Svata Louda--October 19th

UNL Biology Professor Svata Louda will be paging Earth 2 Lincoln on Monday, October 19th. Louda's areas of interest include ecological interactions of insects with plants in the dynamics, distribution and persistence of plant populations and communities. Can she eradicate beg-bugs once and for all? Tune in Monday, October 19th at 6 p.m. on KZUM 89.3 FM and www.kzum.org to find out.

Professor Louda has also conducted intensive reserach on biological control insects and the positive and detrimental impacts on their introduced environment.

Ken Cassman-October 5th

UNL Agronomy and Horticulture professor Ken Cassman will join us next week, October 5th, to discuss the current state of corn ethanol and biofuels.

Cassman recently published a paper on "Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol." We'll need those ethanol ameliorations--the 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, with much of that coming from Nebraska's bountiful cornfields.

In etho-politics, the Benator (a.k.a. U.S. Sentor Ben Nelson) joined several other corn-belt legislators, introducing biofuel legisltaion with two primary prongs, a) to increase the minimum blend from E10 to E15 (fuel enriched with 15 % ethanol instead of 10 %) and to limit the EPA from penalizing domestic ethanol producers for environmentally-damaging land use.

Solar Energy Tour--This Saturday!

The Nebraska Solar Energy Tour takes off this weekend.

The tour is part of a nation-wide movement to increase awareness of solar energy, organized and promoted by the American Solar Energy Society.

Events are spread throughout the Good Life state, including demonstrations and tours in Omaha, Scottsbluff, Grand Island and Sioux City.

You thought Lincoln wasn't going to break off a piece of the solar pie?

The solar tour begins at 10 a.m. this Saturday, October 3rd and continues through 2 p.m. at the following locations:

• Hyde Observatory, 3701 South 70th
• 3002 Browning Street, (north of South Point Mall- follow signs north from 32nd and Pinelake Rd. Jessican Freeman and Chirstopher Marks, 3.5 KW of photovoltaic solar panels.
• 8800 South 55th, (just south of Yankee Hill Road- follow signs from 1/3 mile south of 56th and Yankee HIll Road- west on Rebel Drive & north on 55th St)Randy and Linda Schantell Thermal solar retrofit

For more information, www.nebraskasolartour.org

Earth2Lincoln 9-14-09

DJ Dharma welcomed Robert Smith of The Arbor Day Foundation and Jessica Kelling of ReTree Nebraska for a lively discussion on the importance of trees in our lives. On Saturday, ReTree Nebraska kicks off ReTree Week. Channel your inner John Muir and keep Nebraska’s ecological diversity flourishing this Saturday morning at 9 a.m. at Antelope Park for a tree planting celebration. ReTree Nebraska is a 10-year, cooperative initiative to promote the proper planting and care of 1 million trees in communities across Nebraska by 2017.

Click below and listen to the show:

Action Alert: Repower America

There are times when a bustling schedule, lethargy, and shortsightedness conspire to sap our environmental activism. Now is not that time. And hear to fill the void is Repower Nebraska. Repower is enlisting volunteers from all walks o' life to join in the effort to enact clean energy legislation this year. I joined them at a rally last week outside the Embassy Suites in downtown Lincoln, where we lofted signs skyward and bellowed "Go Big Green" to eager Cornhusker fans. Get involved by sending an email to nebraska@repoweramerica.org

-Jesse

Earth 2 Lincoln 8/31

UNL Electrical Engineering Professor Jerry Hudgins offers a comprehensive take on wind energy's challenges and opportunities and current and future and role in Nebraska's energy matrix.