Latest Articles
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Personal carbon trading considered in U.K.
Britain should go ahead with a carbon-credit trading system for individuals, a committee of Members of Parliament has recommended. The system could be modeled on cap-and-trade programs for industry, setting a cap on the amount of carbon each person is allowed to emit and requiring those who would exceed their allotment to purchase credits from […]
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G8 nations agree on the need to agree on emission cuts
A three-day meeting of G8 environment ministers in Japan this weekend concluded with a familiar call for nations to agree on goals to cut emissions. The sentiment was formalized in a statement citing “strong political will” among G8 countries to agree to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2050 when they convene at the full […]
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Obama calls for clean energy activists in commencement speech
From Barack Obama’s commencement speech at Wesleyan University, 25 May 2008 (he was standing in for Ted Kennedy): At a time when our ice caps are melting and our oceans are rising, we need you to help lead a green revolution. We still have time to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change if we […]
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One of permaculture’s founder envisions possible futures
He writes, "The simultaneous onset of climate change and the peaking of global oil supply represent unprecedented challenges for human civilisation. Each limits the effective options for responses to the other."
An important new site from David Holmgren, one of the fathers of permaculture: Future Scenarios.Holmgren uses a scenario planning framework to bring to life the likely cultural, political, agricultural and economic implications of peak oil and climate change.
"Scenario planning allows us to use stories about the future as a reference point for imagining how particular strategies and structures might thrive, fail or be transformed," says Holmgren.
Future Scenarios depicts four very different futures. Each is a permutation of mild or destructive climate change, combined with either slow or severe energy declines. Scenarios range from the relatively benign Green Tech to the near catastrophic Lifeboats scenario.(h/t to Adam at Energy Bulletin)
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Bush may designate large marine reserves
Hoping to burnish President Bush’s conservation legacy, the White House is considering creating some of the largest marine reserves in the world, NPR reports. The plan — now being discussed, but not a sure thing — would have Bush use his powers under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create “marine monuments,” which would not […]
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Fox News anchor calls for assassination of Barack Obama
“… and now we have what … uh…some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama … uh … um … Obama [after being prompted by the FNC anchor] … well both if we could [laughing] …” — Fox News anchor Liz Trotta, commenting on Hillary Clinton’s invocation of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination […]
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Somebody forgot to tell Rockport that coal is cheap
How much would your town pay to stabilize the electric bills of every home and business in it for the next 25 years?
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Nevada Solar one is a better and smaller neighbor than a coal mine
Every now and then, one hears complaints about solar energy: "But it takes too much land!" "An entire Idaho!" "Three Californias!" 
Nevada Solar One takes up about 400 acres, mostly for mirrors and heat engines. You would have to mine about 5,300 acres to feed a coal-fired powered plant producing the same amount of electricity. Even acre for acre, I'll take Solar One's pleasant campus over a coal mine.
Math below the fold.
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