Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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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. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Can a number save the world?
500 marshmallows organize for climate action.Robert van Waarden / Spectral QIt can if that number is 350. That’s the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: 350 parts per million (ppm). It’s also the rallying cry of a creative campaign to raise awareness of the climate crisis and build grassroots support for the […]
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National Solar Observatory, NASA say no “Maunder Minimum”
The sunspot cycle is about to come out of its depression, if a newly discovered mechanism for predicting solar cycles – a migrating jet stream deep inside the sun – proves accurate. And that will add a small amount of warming in the next few years, which were already predicted to be record-setting by two […]
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The Radioactivity of the Breakthrough Institute: lies, misstatements, and critically flawed analyses
Once again, The Breakthrough Institute (TBI) and its founders Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus are lying about President Obama and publishing very bad analyses designed to push their anti-climate-action, anti-environmental agenda. Their statements and analyses should be seen as a radioactive by any serious journalist or policy analyst protective of his or her professional reputation […]
