Latest Articles
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White roofs could help keep climate change at bay
This whole climate-change debacle could be significantly slowed down if the world’s 100 largest cities thing installed white roofs and more-reflective pavement, says a new study to be published in the journal Climatic Change. It may sound like greenwhitewashing, but physicist Hashem Akbari crunches the numbers: By bouncing heat away from the Earth, a 1,000-square-foot […]
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McCain’s VP pick has a mixed record on supporting renewables in home state
McCain VP pick Sarah Palin has a record of being both a friend and foe of Big Oil in her home state of Alaska. But she’s also made a point of voicing support for renewable and “clean” energy sources. Flashback one week to Palin’s big convention speech in St. Paul: “Starting in January, in a […]
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Lovins predicts the coming oil price crash won’t be like the last one
The world can always use another profile of Amory Lovins — here’s one in The Economist. (Check out the nuke boosters in comments — man, those guys are like spurned lovers. Let it go already.) My skepticism about Lovins’ rosy predictions is captured here: Fine, but what about the specific criticism that any coming oil-price […]
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U.S. intelligence report says climate change likely to lead to security threats
A new draft report from the United States’ top intelligence analyst forecasts future security threats to the U.S. and other nations from climate change, as well as declining influence of the U.S. on world affairs. The report is intended to brief the new U.S. president early next year on the security outlook for the next […]
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Nearly 40 percent of North American freshwater fish species in jeopardy
Over 700 freshwater fish species in North America, nearly 40 percent of the total, are considered vulnerable to extinction or worse, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. The study, published in the journal Fisheries, is the most comprehensive assessment of North American freshwater fish species since 1989, but the results […]
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Energy efficiency, part 5: ‘The highest documented rate of return of any federal program’
I was at the U.S. Department of Energy when the Gingrich gang took over and tried to shut down all of DOE’s applied energy research, claiming it was a waste of taxpayer money. I helped organize a major report documenting the large return to the U.S. taxpayers of federal spending on energy efficiency (and other […]
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Just the third R, thanks
When the city of London, Ontario, banned bottled water, Refreshments Canada ("voice of the non-alcoholic beverages industry") lamented "a real missed opportunity to do something positive for the environment." Come again? It seems London passed up "a chance to expand recycling." Really. Awesome.
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It’s time to break the American addiction to oil
This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. —– When George Bush declared that the United States is addicted to oil, it may have been the most insightful moment of his presidency. It is a cruel but apt analogy, and that’s why the big push for […]
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Slower
Kent A. Sepkowitz doesn’t mention it in this op-ed about lowering auto speeds, but it would save a heck of a lot of gas too. I’m sure politicians will be eager to propose it!
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