Climate Climate & Energy
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Memo to PBS’s NewsHour: You can do better than that
So Joseph Romm is watching an otherwise interesting story on “efforts to convert algae into clean fuel,” by the otherwise very solid Tom Bearden of PBS’s NewsHour. Then, boom, he drops the media’s favorite wishy-washy hedge.
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Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?
On Friday, Matt Yglesias made the point that only socialist state control seems capable of creating a robust nuclear power industry. After all, the only countries building nuke plants these days are the ones where governments are making the decisions. David Frum replied with a series of wildly overbroad assertions ranging from false to highly […]
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To unlock wind power, put a price on carbon
A stone marker in Rugby, N.D. identifies the town as the “Geographic Center of the North American Continent.” No marker identifies the state as one of America’s top two or three in wind-power potential. Yet North Dakota’s vast expanses and steady winds endow it with the capacity to generate more than half as much electricity […]
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Europe places outcome of Copenhagen squarely on Obama
The chief negotiator for the European Commission announced this afternoon in Barcelona that the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation before December has doomed the chances for success in Copenhagen. A climate protest at the Barcelona talks: World leaders with ‘big heads’ moving cash from an aid money box to a climate money […]
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Gore on the Daily Show: extended dance remix
You know how sometimes Jon Stewart gets all smarmy and sycophantic when he has on a guest he actually admires? And you know how Al Gore has a reputation for being a bit stiff on occasion? Let’s just say they seemed to bring out those qualities in each other last night — or, as Stephen […]
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Is the U.S. Chamber changing its tune on climate, or just its tone?
On Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber sent a letter to Sens. Boxer (D-Calif.) and Inhofe (R-Okla.) about the climate bill. It seemed to be singing a new tune on climate policy, leading Sen. Kerry to wonder whether the letter reflects a real change in the Chamber’s position. While we welcome the U.S. Chamber’s desire to sound […]
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Three models of social change
Can we change fast enough? When thinking about the enormous need for social change as we attempt to move the world economy onto a sustainable path, I find it useful to look at various models of change. Three stand out. One is the catastrophic event model, which I call the Pearl Harbor model, where a […]
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Climate change and God
There’s a great new book out called How the West Was Warmed (www.howthewestwaswarmed.com), about responding to climate change in the Rockies. It’s got intros and conclusions from two of the nation’s leading implementers/rock stars of the new green economy–Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. It also offers readers a candy store […]
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Geoengineering: Plan B for when Copenhagen fails? eek!
Some scary prospects of where people are turning – geoengineering, the false solution that once seemed like science fiction, is actually being taken seriously. Seriously? Diana Bronson, ETC Group We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein As global climate negotiations in Barcelona enter into […]
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Copenhagen reality check: Gov’ts concede new climate treaty unlikely until 2010
Now it’s out in the open. Key government leaders and U.N. officials are finally, publicly admitting what they have long privately believed: there is no chance of concluding a new climate treaty in Copenhagen next month. For a full two years the world has been committed to finalizing a new agreement to succeed the present […]
