Daily Briefing: Thurs.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is "a very interesting guy, a feisty Irishman, and he comes across that way," one member of the national business coalition explains to the NY Times today. It's part of the Times' special "Business of Green" section, and the lead story focuses on the chamber's pugnacious president and his aggressive stance toward climate change legislation. Donohue (right) has quadrupled the chamber's annual budget since arriving in 1997, increased lobbying spending by $70 million a year and added 16 full-time lobbyists on Capitol Hill, and he's rarely shied away from a policy fight. Most such skirmishes have coasted under the public radar, but Donohue's fighting words about climate change have sparked a firestorm in recent months. Prominent businesses such as Apple, Levi Strauss & Company, Mohawk Paper, Exelon and Pacific Gas and Electric have all dropped out of the chamber over its opposition to a cap-and-trade bill, which they see as inevitable, important and possibly even in their best interest. Yet despite such high-profile defections, the 70-year-old Donohue is unfazed, the Times reports, saying that "if you see me lying in a box with flowers all around, that means I'm only thinking about retiring." Other interesting stories in today's "Business of Green" section include a look at how companies are making renewable energy reliable, the rise of eco-friendly surfboards, the importance of government incentives to green innovation, and the growing trend of growing plants on the sides of buildings. (Source: New York Times)

 

FOR PEAT'S SAKE: Coal and other fossil fuels may have taken millions of years to form, but that doesn't mean the process has stopped. Peat is a mashup of dead plants that have been saturated with water, partially decayed and often compressed into a dense sludge at the bottoms of swamps or forest floors, and if it's left alone for a few million years under the right conditions, it'll eventually turn into coal. While coal is now a leading culprit behind manmade climate change, the Washington Post reports today about the growing problems posed by coal's forefather, peat, before it even becomes a fossil. Indonesia has developed into a hotbed of peat fires (right), thanks to years of intensive deforestation that ripped up ancient woodlands and laid bare the peat long buried underneath them. The country's exploding agriculture industry — namely soybeans and palm oil — combined with large canals, earthworks and other development has left fields of peat that gush CO2 skyward, helping make Indonesia a formidable contributor to climate change, even without burning large amounts of coal or oil. (Source: Washington Post)

 

GREEN SCREENS: California will become the first state to mandate how energy-efficient its TVs must be, following a unanimous vote Wednesday by the five-member California Energy Commission to begin rolling out new rules in 2011. The move is aimed at curbing the trend toward huge, widescreen, high-definition TVs that gobble up electricity, and it could have far-reaching effects around the country. California often takes the role of environmental trend-setter, notably pushing for tougher rules on automobile emissions that have since been adopted nationally, and manufacturers may opt to make efficient TVs for the entire country rather than just for California. Many in the electronics industry are displeased with the vote, however, arguing it will make TVs more expensive, less powerful and could drive business across state lines. "It will result in higher prices for consumers, job losses for Californians, and lost tax revenue for the state," the vice president of the Consumer Electronics Association tells the AP. On the other hand, environmentalists are touting it as a victory that will slash electricity demand, saving consumers money on their power bills while also saving the atmosphere from additional CO2 emissions. "We have every confidence this industry will be able to meet the rule and then some," says California Energy Commissioner Julia Levin. "It will save consumers money, it will help protect public health, and it will spark innovation." (Sources: CNN, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press)

 

RATTLING CAGES: Nine chickens cramped into a 24-inch-wide cage may seem obviously torturous, even for relatively dumb domesticated birds, yet most of the animal-rights arguments against the practice are based more on such intuition than on actual science. In an effort to settle once and for all how miserable caged chickens really are, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding a three-year Clemson University study that will examine the behavior of caged and uncaged chickens to see how their living quarters have affected them, the AP reports today. Some 96 percent of all eggs in the United States come from chickens housed in these "battery cages" for up to two years, which the egg industry argues is humane and allows them to produce better eggs. But some states have already taken action — Californians voted last year to ban cramped chicken cages, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a law last month that requires farm animals to have enough room to turn around and stretch out their limbs — and animal-rights activists call such studies a stalling tactic. Estimates for the economic impact of roomier cages for hens range from an extra penny tacked onto the cost of each egg to an additional 50 cents per dozen. (Source: AP)

 

BEE MINUS: Killer bees are good at what they do — swarming, stinging and spreading — but they're also stupid, according to a new British study. The Africanized honeybees emerged in the 1950s as a blend between African and Brazilian varieties, and have since expanded their range from Central America into the Southern United States, earning a reputation for fierce aggression along the way. Some scientists wondered if higher intelligence was the key to killer bees' success, but researchers from the University of Sussex in Brighton discovered that just the opposite is true. "Surprisingly, we found that fewer Africanized honeybees learn to associate an odor with a reward," they write. "Additionally, fewer Africanized honeybees remembered the association a day later." But their stupidity may not necessarily be a liability. Memory is important for most honeybees, but killer bees don't wander as far from their hive, and regularly feed on new flowers rather than memorizing the locations of all their favorites. "Perhaps learning has a cost," says the study's lead author. "If it were cost-free, wouldn't we all be getting smarter?" (Source: Short Sharp Science)

 

PICKING YOUR BRAIN: Some cannibals in Papua New Guinea ritualistically ate human brains up until the practice was banned in the mid-20th century, and scientists announced Wednesday that they've discovered a genetic mutation that allowed these tribes to eat gray matter without contracting diseases often associated with a diet of brains. "This is just a classical example of evolution in humans," the lead researcher tells Reuters, pointing out that only those who survived their heady feasts showed signs of the mutation. At mortuary ceremonies in the Papua New Guinea highlands, women and children regularly consumed their deceased relatives as a sign of respect and sorrow, but a brain illness called kuru — similar to mad-cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases — was often transmitted by eating body parts infected with prions, a type of contagious misshapen protein that's even simpler in form than a virus. Certain individuals showed partial or complete immunity, however, and the researchers have now traced that back to a gene variation called G127V. They hope that further understanding of this mutation could help treat kuru, mad-cow disease and other brain ailments affecting people today. (Sources: Reuters, BBC News) 

 

— Russell McLendon