Latest Articles
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Fukushima may end up as a concrete-encased ghost plant, says expert
"My best guess [as to how this ends] is there is going to be a bigger breach than we've already seen — and we suspect there's breaches in the number 2 and number 3 reactors — there'll be a bigger breach, it'll force the evacuation, and we'll see, I think, at least two core meltdowns […]
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Why are Obama and Salazar pushing a huge expansion of coal production?
This weekend’s question may have no good answer. On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to auction off 758 million tons of coal in Wyoming over the next few months. Then on Friday, the Bureau of Land Management explained they will be selling off another 1.6 billion tons of coal at a future date. […]
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Stabilizing CO2 levels is tough for humanity, not stabilizing them is tougher
Climate science is the foundation of this blog, the sine qua non for all the other analyses. The reasons we must be far more ambitious in politics and policy and clean technology deployment are the increasing evidence of accelerated carbon-cycle feedbacks and the dire warnings from the scientific community about the dangers of unrestricted greenhouse […]
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Ask Umbra on flatulence and climate change
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, The other day I was sitting on the couch after a day of eating an onion-rich diet and wondered … how much impact can a person have on climate change by avoiding flatulence-producing foods? Resourcefully yours,Rob D. Troubled by your bubbles?A. Dearest Rob, I appreciate your desire […]
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How the 'peaceful atom' became a serial killer
Replacing coal and oil with nuclear power is like trading heroin for crack.
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Debunking myths about free-market environmentalism
Money makes the world go … green?Cross-posted at The PERColator, a project of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). A recent post on Grist attempted to dismantle the intellectual foundations of free-market environmentalism — the application of markets and property rights to solve environmental problems. But far from toppling a burgeoning movement within modern […]
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Achtung! German Motorists Boycott Ethanol
The German government’s plan to follow our lead and force a ten percent blend of ethanol down its citizen’s throats has hit a snag. Unlike here in the States, German consumers can choose to buy gasoline without ethanol in it. So, that’s what they’re doing even though it costs more! I took the above photo […]
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Why Car Drivers with a Clue Support Bicycle Infrastructure
Photo courtesy of therozblog via Flickr Imagine what it would feel like to accidentally maim, cripple for life, or kill a bicyclist (daughter, wife, mom, son, husband, dad, teenager or kid) with your car, regardless of who got the traffic ticket. On top of that guilt, imagine the potential for an emotionally and financially devastating […]
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The Great Brain Robbery and the Seattle Pee Patch
The neighborhood dogs use my daughter’s vegetable garden as a communal toilet. You can’t blame them really. The garden is right next to the sidewalk and they are just dogs. I suppose you could blame the dog owners holding the leash. But, are my dog-walking neighbors really that obtuse or are they victims of the […]
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Nissan Leaf, meet Ford Pinto
There were two interesting cars parked on my street this week. One was a Nissan Leaf (see my test drive video here). The other was a Ford Pinto. The Pinto was one of the forerunners of today’s small hatchbacks. It had bucket seats with a hand brake between them, a back seat that folded down, […]
