Climate Climate & Energy

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  • MacCracken: “The New York Times quote did not represent my views”

    When we last left the New York Times, they were burying the exclusive they got on climate science impacts report that NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco called a “game changer” (see Memo to White House: The NYT buried the “exclusive” you gave them on the landmark U.S. climate impacts report). [It was, of course, purely a […]

    Joseph Romm Climate & Energy

  • The cost of cap-and-trade: What MIT really thinks

    The following post was written by David Hone, the climate change adviser for Shell. It it reprinted with Hone’s permission. The experts at the MIT Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change have long been advocates of cap-and-trade as an appropriate policy instrument to drive a reduction in national emissions. They also […]

    Grist staff Climate & Energy

  • Was the Tennessee coal ash disaster really a once-in-a-lifetime event?

    A new report from an engineering firm hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority identified factors behind last year’s disaster that unleashed more than a billion of gallons of toxic ash from a massive storage pond at the federal company’s Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee. It claims that the disaster was a one-of-a-kind event — but […]

    Sue Sturgis Climate & Energy

  • The oil intensity of food

    Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. […]

    Lester Brown Climate & Energy

  • We are what we think: Why the press fails us and how to fix it

    We are what we think. With our thoughts we create the world. — Buddha OK, first, let me hasten to say that I find myself, as most any physical scientist would, irritated by the ancient quote above. I expect a modern person to know, though the Buddha may or may not have known, that the […]

    Michael Tobis Climate & Energy

  • Britain coughs up a coal-powered climate policy

    “Give me coal,” Ernest Bevin, Britain’s immediate post-war foreign secretary told the nation’s miners 53 years ago, “and I’ll give you a foreign policy.” UK climate change secretary Ed MilibandWikimedia CommonsExhausted, and almost bankrupt after defeating Hitler’s Reich, but still insisting on maintaining a huge army and air force to remain a world power, Britain […]

    Geoffrey Lean Climate & Energy

  • Big biomass, bigger opposition

    Electric cars powered by the burning of biomass would “average 81% more transportation kilometers and 108% more emissions offsets per unit area cropland than cellulosic ethanol” according to a recent study, and climate science guru James Hansen has declared implementation of biomass crucial to combating climate change, but those endorsements won’t make a bit of […]

    Erik Hoffner Climate & Energy

  • RE less than G

    The next time someone tells you solar is too expensive, send them here (PDF). It’s a contract PG&E signed for a 230 MW solar photovoltaic project, delivering 592 GWh/year. That’s a lot. But the best part? Look at the chart on the bottom of page 3. It won’t tell you the price exactly, but it’s […]

    Adam Browning Climate & Energy

  • Anthology features Americans’ personal stories of global warming

    Union of Concerned Scientists“I knew climate change had no boundaries,” writes Michelle Nijhuis, prominent science writer and Grist contributor, in Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, “even so, I didn’t expect to see its effects on the shores of Walden Pond.” In what proves to be an appropriate opening to Thoreau’s Legacy, a new […]

    Sara Barz Climate & Energy

  • Coal is the enemy of West Virginia

    I wrote a slightly snotty post about West Virginia recently, in response to Gov. Joe Manchin making coal the state rock. The point was that dependence on coal has produced more misery than benefit for West Virginians — nothing to celebrate. As it happens, at a recent event I had the opportunity to ask Manchin […]

    David Roberts Climate & Energy