Climate Climate & Energy

Amnesty International: forced labor in Brazil’s sugarcane fields

As the case for corn-based ethanol unravels, a lot of pundits and green-minded investors have settled on a new panacea: ethanol from sugar cane, which thrives in the tropics. Thomas Friedman has been blustering about it for years now; Richard Branson recently hinted he might start investing in it. Sugarcane is a deeply ironic crop […]

New report calls for climate action, but not everyone’s listening

With more coastline than any state in the lower 48 and about a tenth of its economy ($65 billion a year) based on tourism, Florida has more to lose than any other state from the threats of global warming. Rising sea levels creep closer to coastal development. Warmer tropics fuel stronger hurricanes. And higher ocean temperatures kill coral and harm fish populations, threatening the state's $4.5 billion sportfishing industry.

Plenty of reasons that a report released yesterday should serve as a call to action on preparing for inevitable changes from global warming and cutting emissions now to avoid the worst impacts. Preparing for a Sea Change in Florida was produced by a broad coalition of environmental groups.

The report makes several key recommendations:

What a ranking of cities can tell us — and what it can’t

There's a big carbon footprint report out yesterday from Brookings. It ranks cities [PDF] according to their per capita carbon emissions. Sort of, anyway.

Before I pick on it a little, I guess I should mention that Pacific Northwest cities do exceptionally well. Out of the 100 cities in the analysis, Portland ranks 3rd, Boise is 5th, and Seattle 6th. There's very little difference between them.

That's wonderful and all, but the analysis only covers about 50 percent of emissions. It excludes, for instance, commercial and industrial energy, maritime and aviation emissions, and some other significant pieces of the pie.

More than 1,700 scientists and economists call for deep cuts in U.S. emissions

You know how some wackadoo rightwing group is always touting a new list of scientists who don’t believe in global warming? And it always turns out the list is populated with a bunch of random people who either don’t know they’re on it or don’t have the first bit of expertise on the subject? Well, […]

Humanity’s fate is not tied to coal’s

The clean coal PR push is looking more and more hollow. In The NYT, Matt Wald paints a grim picture: cost overruns, technological uncertainty, waning support from utilities, and a mess of unanswered questions about everything from security to legal liability. But one assumption running through the article needs to be exposed and unequivocally rejected. […]

Heinberg raises doubts about coal reserves

Energy analyst Richard Heinberg is working on a book about coal, tentatively titled Coal’s Future/Earth’s Fate, to be published by Post Carbon Press in spring 2009. It’s sure to be vital reading for anyone interested in tracking, understanding, and battling the enemy of the human race. Happily, Heinberg is publishing working drafts of various parts […]

U.S. public transit overwhelmed by increased ridership, higher fuel costs

Public transit agencies across the United States are lately encountering a curious double-bind: ridership has increased quickly and dramatically, straining current capacity, and at the same time, significantly higher fuel costs have stretched many transit budgets too far. If the current ridership boom had taken hold when fuel prices were much lower, transit agencies would […]

Two scientists offer a grim preview of where humanity is headed

Feel like you’re just not depressed enough today? Read the last bit of this Dot Earth post: During a break, I asked [Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Dr. F. Sherwood] Rowland two quick questions. The first: Given the nature of the climate and energy challenges, what is his best guess for the peak concentration of carbon […]

Forests and fires foster fearsome feedbacks

Previously, I looked at why the permafrost won't be perma for long. Then I looked at whether the potential destruction of the tundra represents the point of no return for the climate, necessitating that we keep atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide below 450 ppm or else risk going to 800 ppm to 1,000 ppm. Here I examine two local amplifying feedbacks that further threaten the permafrost: forests and fires.

Reduced snow cover and albedo (reflectivity) in the summertime Arctic landscape, caused by global warming, has added local atmospheric heating ($ub. req'd) "similar in magnitude to the regional heating expected over multiple decades from a doubling of atmospheric CO2." That same Science study warns "Continuation of current trends in shrub and tree expansion could further amplify this atmospheric heating 2-7 times."

A new blog takes on the enemy of the human race

This week marked the launch of Coal is Dirty. (It is “a joint project managed by The DeSmog Project, Rainforest Action Network, and Greenpeace U.S.A.”) The site is devoted to battling Big Coal’s PR machine. They’ve got some great writers involved, including Jeff Goodell (author of Big Coal) and Jeff Biggers. Bookmark it.