Latest Articles

Umbra on solar funding

Dear Umbra, I have been looking high and low regarding ongoing tax credits and incentives for solar installations on private residences. I may be looking for something that doesn’t even exist, but the rumors certainly do. Is there some website I can confer with to see if there really is such a thing? I have […]

That you won’t hear in the mainstream media

China has officially passed the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. This is likely to prompt a lot of misinformation and obfuscation from the usual quarters. So here are some simple truths about China and global warming that everyone should remember as the debate proceeds. 1. The U.S. still vastly outpaces China […]

Illegal, but they’ll do it anyway

According to the Vancouver Sun, Planktos is planning to continue its scheme to dump iron into the oceans off the Galapagos, even though the EPA has ruled it illegal. The EPA ruled in May that it needs a permit. Planktos CEO Russ George has a simple solution: hire a foreign vessel and fly a flag of convenience.

Ken Caldeira and Chris Field of the Carnegie Institute say that it is impossible to verify whether carbon is sequestrated, and that if it is, the added carbon will contribute to ocean acidification. Via ECT it turns out that as of June 19 Planktos still claims on its website to be using nano-particles of iron rather than regular iron dust. (It is pretty far down, so I suggest you use your browser's page search function.) Planktos has said publicly that they are not using nano-particles. Maybe they are just leaving the term on their website because it sounds cool -- which would not speak well for their integrity. Or maybe after taking major-league public hits they still have not gotten around to correcting their website -- which would not speak well for their competence. Or maybe they actually are planning to dump nano-particles of iron into the ocean, which would not speak well for their sanity.

At any rate, Jim Thomas of ETC has suggested to me that when they select their flag of convenience, they consider flying the skull and crossbones.

Quench Warners

Desalination won’t solve world’s water woes, report says Another high-tech environmental solution may be going out the window: a new report from the World Wildlife Fund says desalinating water could hurt more than it helps. Estimating that there are more than 10,000 desalination plants around the world, WWF says the energy-intensive practice of filtering salt […]

Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Gameboys

New U.S. coalition hopes to get vid-kids back outside More than 50 business leaders, politicians, and activists have formed a national partnership to get America’s kids the hell outside. Inspired by recent concerns that too much fun with video games, computers, and TV can lead to obesity and depression, the National Forum on Children and […]

Burgers With a Conscience?

New scorecard rates corporations on their actions to fight climate change Which fast-food joint has the most cred on climate change — McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Burger King? A new scorecard from the nonprofit group Climate Counts has the answer; it ranks these and 53 other major corporations on their commitment to reducing their contributions to […]

And They’re Off

China overtakes United States as world’s biggest polluter, agency says The United States is no longer the world’s biggest polluter. That honor goes to China, which emitted some 8 percent more carbon dioxide in 2006 than Bushland, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. But on a per-person basis, Americans pollute roughly four to five […]

Legit or not?

While writing about medium wind in Alaska, I ran into information that led me to believe there were some questionable offsets involved with the project. More extensive research, including interviews with Brent Petrie of AVEC and Tom Stoddard of Native Energy, have revealed a more complicated situation, one that still doesn't look good to me.

Here is what the situation looks like at first glance: AVEC has installed wind turbines that produce electricity for around 15 cents per kWh, according to the interview on which the first post was based. That 15 cents per kWh wind is displacing 45 cents per kWh electricity -- of which 13-25 cents per kWh is diesel and diesel storage alone. Yet Native Energy is selling carbon offsets at up to $12/ton for this project -- claiming that this produces additional wind power compared to not getting the subsidy.

How does Native Energy justify this? The Alaska Tundra may be the harshest environment in the world for running renewable energy projects. The claim is that if the Tookok and other projects failed in the early stages this would have discouraged further development. The money from offsets has been used so far for operations during the first two years to cover monitoring and recovery from failures during this time.

Nike or Adidas? Google or Yahoo? Scorecard helps shoppers pick.

Stepping back for a second from the fact that they all churn out unhealthy food and are a general blight upon society, which fast-food joint has the most cred on climate change — Burger King? McDonalds? Wendy’s? A new scorecard issued Tuesday ranks corporations on their commitment to reducing their contribution to global warming, giving […]

EWG takes a look at how sunscreens stack up

As the summer sun starts to heat up in Seattle, I’ve been wondering what sort of environmentally sound sunscreen options are out there to protect my pale, pale flesh from certain scorching. I considered writing to Umbra under a pseudonym to get an answer, but the Environmental Working Group jumped on the subject before I […]