Rwanda has a “killer lake” to worry about: Lake Kivu occasionally bubbles with a mysterious gas that kills fish and swimmers. The gas is actually carbon dioxide and methane, and while it represents a threat, it also a possibility for energy production. Rwanda puts hopes in methane power plant By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer (May 23, 2008). The Rwandan government is hoping to avert a catastrophe on the shores of the lake and solve its energy woes at the same time. Methane-power generation plants exist elsewhere, but this this is a trickier proposition because the gas must be extracted from underwater before it can be burned as fuel.

Lake Kivu is similar to Lake Nyos in Cameroon (pictured), which in 1986 emitted a huge cloud of CO₂ that suffocated 1700 nearby villagers and thousands of livestock. Tangentially, some people believe that it is this type of large-scale asphyxiation that was described in the book of Exodus and was responsible for killing the Egyptian first-born sons.

Make no mistake: the price of oil has a dramatic impact on our economy. Today oil was trading at $131.95 per barrel. Economic Toll Mounts From High Oil Prices (By GRAHAM BOWLEY and DAVID JOLLY Published: May 23, 2008)

The Ford Motor Company is cutting vehicle production for the rest of this year due to rising gasoline prices — they “are having a tremendous impact on our sales, our manufacturing operations and our profitability.” Likewise, Air France-KLM warned of “a profound reshaping of the world airline industry” caused by the “explosion” in the price of oil.

In Tennessee, a farmer has reverted to using mules to gather hay from his fields. It worked 100 years ago… why not use it now?