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Hydrogen fuel cell cars are a dead end from a technological, practical, and climate perspective
Using fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen from zero-carbon sources such as renewable power or nuclear energy has a cost of avoided carbon dioxide of more than $600 a metric ton, which is more than a factor of ten higher than most other strategies being considered today…. So I wrote in a 2005 journal article, “The […]
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“We will have a bill,” Pelosi vows — several House Republicans agree
“We will have a bill,” the California Democrat said in a brief interview today after her weekly press conference. So Greenwire (subs. req’d) reports this afternoon, for those who had any remaining doubts about whether the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate bill would pass the House (see also Boucher predicts “I think we’ll do far […]
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Globesity: How climate change and obesity draw from the same roots
Photo illustration by Tom Twigg/GristYou’ve heard all the reasons before: We drive too much. We eat too much meat and processed food. We spend too much time with plugged-in devices—computers, TVs, air conditioners. But what problem are we talking about–climate change, or the worldwide rise in obesity? Both, according to Globesity: A Planet Out of […]
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Adaptation: Something old, something new, now some money is also due
At the climate negotiations here in Bonn, the main discussions on adaptation have come to a close after a “second reading” of the draft negotiating text. Ecosystem-based adaptation, which we blogged about last week, has gained strong support from country delegations and is included in the text that is coming out of these meetings. But […]
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The GOP and the 218 votes needed to pass Waxman-Markey
The House of Representatives is on the verge of a historic achievement that seemed unlikely just a few months ago – passage of bipartisan comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that put the nation on a path to slash greenhouse gas emissions more than 80% in four decades. One of the key coal-state Democrats on […]
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Why unconventional natural gas makes the 2020 Waxman-Markey target so damn easy and cheap
In Part 1: Is there a lot more natural gas than previously thought? I asserted it now appears likely that, thanks to unconventional supplies, natural gas alone could meet a great deal of the Waxman-Markey CO2 target for 2020 – without requiring gobs of new power plants to be sited and built or thousands of […]
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UPDATE: Reuters and Greenbiz.com attack all federal clean energy technology development
Apparently all federal efforts to develop clean technology should be banned – at least that’s what Reuters and the oddly named website “Greenbiz.com” seem to believe. If they gave out awards to columnists for advice that would cause the most harm to the nation if anybody actually followed it, then Greenbiz.com, Reuters, and Fortune contributor […]
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House GOP proposes 25% national energy tax, recycles Cheney energy plan
Badly outnumbered and months behind in the debate on energy and climate change, House Republicans plan to introduce an energy bill on Wednesday as an alternative to the Democratic plan barreling toward a House vote this month. The Republican proposal, drafted by a group led by Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, leans heavily on nuclear […]
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AP, Washington Times: “Experts suspect global warming” in Brazil’s brutal flooding
Big media struggles with how – or even whether – to explain to the public that the increase in extreme weather we are seeing is precisely what scientists have been predicting would occur because of human-caused climate change (see, for instance, “CNN, ABC, WashPost, AP, blow Australian wildfire, drought, heatwave “Hell (and High Water) on […]
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Short term memory won’t cut it
I don’t think that NGOs were ever terribly confident about the dedication of countries to stopping climate change, but listening to conversations here at Bonn there seems to be an increasing anger at the determinedly short memories and short-sightedness of developed countries. I am hearing more and more at press conferences, side events and in […]
