Climate Climate & Energy
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Me in The New Republic
See here for a guest editorial I just got published in The New Republic. Nothing that I haven’t written about before on Grist, but always nice to get the message about the need to consider generation efficiency (in addition to appliance efficiency) in discussions about how to lower the overall fossil-fuel intensivity of our economy. […]
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Running out the climate clock
The “Countdown to Copenhagen” clock was front and center at the Bonn climate talks last month.Courtesy UNFCC I suppose what happened to the ticking clock says all we need to know about the state of the make-or-break international negotiations on combating climate change. The bright red digital timepiece was affixed to the podium for the […]
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On thin ice with the billionaire
[vodpod id=Video.16189242&w=425&h=350&fv=file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww-tc.pbs.org%2Fnow%2Fvideo%2FOn-Thin-Ice-trailer.flv%26amp%3Bplugins%3Dembed-1%26amp%3Bimage%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww-tc.pbs.org%2Fnow%2Fimages%2FOn-Thin-Ice-webex.jpg] It is tough to argue with a man with a net worth that begins not with an “m” but with a “b.” The man didn’t inherit his billions, he got them by investing early in promising but not yet proven technologies. This suggested the billionaire had the power of clairvoyance and, so, when […]
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Power plant performance down in 2008
Here’s an interesting followup to last week’s post about about the uncertain links between recession and long-term climate change: Shakeb Afsah at Climate Data Due Diligence wrote to tell us that even though total carbon emissions from power plants fell in 2008, the carbon intensity of the power sector — that is, the amount of […]
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A few (green) minutes with Andy Rooney…
The old codger has been haunting my Sunday evenings for more than three decades. When I was a kid, “60 Minutes” opinionator Andy Rooney was kinda entertaining; his “common sense” rants about the stupidity of daily life appealed to my pre-pubescent world view. And as I got older, it was still fun to watch the […]
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Climate change hits Australia with a vengeance
Depressing. Photo: Georgie Sharp via Flickr Despite its economic woes, The Los Angeles Times still employs some of the best environmental reporters in the business, including a personal favorite, Julie Cart, who always brings compassion (and great quotes) to her work. Her story about how climate change is devastating Australia ran this week on the […]
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Don’t throw out the biochar baby with the bathwater
When penning his stinging rebuke of biochar and all who support it, George Monbiot not only threw out the baby with the bath water but blew up the bathroom just to ensure no one ever considered bathing again. Admittedly he got in a few good blows but the rest just blows hot air. Biochar is […]
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The Corndoggle
The Portland, Ore. “Willamette Week” has a fairly decent piece on the (fiscal) implosion of the outrageously heavily subsidized ethanol plant in Clatskanie, Ore., which (briefly) produced some “homegrown” motor fuel using 100% imported corn and 100% imported natural gas.
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Aviation industry proposing solutions to solving their global warming pollution?
Photo: The Shane H via Flickr While most of the climate negotiations in Bonn have been focused on key issues around the overall agreement, as I’ve discussed here and here, there has also been some side discussions on other key issues. I’ve been involved in a couple of discussions (outside the formal negotiations) around how […]
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Washington Post reporters call out George Will for lying in Washington Post
[SEE UPDATE BELOW] Today, Washington Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan have a piece on the alarming decline of Arctic sea ice. In and of itself the story isn’t that surprising: scientists have known for a while that the ice is declining; new data just confirms that it’s happening faster than originally estimated. […]
