Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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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 […]
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Why scientists aren’t more persuasive, part 1
Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king … The subtle art of combining the various elements that separately mean nothing and collectively mean so much in an harmonious proportion is known […]
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Letterman rages on global warming
I am (slightly) less pessimistic than David Letterman. If, however, it is indeed “too late” as he says, then he has certainly nailed the reason: “We have had no leadership.” But I’m going to view the glass as one-tenth full and take it as a hopeful sign that somebody relatively mainstream like Letterman would break […]
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Is coal with carbon capture and storage a core climate solution?
The goal of carbon capture and storage (CCS), also called carbon sequestration, is to take carbon dioxide that would have been emitted into the atmosphere from new or existing power plants (usually coal) and instead store it someplace, hopefully forever. It is an attractive idea across the political spectrum because it might allow us to […]
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Tony Blair talks climate change with Charlie Rose
This is a meaty discussion of climate change from ex-U.K. PM Blair, albeit colored by his timid, centrist, status-quo biases:
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The financial crisis, the bailout, and green investment
Over the weekend I tossed out some thoughts about how energy efficiency might serve as one response to the housing/credit crisis. As it happens, many other folk have tied the financial crisis to green(ish) considerations. Here’s a roundup. First, the inimitable Tom Friedman turns his Mustache of Understanding on the bailout, agreeing with yours truly […]
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Oil is down $10 today because …
… oh hell, nobody really knows. Note the journalist’s favorite way of implying causation without actually claiming it: the $10 drop happened “amid” political fighting over the bailout. It also happened amid the baseball playoffs, and amid my attempts to keep the dandelions from recolonizing my newly planted front yard. I shall cease weeding, lest […]
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Northeast states’ first carbon auction goes smoothly despite financial crisis
Carbon allowances sold for $3.07 per ton in the nation’s first regional cap-and-trade auction, auction officials said Monday. The price was lower than futures markets had predicted but higher than the minimum price some had feared. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auction held last Thursday sold all of the 12.6 million allowances offered in this […]
