Climate Climate & Energy
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Arctic ice in a ‘death spiral’ as it hits second-lowest point ever
Summer sea-ice melt in the Arctic is already the second-meltiest since satellite records began, and by the end of the melt season in mid-September, this year could surpass the all-time record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. For the second time ever — the first being […]
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Former Energy Secretary Federico Pena talks to Grist about energy, climate, and security
[vodpod id=Video.16318322&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] We interviewed former Energy Secretary Federico Peña shortly after his Tuesday night convention speech on energy, the economy, and security. Peña was secretary of transportation from 1993 to 1997, then secretary of energy from 1997 to 1998, under President Bill Clinton:
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Grist tries (unsuccessfully) to find out Rep. John Dingell’s climate and energy plans
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) spoke yesterday at an event sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation — “I Fish, I Hunt, I Vote Conservation” — where he talked up conservation efforts and the common ground Democrats have with sportsmen. We tried to get Dingell, who is notoriously tight-lipped, to tell us […]
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Must-have slide No. 1: The narrow temperature window that gave us modern human civilization
I am starting a new feature and a new category for must-have PowerPoint slides. I’ll begin with my favorite new slide, which shows just how stable the climate has been over the 10,000-year period that allowed modern human civilization to develop and flourish (click figure for larger version): The slide is a must-have because it […]
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Kansas conversations on utilities and efficiency
Check out this article from Energy Central. A workshop in Topeka, Kansas has been trying to figure out how to incentivize Kansas utilities to embrace conservation. The local regulated utility summarizes the problem: “We are totally committed to energy efficiency,” said Chris Giles of Kansas City Power and Light, “as long as we can have […]
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Right for 27 years: 1981 Hansen study finds warming trend that could raise sea levels
“After all, just 20 years ago scientists were worried about the new Ice Age.” This myth is so potent for deniers from Michael Crichton to George Will to Senator James Inhofe that even word guru and strategist Frank “death tax” Luntz made it a recommended line of attack in his super-slimy 2002 memo to conservatives […]
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High oil prices in future could spur plastic mining from dump sites
Sustained high oil prices on into the future could prompt entrepreneurs and scavengers to seek oil and oil derivatives from plastic items long ago thrown away in landfills, according to waste experts. “By 2020 we might have 9 billion people on the planet … and we could be in a really resource-hungry world with the […]
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Major hurricane tracks to New Orleans on eve of Republican Convention?
That subhead is lifted from Drudge. Needless to say, he left out ” … and on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, where both Bush and McCain were AWOL” (see TP’s “As Katrina hit, McCain celebrated 69th birthday with Bush“). Track the storm with the National Hurricane Center here. Best hurricane blog here. Readers of […]
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Energy efficiency alone is not sufficient
China’s power plant emissions have surpassed the U.S. for the first time and are slated to double in the next decade, despite efficiency improvements. Without major technological innovation it will be impossible to decrease the absolute quantities of CO2 in the atmosphere. This is why government involvement is so important; we need massive R&D and […]
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Grist talks to Google.org climate and energy head Dan Reicher about geothermal
At a reception sponsored by the “Clean Tech for Obama” group yesterday, we had a chance to talk to Dan Reicher, director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org, who filled us in on the company’s big investment in geothermal energy, and other renewable initiatives they have underway.
