Climate Climate & Energy

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  • U.S. charm offensive at Copenhagen climate conference: Will it work?

    COPENHAGEN — Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, pushed through a crush of visitors at the U.S. Center late this morning, stepped to the podium in front of a packed meeting room, and became the first of President Obama’s senior advisors to appear at the U.N. Climate Change Conference specifically to make […]

    Keith Schneider Climate & Energy

  • 1,000 WVU students petition college to flunk big coal barons

    Calling on their campus to move beyond coal — and use previously donated coal company contributions to honor fallen Crandall Canyon coal miners, not MSHA-fined coal barons Bob Murray and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship — the West Virginia University Sierra Student Coalition presented over 1,000 petition signatures to WVU president Jim Clements today.  The […]

    Jeff Biggers Climate & Energy

  • Flooding in Freetown

    Most people love their home town. But what if you lived in a regularly flooded slum? Kroo Bay is a community of 16,000 people living at the bottom of a valley in Freetown, Sierra Leone separated from the sea by a rubbish dump. During the rainy season once or twice a year, and with increasing frequency, the whole area floods.

    Lynn Morris Climate & Energy

  • Twists and turns on the ‘Hope-to-Despair Express’

    The Rutschbanen roller coaster.Photo courtesy wikimedia commonsCOPENHAGEN — The Danish capital’s famous Tivoli gardens boasts an equally celebrated roller coaster. Built in 1914, it is the oldest all-wooden one still operating in the world; being at the climate summit here over the last two days has felt like taking as ride on it. In truth, […]

    Geoffrey Lean Climate & Energy

  • New data paints a more toxic picture of TVA coal ash spill

    The disastrous coal ash spill that occurred a year ago at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee dumped a whopping 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants into the nearby Emory and Clinch rivers — more than all the surface-water discharges from all U.S. power plants in 2007. That’s one of […]

    Sue Sturgis Climate & Energy

  • The specter of violence in Copenhagen

    Cops after an Ungdomshuset demonstration in Copenhagen.Photo courtesy aai4c via Flickr One of the questions hanging over Copenhagen for these two weeks is whether there will be significant violence, especially at mass rallies. The city’s English-language newspaper (turns out there is one) has an interesting article about the very long shifts that Danish police will […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Climate & Energy

  • Roberts, take 3: New energy sources are cheaper than trying to clean coal

    This is the last entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. The series was originally posted here. Editorial note: The price of energy should reflect its “true” cost, Roberts argues. Non-renewable dirty sources like coal should be priced to take into account their real […]

    David Roberts Climate & Energy

  • Mackler, take 3: The technology is right here, right now

    This is the fifth entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. The series was originally posted here. Editorial note: Current social and political barriers to adopting carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) are not insurmountable, Mackler argues. The first step toward a solution lies […]

    Sasha Mackler Climate & Energy

  • Roberts, take 2: We don’t have time for capital-intensive industrial mega-projects

    This is the fourth entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. The series was originally posted here. Editorial note: Time is of the essence, Roberts argues. We must be agile and find solutions that can be rapidly implemented, learned from, and refined, rather than […]

    David Roberts Climate & Energy

  • Mackler, take 2: We don’t have time for major shifts in energy policy

    This is the third entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. The series was originally posted here. Editorial note: Mackler argues that the world lacks time for its leaders to navigate the political process necessary for a complete change of energy policy direction. Large-scale […]

    Sasha Mackler Climate & Energy