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Get Your Vacuum Cleaner Ready

Southern Ocean losing ability to soak up carbon dioxide, researchers say If you’re counting on the seas to soak up excess emissions and get us out of this climate mess, you might need a new plan. Scientists say Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, a whopper of a “carbon sink,” is losing its ability to absorb more carbon […]

Massachusetts is going to blow

The electrical grid in Massachusetts is getting ready to blow: Documents obtained by the Herald show more than 12,000 transformers from Attleboro to Ayer are operating at above 200 percent capacity, with some as high as 900 percent over design standards. Union officials, who last night reached an agreement in contract talks with National Grid, […]

New Scientist’s troll-b-gone

If our How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide doesn’t whet your appetite for debunkery, head on over to New Scientist, which has a new series taking on “the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.” Some are familiar to devotees of our guide — they predicted global cooling in the ’70s! — but […]

Circle of Blue

Check out Circle of Blue, a new initiative to coordinate journalists and educators around the mission of injecting the freshwater crisis into mainstream dialogue. Modeshift has a long and informative introduction to the project.

McCain flip-flops on ethanol

John McCain tries to explain his flagrant flip-flop on ethanol: (via Hugg)

The boldest plan on the table

As of today, Bill Richardson has become the boldest, most visionary Democratic presidential candidate on climate and energy policy. (John Edwards is a close second.) No politician from either party has put forward a plan that comes closer to being a realistic response to the energy shortages and climate chaos heading our way. Here’s the […]

Network TV’s best show is cancelled

It’s no secret that we have a Grist-wide crush on Kristen Bell (the world’s sexiest vegetarian!). So I feel obliged to take a break from the green and note with great sorrow that CW has cancelled Veronica Mars, Bell’s sharp, sassy, criminally underappreciated star vehicle. It’s a cliche at this point that females are bombarded […]

Biz leaders and scientists brainstorm solutions to the freshwater crisis

Mary Pearl is the president of Wildlife Trust, cofounder of its Consortium for Conservation Medicine, and an adjunct research scientist at Columbia University. She recently returned from a boat trip through the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador with scientists, conservationists, and business leaders, intended to forge partnerships and develop solutions to the global freshwater crisis. This is the third and final dispatch from her journey. See also her first and second dispatches.

My best intentions were to have a daily dispatch to Gristmill from our weeklong floating seminar on the future of fresh water, but satellite communication from the boat proved iffy as we moved among some of the outer islands. Then, once back in New York, a million postponed obligations got in the way. However, we did have some great conversations on board, which have led to some exciting plans. So rather than the final three dispatches, I offer this wrap-up:

Reviews are good

New Mexico governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson gave a big speech today in which he introduced what sounds like an extremely ambitious climate and energy plan. The speech isn’t online yet, and the plan isn’t on his site yet, so all I have to go on is reactions from people who have seen […]

A123 introduces new battery

From the Energy Blog:

A123 Systems today introduced its 32-series Nanophosphate^TM Lithium Ion cells, specifically designed for Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) use.

The 32-series cells are designed with abuse-tolerance in mind. A123 Systems Automotive Class cells take advantage of lessons learned from the mass-production of ANR26650M1 cells, used in DeWalt's and Black & Decker's power tool lines, in order to deliver 10+ year and 150,000 mile projected life requirements in engineered automotive battery packs. The cells have shown minimal power degradation and impedance growth after 300,000 cycles. The battery is able to operate at a temperature range of -20 F to 140 F (-29 C to 60 C).

Personally, if I owned a plug-in hybrid that could go thirty miles on a charge, I would fill my tank about twice a year.