Latest Articles

And start a green tour

Live Earth organizers announced today that Linkin Park will headline the Tokyo show. They also announced that Japan will be the only country to have two events — one in surburban Tokyo (the mainstage featuring Linkin Park) and one at a Buddhist temple in Kyoto (and I think you get the connection there). The Kyoto […]

California cracks down on coal power, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Bronx Is Up and the Battery’s Under the Hood They Could Teach PBS a Thing or Two The Coal Shebang And the Mining Seems So Safe and Clean Not to Mention It’s Wildly Inhumane This Sounds Like a Job For … Nobody Read the […]

Coal companies try a fast one

There is no better reminder of the perils of the end of the cheap gasoline era than the article in today's New York Times, ""Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process," i.e., coal-to-liquids. This is the process that converts coal to diesel fuel, and while doing so, according to the NYT, emits 119 percent more greenhouse gases than conventional diesel. (David discussed the article this morning.)

Of course, the coal companies will allegedly "try" to sequester the carbon, a position which will inevitably move to "just too expensive" and "technical difficulties."

Dick Gephardt, of Democratic congressional fame, has even been recruited by the coal companies to lead the charge, complete with multibillion dollar subsidies for plants and floors on the price of the diesel that comes out.

Yet another pioneering green move from the state

… for recognizing that coal is the enemy of the human race. This means all those proposed new Western coal-fired power plants will have to reduce their emissions via carbon sequestration if they want to sell to Cali, one of their biggest prospective clients. And if you ask me, the likelihood of sequestration on that […]

Real Climate tears apart another fraudulent presentation from E. G. Beck

Over at RealClimate today, they present and debunk another fraudulent reconstruction from German school-teacher-plays-skeptic-scientist E. G. Beck. First it was his groundbreaking (as in stick your head in the sand) work on CO2; now he turns his attention to temperature reconstructions for the past millennium.

When bad science still doesn't get the result you want, why not spice it up with a bit of plain and simple fraud?

Business is splitting from Republicans; the time is right for a tax

In Washington Monthly, Chris Hayes draws attention to the "revolt of the CEOs." Big Business is parting ways with the Republican Party, actively seeking greater government involvement in the realms of health care and climate change. Why? Two reasons. One, CEOs recognize that rising health care costs and global warming are real problems that will […]

The ‘in it for the money’ theory of climate science doesn’t pan out

We have all heard the following argument: in order to get funding for research, the scientific community is forced to produce alarmist predictions of climate change.

There's a lot wrong with this argument. But it recently occurred to me that it doesn't even make sense. In the latest IPCC reports, what the scientific community said is that our understanding of climate change is quite good (although not "settled"). This does nothing to build up research funding.

Man wants to put wind turbines on his ailing farm

Opposition from neighbors drives man to suicide. And you thought the rich whingers at Cape Wind were irksome!

Beachfront property in Hawaii for only $40!

That is, if you’re willing to wait 10,000 years for the ocean to reach it.

Hint: We’re talking about Congress here

Those of you with strong stomachs will want to marvel at the contrast between two New York Times stories out today. Marvel … and tear your fracking hair out. First, there’s this story on energy efficiency. It makes the simple and familiar point that the cheapest, fastest source of energy is negawatts — not using […]