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Grist wins Webby People’s Voice Award for best magazine

In case you didn't read yesterday's Daily Grist, I wanted to tout the fact that Grist won the People's Voice Award in the magazine category for the second year in a row. Wo0t!

Thanks to everyone who voted. Power to the people!

We Came, We Saw, We Concord

New Hampshire latest state to reduce mercury emissions New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch is joining the ranks of state leaders taking mercury matters into their own hands. Yesterday, Lynch signed into law a bill that will cut mercury emissions from its power plant by at least 80 percent by 2013. One power plant! New Hampshire […]

What’s Mine Is Mine

Bolivia threatens to nationalize its mining industry Following up on last week’s nationalization of its natural-gas industry, Bolivia (that’s in South America, in case you don’t remember seventh grade) now intends to exert greater state control over its mineral resources as well. President Evo Morales is vowing to nationalize the mining industry, though Vice President […]

Fritjof Capra: Still around

When I was in college, Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics blew my young gourd. It and a few related books -- for some reason I always think of Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy -- shaped my thinking in ways that persist today. I wouldn't have known then to call it ecological thinking. In those days it was more of a quasi-hippie, psychotropic, see-molecules kind of thing, but the basic principles -- interconnection, self-organizing systems -- are straightforwardly drawn from nature.

It turns out much to my delight that Capra is still around, lively as ever, teaching university, and doing a couple of interviews with Transition Culture on localization, biomimesis, and eco-literacy. It's like Christmas came early!

Here's a sample:

Make Salmon Happy, Make Just One Salmon Happy

Columbia River salmon finally running, but counts are low Three weeks later than normal, Columbia River salmon are finally running. Well, swimming. Whatever. The fish left the Pacific Ocean at their usual time to enter the Columbia, which runs on the border of Oregon and Washington. Then they mysteriously decided to hang out in the […]

Countries May Have Shifted During Flight

China builds new airports; still not as pollutey as U.S. China plans to build 48 new airports in the next five years, spending $17.5 billion on construction and continuing expansion of existing hubs. The country is already the premier buyer of Boeing and Airbus planes, and has vowed to buy 100 planes every year until […]

Wake Up and Smell the Carbon

Al Gore launches new climate campaign Launched with profits from Al Gore’s new movie and book, a new group called Alliance for Climate Protection plans to spend big bucks on advertising and grassroots organizing in an attempt to impart the dangers of climate chaos to the American public. Focusing particularly on conservatives and labor groups […]

The military-industrial complex wins again

Theoretically, the oil shale in the American West could provide enough oil to power the world, Saudi-free, for decades or more. The problem is that while oil shale is a hydrocarbon, it's not a terribly attractive one. Massive amounts of energy must be used to extract useful fuel, making it a loser in terms of economics and energy balance.

Fortunately, Raytheon (makers of the missiles and radars used by the USAF) is there to save the day, via The Energy Blog:

Radio frequency (RF) energy combined with critical fluid (CF) technology shows promise for efficiently extracting oil from shale. Historically, the lack of an economical and environmentally friendly way for extracting oil from shale has kept it from being a significant energy source.

"Raytheon is an expert in RF technology," said Lee Silvestre, director of Mission Innovation at Raytheon IDS. "What makes this effort a breakthrough is that similar RF technology that we have been applying in core defense products -- radars for tracking and guidance systems -- has demonstrated applications in the energy crisis."

So good to see a mom-and-pop operation like Raytheon helping the country -- nay, the planet! -- through its environmental crisis. After all, I'm sure oil-shale harvesting will be at least as efficient as, say, the tar sands.

The military industrial complex: Fueling the ... military industrial complex since 1945!

Leaked IPCC draft

Last month, when U.S. officials leaked a copy of the preliminary draft of the fourth IPCC report, rumor had it that it was done to blunt the impact of the final report.

Rick Piltz says otherwise.

A huge source of clean power that’s been neglected

I just got done reading some extremely eye-opening stuff on cogeneration and power recycling. Wait, wait, keep reading! I promise it's more interesting than it sounds.

Most of all, it's another example of a great, low-cost, low-impact way to address the energy/climate crisis that doesn't get nearly the hype it deserves (perhaps because it's not backed by an industry that can afford to buy high-profile supporters).

The paper I read is from an unpublished book chapter, so I won't quote directly. And I won't get into the technical weeds, since I'm likely to botch something. Instead let me just convey some of the high-level take-home points: