Rockefeller University

Program for the Human Environment

News

New Scientist Magazine

Journalist Fred Pearce interviewed Jesse for New Scientist magazine. The version published in the 28 January 2006 issue of the magazine omits about 500 words of the version we post here. Fred is a good interviewer!

OpenLibrary

Our work on Industrial Ecology of Wood Products and Restoring Forests convinced us years ago that wood demand would continue weak for many decades. On 27 December 2005 the Wall Street Journal reported that demand for paper in offices and businesses in North America fell from 14.3 million metrics tons in 1999 to 13 million tons in 2004, more than 1.7% per year, and dropped 4% through the first 10 months of 2005. To experience what might weaken paper demand for a broad range of consumers, visit the Open Library previewing e-books developed by the wonderfully creative Brewster Kahle.

Elektron: Splicer announcement

To lift enthusiasts of distributed generation to heaven, our 1996 paper Elektron on pp. 157-158 proposed a “splicer”, a multi-purpose household energy alliance of 5 kW, to produce electricity, heat, or whatever you like. Honda and Plug Power report progress toward a kind of splicer with their “Home Energy Station.”

Torrance, CA-based Honda R&D Americas, Inc., together with its partner Plug Power, Inc. Latham, NY has launched Home Energy Station III providing electricity for the home and hydrogen for future fuel cell-powered vehicles (H&FCL July 05). This third-generation system which operates on natural gas as primary fuel, is roughly 30 % smaller than its predecessor and produces about 25% more power. It’s rated at up 5 kW. Honda says it’s more energy efficient, hydrogen storage and production capacity is up about 50% via a new improved natural gas reformer, and start-up time has been cut to about one minute. The system will be tested at Honda R&D Americas.

Illinois Crop

The New York Times reported 8 December that USA corn yields have risen 31% since 1995. Despite the drought in Illinois in the summer of 2005, that State produced a bumper crop. While for more than 30 years, many experts have forecast a leveling of yields, farmers keeping lifting yields and creating the chance to spare Nature. Alternatively, the success of corn farmers feeds the rise in meat consumption by the Chinese and others. Cesare Marchetti shows that increases in Chinese meat consumption in kilocalories per day fits well a double logistic that will saturate in a few years (not far from European meat eating but below USA). The early deviations from the second logistic also show the havoc that politics can create. Mao was an enemy of meat.

ABBI issues Inaugural Workshop Report

The All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI) issued its Inaugural Workshop Report. The meeting was attended by 48 participants from 23 countries. At the close of the meeting, co-chair Allan Baker drew a comparison with the Human Genome Project. There was early resistance to and skepticism of the Genome Project that gave way to collaboration and success. Based on his experience and research results to date, Baker predicted that the ornithological community would come to accept and support barcoding and that ABBI would be highly successful.

ABBI issues Inaugural Workshop Report

The All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI) issued its Inaugural Workshop Report. The meeting was attended by 48 participants from 23 countries. At the close of the meeting, co-chair Allan Baker drew a comparison with the Human Genome Project. There was early resistance to and skepticism of the Genome Project that gave way to collaboration and success. Based on his experience and research results to date, Baker predicted that the ornithological community would come to accept and support barcoding and that ABBI would be highly successful.

Secret Forests of El Salvador

In 1992 we began to work on the question “How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature?” that led to our recognition of the Great Reversal of human extension on the land surface and the chance for a Great Restoration of forests. Most colleagues and reviewers fought furiously against these ideas and our papers such as on Lightening the Tread of Population on the Land: American Examples and How Much Will Feeding More and Wealthier People Encroach on Forests?. A standard refrain was, “Maybe in the USA but never in a country such as El Salvador.” Now a report on The Secret Forests of El Salvador from the Center for Forestry Research confirms forests in that country grew almost 40% between 1992-2001.

https://www.cifor.cgiar.org/docs/_ref/polex/english/

The full reference of the article is: Hecht, S.B., S. Kandel, I. Gomez, N. Cuellar, and H. Rosa. 2006. Globalization, Forest Resurgence, and Environmental Politics in El Salvador, World Development, Vol. 34 (2), February.