energy

Your CD collection is greener than Spotify

A new report crunched the numbers on your Spotify habit and concluded that it's terrible for energy consumption.

One more way your plane flights are killing everybody

Remember when cars used to give off disgusting clouds of lead-laden smoke? Planes still do that. Some of them do, at least — in particular, those nasty little planes that rich people fly because car traffic is for suckers. According to Scientific American, smaller planes now produce HALF of all the lead pollution in the […]

The only way to evacuate all of humanity from Earth is to use nuclear propulsion

Yes, it is awesome the Curiosity rover can Instagram Mars pics back to Earth from 50 million miles away. But ultimately, one goal of all this space exploration is to have another place to go if we really royally screw up the planet, right? XKCD’s Randall Munroe answers a critical question about that overplayed movie […]

The world’s about to get its first entirely solar-powered country

By next week, the tiny island nation Tokelau will be the first solar-powered country in the world.

Power your laptop with your butt

Swedish designer Eddi Tornberg has turned the plight of modern workers — sitting like lazy larvae in front of computer screens all day — into a form of renewable energy. He uses the heat of our rear ends to create electricity. You’ll still die from sitting, but at least your energy bills will be lower!

Powerful New Video: Protect the Moapa Band of Paiutes from Dirty Coal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DSFhGt-DN7g

The Moapa Band of Paiutes continues to fight the pollution from the nearby Reid Gardner coal plant in Southern Nevada, and the Sierra Club stands with them. Today, we are releasing this powerful new video that features members of the tribe telling moving personal stories about the devastating effects of pollution from Reid Gardner. I first wrote about the Moapa in late April when we supported the Moapa Band of Paiutes on their three-day, 50-mile cultural healing walk from their reservation to the Lloyd George Federal Building in Las Vegas. The walk brought visibility to the damage that the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant is doing to the tribe's health, culture and economy. Following that march, on May 3, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a hearing on the Moapa reservation about the pollution permits for Reid Gardner. That's when much of the footage was taken for this short, unforgettable video. The hearing was packed with tribal members telling their stories of serious health problems: asthma, other lung diseases, nosebleeds, severe allergies, heart disease, and more. Members also talked about being unable to live their lives according to their culture: the toxic dust stirred by the wind keeps people indoors; they are afraid to gather herbs and use them because they know they are contaminated with coal ash; and they universally are concerned about the long-term survival of the tribe. This is an issue of fairness and justice. This Tribe deserves clean air and water, not an outdated coal plant saddled with second-rate pollution controls. The Moapa are leading the way beyond dirty coal and to clean energy by developing a major solar plant on the reservation. Now EPA needs to do its part by requiring first-rate technology to reduce air pollution at the Reid Gardner coal plant. You can help - take action today to tell EPA to protect the Moapa from dirty coal pollution.

A Big Week for Public Health, Grassroots Activism

This has been a big week for clean air, public health, and grassroots activism that is moving America beyond coal. First, we can breathe easier this week knowing that more aging, polluting coal plants are being retired as South Carolina Gas & Electric announced the retirement of six coal boilers.  As I’ve said with other […]

Good news: Americans are using a lot less coal

Here is a bit of energy-use news to feel good about: Americans are using a lot less coal. In the first quarter of this year, the portion of the country’s electricity that came from coal was almost 20 percent less than in the same period last year. And overall, the Energy Information Administration predicts, coal […]

Yet another ridiculous billboard campaign featuring psychos

Apparently the political discourse in this country is irrational enough that one anti-green billboard campaign featuring megalomaniacs will not satisfy our craving for crazy. No, there have to be two billboard campaigns in one month that cast aspersions on good ideas by associating them with crazy dudes that no one likes. We present to you: […]