With all talks about looming global warming, population explosions, forest degradations, it's quite discouraging to even think how Earth would be like, say, 50 years from now. However, there's a school of thought debunking these supposedly Earth killers as mere steps toward evolution. They argued that humans' innate passion for innovation will enable us to conjure up technological solutions to combat these natural problems.

We're running out of biofuels, we turn to the sun. We're running out of potable drinking water, we turn to water purifiers. We're running out of water to wash our clothes, we turn to Sanyo's AQUA washing machine...

Nope, that last sentence wasn't meant to be a joke. Sanyo's about to unleash to the market a washing machine that'll be able to recycle water. Nope, it won't magically produce water, what it does is employ a device called Aqualoop, which in turn recycles water for use in further washes. How? It's a well-guarded secret, but according to it's creators, it can conserve around 50 litres of water per normal washing routine.

It also boasts of an AirWash feature that'll supposedly help owners clean clothes via odor-infusion and bacteria killing chemicals. Pretty much like how modern-day dry cleaners do their thing. Pricing and availability is still on TBA status, but it's highly likely that it'll be released in the Japanese market first.

So there, score one both for the technology freaks and mother nature. Now we can wear clothes without thinking about how much water it took to clean it. Nifty way to help save our planet right? But then again, we can always choose to go naked...

"Biofuels" have shown great promise in weaning the world away from the use of petrofuels. They're less polluting, renewable, and all that acreage (primarily corn and soybeans) will go a long way toward absorbing that excess CO2 in the atmosphere.

Not so fast, say critics in the science community. First of all, they say, there's no proof that "biofuels" are any better than their fossil-fuel counterparts when it comes to greenhouse emissions. The other concern is what it may do the planet's ecology. The rush to plant additional acreage for biofuel production could put rainforests at risk, deplete fresh water supplies, deprive wildlife of habitat and eventually, affect the world's food supply. 

It comes down to deciding whose needs are greater: the 800 million people all over the world who own and drive automobiles, or the billions of others who survive on a day and already spend half their income feeding themselves.

Biofuels are not a new concept. Ford's famous "flivver," the Model T, was originally designed to run on alcohol, while the Diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil. Economics, as usual ended those ideas - back at the beginning of the last century, petroleum-based fuels were easier and cheaper to produce. The oil crises of the 1970's got many countries rethinking the idea.

The full article awaits after the jump!

In the field of science and technology, nothing is black or white. Or in this case, green or red. We had just posted the growing trend in genetically modifying (GMO) plants as possible source of clean and renewable biofuel, which is the green part.

Now comes the red part. Professor Sir Peter Crane, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, warned that mass production of biofuels is a dangerous thing. According to him, extensive production of biofuel crops could destroy remaining areas of rainforest as farmers try to cash in on "green" oil.

"There are big opportunities with biofuels, but there are big problems too," he said. "It's not a free lunch."

As more and more countries join the bandwagon because of increasing prices of fossil fuel, Sir Peter calls for a much more sustainable way of producing biofuel crops. Instead of opening new tracts of rainforests to make room for the green fuel, he suggests utilizing land that's already degraded or not valuable for conservation or agriculture.

He also fears intensive biofuel production might force growers to increase the use of nitrogen-based fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides in order to get their level of production up. It could also strain irrigation systems in areas where water is scarce.

Sir Peter Crane is noted for his studies on living and fossil plants and large-scale patterns and processes of plant evolution. He was awarded a knighthood on June 12, 2004.