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The problem with batteries is that they often contain toxic chemicals that can leach out into the environment. But what if the chemicals were completely natural? Professor Chungpin Liao and researchers at Coherent Control Laboratory in Taiwan are thinking in that direction. They have invented an organic battery powered by chlorophyll - the green-colored photosynthetic pigments found in most plant life.

"As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging in the United States,"� says Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, "New Energy Economy Emerging in the United States"� . "The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we could not have imagined even a year ago."�

Read It News is your source for in-depth news and outdoor and entertainment information for Prescott, Arizona and surrounding areas. We tell stories that emphasize sustainability and community.

As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging in the United States. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we could not have imagined even a year ago.

What if it were possible to bury carbon dioxide over a mile below a power plant in the second worst air basin in the United States? In 2011 the greenhouse gas will be pumped below a power plant in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Located in Kern County near Bakersfield, the Clean Energy Systems power plant is powered by different kinds of natural gas and oxygen. It produces five megawatts of energy, enough for 5,000 homes, but the carbon sequestration experiment will increase that to 50 megawatts.

We could be generating huge amounts of power from sewage. The process is pretty simple - just ferment sewage to produce a fuel called biogas. Biogas is almost entirely methane, and so is natural gas, so the two are essential interchangeable. The potential to produce biogas is almost entirely overlooked by most countries - except Sweden.

For coal, the future of both extraction and consumption depends on new technology. If successfully deployed, innovative technologies could enable the use of coal that is unminable by gasifying it underground; reduce coal's carbon emissions; or allow coal to take the place of natural gas or petroleum. Without them, coal simply may not have much of a future. Are these technologies close to development? Are they economical? Will they work?

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

Solar energy will cost the same as power produced by coal, natural gas and nuclear plants in about a decade, a report released today suggests. By then, the price parity could propel solar adoption so that it accounts for 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation by 2025.

PETROL should be included in Australia's carbon emissions trading scheme, but low-income households should be compensated for higher power and fuel bills, the nation's top climate change expert has warned. Issuing a stern challenge to the Rudd Government to include petrol in the scheme, when it begins in 2010, Ross Garnaut warned of dire consequences for Australia's natural icons unless urgent and decisive action is taken.

Last week, Pickens stopped by The Times to discuss his push to wean the U.S. off foreign oil by dramatically ramping up development of its infrastructure for wind and natural gas. Below is a partial transcript. T. Boone Pickens: We are now importing oil that costs us $700 billion a year. That's four and a half times what the Iraq war costs. Nobody running for president even speaks about this. Yet they talk a lot about the Iraq war. When you look at it, the world oil supply is about 85 million barrels of oil a day. And demand is about 86-plus million barrels a day.

T. Boone Pickens, a conservative billionaire who made his money in oil, is creating strange bedfellows with his aggressive plan for renewable energy such as wind power and natural gas. Last month, he held two conference calls with more than 27,000 members of the Sierra Club to talk up the plan. The environmental group, with some reservations, is on board. Last week, he met with Al Gore. Today, he is scheduled to be on the University of Michigan campus, selling his ideas to students. He said he expects a packed house.

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens brought is traveling energy road show to the Salt Palace Convention Center on Thursday, and hundreds of Utahns came to hear what he had to say. The oil tycoon and mega-successful hedge-fund manager promoted his strategies for alternative fuel development. The Pickens Plan urges Americans to break their reliance on foreign oil by using clean alternatives, including natural gas, wind, solar and nuclear power.

Atlantic Canada's Bay of Fundy has some of the world's highest and most powerful tides. Every day, 100 billion tonnes of seawater surge in and out of the bay - a perfect source of clean, reusable alternative energy, if it can be properly harnessed. Tidal power isn't new, of course; small grain mills were powered by tides in Europe centuries ago. But tapping into the reliable, natural ebb-and-flow of water to generate electricity didn't begin until the 1960s.

The Business Spectator has an interesting column on India's growing energy needs and their renewable energy potential - India's will to power. Though blessed with an abundance of non-depleting renewable energy resources, India's record in tapping them has been dismal. Mercifully, of late, renewable sources are getting greater attention. But there is still a long way to go from the 4.9 per cent that renewable energy contributes to total energy generated. The official target is to increase this share to 10 per cent by 2012 and further in subsequent years. ... Among renewable sources, geothermal energy which is derived from natural heat stored in the deep interior of the earth promises to be a key source. Except for a few half-hearted attempts, the government has done practically nothing to exploit this vast reserve.

Shin Abe doesn't find it odd that the picturesque little Japanese town of Kuzumaki, where he has lived all his life, generates some of its electricity with cow dung. Nor is the 15-year-old middle school student blown away by the vista of a dozen wind turbines spinning atop the forested peak of nearby Mt. Kamisodegawa. And it's old news to Abe that his school gets 25% of its power from an array of 420 solar panels located near the campus. "That's the way it's been," he shrugs. "It's natural." To Abe, it is. But the blase teen has grown up in an alternative universe - one that might be envisioned by Al Gore. That's because Kuzumaki (population 8,000) has over the past decade transformed itself into a living laboratory for the development of sustainable and diversified energy sources. "When I was growing up, all we had [to generate power] was oil," says Kazunori Fukasawaguchi, a Kuzumaki native who now serves in local government. "I never imagined this kind of change." (Read TIME's Top 10 Green Ideas of 2008.)

The nature has paid the price for extraordinary expansion of human civilization; the non-renewable energy resources of the world have been nearly exhausted. Now scientists all over the world are trying to work out a solution to make up the energy shortage that the human civilization is going to face in the coming years. Among many other products under development, the scientists have invested great hopes in the potentials of wind powered electricity generators. This is a system that harnesses the power of the wind to produce usable energy.

Energy and environmental leaders, including representatives from the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Pew Environment Group, recently met with members of President-elect Obama's transition team. The groups came carrying a monstrosity of a document that describes their recommendations on energy and environmental issues for the new administration. The 391-page report, entitled "Transition to Green," was made available Monday on Obama's transition Web site. The environmental groups had suggestions for a wide swath of federal departments, from Energy to Education and Homeland Security to Defense.

# Responsible people see the very urgent need to do something to help our Global environment recover from our excesses. # Do we want our children to be able to breathe clean air and be able to enjoy Nature at its finest? # How can we immediately affect the Environment in a good way and in the shortest possible time? # Most experts agree that the destruction of fossil fuels [ coal, oil, gas etc ] creates massive amounts of harmful materials and that Alternative Energy sources must be found. They suggest alternatives to destroying the Planets Fossil Fuels would be one of the biggest steps we could take on the path back to a cleaner and healthier Planet. # Recent research has forced huge strides forward in Alternative Energy sources such as Wind and Solar Power technology, and in particular making that technology available to the average person for home use. After the initial costs of installation, annual bills could fall to less than 10% of a normal fuel bill!

Granted, the risk that a nuclear reactor might fail today is fairly small on a per plant basis. "clean coal", because this source of energy is our most abundant and cheap.

Permaculture is actually an approach in designing human settlement and perennial agri-systems that copies relationships found in the natural ecologies. It is a design system for sustainable living and in all aspect of human endeavor.