Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Google unveils plan to move U.S. off fossil fuels by 2030
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search giant, has unveiled a plan to move the U.S. to a clean-energy future. The vision: In 2030, electricity will be generated not from coal or oil but from wind, solar, and geothermal power. Energy demand will be two-thirds what it is now, thanks to stringent energy-efficiency measures. Ninety […]
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The offshore drilling moratorium lapses today
Today is Energy Freedom Day — the day the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling lapses. Let’s all sit back and watch the psychological benefits pour in. Cheap gas is back! Um, soon! Right? (The grumpuses on the Washington Post editorial board don’t think so. They’re just not thinking psychologically enough.) (More on today’s non-celebration from […]
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Umbra on driveways
Dear Umbra, What is the most eco-friendly driveway material? Jean K.Newington, Conn. Dearest Jean, Other than “no driveway because no car,” dunno. I can tell you all the characteristics possessed by a good eco-friendly driveway material, but no single material pulled ahead of the rest and parked itself in first place. Since I don’t know […]
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Bailout no reason to delay needed public investment
I have been making the point (here, here, here) that we should resist the emerging Very Serious D.C. conventional wisdom that the financial bailout will constrain our ability to make other much-needed public investments. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong. Obama was a little wishy-washy on the subject in the debate, but as Kate noted, in a […]
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Who’s the ultimate climate-denying, Anti-Gore superstar?
The excerpt below originally appeared on The Center for Public Integrity blog Paper Trail under the title, “Auditioning to be the Anti-Gore,” by Nikola Horejs. —– Climate change deniers in search of their own, Al Gore-like figurehead have an unlikely candidate: Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, who is touring the United States this […]
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An excellent report on energy efficiency
The American Physical Society has released a major study on the crucial role that energy efficiency must play to achieving energy security and reducing global warming. According to the APS, Energy Future: Think Efficiency “differs from other energy efficiency reports in its emphasis on scientific and technological options and analysis.” The report has three overarching […]
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Farmland birds don’t seem to mind wind turbines, says study
The sights and sounds of wind turbines don’t seem to bother farmland birds, according to research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Scientists studied the effects of two wind farms in eastern England on 3,000 birds of 23 species, and found that only pheasants seemed to be disgruntled enough to move farther away from […]
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Solar PV + waste heat
Cool. The pursuit of usable waste heat is one of the great unheralded stories of the green shift.
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Bad news for climate change
In August alone, loggers and farm interests leveled 300 square miles of Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government reports (via AP). That’s a land mass larger than greater Chicago — taken out in the span of a single month. It also represents a leap of 228 percent over August 2007’s destruction. Two observations: 1) Higher soy […]
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New study finds sun’s contribution to recent warming is ‘negligible’
Earth to deniers — global warming is caused by human emissions, not solar activity. The Naval Research Laboratory and NASA report that, “if anything,” the sun contributed “a very slight overall cooling in the past 25 years.” D’oh! The study ($ub. req’d), “How natural and anthropogenic influences alter global and regional surface temperatures: 1889 to […]
