Latest Articles

Green building and architecture, all in one place

In one of his vintage ginormo-posts, Big Gav at Peak Energy rounds up seemingly every cool story on green building and green architecture published on the web in the last few months — along with other bits and piece of interest on micro-wind turbines, optimistic green books, efficient air conditioners, and more. You could spend […]

More on fourth IPCC report

Bring your tissue to this one. On Friday, the IPCC publicizes its "emotional heart," the Second Working Group's contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report, covering impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability.

Preliminary drafts have been leaked. Why is it shaping up to be such a tear-jerker? According to Andrew Weaver, a lead author of Working Group I and climate scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, this one illustrates "a highway to extinction, but on this highway there are many turnoffs. This is showing you where the road is heading. The road is heading toward extinction."

A new report could change the entire energy picture

Virtually everyone involved in energy discussions takes for granted that there’s plenty of coal waiting to be burnt. The typical claim is that the U.S. has "200 years" worth of domestic energy in its coal reserves. That’s why some people aren’t as worried as they might be about the imminent peak in oil production. The […]

Stories on smart grid starting to pop up

I’m late on this too, but do check out what is the first straight news story (that I’ve seen anyway) on Gore’s "electranet" — i.e. smart grid — proposal. Congrats to Lisa Friedman. It’s a nice piece of work, making the simple point that Gore is not talking about science fiction. The tools to make […]

So keep it up

Think about this article -- descriptively titled "Legislature flooded with bills about climate crisis; poll driven politicians see need to tackle global warming" -- the next time you get an email asking you to call or email your representative on an environmental issue. You keep it up long enough and they get it:

New energy technologies are starting to attack each other

I suppose this was inevitable: In what one industry representative calls a struggle for supremacy, advocates of various sources of alternative energy are beginning to point out the competition’s warts. “Everyone wants to use the energy crisis as leverage to support his solution,” said Bob Rose, executive director of the Fuel Cell Council. But with […]

It’s the wrong lever for creating social change

On Saturday night, I was on a panel at the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival on the subject of "communicating about climate change." My co-panelists were KC Golden of Climate Solutions, LeeAnne Beres of Earth Ministry, and Sean Schmidt of the Sustainable Style Foundation. The moderator was Steve Scher of local public radio station KUOW. […]

Maddening

I’m way, way, waaay behind on this one, but I nonetheless want to draw your attention to two pieces on the massive, ongoing PR push from the nuclear industry. The first is an editorial in the Columbia Journalism Review on the maddening phenomenon of mainstream news reporters accepting the claims of paid shills (i.e., Patrick […]

Some musings and analysis

The discussion of Massachusetts v. EPA is well underway thanks to David's summary of the action. I'm going to provide some thoughts about each of the three issues involved in the case, as well as some of the possible implications.

The outcome of Mass. v. EPA boils down to one thing: the Supreme Court has ordered EPA to think again. While that may not sound like much, in the world of administrative law, it is a total rout for the Bush administration.

While the outcome is good news, this decision was as close as they come. I'm not surprised that the Court split 5 to 4 on the issue of standing. However, this divide extended to all three questions before the court.

How Many Queens Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth studying how to green her palaces Word on the street is HRH the Queen of England Her Majesty With the Breath of Baby’s Breath Elizabeth is looking at ways to lessen the impact of her palaces. Proposals being floated include switching Buckingham Palace’s 40,000 lights to efficient bulbs, building a turbine in […]