Climate Climate & Energy
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A choice of primary energies: renewable electrons win the gold
As you might expect from an analyst who has written a series about the (renewable) electron economy, I believe that the mainstay of our future energy system will be electric generators powered by renewable energy. However, I hope to show here that this choice has a basis largely in economic, scientific, and technological reality rather […]
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Gates and Buffet to invest in tar sands and spawn more two-headed fish?
Two heads are apparently not better than one — certainly not for fish and apparently not for the super-rich either. If you thought that the two richest Americans got that way by being green — or had suddenly become green because they are now giving their money to charitable causes — you were mistaken. The […]
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California Energy Commission considers PG&E proposal to require energy-efficient televisions
The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress. —– The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal by PG&E to require televisions sold in the state to meet a minimum efficiency standard. Why is a utility proposing its customers by more efficient appliances? Because California allows utilities to earn a return […]
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Polar bears in open water prompt more worries about climate change
Ten polar bears were recently spotted swimming in open water off of the northwest coast of Alaska, federal officials confirmed on Friday. Polar bears were not often spotted in open water until about 2004, said Susanne Miller, who heads up the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s polar bear project. She and other biologists worry that […]
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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 […]
