Latest Articles

Chinese envoy urges U.S. help on climate change

WASHINGTON — The United States has a profitable self-interest in assisting Chinese efforts to combat climate change, China’s ambassador here said Thursday as global talks loom. Zhou Wenzhong said China must focus on industrial growth to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty but was not stinting in the global warming fight, outlining a […]

Announcing energy efficiency order, Obama goes on stimulus attack

President Obama today used a visit to the Department of Energy to blast Republican opposition to energy efficiency measures contained in the economic stimulus legislation. Obama, who was at DOE to sign a memorandum [PDF] ordering the department to set new energy efficiency standards for appliances, rebutted GOP complaints about a proposal to use some […]

Super-battery idea wins X Prize competition for next green invention

From the people that brought you private space travel comes another ambitious techno challenge — a hyper-green battery that can store electrical energy in vast quantities, with super-quick recharging abilities and without environmentally harmful components. Today the X PRIZE Foundation announced the winner of its $25,000 YouTube contest to come up with the next “Crazy […]

Peter Barnes chats about cap-and-dividend

Here's Peter Barnes on video talking about his preferred solution to climate change: cap-and-dividend.

Much more on SolveClimate.

I understand the appeal of cap-and-dividend, not just practically but theoretically, as it establishes common ownership rights over the atmosphere. But I still have never heard convincing answers to my two biggest issues with it: one, that it will never pass, despite the evidence-free claims of its supporters that the public would rally around it, and two, that it would squander a major source of revenue that could be invested in clean energy and green infrastructure.

Zipcar partners with city of Seattle, opens downtown location

Some 10,500 employees of the City of Seattle will now have access to a car at the office for personal errands or business trips, thanks to a new partnership with car-sharing provider Zipcar.

Part of the city's Commute Trip Reduction effort, the Zipcar partnership is aimed at "encouraging more climate-friendly commutes," says Mayor Greg Nickels (D), because employees will be able to walk, bike, or take mass transit to work without worrying whether they'll need to, ahem, zip off to an appointment.

Within a 10-block radius of City Hall, there are more than 60 Zipcars parked at curbs and in garages. City employees (and other Zipcar members) can reserve these vehicles and then take them out for several hours, or even a whole day, returning them to their original parking spot. Zipcar then takes care of all maintenance, insurance, and fuel for the vehicles.

And for naysayers who think this will just encourage people to drive around unnecessarily, a 2008 survey of Seattle Zipcar members suggests otherwise, with half of the respondents saying they've increased their public transit usage since joining. And national surveys indicate that 50 percent of members sell their car or avoid buying one in the first place, reducing vehicle miles by almost 40 percent.

For those of you in Seattle, Zipcar is opening up a storefront-style office downtown (in the old Department of Licensing office, actually). They're hosting an open house today, and if you stop by before 5 p.m., you can join Zipcar for no annual fee (a savings of $50).

Energy density is not an immutable requirement

This article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists makes an important point: no energy storage mechanism is ever likely to approach the energy density of hydrocarbons like oil and coal, certainly not at scale.

Part of the reason coal and oil are enemies of the human race is precisely that they are so seductive -- they really are fantastically designed energy carriers, with high energy density in easily portable packages. It will take incredible collective self-discipline to keep from using them up (and reaping the long-term consequences).

The conclusion, however, bugs the snot out of me:

'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California,' Part 2

Finally, we have a top administration official telling it like it is. Energy Secretary and Nobelist Steven Chu told a Los Angeles Times reporter:

In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.

"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said.

Precisely. [You can listen to an interview with the LAT reporter and me on To the Point here.]

We face desertification of perhaps a third of the earth that is "largely irreversible for 1,000 years" -- if homo sapiens are not sapiens enough to sharply and quickly reverse emissions trends. Part 1 looked at the canary-in-the-coal mine for desertification: "Australia faces collapse as climate change kicks in."

But the Southwest from Kansas and Oklahoma to California are right behind Australia, according to a 2007 Science ($ub. req'd) paper:

Here we show that there is a broad consensus among climate models that this region will dry in the 21st century and that the transition to a more arid climate should already be under way. If these models are correct, the levels of aridity of the recent multiyear drought or the Dust Bowl and the 1950s droughts will become the new climatology of the American Southwest within a time frame of years to decades.

[Note: That study "only" modeled the A1B emissions scenario, which leads to 720 ppm by 2100. We are currently on track to 1,000 ppm (see here).]

A December U.S. Geological Survey report also warned that the Southwest faces "permanent drying" by 2050.

Before the permanent drying -- aka a desert -- sets in, you'd expect to see more and longer record-breaking droughts. In fact, Lester Snow, director of California's Department of Water Resources said Friday:

Senate panel to (finally) vote on Solis confirmation

Since I’m over here at the Green Jobs, Good Jobs summit, perhaps I should post on one of the top green jobs questions on everyone’s mind here: When is the Senate going to finally get around to confirming Obama’s green-jobs-promoting nominee for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis? There has been an anonymous hold on her nomination […]

Direct and organic farm sales rise rapidly, new census shows

Direct sales from farmers rose 49 percent, and organic farm sales more than tripled from 2002 to 2007, new USDA farm census data show.

USDA released the 2007 Agriculture Census data today, giving Americans a far more detailed understanding of agricultural trends -- just as interest in local foods expands dramatically.

For me, one of the key indicators of the growth of interest in community-based foods is the rapidly rising sales of food direct from farmers to consumers. Direct food sales rose a whopping 49 percent to $1.2 billion in 2007, up from $812 million in 2002. This includes farmstand, farmers market, internet, or other direct sales of fruit, vegetables, meats, and many other foods.

Bipartisan duo introduce renewable-electricity-standard bill in House

Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Todd Platts (R-Pa.) on Wednesday introduced legislation in the House to create a federal renewable electricity standard (RES) that would require the United States to draw a quarter of its electricity from clean sources by 2025. Markey also introduced a second bill that would require the country to reduce energy […]