Latest Articles
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Sole "Strategic Partner" of landmark geo-engineering conference is Australia's "dirty coal" state of
Climate Progress is beginning a multipart series on what has been called the “Woodstock” of geo-engineering. This historic but controversial event will take place March 22 – 26 in Asilomar, CA. Details can be found here on the website of the conference “developer,” Dr. Margaret Leinen of the Climate Response Fund. I have been interviewing leading […]
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How to be as persuasive as Abe Lincoln and Marc Antony, Part 2: Use irony, the twist we can't resist
I almost let the Ides of March slip by without reexamining Marc Antony’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech. It is a model of rhetorical brilliance — and a model for “The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.” Both speeches were built around one of the most important figures of speech: irony Irony derives from the Greek eironeia (”dissimulation”), […]
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EIA FAQ on CO2 emissions
I came across these answers to frequently asked questions from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. There’s some good information on emissions and conversion factors: How much carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced when different fuels are burned? How much CO2 does the United States emit? Is it more than other countries? What are the largest sources of total greenhouse […]
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Jeff Goodell: ‘It’s a bad idea for geoengineering to be the equivalent of the Pompeii sex room’
Jeff Goodell.To head off the worst impacts of climate change, should human beings deliberately engineer the earth’s climate? Or rather, should they try, with uncertain odds of success and at least some chance of inadvertent catastrophe? Should they even learn how, or would the knowledge itself wreak havoc? These are the sorts of questions journalist […]
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China and India to report their global warming pollution every two years
Both China and India have now reaffirmed that they will report their global warming emissions every two years. The framework of this was agreed in the Copenhagen Accord which outlined that every two years developing countries will report their national emissions inventories and emission reduction actions based upon internationally agreed guidelines (as I discussed here). […]
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Time to bury cheap coal
In 2009, nearly 15,000 megawatts of proposed coal fired power plants were canceled. To put that in perspective, that would represent about a third of all electricity generating capacity of a state the size of California. This is not a consequence of a slow economy alone; eight years ago, 36,000 megawatts of new coal plants […]
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Carly Fiorina said cap-and-trade ‘will both create jobs and lower the cost of energy’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. In pursuit of the California Republican Party nomination for the 2010 Senate, Carly Fiorina has abandoned her support for cap-and-trade legislation. The former Hewlett Packard executive hopes to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has championed clean energy legislation as the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. In […]
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The parable of the electric bike
Brynnen Ford carpools kids to school in her Madsen electric bike.Photo: Brynnen FordMmmm. An electric bike. Zipping through the city. Surging up hills without gasping for breath. Riding in business dress and arriving fresh and dry. Healthy, moderate exercise. No traffic jams. Free parking. Huge load-hauling potential. Near-free fueling. Zero emissions. Breeze in your face. […]
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Guess what? Salesmen sell things
I keep wating for a credible author to write a piece about the alleged “nuclear renaissance” that doesn’t make me gag a little. Today will not be that day. Hendrik Hertzberg writes a piece for the New Yorker that basically repeats all the same names and talking points, but goes one step further: this passage […]
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You may be bike-curious if …
earlblumenauer.comInterested in experimenting with the more than 45 million other Americans out there trying it? Exhausted by this nation’s tedious affair with one type of transport? Wondering if you might like spinning your wheels the other way? Then, you may be bike-curious, says Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer. This Portland politician is pedaling bi-opportunities left and right: […]