Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
-
Climate change will further spread of wildlife-to-human diseases, says report
Climate change is likely to further the spread of a “deadly dozen” diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, says a new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The nasties: avian flu, babesiosis, cholera, Ebola, Lyme disease, parasites, plague, red tide, Rift Valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, and yellow fever. Whee! “The term ‘climate […]
-
-
The bailout, the war, and renewable energy
While the renewable energy industry in the U.S. celebrates a rare victory — winning an eight-year extension of its federal tax subsidies — no one should forget what we’ve lost. Forget for a moment the recurring costs of an inflated defense budget. Chalmers Johnson has tallied those. Let’s look at the two biggest items, the […]
-
States ranked on energy efficiency, Grist provides drinking game
We suggest that while reading this blurb, you take a drink at every mention of “efficient” or “efficiency.” And go! California, Oregon, and Connecticut are taking the lead in improving energy efficiency, according to the 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. In the face of high energy […]
-
McCain or Obama should attend global climate talks in December
This is a guest post from Bill McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and author of a dozen books, most recently The Bill McKibben Reader. McKibben serves on Grist’s board of directors and is cofounder of 350.org. —– There have been moments in the last few weeks when it seemed like the world […]
-
It’s time to build the green-collar economy
This post originally ran on Wonk Room. —– At best, the federal government’s bail out of Wall Street will help the U.S. economy — which is already in a ditch — avoid a total meltdown. Fine. Now we need a plan to jumpstart the economy and actually get America moving again. In my new book, […]
-
NSIDC stunner: Arctic ice at ‘Likely record-low volume’
Looks like the Arctic may have set a record this year after all. The National Snow and Ice Data Center said today that Arctic sea ice volume likely hit a record low in 2008. They reconfirmed that the sea ice extent (or area) “dropped to the second-lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979” and […]
-
CFL study argues against a mandate to switch from incandescents
Choose your metaphor: losing sight of the forest for the details of the leaves in the trees, Pyrrhic victory, you name it. All could be applied to this study here, which looks at countries and states according to how much mercury would drop or rise in their air if they switched from incandescent lighting to […]
-
Credit crunch slows clean energy development
A few weeks ago, I made some guesses about how the big picture trends in the economy would affect the development of clean energy. And though it’s still early days for the financial crisis, so far my guesses look pretty good. The Times talks to a few industry insiders, who confirm that the credit crunch […]
-
Finding out what’s important at the Rocky Mountain Institute
This is a guest post by my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where this post originally appeared. —– OK, so maybe that isn’t an accurate account of what Sarah and I did during our visit at the Rocky Mountain Institute, but believe it or not, it still applies to what we […]
