John Oliver on corn for National Food Day

Happy National Food Day! I'm celebrating today by sharing Corn: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).

John Oliver discusses the financial and environmental impact of corn in the U.S., and whether or not he really knows what Pearl Harbor is.

I chose this video in part because this episode is nominated for Variety Series at the Environmental Media Association (EMA) Awards. It's between Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Real Time with Bill Maher. I'm rooting for Oliver over Maher, but both are HBO series, so HBO wins no matter what.

I also picked this because corn has been a major topic of my National Food Day series, going back ten years to 2014's Corn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet and most recently in My students are watching 'King Corn' for extra credit on National Food Day 2020. Oliver used clips from King Corn in this segment.

Normally, I'd answer the corn questions from the Food, Inc. worksheet, but I did that ten years ago, so I'm not doing it again. Instead, I tell my students that corn, along with E. coli, can be used for examples of three of Commoner's Laws, everything is connected to everything else, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and everything must go somewhere. Excess fertilizer washing off of corn fields causing dead zones works for all three.

While I've been skeptical about corn for fuel since the first year of the blog, I'm even more doubtful about it now. Seeing that it is the number one use of dense corn, although not the majority, is something I suspected but now know for sure. That's a statistic I can tell my students. Also, I did not know that growing corn for fuel has a larger carbon footprint than the equivalent amount of gasoline. It's a good day when I learn something new, and that makes today a good day, even if it's about something bad for the environment.

That concludes today's holiday entry. Stay tuned as I return to spooky season all the way to Day of the Dead.

The History Guy remembers 'Johnny Appleseed: Man Behind the Legend' for Johnny Appleseed Day

I closed SciShow and Wild Hope describe 'Where Scientists Keep the World's Most Endangered Animals' by telling my readers "I'm thinking of observing a holiday like Paul Bunyan Day tomorrow, National Johnny Appleseed Day."* I'm celebrating today by sharing The History Guy remembering Johnny Appleseed: Man Behind the Legend.

Usually portrayed as a lanky man wearing a long-handled pot on his head and spreading apple seeds, the real Johnny Appleseed was a shrewd businessman and religious zealot who played an important role in U.S. westward expansion effort. The History Guy explores the reality underlying the character of American folklore. This is the forgotten history of the man, John Chapman, behind the legend of Johnny Appleseed.

SciShow expanded on the role John Chapman played in the development of modern varieties of apples in The Truth About Johnny Appleseed & Apple Genetics.

Did you ever learn the story of Johnny Appleseed as a child? What did he actually do for the growth of apples in America, and what has this taught us about apple genetics? Join Olivia Gordon for a new apple-tastic episode of SciShow!

First history, then science. That's very much my spin on things.

I conclude by repeating what I'm fond of writing, that I learned a lot from these videos and it's always a good day when I learn something new, so today is already a good day. I hope my readers agree.

*There is another Johnny Appleseed Day on March 11, the anniversary of this death, but I devote that day to natural disasters compounded by lack of preparedness, namely the anniversary of the Fukushima triple disaster and the the anniversary of the WHO declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. I have no room for a day as cheerful as this one then, but it's available today. Besides, I'd rather celebrate his birthday, which is today.

'The History of the Turkey' and PBS Terra on sweet potatoes and corn for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! For this year's celebration, I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling the concept of last year's PBS Digital's 'Be Smart' explains 'The Surprising Origins of Thanksgiving Foods'. I begin with The History Guy telling his viewers to Get Stuffed! The History of the Turkey.

Most of us are familiar with the legend that turkey was served at the first Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, and has been the traditional protein for the celebration ever since. And that would be one of many commonly known facts about the prodigious poultry that is, well, incorrect.

While it concerns me that Big Data is watching you (and me, too), it was thanks to the YouTube recommendation algorithm that I found The History Guy in the first place, resulting in my posting The History Guy tackles 'The Rise and Fall of the American Mall,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse. This video lived up to my expectations and filled my need for this kind of content. Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm!

That's it for the holiday history associated with the animal. Now for some food science about side dishes from PBS Terra's Hungry Planet series, beginning with a video examining another Thanksgiving staple, Sweet Potatoes' Flavor is More Complex Than You Think.

Packed full of vitamin A, calcium, and iron, sweet potatoes don’t get the love they deserve. In this episode of Hungry Planet, North Carolina State University PhD student Modesta Abugu tells Niba about her research to make sweet potatoes more delicious by identifying the aromatic molecules that give rise to their complex flavor. Followed by surveying people to determine what type of sweet potato flavors they enjoy more. Niba also chats with students in the Sweet Potato Project who have planted, harvested and sold sweet potatoes at a local community farm. Hungry Planet showcases how scientists and communities work to keep food on our plates for future generations.

This is the first Hungry Planet video I've embedded in my blog, but it's not the last. For an early Maize Day, I'm sharing How This Photo Booth Could Save Corn.

From movie theaters to barbecues, corn shows up seemingly everywhere. In this episode of Hungry Planet, Niba visits LA’s Boyle Heights, where she chats with restaurant owner Deysi Serrano about honoring corn’s historical roots in modern cooking. Niba also calls plant biologist and science TikToker Katie Murphy to hear about her research to ensure corn will survive climate change. Hungry Planet showcases how scientists and communities are working to keep food on our plates for future generations.

That was fun as well as educational and incorporated culture and tradition along with the history, science, and technology of the first two videos. I learned a lot from all three clips and it's always a good day when I learn something new. I hope my readers agree.

That's it for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for a tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day.

Vice News on the 'Bananapocalypse: Why Bananas May Go Extinct'

I first wrote "the dessert bananas people eat are threatened by fungus because of the unintended effects of growing monocultures of clones" ten years ago, and I haven't stopped warning my students about it since. It's right up there with bees as a story I tell my students, although I write about bees a lot more here than bananas. The last time was 2021 and the time before that was 2014. The latter was an audition for a video to show my students instead of "The Top Banana" trailer, and it failed. They decided that they liked the more fun teaser for a documentary that never happened than the more informative Seeker video. I didn't even try the Business Insider video. I'm planning on trying again with Bananapocalypse: Why Bananas May Go Extinct by Vice News.

Being apart of nature, food can also be endangered. Counter Space explores those who are protecting and perfecting the foods we love.

This excerpt is from season two of Counter Space and was filmed in 2022.

I'll get back to my readers about my students' reactions to this video in a month or two. Stay tuned.

Business Insider explains 'why the world's most popular banana may go extinct'

It's been eight years since I first wrote "the dessert bananas people eat are threatened by fungus because of the unintended effects of growing monocultures of clones," so when I saw Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business, I was saddened and alarmed, but not particularly surprised. Watch to see how the banana crisis has progressed since I last blogged about it in 2014, before Tropical Race 4 of Panama Disease had reached South America in 2019.

Bananas are facing a pandemic, too. Almost all of the bananas exported globally are just one variety called the Cavendish. And the Cavendish is vulnerable to a fungus called Panama Disease, which is ravaging banana farms across the globe. If it's not stopped, the Cavendish may go extinct. We visited a farm in Colombia infected with Panama Disease and a lab in the Netherlands studying the fungus to see if biosecurity and breeding can save the $25 billion banana industry.

I make the point that growing monocultures of clones is a bad idea every semester and this video shows why. Worse yet, the video and I both describe that it happened before and all growers did was replace the variety grown, which illustrates another point I make, that people don't learn and repeat their mistakes. At least this time, growers in Columbia are implementing measures that will slow the spread of the disease, which might give them more time to find a solution other than the genetically modified Cavendish that I think works well from a scientific and technological perspective, but is unpalatable socially and politically. Sigh. People have to accept the solution for it to really work.

Watching this reminds me that I promised to share a Business Insider video about the rise, fall, and return of Twinkies three months ago but haven't done so yet. I'll get to that after observing Asteroid Day tomorrow, Canada Day Thursday, and World UFO Day on Friday. Saturday looks open before I celebrate July 4th on Sunday. Stay tuned.

My students are watching 'King Corn' for extra credit on National Food Day 2020

Happy National Food Day! For this year's celebration, I am taking a break from my five year project of blogging about "Food, Inc." on this day. It's only a slight break, as I am instead writing about a movie my students have been able to use for extra credit in addition to the assignment on "Food, Inc.," "King Corn."

I created the worksheet below because the YouTube uploads of "Food, Inc." I have used for my students while they take my courses remotely were blocked in the U.S., something I expected would happen eventually. However, the upload of "King Corn" remained, so I used two existing worksheets for inspiration, rewriting some of the questions and substituting my own for the rest to cover topics I found more important. As soon as I completed it, I found a new upload of "Food, Inc." at watchdocumentaries.com that I could use, so I didn't have to change the assignment or the test questions based on it (The site also has a upload of Chasing Ice so I can continue using that film as well as long as the pandemic persists). Still, I'm an environmentalist, so I won't waste what I made. I substituted the "King Corn" worksheet below for the original extra credit opportunity, a one-page essay worth 8 points. The students have a structured assignment worth two more points out of all this!

Enough introduction. Here's the assignment.

KING CORN

In this lab session, you will watch King Corn (Available on Amazon. If you don't have Amazon, there is an uploaded version on YouTube), the Peabody Award winning 2007 movie directed by Aaron Woolf about best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis and what they learned about the food system when they returned to the small Iowa town where two of their great-grandfathers lived to grow corn. As you watch the movie, answer the questions beginning on the next page. After the video is over, find the best examples you saw from the show of each of the five concepts below and write them in the blanks on this page. You must answer all questions, including the ones on this page, for the full ten points. The five questions below are worth one point total. Questions 1-18 are worth nine points total, one-half-point each.

A value expressed and a decision made based on that value.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Everything is connected to everything else.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There is no such thing as a free lunch.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Everything must go somewhere.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nature knows best.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Program description from IMDB: King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm.

(Follow over the jump for the rest of the worksheet.)

Devita Davison explains how urban agriculture is transforming Detroit — Student Sustainability Video Festival 81

I know that I wrote "Tuesday I expect to be updating On The Issues shows most of the Democratic candidates have moved left during the campaign, too," but I have a stack of final exams to grade, so I will give my readers a rain check on that topic.  Maybe tomorrow.  Instead, I'm posting the latest episode of Student Sustainability Video Festival, my go-to blogging theme for when I'm correcting final exams or traveling.

Today's video combines two staples of the early years of the blog, urban agriculture and TED talks, How urban agriculture is transforming Detroit | Devita Davison.

There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban agriculture. Join Davison for a walk through neighborhoods in transformation as she shares stories of opportunity and hope. "These aren't plots of land where we're just growing tomatoes and carrots," Davison says. "We're building social cohesion as well as providing healthy, fresh food.

When I read the topic, I was expecting Davison to mention Brightmoor, one of the neighborhoods featured in HOUR Detroit displays its green thumb; she did not disappoint me.

With luck, I'll return to regular blogging tomorrow.  If not, I have plenty of videos from my students' presentations to choose from.  Either way, off to correct final exams!

Blue Devils 'Re-Rite of Spring' for a drum corps May Day

A Happy drum corps May  Day!  For this year's celebration, I'm presenting a show that involves both dancing around poles and a ritual about the season, 2013 Blue Devils - The re:Rite of Spring.*  Here's the official clip from Drum Corps International.


That's not enough, so I'm also sharing a clip of the closer to complete the show.


I think these poles with this music work just as well as a maypole for the occasion.

As for next year, I can post videos of 2013 Phantom Regiment with their fake trees, upload clips of 1978 Guardsmen and 1978 and 1979 Santa Clara Vanguard for actual drum corps maypoles in motion, or abandon the idea and return to an idea I've been avoiding for four year, the socialist meaning of May Day.  The first and last ideas have videos, while the middle idea does not.  I rather hope someone else uploads them instead, as I'm lazy.  Anyone, anyone, Bueller, anyone?

*One of my friends who marched with me in the Anaheim Kingsmen 40 years ago suggested this show.  My original response was "Those are Festivus poles, not maypoles!"  I had been thinking of using this show or something like it for Festivus for two years, but I'm using it now, as  I now have something else planned for this year's Festivus.  So, Blue Devils for May Day it is; some resources are better used now instead of being conserved.

Examiner.com article on MSU sustainability for Earth Week

MSU served tea, algae, and lemurs for Earth Week

On Friday, Michigan State University served sustainable tea for Earth Day, capping off an Earth Week full of environmental news from Michigan's Land Grant University.  On Wednesday, MSU reported on two other environmental stories, growing algae for fuel and using grassroots tactics to reduce poaching of endangered lemurs in Madagascar.  All three stories show that MSU is green for reasons other than its school colors.

MSU students grew the herbs for the "green" tea in the greenhouse outside of Bailey Hall, then dried, processed, blended, and packaged the tea before selling it to the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center and other students around campus.  The student enterprise, known as the Bailey Tea Project, is part of the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) program, a living-learning program focused on sustainability and environmental stewardship.  The Bailey Tea Project, run by what the students call the "Tea Team," demonstrates student commitment to sustainability and serves as a constant reminder of MSU’s agricultural history.
...
Earlier in the week, MSU reported that an algae photo bioreactor could capture carbon dioxide(CO₂) emissions from MSU’s T.B. Simon Power Plant and turn those greenhouse gas emissions into algae.  This was the first time that such technology was able to capture CO₂ and promote the growth of algae in an environment without sunlight, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  This finding is important because many believe that algae is the renewable, alternative energy source of the future and the technology could also help keep CO₂ from escaping into the atmosphere.
...
The same day, MSU publicized the results of a study documenting the attitudes of people in Madagascar toward the risks of breaking laws and the value of preserving their environment.  The study found that if local residents don’t perceive actions such as hunting lemurs or burning forests for charcoal as crimes or they believe there’s a low risk of getting caught, then poaching and deforestation will continue.

Details and quotes for all three topics at the link, as well as a video that summarizes Paris Agreement on Climate being signed on Earth Day.

I posted the above because I needed to maintain my ability to publish at Examiner.com as much as to publicize local environmental education, research, and outreach.  Stay tuned for Entertainment Sunday, which should be last installment about this year's Saturn Awards nominees.

What is deforestation? Student sustainability video festival 40

Yesterday, I gave my last lecture and my first two finals, which means it's time to resume where I left off at Bio Urns: student sustainability video festival 39 with new videos that my students included in their presentations this semester.  Today's installment consists of two videos both titled "What is deforestation?"

We are students from Malayan Colleges Laguna and this video is for our general biology (BIO011) course.

This is a quick answer to "what is deforestation?". Also, this video shows how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world in paper use. Out of the many global issues that exist today, deforestation is one issue we may be able to resolve through a few simple acts mentioned in the video. Created for a class at Brigham Young University.

Stay tuned for more installments in this series over the coming week.

Bees and eagles--distressing biodiversity news from Michigan

I'm being a good environmentalist and recycling the opening to Environmental controversies from WXYZ: Deer culling and oil drilling.

In the spirit of Michigan transportation news from WXYZ, I'm continuing to showcase two local sustainainability stories on a common theme.

Today's common theme is bad biodiversity news that is prompting responses to correct the problems.  First, Doctor Who isn't the only one worried about disappearing bees as WOOD-TV reports Farmers help dying honey bee hives.

According to a new study, this past year honey bees experience the second biggest die off rate in nine years. (May 15, 2015)

Yes, colony collapse disorder strikes Michigan, too.  It also reinforces a fact I tell my students, that fruit crops require two hives per acre, and shows what steps bee keepers are taking to combat the problem.

Next, WXYZ has a clip about a biodiversity story that has more symbolic than practical importance, Bald Eagle found shot dead.

The DNR is searching for whoever shot and killed a Bald Eagle.

This is the second local story about Bald Eagles from WXYZ that I can share with my students.  The first was Bald Eagles in Monroe Michigan, which showed how many eagles winter at the DTE plant and how the waste heat from there can actually be useful.  This clip not only shows the reaction to the eagle being shot (pretty universal disapproval) but also cites the relevant laws.  I think that will be useful to pass along.

Bio Urns: student sustainability video festival 39

I concluded Natural ant control: student sustainability video festival 38 by guessing at why my students voted for their two favorite talks.

Looks like my students wanted to learn something that would be immediately useful and environmentally conscious at the same time.  They also wanted to learn about something that they won't use for decades.  That will be the subject of tomorrow's installment.

For the final installment in this series until the end of the summer semester, I'm featuring My Eternal Family Tree LLC™ presents: Bio Urn™ Video.

This video takes you step-by-step through the process of creating your beloved pet's memorial tree with Bio Urn™.

The students may not use this on themselves for decades, but they can certainly use it sooner for their pets.  They also like the idea of a memorial tree better than a headstone.

That's it for the semester just past.  Crazy Eddie will now return to its regular programming. For today and tomorrow, that means posts about Monthly Meta, Mothers Day, and Sunday entertainment.  Stay tuned.

ETA: The video above has been made private.  I'll keep it in case it is made public again.  In the meantime, here is a new one for people: Bios Urn - Life After Life.

Let’s convert cemeteries into forests!

The Bios Urn is a fully biodegradable urn designed to convert you into a tree after life. Mainly composed of two parts, the urn contains a seed which will grow to in the name of your loved one. Bios Urn turns death into a transformation and a return to life through nature.

On BlogTalkRadio for Earth Day today

I'm on BlogTalkRadio today, demonstrating that I'm pseudonymous, not anonymous: Earth Day Discussion with Dr. Vince Lamb on Lunch with Louden!

Guest host John Henry welcomes professor and multidisciplinary earth scientist Dr. Vince Lamb (https://twitter.com/NeonVincent) to Lunch With Louden on Coffee Party Radio Thursday April 16th at 3pm Eastern/Noon Pacific.  With Earth Day 2015 coming next week, we'll be discussing some current events related to the environment and sustainability including the drought in California and whether ongoing efforts to mitigate it by limiting water usage by average citizens is effective, the ongoing debate about fracking, the potential effect on the environment from the proposed sale of federally owned national parks to private corporations, and what we the people can do about any of it.  Join us for all this and more including your calls Thursday at 3pm eastern, noon pacific, on Lunch with Louden at Coffee Party Radio!

To listen, click on the link embedded in the headline.  If you are reading this between 3 and 4 PM EDT (7 and 8 PM GMT and Noon and 1 PM PDT), you have the choice of clicking on the link or calling (646) 929-2495 to listen.  If you call in, you can talk to me and my friend John Henry and wish us an early happy Earth Day--oh, and ask me questions, too.

NABLOPOMO for April: GROW

This month's theme is GROW.

It's spring! Sort of. At least it is on the calendar even if it's still snowing in your neck of the woods. Since the warm temperatures are going to continue to grow, we're going to think spring with our theme.

Spring is a time to think about your own growth and take steps to make it happen. Of course you know the saying that if you want flowers, you need to make your garden grow; meaning, you need to put in the effort to see the growth. So what do you want to learn this spring?

For me, it's all about the writing. And by writing, I usually mean blogging. Writing is what I wanted to do when I grew up, and it's still what I want to do now. So this month is about setting new goals. How can I grow my blog or my writing skills? How can I take steps to go into the summer feeling as if there has been growth in the spring?

This month's theme reminds me a lot of themes during Aprils of previous odd-numbered years, 2013's Fresh and especially 2011's Sprout, which was the first Nablopomo theme I blogged about here.  That's a good thing, as it means I can write about food, agriculture, and especially urban farming, as well as the good and bad side of growth, whether it's personal, social, or economic.  I can tell I'm getting excited about the possibilities already.  Why, I might even use some of this month's prompts.

Sign up for April's NaBloPoMo and let's grow together.

I did that a couple of days ago and am number 33 on the blogroll.  Some of the other participants look interesting.  I'll read some of them and, should they live up to expectations based on their blog titles, report back about them.  Stay tuned.

Food news for Thanksgiving 2014

It's Thanksgiving, which means, like last year and the year before it's time for me to reprint all the food, farming, and nutrition news from Ovenight News Digest:Science Saturday since Food Day 2014.  Appropriately enough for the theme of this blog, I begin with some post-apocalyptic food news from Michigan Tech.

Bacterial Slime: It's what's for Dinner (After a Catastrophic Crop Failure)
by Danny Messinger
November 19, 2014

If it were the end of the world as we know it, we’d be fine, according to Michigan Technological University professor Joshua Pearce.

“People have been doing catastrophic risk research for a while,” says Pearce. “But most of what’s been done is dark, apocalyptic and dismal. It hasn’t provided any real solutions.”

Even when looking at doomsday scenarios—like super-volcanoes, abrupt climate change and nuclear winter—society’s forecast isn’t horrific. In fact, Pearce says life will still have a sunny outlook. His research is outlined in a new book, Feeding Everyone No Matter What, out this week.

The good news is that we can feed everyone, as long as people plan ahead and are willing to eat bacteria, fungi, and insects for up to five years until what passes for normal agriculture returns.  The latter part I'm not as worried about as the first part.  I'm not as optimistic about people preparing.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the food news, presented in more-or-less reverse chronological order.

'Food Machine' from 'America Revealed'--two videos I show my students

It looks like I'm not done with corn, even after Corn for fuel, a story I tell my studentsCorn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet, and Discovery News on high-fructose corn syrup.  Here is another video about America's number one crop from PBS that I show my students: AMERICA REVEALED | The Key Ingredient of the US Food Machine | PBS.

Discover just how large a role corn plays in the American food machine.

That's not the only video from the series I include in my lectures.  Follow over the jump for another and links to where I've blogged about the rest.

Corn questions from 'Food, Inc.' worksheet

I concluded Corn for fuel, a story I tell my students with a program note that my students who read this blog will appreciate.

On the subject of corn, I showed "Food, Inc." to my students this week.  Stay tuned for a post about the questions about corn from my worksheet for that movie.

Follow over the jump for the questions about corn from my worksheet for Food, Inc. as well as answers to them.

Corn for fuel, a story I tell my students

I opened Biofuel crops can be good for the environment and other biofuels research with my opinion of using corn for fuel.

Normally, I'm skeptical about biofuels, but that's primarily because the main biofuel in the U.S. is corn ethanol, which I have characterized for years as an energy independence strategy, not a sustainability strategy.  It doesn't help that pretty much all the increased corn production during the past decade has gone into gas tanks.

Here's an updated version of the graph I show my students that displays how much corn goes to each purpose, including how all the growth in the crop and then some has gone into our gas tanks.


The point I make is even more clear in this graph.


The other point I make about corn ethanol is about its wastefulness.

In one of the first entries on this blog, I described "converting corn into ethanol" as "a big energy loser."

This is the figure from The Oil Drum I show my students to support my statement.


Only in the counties shaded in solid gray did corn ethanol yield more energy than it took to produce it.  In all the rest, it was a net energy loser.

Both of the above are why I think using corn grain for for ethanol fuel is a bad idea and why I am enthused about growing other crops with uses that don't compete for food and feed for biofuels.

On the subject of corn, I showed "Food, Inc." to my students this week.  Stay tuned for a post about the questions about corn from my worksheet for that movie.

Biofuel crops can be good for the environment and other biofuels research

Normally, I'm skeptical about biofuels, but that's primarily because the main biofuel in the U.S. is corn ethanol, which I have characterized for years as an energy indepence strategy, not a sustainability strategy.  It doesn't help that pretty much all the increased corn production during the past decade has gone into gas tanks.  In one of the first entries on this blog, I described "converting corn into ethanol" as "a big energy loser."  On the other hand, I followed that by writing that it would be "less of a loser if ethanol comes from cellulose in the stalks and leaves instead of the grain, as cellulosic ethanol requires less fertilizer than grain ethanol."

I'd be even more optimistic if the enthanol and other biofuels came from something other than corn.  Fortunately, two stories I included in last week's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Nobel Prizes 2014) on Daily Kos gave me even more reason for optimism, as they show the biofuel crops can be good for the environment even if they aren't burned for fuel.

First, Liz Ahlberg, writing for the University of Illinois, reported Bioenergy crops could store more carbon in soil.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In addition to providing renewable energy, grass crops like switchgrass and miscanthus could store some of the carbon they pull from the atmosphere in the soil, according to a new study by University of Illinois researchers.

The study compared soil dynamics – the ratio of carbon to nitrogen and microbial activity – of bioenergy crops with that of a standard corn-corn-soybean rotation. They found that in bioenergy crops, a certain threshold of plant matter left in the field after harvest lets much more carbon accumulate in the soil.

Led by civil and environmental engineering professor Praveen Kumar, the researchers published their findings in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Next, Kelly April Tyrell, writing for the University of Wisconsin passed along the good news about Balancing birds and biofuels: Grasslands support more species than cornfields.

In Wisconsin, bioenergy is for the birds. Really.

In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) scientists examined whether corn and perennial grassland fields in southern Wisconsin could provide both biomass for bioenergy production and bountiful bird habitat.

The research team found that where there are grasslands, there are birds. Grass-and-wildflower-dominated fields supported more than three times as many bird species as cornfields, including 10 imperiled species found only in the grasslands. These grassland fields can also produce ample biomass for renewable fuels.

Monica Turner, UW-Madison professor of zoology, and study lead author Peter Blank, a postdoctoral researcher in her lab, hope the findings help drive decisions that benefit both birds and biofuels, too, by providing information for land managers, farmers, conservationists and policy makers as the bioenergy industry ramps up, particularly in Wisconsin and the central U.S.

Both of those are good news and make me more favorably disposed to (non-corn) biofuels.

Follow over the jump for the biofuel news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Ebola in the U.S.).

Climate and environment news from Colorado State University

As the entry that posted yesterday stated, I'm in Colorado on business.  I've already posted the space news from the state's flagship university.  Now it's time to share some stories from its Land Grant university, Colorado State, that I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solar storm and aurora) on Daily Kos.  As today is the People's Climate March, I'll focus on environment and climate stories.  Since I'm in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood, I begin with good news.

Researcher, UN panel find ozone layer on the mend
by Kortny Rolston
September 10, 2014

For years, experts have warned that the Earth’s protective ozone layer is shrinking.

This week, CSU professor A.R. “Ravi” Ravishankara delivered some good news about the fragile shield of stratospheric gas: The ozone layer appears to be recovering.

The discovery was made by a panel of 300 scientists appointed by the United Nations to assess ozone depletion. Ravishankara helped lead the group, which has spent the past four years sifting through and analyzing ozone data and studies.

The panel attributed the turnaround to the “concerted international action” that took place in the wake of the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The agreement called for phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) such as Freon and other harmful chemicals in refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosols, foam manufacture, etc., around the world.

This is exactly what the Montreal Protocol was supposed to do.  While the concentration of ozone-destroying gases has been decreasing, it's good to know that the ozone is increasing as well.

Next, a video and article about the subject of today's demonstration, climate.

Colorado State University Team Researches Arctic Soils and Climate Change

Colorado State University Associate Professor Matthew Wallenstein and his research team are studying how soil carbon storage is likely to respond to rapid environmental change.

Is global warming being accelerated in the Arctic?
by Jennifer Dimas
4 Sep, 2014

The soils in the Arctic have banked more carbon over thousands of years than the carbon contained in all of the world’s vegetation and the earth’s atmosphere combined. Why is that important? The Arctic has been taking carbon out of our atmosphere and storing it away in the soil lockbox for tens of thousands of years, until now.

CSU Associate Professor Matthew Wallenstein and his research team are studying how soil carbon storage is likely to respond to rapid environmental change.

“The climate is changing rapidly in the Arctic,” said Wallenstein. “Warming is occurring twice as fast here as in the rest of the world. And the results are visible from space. The short growing season is getting longer, and the plants are getting bigger and greener. What you can’t see from space is that the microbes and other critters that live beneath the surface are waking up too. This “biotic awakening” sounds like a good thing, and it probably is if you are a microbe, but could be bad for us. That’s because these microbes could open this carbon lockbox, releasing some of that banked soil carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane. Because both of these are greenhouse gasses, that could further accelerate climate warming. There is some evidence that this is already happening. But there is a lot we don’t know, and we can’t really predict how this will play out in the future. That is why we are here.”

This is not good news, but not surprising, either.

Follow over the jump for a video and more environmentally related stories from CSU.