James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his former student George Huber, now at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, are breaking new ground in the development of an alternative fuel called "green gasoline."
(Photo by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)
Components for green gasoline can be sythesized in a laboratory from agricultural waste. New processes are breaking the barriers to producing green gasoline on the large scale needed for industrial produciton. (Photo by Ben Barnhart, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)
Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:
Transcript
Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:
Researchers from the National Science Foundation say they’re using switchgrass
and agricultural waste, such as corn stalks, to make liquids very similar to gasoline and
jet fuel.
Spokesman John Regalbuto says, unlike ethanol, these new systems
don’t result in a 30% drop in mileage and the fuels can be distributed by today’s system.
“So you can use them in your car right now with no alteration of the engines. You
can ship them in pipelines, you
can use them in existing petroleum refineries.”
It might be 5 to 10 years before green gasoline or jet fuel make it to mass
production, but Regalbuto says the research published in this month’s Journal of
Chemistry & Sustainability shows that it can be done.
For the Environment Report, I’m Lisa Ann Pinkerton
Sales of household cleaning products don’t increase much
each year. But sales of environmentally-friendly cleaners
are growing at a rate of 20% or more. And that’s gotten the
attention of some of the biggest companies in the cleaning
products business. Julie Grant reports:
Transcript
Sales of household cleaning products don’t increase much
each year. But sales of environmentally-friendly cleaners
are growing at a rate of 20% or more. And that’s gotten the
attention of some of the biggest companies in the cleaning
products business. Julie Grant reports:
Pam Whittington cleans for a living. Most of her customers
have cabinets full of cleaning products: bleach, Soft Scrub,
Windex. Whittington says those cleaners do a good job.
“They work well, but they’re strong. You get kind of ill.
Sometimes, I mean, I’ve physically gotten ill from cleaning
products, almost to where you have to leave the home
because it’s so strong.”
Whittington tries to use the more natural products, even
vinegar and baking soda, and says they work fine for most
jobs. But sometimes, there’s just too much soap scum, too
much grime – and she needs the big guns – like bleach.
“Oh, yes. Bleach is totally strong. But you need something
to kill the germs. And bleach does that. Or, vinegar does to
an effect, but still you have to get things clean. And bleach
whitens things, and gets rid of all the stains.”
One of companies best known for selling bleach is Clorox.
Matt Kohler is a brand manager for Clorox. He says they
wanted to make a more natural product line for years. But
when they tested the concept with consumers, few people
were interested in buying environmentally friendly cleaners.
“And really up until this year the market for green cleaners,
we weren’t seeing enough consumer interest to be able to
be able launch something that could sustain itself in the
market.”
But a couple of things happened last year that opened the
green door for Clorox. Kohler says the company’s scientists
came up with natural cleaners that worked as well the
regular cleaners. And something else happened. Believe it
or not, Kohler says Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth got people thinking more about environmental issues. So
much so, that for the first time many started worrying about
the chemicals in cleaning products.
“So there’s really this group of consumers out there, and it’s
growing and getting bigger every day, that are looking for
ways to live a greener lifestyle. And they’re just not satisfied
with the options that are currently available. So when we got
all that data together, we really realized the market is really
ready for a green cleaning product, and that Clorox is pretty
well positioned to come out with a product that will meet their
needs.”
Clorox has started stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart, Target,
and most supermarkets with GreenWorks. That’s their line
of ‘natural’ cleaners, made with things like coconut, lemon
oil, and corn-based ethanol. The Sierra Club environmental
group has endorsed the new products line. But others are
skeptical about Clorox’s motivation.
Alex Scranton is science director for a group called Women’s
Voices for the Earth. Last year she surveyed the ingredients
in the major household cleaners – looking for chemicals that
are dangerous to human health and the environment. She
found that the Clorox Company makes 15% of the worst
products on the market. She says it’s hypocritical for Clorox
to now call itself a ‘green’ company.
“Well, you know, this is the question we had when Clorox
released their GreenWorks product. They were very
pleased to make these new products that were effective
cleaners, were 99-percent natural, or naturally derived
ingredients. And so it begs the question: if you can do that
with your new products, can you in fact apply that technology
to your old products? Why sell both?”
Clorox says most people still want their bleach and their
Pinesol. And that the company will keep selling them as
long as people keep buying them. But Scranton wonders if
people would buy them if they knew what was in them. She
says most mainstream products don’t disclose all their
ingredients on the label. It’s not required by law.
“These companies can pretty much use any chemical they
want, with a few limitations in their products, without too
much regard for what the long term impact could be either
on the environment or on health.”
Scranton says if people understood how dangerous some of
the ingredients can be, it might really convince them to buy
alternative products. Clorox says it’s giving people a choice,
and will be watching sales of Greenworks carefully. But it
won’t stop selling products that people keep buying.
Santa in a window display. Some families wrestle with the question of how much to give each holiday season. (Photo by Mark Brush)
A lot of people don’t want to get caught up
in the consumerism of the holidays. But often
family and friends expect to get gifts from loved
ones. Julie Grant spent time with one family where gift-giving is a real struggle:
Transcript
A lot of people don’t want to get caught up
in the consumerism of the holidays. But often
family and friends to get gifts from loved ones.
Julie Grant spent time with one family where gift-
giving is a real struggle:
Susan Testa is stuck in the middle between her sister and her husband. They see the
Christmas holidays very differently. Susan and her husband Matt try to teach their two
little girls to live in balance with the natural environment. That means at Christmastime,
Susan says her husband wants to put the brakes on buying gifts:
“I think if it was up to Matt, we would have nothing because it’s just too much
consumerism, too much waste, too much this, too much that. I want to balance that
with, well, let’s not go overboard. Let’s bring some green concepts, which we’re both
very interested in, into the tradition. However, let’s not be scrooges about the whole
thing either.”
But on Christmas Eve, Matt doesn’t have visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.
He’s got visions of wastefulness. He can’t stand to watch the wrapping paper pile up as
the relatives rip open gifts:
Matt: “It doesn’t sit well with me, this frenzy of ripping things open, where no one can
even be appreciated or it’s hard to link the gift to the giver because of the frenzy going
on.”
(Sound of child in background)
Susan: “Well, what do you want to do, say okay, everyone stop. Let’s take a moment to
realize the true meaning of Christmas. And just put your gifts down and open them slowly… what do you think needs to be done?”
Matt: “Less about the things, more about the act of getting together, of sharing and all that.”
Matt says at the very least, instead of mindless toys and gadgets, the family ought to
give smart gifts: educational gifts, savings bonds – or giving the holiday gift money to
charity:
“Oh, he’s such a killjoy. You know, he’s missing the whole point of it.”
That’s Susan’s sister, Pam Nervo.
On Christmas Eve, Susan and Matt take their family over to Pam’s upper middle class
suburban home for a gift-giving session. Unlike Uncle Matt, the nieces love watching all
the wrapping paper pile up on Christmas Eve, and they don’t want educational gifts, and
Aunt Pam doesn’t plan on buying them for Sue and Matt’s girls either:
“I’m not gonna be the aunt that gives the educational toys. Not gonna happen Matt, not
going to happen.”
Pam and Sue are sisters, but their families have different philosophies. While Susan is
concerned about celebrating the love of the season and the earth we live on, Pam thinks
Susan and Matt should worry less about the consumerism of Christmas and spend more
time celebrating the birth of Jesus:
“I think when you don’t have the religious aspect to it, you are stuck with the
commercialism of it. That’s what happens. When you don’t have religion as part of your
life, that’s all this is, it’s a show.”
Julie: “Unless what you see as sort of, I mean, I’m just playing devil’s advocate for Matt a
little bit… unless what you see as your moral center is kind of…”
Pam: “Are you saying, I don’t know. Do you really want
your moral center to be based on the ecology system here. Is that what we’re saying?
That this is your moral center? That’s kind of crazy. I can’t imagine that being your
belief system.”
As we said, Susan is stuck between very different philosophies between her husband
Matt and her sister Pam.
But the holiday with the extended family is just that one day. The important thing for
Matt and Sue is that they teach their children the holiday season is more than just the
holiday shopping season. They turn to their 5-year-old daughter Geanna, smiling, Matt
asks her about her favorite part of Christmas:
Matt: “What’s your favorite part of Christmas?”
Geanna: “Um, getting presents.”
Matt: “Really?”
Geanna: “It’s just fun opening up presents.”
Well, nice try Matt. So, for this year Susan says she’ll be buying gifts she thinks the kids
in her life will enjoy. Environmental or educational qualities are secondary.
Some Christian sermons have been getting greener and greener lately.
It’s a part of a concerted effort to get church-goers on board with environmental volunteerism and
advocacy. American Muslims have been taking a hard look at the environment, too. Some
Islamic leaders hope Muslims will get fired up to fight global warming, deforestation, and other
environmental problems. Shawn Allee reports:
Transcript
Some Christian sermons have been getting greener and greener lately.
It’s a part of a concerted effort to get church-goers on board with environmental volunteerism and
advocacy. American Muslims have been taking a hard look at the environment, too. Some
Islamic leaders hope Muslims will get fired up to fight global warming, deforestation, and other
environmental problems. Shawn Allee reports:
A few boys have some books sprawled on the floor of a book store. They’re practically devouring
some illustrated stories:
(Azam:) “All these three are my boys.”
(Allee:) “Looks like they’re pretty busy with their own books here.”
(Azam:) “Yeah, they like reading, I’m proud of them.”
Ali Azam says his boys aren’t the only ones reading up on Islam – it’s a family affair.
(Allee:) “Let’s see what books you have here.”
(Azam:) “To Be a European Muslim.”
Azam says, To Be a European Muslim reads like a manual for everyday life:
“You can be a good Muslim, and you can be a good citizen of the Western world.”
The IQRA Muslim book store in Chicago is owned by Abidullah Ghazi. Ghazi says Islam deals
with a person’s whole life. He says the holiest book, the Koran, has something to say on
marriage, science, and the environment:
“There’s very clear guidelines in the tradition of the prophet. When you plant a tree, and animals
and insects eat from it, for each eating, you get a reward.”
But Muslims I spoke with say the environment is not a hot topic in American mosques. And even
in this Muslim book store, it gets little explicit attention:
“Because, as I say, in traditional society itself, that’s not a major issue.”
Ghazi says when Muslims arrived a few decades ago, the environment was not on their minds.
Their children needed guidance on fundamentals, like how to pray. But today, Muslims face new
moral challenges, including the environment:
“So, the time’s ripe to discuss this issue.”
Ingrid Mattson is President of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA. ISNA is one of the nation’s
largest Muslim umbrella groups:
“What I would like to see is that we’re able to develop more guidelines with participation of the
community that would help them move forward to make them more environmentally friendly.”
Mattson wants American Muslims to fight global warming. She says it should be easy to motivate
them. After all, many have family abroad who face environmental problems:
“Most of us have at least visited Middle Eastern countries or African countries and we’ve seen for
ourselves the impact of global warming. We know, for example, that the situation in Darfur really
was started because of the drying up watering holes of nomads.”
The U.N. agrees water is at least one cause behind the conflict in Sudan. It could take time for
big-picture principles to move from Mattson’s group into American mosques. But some Muslim
environmental activists are on the move now.
Zainab Khan works with a Chicago inter-faith group called Faith in Place. She’s looking at things
Muslims can do in their day-to-day lives. One of Khan’s goals is to have mosques cut back the
environmental impact of Islamic rituals:
“We pray five times a day. Most people need to wash up before they pray, and usually they’ll be using
warm water for that.”
And heating water takes power. So, Khan is trying to get a local mosque to install solar water
heaters. She also wants Muslims to buy food from local farmers. She says getting organic food
isn’t enough. It can be imported from places like Peru:
“So, for example, if you’re getting organic all the way from Peru, it’s harder to monitor whether pesticides aren’t
being used, plus on top of that, you’re burning a lot of fossil fuels to get that organic food to you.”
Khan says buying local helps ensure workers and animals are treated well – both Islamic
principles. Khan says sometimes it’s hard to speak about Islam without getting hung up on
current discussions on gender and terrorism, but she tries anyway:
“God will send forth upon communities blessings upon blessings. It’s this positive outlook that if you make a
concerted effort and then God will take care of you and take care of the Earth.”
Increasingly, Islam is making America its home. Khan and other Muslims believe they can
contribute to making that home’s environment better through faith.
Bill Dawson delivering light bulbs to his neighbors in Ottawa. (Photo by Karen Kelly)
Compact fluorescent bulbs could replace the traditional incandescent bulb in Canada. The Thomas Edison bulb is being phased out over the next five years. Photo by Lester Graham
The warmer weather brings gardens, barbeques, and often, solicitors to
your door. Many people dread opening the door for someone who’s asking
for money. But in a number of Canadian cities, volunteers are actually
giving something away: a compact fluorescent light bulb and a bit of
education, too. Karen Kelly has the story:
Transcript
The warmer weather brings gardens, barbeques, and often, solicitors to
your door. Many people dread opening the door for someone who’s asking
for money. But in a number of Canadian cities, volunteers are actually
giving something away: a compact fluorescent light bulb and a bit of
education, too. Karen Kelly has the story:
Bill Dawson is standing in this woman’s doorway holding up a
fluorescent light bulb. She looks a little unsure about it, but then he explains that even changing one light bulb can have an
impact:
“What can I do as an individual. Well, I could, just by my little bit,
can make a big difference. Because hopefully, once you start to use
this, it’s going to make you start to think, how can I save energy in
other ways.”
Dawson is a volunteer for Project Porchlight. They have a simple plan:
give one free compact fluorescent bulb to every household in Canada.
The bulb will last up to 8 times as long as a conventional bulb and use
a quarter of the electricity. And if every household changes one bulb,
it’s the equivalent of removing 66 thousand cars off the road.
It’s kind of hard to believe, but that potential is what motivated
Stuart Hickox to start Project Porchlight two years ago:
“I remember sitting there thinking, wow, that’s incredible. Somebody
should do a campaign about this. So I talked to a few friends. But the
big breakthrough for us was that we decided not to just do an awareness
campaign. We decided we’d bridge the gap between awareness and action
by raising money to give people their first bulb.”
So, with more than 250 volunteers and funding from HydroOttawa, the
local utility, the group delivered almost a quarter million light bulbs
in Ottawa last fall. They wore matching fluorescent green jackets and
hats. They drove rechargeable electric bikes with lime green saddlebags
packed with bulbs. And they answered lots of questions like, is the
mercury in these bulbs dangerous for people? The answer? No. But you
should throw them with out with other household hazardous waste.
Hickox’s theory was, if you can get someone to change a light bulb, you
might change their thinking as well:
“When you give them that bulb and that person makes that change, they
realize they can take action on climate change and they do. And it’s
the gateway. It leads to a sense of the individual that you can do
something, and that therefore they may participate and do other
things.”
It worked with Bill Dawson. Before he started volunteering with the
group, he says he felt helpless when he thought about global warming:
“I didn’t even think about what I could do as an individual. It was
just…I’d look at those smokestacks and I’d say, ehh, what’s the
point.”
Then Bill went to a Project Porchlight training session.
He came home with 120 lightbulbs and a radical plan for his own life.
He got rid of his luxury car, which he loved, and bought a Prius, an
energy efficient hybrid car.
Bill says his friends thought he was crazy. He’s 83, a successful
businessman and his car, an Audi A6, was part of his image.
But that’s changed:
“I’d think I’d much rather be an image of a green, someone concerned
about the environment, having 13 grandchildren and two great
grandchildren, it’s a pretty bleak future for those kids and…I don’t
know whether it’s too late or not, but we certainly have got to do
something.”
But now, Bill and people in every household in four Canadian cities are
doing something, thanks to Project Porchlight. And soon, everyone in
Canada will be changing their bulbs, because the Canadian government
has announced it is phasing out old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs
altogether over the next five years.
Gregory Johnson's teeny tiny house - 140 square feet in all. (Photo by Gregory Johnson)
Johnson's house is big enough to accommodate a queen size bed in the sleeping loft. He says there's not enough room to stand up in the loft, but he can do some yoga positions. (Photo by Gregory Johnson)
By sliding panels out of the woodwork, Johnson can transform his living space from kitchen to dining room to office and back again. (Photo by Gregory Johnson)
Gregory Johnson says it's possible to live a fulfilling life with a LOT less space... especially if you want to live high-tech. He doesn't need a filing cabinet (he scans books and papers into his laptop) and he has all his entertainment needs covered by his iPod. (Photo by Gregory Johnson)
Andru Bemis spends a lot of time on the road as a traveling musician. He says he likes the feeling that he can leave town and not worry about too much going wrong with his house. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
Believe it or not... you can still have a 5,000-record collection in a 300 square foot house. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)
New homes in America keep getting bigger and bigger. The average new
American home is about 2400 square feet. Moving up to a bigger house
can seem like a sign of success… or it might feel necessary for a
growing family. But in the face of pressure to buy big… some people
are choosing to downsize their homes… way, way down. Rebecca
Williams visits some of the tiniest houses on the block:
Transcript
New homes in America keep getting bigger and bigger. The average new
American home is about 2400 square feet. Moving up to a bigger house
can seem like a sign of success… or it might feel necessary for a
growing family. But in the face of pressure to buy big… some people
are choosing to downsize their homes… way, way down. Rebecca
Williams visits some of the tiniest houses on the block:
“Here it is, you’ve just about seen it. You’re standing looking at the
kitchen, you’re standing in the living room, there’s a study, and
there’s a bathroom behind that wall and somewhere above the bathroom there’s a
bed.”
It takes a hop, skip and a jump to cross from one end to the other.
That’s because his house is 300 square feet. Total.
Andru Bemis says a little house is better:
“I’m not owned by it, that’s one of the biggest things. I’ve only got
one sink I’ve gotta keep running, I’ve only got one of anything, don’t have an entire house to
take care of. I also leave town a lot and don’t have to leave an
entire house and worry about it.”
Bemis is a musician. His love of music explains the 5,000 records
lining one wall of his house and taking up precious space.
Of course he also makes room for his banjo.
(Sound of strumming)
You just don’t see tiny houses that much any more. Some, like Andru
Bemis’, are remnants from the early 20th century. His tiny house is in a sleepy
neighborhood that used to be the factory district. He’s seen other
little houses like his get torn down to build bigger new ones.
“Bigger is better, I guess. Bigger means you’ve achieved a lot more.
But as far as I’m concerned bigger generally means you’re working a
whole lot harder.”
That’s one reason people are choosing to live small. They’re after a
simpler life with less stuff. A smaller house costs less to buy and
maintain. And some people argue smaller homes make better use of
resources because they just use less of everything.
Jay Shafer says building small is the greenest thing you can do with a
new home. He owns the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. He designs and
builds super small houses. He started with his own home. It was
really tiny – 70 square feet. That’s 7 feet by 10 feet.
“It’s a huge challenge – it’s much harder than designing a large house.
There’s just no room for error. And if you want to do it well and get
the proportioning right you have to consider everything as part of
everything else.”
Shafer says to live in a tiny house, you have to figure out how much
elbow room you need. Turns out, 70 square feet was a tad too small for
Jay Shafer. So he traded up to 100 square feet.
Shafer says tiny houses are a tough sell for most Americans. But some
people just love small little spaces. Shafer calls himself a
claustrophile. He’s built 10 tiny houses and sold dozens more plans.
Gregory Johnson is one of Shafer’s converts. He’s a computer
consultant in Iowa City. He lives in one of Jay Shafer’s high tech
tiny houses. It’s just 140 square feet. But with a little bit of
magic, one room turns into three.
(Sound of sliding panels)
“You can take what was an office and in about 20 seconds it converts into
a dining area with a sink off to our right because that’s the kitchen.”
Gregory Johnson says his tiny house has changed him. He says he had
his doubts at first, like the time he visited Jay Shafer at the construction
site:
“He showed this little hole I was supposed to crawl through, the
passageway to the upstairs to the loft and I thought I might have to
lose some weight to get up in there (laughs).”
Johnson says he started really scaling back. He realized if he had a
refrigerator, he’d just fill it up with ice cream and pizza. Things he
really didn’t need. So to save energy, he doesn’t have a fridge at
all. He started eating nuts and grains and fruit. By shrinking his
life down to match his house he lost 100 pounds.
Johnson says tiny spaces don’t work for everyone. But he says he has a
fulfilling life with a whole lot less stuff and space to put it in.
Many tiny house owners such as Andru Bemis want their miniature homes
to make a statement: size does matter.
(Andru Bemis song: “my house is a very small house it’s the littlest
house there is/it’s bigger than yours”)
The annual season of major U.S. auto shows is underway. And this year, the
hot trend isn’t about horsepower or towing capacity. It’s about saving you
gas at the pump. But as Dustin Dwyer reports, the rhetoric is still ahead
of the reality:
Transcript
The annual season of major U.S. auto shows is underway. And this year, the hot trend
isn’t about horsepower or towing capacity. It’s about saving you gas at the pump.
But, as
Dustin Dwyer reports, the rhetoric is still ahead of the reality:
At the Los Angeles Auto Show, some promises were made by auto companies about
building cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.
The problem is that, so far, the big gains have only been in a few specialized
vehicles, not
across the board.
David Friedman of the Union of Concerned Scientists says auto companies are making
some progress on cleaner technology. But he says the real test is whether they can
improve efficiency across all types of vehicles.
“Right now if you’re a mother of three and you need to have all those three kids in
car
seats, you probably need a minivan. A compact car won’t work for you. And yet, if you
walk into the showroom today, your choice for a minivan is what 20, 21, maybe 23 miles
per gallon? That’s no real choice.”
The next chance for the automakers to unveil new gas conscious vehicles comes later
this
month at the Detroit Auto Show.
The EPA recently finalized its mercury reduction plan for coal-burning power plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage developing children. Now 16 states are taking the EPA to court, saying the so-called “cap-and-trade” plan doesn’t go far enough. The GLRC’s Gregory Warner reports:
Transcript
The EPA recently finalized its mercury reduction plan for coal-burning power
plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage developing children. Now
16 states are taking the EPA to court saying
the so-called “cap-and-trade” plan doesn’t go far enough. The GLRC’s
Gregory Warner reports:
The coalition of states filed the suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
DC Circuit, challenging the cap-and-trade rule.
Cap-and-trade allows operators of older power plants to swap pollution
credits with newer plants instead of minimizing their own emissions.
EPA regulators say their program will cut mercury pollution by 70 percent over the
next 12 years. The states say mercury is too dangerous for a go-slow
approach. Emily Green is with the Sierra Club:
“Just a little bit can cause major problems for children’s health in
particular, so right now we have the technology to reduce mercury from coal
plants by 90 percent, that’s what we should do.”
In contrast to the EPA rule, more than 20 states have adopted or are moving
to adopt more stringent rules to reduce mercury emissions.
Chemists at the University of North Carolina have developed a new material for making stain resistant coatings that they say will not contaminate the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight has the story:
Transcript
Chemists at the University of North Carolina have developed a new material for making stain resistant coatings that they say will not contaminate the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight has the story:
The problem with many stain resistant coatings on clothing and paper goods is that they gradually breakdown into C8, a compound that an Environmental Protection Agency advisory board terms a “likely carcinogen.”
Chemistry professor Joseph DeSimone and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have come up with something they’re calling “C4 plus.” The new material uses a type of fluorocarbon which is less likely to degrade.
Paul Anastas is director of the Green Chemistry Institute and he says C4 plus is just what the doctor ordered.
“What Joe DeSimone is doing is designing our next generation of substances so that they are not going to be harmful to human health and the environment.”
Anastas says manufacturers could switch to the “greener” ingredient very soon.
A new bill would make the prevention of the spread of Asian carp a higher priority. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service)
A new bill in Congress aims to ban the importation and possession of a fish that threatens the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
A new bill in Congress aims to ban the importation and
possession of a fish that threatens the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports.
Biologists say if Asian carp ever get into the Lakes, the fish would do major
damage to aquatic life.
Even though the carp are already in some Midwest rivers, several states ban people from importing or having the fish. Wisconsin Republican Congress member Mark Green says the ban needs to be nationwide.
“There are some areas that don’t have Asian carp now. So by
banning the importation we at least hopefully stem the flow while we
take other steps.”
Steps like making sure a new publicly funded carp barrier is finished in a canal southwest of Chicago. A bill Green has introduced would add four types of Asian carp to a list of destructive species currently banned under federal law.
Green expects opposition from parts of the aquaculture industry. It’s generally thought that the Asian carp first entered Midwest rivers when they got away from fish farms during floods.
James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his former student George Huber, now at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, are breaking new ground in the development of an alternative fuel called "green gasoline." (Photo by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)
