Latest Articles
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Reflections from the scene of this weekend’s G8 protests
Michael Levitin is a freelance journalist living in Berlin. He has written for Newsweek, Slate, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. Tuesday, 5 Jun 2007 ROSTOCK, Germany If you dress head to foot in black, set cars on fire, launch stones and beer bottles at police, and brave hand-to-hand scuffles amid clouds of tear […]
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Susan Griffin-Black, purveyor of organic bath and body care products, answers Grist’s questions
Susan Griffin-Black. What work do you do? I am the co-CEO and co-founder of EO. I am also affiliated with Youth for Environmental Sanity, Pachamama Alliance, Marin Organic, the Organic Trade Association’s Personal Care Task Force, and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. How does it relate to the environment? EO is a certified organic, family-owned and […]
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A concise introduction
The great question about wind is intermittency, and the great answer is energy storage. There are a number of energy storage technologies out there; I suspect the right storage mechanism will differ from region to region. One of the most interesting storage options out there is pumped hydro. The concept is pretty simple: you build […]
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Visit exotic travel spots before we obliterate them!
How’s this for backwards messaging? A Forbes article posted late last week on MSNBC urges tourists to “See these travel spots – before it’s too late!“, referring to the world’s most endangered tourist destinations. These are exotic spots threatened by over-tourism, deforestation, and global warming, and as the article says, if they’re on your destination […]
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A new solution from a plasma physicist
We've already thoroughly debunked geoengineering strategies like launching mirrors into space, seeding the oceans with extra iron, and loading the atmosphere with ray-repelling aerosols. But this idea, posed by a scientist last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, though still a long shot, is actually pretty ingenious.
Alfred Wong, a plasma physicist at UCLA, says that we might be able to use Earth's natural magnetic field as a giant conveyor belt to catapult excess carbon dioxide into outer space. The CO2 must be ionized first, which Dr. Wong proposes could be done with lasers (generating less emissions than the process would remove).
Once they are there, Dr Wong expects the incoming stream of charged particles that cause auroras to deliver the bonus that will make the whole thing work, by dumping some of their energy into the spiralling as well. This should happen through a process called stochastic resonance: the spiralling molecules get preferential treatment, so to speak, because they stand out in what is otherwise an environment of random movements.
Blocks himself admits that the project is still in the incubator stage, and has a long way to go to be viable, but thinks it could be workable. Just don't tell the neighbors.
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On the cutting edge
The Burlington Free Press has a story on some energy legislation Sen. Bernie Sanders is about to introduce:
Sanders' proposed energy grants could be used by Vermont towns and counties to update building codes to require construction of energy-efficient homes and businesses, retrofit old buildings with newer technology, experiment with alternative energy, create incentives for residents to car pool or ride the bus, and organize voluntary efforts to encourage people to save energy by turning down their thermostats or replacing traditional light bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting.
The Senate also will vote on a Sanders amendment that would create a program to train workers to install solar panels, retrofit older homes and offices, and perform energy audits to educate people about how to save money.The article also contains the bizarre reasoning of the folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank, about how Sanders' legislation will destroy the economy.
On Thom Hartmann's Friday (June 1st) podcast, Sanders made the following remarks:
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Palm-oil plantations imperiling orangutans, and more
Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Hey, At Least He Pronounced It Right Sounds Familiar That’s It, No More Toothpaste For Us Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Pesticide-Free Garden Just Say Noh Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Trouble With Dribbles Depositive Thinking
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An insider’s view of the wind industry
Be sure to check out a fascinating post by Jerome a Paris (who helps finance wind power projects) on the state of play in the wind industry. Here’s the spoiler: Anyway, the conclusions I draw from all if this are as follows: windpower is booming, and is reaching a stage where it becomes a noticeable […]
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She discusses her new environmentally themed show
This spring a small-but-innovative dance company in Southern California called TRIP Dance Theatre premiered a production about what poet Gary Snyder calls "the war against nature." The dance was called "Poisoning the Well."Using delicate, Asian-flavored music, played live, the dancers first appeared carrying water and gathering around a well. Slowly the audience could watch the grace and beauty of these dancers, four of them women, literally turned upside down by human desperation, greed, and the raw flow of our "effluent society," including elegantly simplified depictions of "red tides," the vast gyres of plastics in the oceans, and "drunken" trees.
The dance was both gorgeous and upsetting, but required very few words words. To better understand, and to introduce TRIP Dance Theatre to a wider audience, I asked company founder and choreographer Monica Favand Campagna to talk about her work:
