Environmental▼News This implies that antiestrogens could also affect fish in a quite unexpected manner, he suggests. This study is the first step in the right direction, says ecotoxicologist John Sumpter of Brunel University in Uxbridge, U.K. He believes that the recent research emphasis on just estrogenic chemicals has not been justified because other classes of endocrine disrupters, such as antiestrogens, androgens, and antiandrogens, are likely to play
an important role as well. The real issue, however, is not the effects of individual compounds, but how organisms react to mixtures of endocrine disrupters in the environment, he emphasizes. “We have no idea at the moment how to even address this issue,” Sumpter admits, because the interactions between different chemicals, let alone from different classes of endocrine disrupters, are extremely hard to address. He points
out that the latest funding on risk assessment of chemical mixtures in the European Union—the Cluster of Research into Endocrine Disruption in Europe, which has mixtures of endocrine disrupters as one of its major foci—has a total budget of more than ¤20 million (www. credocluster.info). “This issue sweeps across all organisms, both in the environment and up to human health,” Sumpter states. —ANKE SCHAEFER
Cheap solar energy
BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV
says, the dish must be used in conjunction with solar photovoltaic The world’s largest solar dish has the times stronger than noontime (PV) cells. He plans to use the dish potential to generate energy for sunshine. to illuminate 1 m2 of PV cells, about 5 cents (U.S.) per kilowatt To generate solar energy at a which will be actively cooled to hour (kWh), according to David price that “no other solar energy 60 °C. “Under such conditions, the Faiman, director of Ben-Gurion Uni- can come anywhere near,” Faiman cells should have a peak power of versity of the Negev’s National about 100 kW and produce Solar Energy Center in Israel, about 150,000 kWh,” he where the dish has been built. explains. In comparison, solar electricity Faiman’s calculations are generally costs around 30 cents based on using 23% efficient per kWh, according to Solarsolar cells; the economics buzz, Inc., an international would be proportionately betsolar energy research and conter if the 40% efficient solar sulting company. cells, which are expected to be The 400-square-meter (m2) available soon, were used, he dish, which is known as the says. He also notes that the Photon Energy Transformer 60 °C cooling water could be and Astrophysics Laboratory reused for purposes such as (PETAL), can generate approxrefrigeration or water desalinimately 400 kW of thermal enization projects. —KELLYN Israel’s giant solar dish collector could lower costs ergy at intensities up to 10,000 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour. BETTS
Climate change technology reports criticized Two reports quietly released in December by the Bush Administration on how the Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) is better coordinating research related to greenhouse gas mitigating technologies across 14 government agencies have drawn criticism from technical experts. The reports shed no light on budgeting priorities, nor do they provide as much detail as their critics deem necessary. The reports, which offer the most detailed information to date on the year-old CCTP, describe 87 activities in 18 far-flung research areas, which include the FreedomCAR program, nuclear power gener-
ation, carbon sequestration, and reduction of sulfur hexafluoride emissions from magnesium production. After the CCTP was introduced in November 2002, critics called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to give the solutions to climate change equal time with the science; the reports address some of those issues. In his State of the Union address in 2003, Bush responded to those critics—and the nation as a wholeby saying, “In this century, the greatest environmental progress will come about not through endless lawsuits or command-andcontrol regulations, but through technology and innovation.” A year
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later, however, critics charge that the long-awaited reports describing the technology that the nation is developing don’t go far enough. DOE needs to do more, complains Sudhir Chella Rajan, a senior scientist with the Tellus Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sustainable development. “What is frustrating about the CCTP document … is that it looks like a giant publicity brochure with technology profiles but no serious analysis of their potential, costs, integration with existing systems, or aggregate emissions reduction impacts over the medium and long term. In the absence of explicit emissions reduction goals and a timetable to strive for, the sanguine technologi-
energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies but castigates the Administration for its continued promotion of technologies such as clean coal and hydrogen from fossil fuels, which, in his view, are likely to result in fewer greenhouse gas reductions. Both Davies and Rajan also fault the reports for omitting information on the conditions that would cause greenhouse-gasreducing technologies to be adopted and the potential for modest lifestyle changes to further reduce emissions. According to DOE, the agency coordinating the CCTP, the United States has the world’s largest climate change research budget, with increases requested for Fiscal Year 2004. A DOE spokesperson was not able to point to specific numbers in the 2004 budget request because it is allocated among so many different agencies. However, in 2002 the government spent $1.6 billion on CCTP programs, roughly one-third of the $4.5 billion spent on all climate change programs. To see the reports Research and Current Activities and Technology Options for the Near- and LongTerm, go to www.climatetechnol ogy.gov. KELLYN S. BETTS
Stanton Miller (1931–2003) Stanton Miller, former longtime managing editor of ES&T, died on December 17 at his home in Reno, Nev. Miller joined the ES&T A-page staff as an assistant editor in 1967 and was appointed managing editor in 1973. In 1993, he was promoted to executive editor and retired one year later. Julian Josephson, who worked closely with Miller for 20 years, remembers that Miller was well known by many of the important environmental leaders of his day. “Stan set up interviews with scientists, high government people, and corporate managers,” Josephson recalls, which led to informative articles. “Within logical limits, Stan used to give his staff quite a lot of freedom to seek out topics,” he adds. In a 1995 editorial, then ES&T Editor William Glaze paid tribute to Miller by crediting him for leading “ES&T through good and bad years, but he always held to high principles of scientific journalism.” Glaze also recalled a promise made to readers in a 1973 editorial, in which Miller wrote that “ES&T intends to keep readers aware of what is really happening on the environmental scene, to dig beneath the surface for facts and insights.” Miller is survived by his wife of 42 years, Kathleen, 4 children, and 8 grandchildren. —ALAN NEWMAN
News Briefs EU’s environmental performance The European Union (EU) has made progress on reducing the greenhouse gases implicated in climate change, conserving biodiversity, improving environmental health, and managing its natural resources more effectively, according to the European Commission’s first systematic overview and analysis of environmental policies, which was published in December. The main purpose of the Environmental Policy Review is to report on developments in EU policies since 2001, including the 6th European Environment Programme, and highlight current priorities. To view the report, go to http://www.europa.eu.int/ comm/environment/docum/index. htm.
Hybrid named Car of the Year The Toyota Prius, a hybrid electric vehicle, was named 2004 Motor Trend Car of the Year by Motor Trend, the magazine that has bestowed the automobile industry’s most coveted and recognized award for 55 years. “We realize the selection of a hybrid vehicle is going to stir controversy, but we believe the performance, engineering advancements, and overall significance of the Toyota Prius merit the distinction,” according to Kevin Smith, Motor Trend’s editor-in-chief. “[The Prius] provides a promising look at a future where extreme fuel efficiency, ultralow emissions, and exceptional performance will happily coexist.” The editorial staff at Motor Trend tested 26 vehicles. The six-year-old Prius was eligible because of engineering changes that propelled the formerly compact car into the mid-sized class for this model year.
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cal optimism expressed in the CCTP agenda seems naïve and misplaced,” he says. The CCTP’s organizers also need to identify important cross-cutting issues that should be addressed from the perspectives of both science and technology, says Robert Socolow, a professor at Princeton University’s Environmental Institute. “One example is the investigation of the environmental impacts of the deployment of energy and environmental technologies at the huge scale required to contribute significantly to the mitigation of climate change. Priority needs to be given in the two plans to investigations, for example, of the consequences for climate change of very large-scale wind harvesting, the stability of methane clathrates under large-scale production, and the ecological consequences of large-scale biological storage of carbon in forestry and agriculture,” he says. The Administration’s focus on research rather than policy actions also continues to draw fire. The reports dwell too heavily on “future solutions when there are damned good solutions now,” says Kert Davies, a research director for the environmental group Greenpeace. He praises the reports for including
