Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Leaking underground storage tanks make fun acronym, pose health threat
Hundreds of underground fuel tanks owned by the federal government could be leaking hazardous materials into drinking water, according to an Associated Press investigation. Of particular concern are steel tanks buried in the Cold War era, which are highly likely to have rusted and be leaking. One million gallons of water can be contaminated by […]
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Arctic sea ice declines sharply in August
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that in the first 10 days of August, Arctic sea ice extent declined one million kilometers. Sea ice is now disappearing on a daily basis nearly 50 percent faster than it typically does this time of year. So the race is on again to see whether […]
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U.S. scouts out territory in Arctic; ice-cover loss could be worst ever
U.S. scientists will head to the Arctic this week on a quest to map the ocean floor, and will collaborate with Canada on a surveying trip in September. The two nations — and their Arctic-bordering compatriots Russia, Denmark, and Norway — are scrambling to measure their respective continental shelves, with an eye to claiming as […]
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Toward the post-oil society
This is the fourth in a series on how we can build an energy future based on our best science and no longer critically dependent upon exhaustible and polluting fossil fuels. The tripartite approach allows our society to cut oil demand and dependence substantially within a decade, much more quickly than a sole reliance on […]
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Global warming unleashes ‘world’s largest land predators’ on humans
It could be the premise of a new horror movie — based on an all-too-true story. We have “a new and unusual threat: a polar bear stuck on land due to climate change”: Five scientists studying shorebirds in northern Alaska had to themselves take flight after a polar bear showed up at a time of […]
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W. Va. governor Manchin subsidizes his own state’s economic irrelevance with liquid coal subsidies
I’ve written before about the economic and environmental nightmare that is liquid coal. If I were a governor and an energy company proposed opening a liquid coal plant in my state, I would marshal every resource available to fight it off. You get a few dozen jobs in the short-term; in the long-term, you get […]
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Why smoggy skies over Beijing represent the world’s greatest environmental opportunity
The Atlantic Monthly‘s James Fallows, now living in China, has written a glass-is-half-full (air-is-half-breathable?) article, “China’s Silver Lining.” While I think he is a bit soft on China from a climate perspective, I think it is well worth reading because Fallows is terrific and thorough writer. And you have to like any story on energy […]
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Virginia refuses to compel AEP’s customers to share in new coal plant’s construction costs
From Energy Central comes this gem of double speak from AEP Chairman Michael Morris, who, as the article notes … … has staked AEP’s plans for future generating capacity on Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle or IGCC technology. Morris’ concern is that coal isn’t sufficiently loved. Why? Because regulators need more lobbying education” “Collectively we have […]
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A three-pronged approach to getting off oil for transportation
This is the third in a series on how we can build an energy future based on our best science and no longer critically dependent upon exhaustible and polluting fossil fuels. Getting off oil: a three-pronged approach Oil is not “evil,” it’s an undervalued resource that has been squandered on tasks that could be much […]
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Science: Extreme rains supercharged by warming
Science has just published, “Atmospheric Warming and the Amplification of Precipitation Extremes” ($ub. req’d). It concludes: Here, we use satellite observations and model simulations to examine the response of tropical precipitation events to naturally driven changes in surface temperature and atmospheric moisture content.These observations reveal a distinct link between rainfall extremes and temperature, with heavy […]
