking up litter. However, the research also found that a main barrier to doing more “green” actions is people’s trepidation that such activities may associate them with extreme political or environmental viewpoints.

Read the full story at News.com.

Rick Wagoner isn’t likely to win applause from a Greenpeace audience–at least any time soon.

As the head of General Motors, Wagoner runs one of the biggest auto companies in the world. But more to the point, he directs the company most identified with big, gas-guzzling SUVs. GM also tends to come out with energy-efficient ideas, such as hydrogen cars or electric vehicles, that never seem to make it.

However, Wagoner says the Detroit giant is serious about fuel efficiency.

So far, GM has sold millions of flex-fuel cars that can run on E85 ethanol and is working with big box retailers to expand the supply of ethanol stations. GM also has invested in Coskata, an ethanol company whose technology promises to deliver ethanol from nonfood sources. At the same time, GM says it’s on track to deliver the Chevy Volt, an electric car that runs primarily on batteries, by 2010.

Wagoner met with CNET News.com (and some other media outlets) at CES 2008 last week–and just ahead of this week’s big Detroit auto show–to discuss these issues and some of the other concepts being touted inside GM.

Read the full story at News.com.

EcoMotors is working on a futuristic diesel engine that’s similar in concept to something Charles Lindbergh may have once used.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

The Detroit Auto Show has been the place where automakers tried to out-muscle each other with mind-boggling horsepower numbers and performance claims.

But this year, manufacturers showcasing new cars and new technology are focusing more than ever on zero, as in zero emissions or zero gasoline consumed rather than the much-vaunted zero-to-60 m.p.h. times.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune’s Redeye.

Some people have become eco-anxious, perplexed about whether to dry their hands with tree-killing paper towels or energy-wasting hand dryers (greenest solution: pant leg). Others live steeped in eco-guilt, sheepishly loading plastic grocery bags into their SUVs. Still others have grown so sick of “live green” campaigns that they’d like Al Gore to take a compact fluorescent lightbulb and shove it.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Did the stream of products announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas leave you with a techno-itch and make everything you own seem outdated?

Your old gadgets deserve a better fate than a shelf in the basement, gathering dust. They might have more potential than you think: Tinkering with your old computer can turn it into a super Web surfer; your boring cell phone might be donated to an organization that can put it to good use; the broken iPod that’s nothing but a paperweight now might be worth a little bit of cash.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Botulism and the infamous zebra mussel are blamed for killing birds – from gulls to loons – by the thousands

SciVee allows scientists to upload videos and publish podcasts about their research. From the About page:

SciVee is about the free and widespread dissemination and comprehension of science. Created for scientists, by scientists, SciVee moves science beyond the printed word and lecture theater taking advantage of the internet as a communication medium where scientists young and old have a place and a voice.

Read the full story in the Boston Globe.

The nation’s first proposed offshore wind-energy project cleared its most formidable hurdle yesterday as the US Minerals Management Service declared that the wind farm off Cape Cod would have little lasting impact on wildlife, navigation, and tourism.

Read the full report.

This current working paper reports the first successfully implemented field pilot study in the management strategy of arsenic in crop production and for sustainable environment. The final report on the overall arsenic issue in agriculture will be released in the near future. The remediation measures mentioned in this report are also applicable and useful as adaptive measures in coping with changing agriculture practice and responses to climate change.

Read the full story in Occupational Health & Safety.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers are developing a tiny sensor that could be used to detect minute quantities of hazardous gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents, much more quickly than current devices.

Read the full story at News.com.

The recently passed energy act is a boon for ethanol. But other biofuels, including plant-derived fossil fuel look-alikes, are also poised to get a boost.

A handful of companies are using different approaches to designing synthetic versions of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. They include including LS9, Amyris Biotechnologies, Codexis, and J. Craig Venter-founded Synthetic Genomics.

These biofuels, which some refer to as “renewable petroleum,” will be designed with the same properties of hydrocarbons that now fuel our vehicles, but be made from biomass, rather than petroleum.

Via The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Campaign U blog.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Universities, and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation announced that they are creating a Web site devoted to science and technology issues in the 2008 presidential campaign.

The site will feature the candidates’ positions on those topics, news stories, commentaries, survey information, policy reports, and election calendars. It will also allow visitors to the site to sign up for a listserv to receive updates on science, technology, and the election.

See http://election2008.aaas.org/themes/energy_env/ for summaries of the candidates’ platforms on energy and the environmentl=.

Read the full story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Ecological Society of America says the country is rushing toward using biofuels as a replacement for petroleum without fully studying environmental sustainability. More-intensive cultivation of crops for fuel may accelerate soil erosion and damage to wildlife habitats and water quality, the society said in a written statement.

Read the press release.

EcoAlign, a strategic marketing agency focused on energy and the environment and an affiliate of DEFG LLC, today released the results and findings of the second EcoPinion survey on customer perceptions of green technologies.

The second EcoPinion Survey provides further evidence of a green gap between willingness to adopt or purchase green products, services and technologies, and consumer value perceptions around those offerings. While concern for the environment is at an all time high, consumers think that many forms of green technology (renewable, energy efficient or recycled materials) are cost prohibitive, difficult to understand and maintain, and aesthetically unappealing.

Read the full story in Plenty Magazine.

If “paper vs plastic” was the dispute of the 1990s, then “email vs post” could be the dilemma of the 2000s

Read the full story in Plenty Magazine.

Move over Captain Planet, the environment has a new superhero—a mystery man in a silver mask known as El Hijo del Santo (Son of the Saint).

Part of the popular Mexican wrestling tradition lucha libre (freestyle wrestling), El Hijo del Santo is the spokesperson for Wildcoast Costasalvaje, a nonprofit that protects coastal ecosystems and wildlife in the Americas. He takes his duty as environmental defender as seriously as the fights that have littered his 25-year wrestling career and that of his father (El Santo). Enemies of the ocean, beware.

News.com has a photo essay about the green cars previewed at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Read the full story at News.com.

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched?

It’s one of the first questions that pops into your head when talking to Steve Glenn, founder of Living Homes, one of a number of start-ups creating factory-built green homes. Glenn lives in the first home built by the company, and, as you can see from the pictures, most of the walls are windows. The windows allow owners to cut down on electric light usage and give the home an airy, expansive feeling.