Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Focus on renewables and efficiency regardless if ‘clean coal’ is clap or crap
A raging debate has emerged as to whether clean coal is claptrap or crap trap. On the one side are people who think that clean coal means coal plants with carbon capture and storage for the vast majority of the carbon dioxide they emit (or that coal isn’t clean under any plausible definition of the […]
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Very warm 2008 makes this the hottest decade in recorded history by far*
The climate story of the decade is that the 2000s are on track to be nearly 0.2°C warmer than the 1990s. And that temperature jump is especially worrisome since the 1990s were only 0.14°C warmer than the 1980s (see datasets here). Global warming is accelerating, as predicted. The U.K.’s Guardian, on the other hand, believes […]
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The Alliance to Save Energy plan
Part 1 reported that Obama and the Dems are planning a huge stimulus package with a big cleantech component and asked for ideas. Brian Castelli, Executive Vice President of the D.C.-based Alliance to Save Energy sent me their recommendations. Brian has been a cleantech leader for over three decades. I got to know him at […]
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Scientists using consumers’ computing power to develop new solar cell
Researchers at IBM and Harvard University launched a project recently that aims to use a network of consumers’ home computers to run calculations that could lead to new, more efficient solar panels. “It’s a way for people that have computers to do some good for the world,” said Joe Jasinski of IBM.
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Anti-air-travel activists stage protest on U.K. airport runway
More than 50 environmental activists from anti-air-travel group Plane Stupid were arrested Monday in a protest at Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom, some 40 miles from downtown London. The activists broke into a restricted area where planes taxi between takeoff and landing and chained and barricaded themselves in place, declaring their opposition to a […]
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‘The use of carbon offsets in a cap-and-trade system can undermine the system’s integrity’
Yet another damning analysis questions the value of rip-offsets and the Clean Development Mechanism. The Government Accountability Office — hardly a bastion of progressive eco-analysis — has written a devastating critique of rip-offsets, which concludes: Key lessons from the CDM include: (1) the resources necessary to obtain project approval may reduce the cost-effectiveness and quality […]
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Youth advocate for equitable international response to climate change in Poznan
Friday morning, youth from the global north and the global south gathered to create a stunning visual for the incoming delegates, party leaders, and journalists: a display that said very clearly, “Equity Now: Our Future Lies in the Balance.” That is the heart of the youth’s vision. We’re not all there yet; we have a […]
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American Progress’ ‘Green Recovery’ plan
We are going to have a huge economic stimulus package soon after Obama becomes President. And a big piece of it is going to be aimed at energy efficiency and renewable energy, as the NYT reported today in “Proposal Ties Economic Stimulus to Energy Plan.” I have asked a bunch of my wonk EE friends […]
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CARB does not recognize the meaning of ‘maximum emission reductions’
The California Air Resources Board is finalizing its Scoping Plan for implementation of the state’s global warming law, AB 32, which could establish a precedent for federal legislation by the 111th Congress. Barbara Boxer recently announced plans for a cap-and-trade initiative to be introduced in January, and she earlier indicated that the next go-round on […]
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Green stimulus, green jobs
Music to my ears: The details and cost of the so-called green-jobs program are still unclear, but a senior Obama aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a work in progress, said it would probably include the weatherizing of hundreds of thousands of homes, the installation of “smart meters” to monitor and reduce […]
