Climate Climate & Energy
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Carbon sequestration is a GM solution; we need a Honda solution
Vaclav Smil is a historian of technical advances — particularly in the field of energy — and a Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Over the years, Smil has written more than 25 books and many dozens of articles. In recent years he has been examining human uses of energy over past […]
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A choice of primary energies: nuclear power takes the silver
In light of concerns about climate change, some enviros as well as those within the nuclear industry have emphasized nuclear energy’s carbon neutrality. In light of concerns about climate change, the role of nuclear power in a future or transitional energy system has been re-evaluated. Worries about nuclear plant safety, nuclear weapons proliferation, and nuclear […]
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A choice of primary energies: clean coal takes the bronze
Usable electricity doesn’t just appear, but is generated from a pre-existing or primary energy; one of the great decisions of the 21st century will be how we choose to generate electricity. We have established that there are under consideration three main carbon-reduced or carbon neutral “clean” primary energies for electricity: renewable energy, nuclear energy, and […]
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What happens with a new president?
This is part of a short series of posts that explain some important but often overlooked policy issues in the Western Climate Initiative — the West’s regional cap-and-trade system. (Much to readers’ delight, this is the last installment I’m planning to write.) You can’t talk about regional cap-and-trade very long before someone brings up the […]
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Report identifies areas where natural disasters could hit hardest
Natural disasters made more severe by climate change will hit especially hard in regions with shaky political, economic, and security situations, says a new report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and relief agency CARE International. Vulnerable areas include central Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel; Afghanistan, the […]
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Nations gather in Ghana to talk shop on next climate-change accord
Some 1,600 delegates from 160 nations are moving forward on negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol as they gather this week in Accra, Ghana. The meeting is the third in a series of eight that will culminate in the adoption of a new global climate-change accord in Dec. 2009. “The negotiations need to […]
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Why electricity is the energy carrier of choice
Our already substantial 120-year investment in an electric infrastructure in industrial countries, makes the transition to a electricity based energy economy less expensive. There are sound physical reasons why the three main contenders for the energy supply for transport turn out to be the three electron economies: renewables, nuclear, and coal CCS. We have determined […]
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Short-term dip in oil prices will not offset long-term increases
A: “Who knows?” and “It doesn’t really matter.” Much higher gasoline prices that are sustained for a long, long time are now inevitable. The fundamentals in the oil market are that we are in the beginning stages of peak oil. Supply can no longer keep up with demand, which keeps soaring even in the face […]
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Gates, Buffet to invest in massive climate change?
Apparently two of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, recently went up to visit the Alberta oil sands. Just based on their interest, oil sands stock jumped over 5 percent. Please, please tell me these guys, who are so active in good causes, are not seriously considering investing in oil […]
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Take note, everyone: Oil is not energy
Should business-section newspaper articles about tobacco companies ritually include statements such as, “The company’s profits and future existence, of course, wholly depend on its ability to externalize the health effects of its products”? Probably not. The newspaper article is a genre narrowly focused on one item — perhaps that’s why newspaper articles are sometimes called […]
