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Do diesel-based farmers dream of electric tractors?
Writer George Monbiot’s recent Peak Oil article entitled “If Nothing Else, Save Farming” included this comment: There are no obvious barriers to the mass production of electric tractors and combine harvesters: the weight of the batteries and an electric vehicle’s low-end torque are both advantages for tractors. I read this and immediately tweeted the question […]
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Prologue to Copenhagen
As a prologue to the COP 15 in Copenhagen, protesters took to the streets across the country in a national day of climate justice action. From die-ins, to fasts, to streets protests, to locked down acts of civil disobedience, citizens groups called for a halt to new coal-fired plant construction, the abolishment of mountaintop removal […]
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Copenhagen climate summit (part 1): the expectations
As we are quickly approaching the final stretch before the Copenhagen climate negotiations (just a week to go before it begins), I thought I would try to give a quick summary of where the past 2 years of international negotiations have taken us and where we are headed. As I’ve said before, there are 6 […]
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Approaching Copenhagen with a Portfolio of Domestic Commitments
As we approach the beginning of the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen in December, international negotiations are focused on developing a climate policy framework for the post-2012 period, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period will have ended. In addition to negotiations under […]
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State of the Climate Movement: Can fasting and asceticism save the world?
Despite all the doubts surrounding Copenhagen’s political outcomes, global climate activists can take heart in the fact that the conference may result in the next best thing to a binding climate treaty: a smarter, more galvanized, and re-energized global grassroots climate movement. More than a mere geographical convergence point for our movement, Copenhagen has already […]
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The Climate …Skeptic
Cross-posted from Biodiversivist You know who I’m talking about, that stereotype who inevitably appears in the comment field armed with irrefutable evidence that climate change is a giant conspiracy theory. He dares other commenters to engage him in nuanced debate so he can bury them with the (erroneous) data he’s gleaned off the internet. As […]
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Climate deniers, hold your fire!
I went through a tough half-hour of disbelief this week, when I encountered a very ordinary story in the Boston Globe. It was about the revised estimates of sea-level rise for the next thirty years and how they will affect our city (guess what?–more of it will be underwater!) The article was short, unremarkable, grim […]
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Nerd alert …Mass Production of Multi-purpose Large-capacity Lithium-ion Battery Packs Begins
Cross-posted from Biodiversivist Found this press release over on Green Car Congress: SANYO to Mass ProduceNew Large-capacity High-voltage Lithium-ion Battery Systems This is big. I’ve been waiting for this announcement. The pack for “light” electric vehicles (the one with the disembodied hand) has twice the amp hours of my electric bike (but about 25% lower […]
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China, India, U.S. commit to seal Copenhagen deal
With the start of international climate negotiations just days away, and with global allies and public interest organizations pressing the United States and China for emissions reductions, the White House and Beijing spent last week in an apparently coordinated program of announcing critical steps to help push the world as close to a binding agreement […]
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Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The big mist take
One of the most contentious of climate crocks is the role of water vapor in climate change. And climate deniers are always trying to fog the issue. But don’t be scared, Crock of the Week is here, to help make sure you don’t get sucked in.
