oil

Fill your gas tank with fungus fuel? It sounds far-fetched, but it could be a promising alternative to fossil fuel. A Montana State University professor has found a fungus from the Patagonia rainforest that produces a new type of diesel fuel. Other simple organisms such as algae have been known to make chemicals similar to hydrocarbons in transport fuel, but this fungus could do even better than that.

Sometimes, we try so hard to dig ourselves out of a hole that we don't see ourselves falling into another. In the desperate struggle to free ourselves from oil, let's not make the same mistake with another finite resource - lithium.

One of Canada's most prominent environmentalists toured the oil sands in northern Alberta recently and had one word to express what she saw: Mordor. Maude Barlow, who was recently appointed to advise the UN on water issues, said her visit to the oil sands reminded her of Tolkien's fictional blackened and barren wasteland.

Palin's rise captivates us but nation needs a steady hand.

Editorial in Alaska's own ADN:

A funny thing about solar thermal. It works great, is cheap, easy to build, easy to maintain, and has been profitable for decades. But no one's been building them!
Why? Simply because utilities are too lazy to deal with developing new technologies and, in the absence of other pressures, would much rather just keep the status quo.