Green Blues: Biofuels wwwadd to Global Warming

It is official: the Green Blues has began. Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two new studies published in the top-tier journal Science have concluded.

The studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development. The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.

This is horrible news news for biofuel proponents. In the energy bill just passed, the U.S. is betting heavily on ethanol, mandating a sixfold increase in the use of biofuels by 2022. Current ethanol demands are already pushing up grain and meat prices and contributing to inflation. The tradeoff was that we were saving the world. Now that bargain looks pretty shaky.

But not all is lost on the biofuel front. Some companies are working on ways to make fuel from algae or ”waste” plants like sawgrass that wouldn’t prompt farmers to clear-cut the precious rainforests and grasslands.

It's Bubble O seven: James Bond underwater car fantasy becomes a reality

Ever since he saw James Bond drive into the sea to escape a villain in The Spy Who Loved Me, Frank Rinderknecht dreamed of creating his own submarine dream machine.

Yesterday, he launched the astonishing result.

The pioneering Swiss car designer has created the sQuba, a vehicle equally at home on land, sea and beneath the surface.

"For three decades I have tried to imagine a car that can fly under water," he said.

"Now we have made this dream come true."

In the 1977 movie, Bond, played by Roger Moore, avoids the clutches of the metal-toothed thug Jaws by plunging his Lotus Esprit Turbo into the ocean.

Computer animation techniques show the wheels folding under the chassis while lateral fins and propellers emerge before 007 dispatches his foes with a built-in rocket launcher, harpoons a fish and drives on to a convenient beach.

Just like its inspiration, the sQuba is built on the chassis of a Lotus, although this time it is the more rounded Elise.

But realising it would be too difficult to make a car completely watertight as in the Bond film, Mr Rinderknecht designed the sQuba to be open-topped.

If driven into water it will float and operate as a boat.

Two propellers positioned either side of the rear number plate push it along.

Rinderknecht

Dream: Swiss designer Frank Rinderknecht

But open a door and the car begins to dive. Under water, one of its three battery-powered engines sucks in water through the car's front grille and pushes it out of its two side jet vents.

It is these two jets, mounted on swivelling heads, which manoeuvre the car up, down, left and right.

The sQuba will go on show at next month's motor show in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a one-off concept car it is not for sale, but it cost around £750,000 to be built by Mr Rinderknecht's company Rinspeed, which normally specialises in restoring and modifying classic cars.

The interior boasts mother-of-pearl embossed trim with diamond-plated inlays. And the upholstery features sharkskin-style patterning.

In a nod to another of James Bond's gadget-filled cars – the Aston Martin DB5 in 1964's Goldfinger – another feature is a rotating rear number-plate holder.

Rocket launcher and harpoon gun, however, are not among the optional extras.