Climate Climate & Energy
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Imminent UN vote on the right to water
On July 28, after years of grassroots pressure, the United Nations’ General Assembly will consider and debate a resolution supporting the right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation”. Maude Barlow, former Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly described the denial of access to clean water as […]
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Global CO2 emissions fall in 2009, but the past decade still sees rapid emissions growth
The temperature’s rising; can the big carbon-emitting countries take the heat? In 2009, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China — the world’s leading emitter — grew by nearly nine percent. At the same time, emissions in most industrial countries dropped, bringing global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use down from a high of 8.5 billion […]
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How trains replaced solar-powered transport and gave rise to the Farm Belt
Greens like me tend to fetishize trains. And for good reason. Why risk your life in a private, energy-intensive pod, negotiating traffic and the dubious decisions of hundreds of other drivers, when you could be comfortably reading on a subway? Who would endure the indignities of the airport for a short flight, if a high-speed […]
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BP Fails to Make Top Ten
Fingers crossed. BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in […]
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Energy ministers meet in U.S. to discuss clean energy
Who will lead the global race for the clean energy future?Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard via flickrThe race for the clean energy future comes to Washington, D.C. today — only symbolically if the U.S. doesn’t seize the moment. Energy ministers from 20 countries that account for over 80 percent of the world’s global […]
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The problem with ‘green group’ bashing
As Democrats in D.C. and their allies struggle to cobble together a meaningful climate bill, many are lining up to bash green groups. Some recent pieces have been excellent: Johann Hari’s ‘The Wrong Kind of Green‘ in The Nation. Others have been predictable: the folks at the Breakthrough Institute have stayed on message. Now here […]
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Ethanol gets skewered by recent CBO assessment
In its calm and measured way, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just delivered a blistering assessment of the environmental value of corn-based ethanol. The CBO had been charged by Congress to calculate just what the public is getting for its investment in ethanol production: specifically, the $0.45/gallon tax credit that gasoline blenders get for mixing […]
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Going Under (Video)
Tuvalu, Mauritius, Kiribati, Bangladesh. Every nation sitting at sea level is going to lose in its own way if oceans rise, but these four will be especially affected…and none are major contributors to the sources behind the rise in sea level. The average carbon footprint of a person living in Bangladesh is about 1.1 tons […]
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These heating and cooling engineers are licensed to make you laugh [VIDEO]
The admirable folks at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have put out the most unintentionally hilarious/awkward recruiting video I’ve ever seen. In case you’re not familiar, ASHRAE’s engineers are aiming to “advance technology to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world.” And, you know, keep the fridge running. So what […]
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Big Cities Want Big Changes in Energy
Today I’ll focus on yet another community suffering from coal’s pollution – but this community is a little bit larger, and it’s on the front end of an emerging trend. The city is Chicago and it’s starting what could be a national movement to clean up dirty energy in the inner city. Some of our […]
