Can Cars Run on Air?

Over the years, we’ve written about many other places to get fuel than out of the ground (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show). How about out of the air? It turns out that car fuel can be created from the air using an enzyme found in common soil.

A microbe found around the roots of various food plants creates an enzyme which in nature produces ammonia from nitrogen gas. But it can also create propane out of carbon monoxide, which is a common byproduct of industrial processes. In the December 23rd edition of the Telegraph, Tom Chivers quotes researcher Markus Ribbe as saying, "Obviously this could lead to new ways to create synthetic liquid fuels." Eventually cars may be taking carbon out of the atmosphere as fast as they put it back in.

Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico may never recover from the disastrous BP oil spill. On the Phoenix Rising website, Tom Termotto writes that the Gulf is now a dead zone–and will remain that way for a long time to come.

It’s a long path to figuring out how to solve the climate change problem, but we’re making progress. Now if only we could solve the problem of how FEW of the readers and Dreamland listeners who claim to love us so much are willing to support us. It costs about $4 a month (less than a single latte) to give us the help we need, so subscribe today. And please click on the "donate" tab on our homepage too!