Climate Climate & Energy
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Mexican peasants pay the price for U.S. energy consumption
Chances are, the average U.S. citizen has no idea that their demand for electricity might require that a Mexican village be flooded for a hydroelectric dam. The question is: if the environmental and human costs were known, would we consume just a little bit less? As part of my own personal battle against under-estimating people, […]
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Scientists identify “safe operating space for humanity” in seminal Nature study
It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we sail through space. If the bread and beef above decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a hatch and there is a new supply, of which before we never dreamed. That, from Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, is how humanity viewed the planet for most […]
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HSBC team outlines possible post-Kyoto compromise
Just three months from now, in the final days before Christmas, we will know — for better or worse — what happened at Copenhagen. Looking back at a year that was described to me, as it opened, as “arguably the most important in human history”, we will know whether the world has matched up to […]
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LADWP asks public for input on solar plans
When it comes to sustainability, Los Angeles has its work cut out for it. Sure, they are world leaders in recycling … if you count dialogue. Or plot lines. But it is going to take awhile for the famously car-centric city to develop climate-friendly transit, and the utility is the dirtiest in the state. So […]
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The problem with unspoken assumptions
Steven Hayward’s OpEd in the Wall St. Journal this week (“No: Alternatives Simply Too Expensive“) annoyed me the first time I read it. But on re-reading it today, I’m struck by two things: 1. First, what he gets right: CO2 is fundamentally different, and can’t be treated in the same way we have dealt with […]
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MacArthur genius award winners include climate and ocean researchers
Some of the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winners are doing work related to climate change. And they now they each have $500 grand, no strings attached. Neat-o: Climate scientist Peter Huybers mines “a wealth of often-conflicting experimental observations to develop compelling theories that explain global climate change over time.” Biogeochemist Daniel Sigman unravels “the interrelated […]
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Greg Craven’s new book retools the climate debate
In his speech at the U.N. Summit on Climate Change today, President Barack Obama admonished world leaders that their nations “cannot allow the old divisions that have characterized the climate debate for so many years to block our progress.” Yet, during this week-long summit to lay the groundwork for the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen […]
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Connecticut v. AEP: Public nuisance ruling may boost chances of EPA CO2 regulations
The Second Circuit’s recent decision in Connecticut v. AEP, in which a coalition of state attorneys general sued electric power producers to cap and then reduce their carbon emissions, allows the public nuisance case to proceed and gave the environmental plaintiffs virtually everything they wanted. It should also give pause to those of us tempted […]
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Morocco’s beaches may become launching point for climate refugees
A Saharawi fisherman on the beach north of Tarfaya in Morocco, just 70km from the Canary Islands.Tim Bromfield Uniformed men patrol the beaches of southern Morocco at night. Their torches are trained on the Atlantic Ocean searching for boats overflowing with economic migrants heading for the Canary Islands. From the beach just north of Tafaya, […]
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Thousands send Global Climate Wake-Up Call to world leaders, leave messages
Avaaz.orgThousands of activists Monday called out world leaders for their loads of lip-flapping and foot-dragging on climate action. Literally. The voicemail message they left? Quit hitting snooze and wake up to the threat of climate change. This “Global Climate Wake-Up Call” — a part of Climate Week NYC — is targeted at the gobs of […]
