Latest Articles
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Dam it all
TucuruÃ, Brazil's second largest dam has many times the GHG emissions of a natural gas plant of the same capacity -- though there is fierce argument over whether that output substantially exceeds what a natural watercourse would produce. (The emissions are due to methane from trapped organic matter in the dam.)
There is now a proposal to tap that methane to run gas turbines and produce electricity, reducing the emissions many times, since CO2 from burning the methane has a much lower impact than the methane itself. It would also close to double the electrical output from the dam. This seems very close to an acknowledgment that critics of methane from dams are correct. Outside of estuaries, I don't know many natural water courses that might be tapped in such a way. I have to admit that it is an ingenious solution to the problems of dams as methane sources.
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From Splits to Stamps
Enthusiasm officially curbed We knew global warming was a partisan issue. But tearing a marriage apart? Now that’s an inconvenient truth. Photo: Alex Berliner Kilimanjaro softly Mount Kilimanjaro, the Everglades, the Great Barrier Reef, and other treasured vacay spots are being threatened by over-tourism. Quick, go forth and spew massive amounts of CO2 to see […]
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Sign the petition!
I opened my inbox the other day and thought I must be dreaming: the venerable progressive organization MoveOn is taking on coal-to-liquids (CTL). This is from an email they sent to their over three million members on Wednesday: In the next few weeks, Congress could vote to DOUBLE the amount of greenhouse gases America produces […]
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Oregon Gov. signs tough new renewable standard
Kudos to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who this week signed one of the nation’s toughest renewable portfolio standards: the state’s biggest utilities must deliver 25% of their power from renewable sources by 2025.
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Public transit
For over two weeks I’ve been meaning to link to this post on public transit from Michael O’Hare and say something interesting about it. So as not to delay it indefinitely, I’m dropping the "say something interesting about it" requirement. Just go read it.
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Make Our Green Day
Spare a little cash for your favorite eco-news site? Bravo on making it through another week. But have you made it through without succumbing to our sweet pleas for financial support? We count on you, dearest readers, to support our nonprofit butts. And we love you so much we’re offering fabulous prizes to those who […]
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Maybe Anne-Sophie Muttered
Tree used for violin bows gets U.N. protection, others slip through the cracks A threatened tree species used in high-quality violin bows gained new protections yesterday — and so did the violin bows. The U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species added brazilwood to the list of nearly 40,000 species it regulates. Originally, the […]
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Find ITT on eBay
Ecuador offers to keep oil in the ground for compensation Ecuador offered to play “Let’s Make a Deal” this week, suggesting that it could afford to keep a pristine area from oil drilling if developed nations and green groups ponied up some cold, hard cash. “We are willing to do this sacrifice, but not for […]
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Sea Vous Plait
Study says Europe’s seas in trouble from fishing, farming, other threats In case you think Europe does everything right, a study shows that the continent’s seas are in sea-rious trouble. More than 100 scientists in 15 countries surveyed the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean seas and the North Atlantic, finding that fishing, farming, shipping, and development […]
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A Jury Of Your Pyrrhus
G8 climate deal is failure or triumph, depending whom you ask Welcome to another installment of “Days of Our G8 Lives.” Yesterday, the G8 agreed to a climate deal it’s been fine-tuning for weeks. It notably did not commit to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 50 percent by 2050, but it […]
