Climate Climate & Energy
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Arctic ringed by navigable water; rush to exploit it may spur new int’l law
For the first time in recorded history, the world’s cap of Arctic sea ice is surrounded by a ring of theoretically navigable water. It’s a phenomenon sure to pique the interest of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S., which all have Arctic territories and are maneuvering to claim as much of […]
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U.N. climate chief urges eating less meat to combat climate change
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said this weekend that eating less meat may be the best way for people to reduce their personal carbon emissions. “In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is […]
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New sea-level rise research, part 1: ‘Most likely’ 0.8 to 2.0 meters by 2100
Two major new studies, in Nature and Science, sharply increase the projected sea-level rise (SLR) by 2100. This post discusses the Science study ($ub. req’d), “Kinematic Constraints on Glacier Contributions to 21st-Century Sea-Level Rise,” which concludes: On the basis of calculations presented here, we suggest that an improved estimate of the range of SLR to […]
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Nature: Hurricanes are getting fiercer
Nature has published a major analysis that supports my recent two–parter. As Nature explains: … scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide. The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to […]
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Germany opens world’s first carbon-capturing ‘clean coal’ demo plant
Germany will next week open the world’s first “clean coal” plant actually ready to capture and store its carbon-dioxide emissions. The 30-megawatt, $100 million Schwarze Pumpe demonstration plant will burn coal in an atmosphere of oxygen instead of regular air, producing some 10 tons per hour of compressed CO2 that can be captured and buried […]
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Media drops the ball on drilling
The Center for Economic and Policy Research has a new analysis out looking at the way the media is presenting the drilling issue. Suffice to say, educating its audience about the facts has taken a back seat: This paper examines television news coverage of proposed drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive zones in the United […]
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Nature magazine gives short-shrift to baseload solar
Nature recently ran an article ($ub. req’d) on “Energy alternatives: Electricity without carbon.” Like most discussions written by people who don’t follow clean energy closely, the article lumped baseload solar (also known as concentrated solar thermal power) in with solar PV and generally treated it as an afterthought. Here is everything that they wrote about […]
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BLM finalizes plan for leasing oil shale in U.S. West
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has finalized plans to open some 1.9 million acres of public lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to oil-shale development, a necessary step on the road to tapping the vast reserves. The technology for turning oil shale into usable crude oil is energy-intensive and heavily polluting, but the Bush […]
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Lowballing the future of oil costs money
At a glance, this San Francisco Chronicle article is a bit difficult to parse, but it points to exactly the reason why I’ve been ranting about lousy oil price forecasts churned out by federal U.S. agencies (see here, here, and here). To wit: The Environmental Protection Agency says another arm of the Bush administration may […]
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Google knows what you’re doing
Oh, Google, what would we ever do without you? Check out this Google Maps-generated image of the region near Cannon Beach, Oregon: The strange patchwork of brown? Those are clearcuts in the Coast Range. And many of them appear to be recent. What’s really great is that you can zoom in so close that […]
