Climate Climate & Energy
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Publicize or perish: The scientific community is failing miserably in communicating the potential ca
Physics World asked me to write for a special issue on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change. The article, “Publicize or perish,” is online and reposted below with links. The fate of the next 50 generations may well be determined in the next few months and years. Will the US Congress agree to a shrinking cap […]
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255 National Academy of Sciences members, including 11 Nobel laureates, defend climate science integ
“There is compelling, comprehensive, and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystems on which we depend.” Tomorrow the journal Science publishes a remarkable Lead Letter supporting the accuracy of climate science. The must-read statement, “Climate Change and the Integrity of Science,” is signed […]
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Road Map, Not Regulations, Will Bring Coal Free Future
Note: This is a guest post by Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, and Jeff Biggers, co-founders of the Coal Free Future Project. In the wake of the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, compromise and political machinations this spring have resulted in a regulatory crisis of failure; workplace safety in the mines, including the black lung […]
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Betting site sets odds on BP containment dome
From our sports department a press release, we learn that at least one online gambling site is taking bets on whether BP’s underwater mega-dome will be successful. BP is attempting an unprecedented engineering feat to deal with the Gulf oil spill: a 100-ton, 40-foot-tall, steel pollution-containment chamber. If all goes well, the dome will be […]
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Gulf Coast oil spill: Health questions
Cleanup crews are getting the highest exposures to both the oil spill itself and chemical dispersants.Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Dr. Gina Solomon provides answers to the health questions raised by the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig explosion and the efforts being made to contain it. How do you think […]
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The choices we'll have to make to save the world
I was in the rec center pool on a snowy May afternoon recently talking to my friend Dave as my kids sloshed around in what struck me as a massive inoculation tank. As usual, nerds that we are, we talked about energy efficiency in our houses. Dave recently had an energy an audit, and like […]
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Ecosystem conservation vs. renewable-energy development: Let’s hike on it
Adam Bradley, hiking for an important cause.Sometimes the push for clean energy runs up against the push to preserve unspoiled wild areas (see: Cape Wind). Big wind farms and solar-power systems are being sited in remote and undeveloped spots, and long transmission lines are being planned to carry their output to population centers, where the […]
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‘End of Oil’ author warns enviros not to exploit Gulf oil spill
Paul RobertsPaul Roberts, author of the influential 2004 book The End of Oil, cautions that we can’t expect the end of oil spills any time soon. Environmentalists are using the ongoing Gulf of Mexico disaster to argue for a permanent stop to offshore drilling, but reality check: the U.S. is decades away from shedding its […]
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UNC Decides to Move Beyond Coal; Plus Bonus Coal Ash News
Great news out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Today the University of North Carolina (UNC) announced that burning coal has no place in our clean energy future and is transitioning away from using pollution-rich coal power to power this nationally-ranked university. I attended the press with UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp as he outlined how they […]
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Municipal Energy Financing is Expanding: Is It Working?
Twenty states now allow cities and counties to finance energy efficiency retrofits and on-site renewable energy generation, with property owners repaying the loan with a property tax assessment. Five municipalities launched Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs in the past two years and these programs have spent $37.5 million to help enable close to 2,000 […]
