Climate Climate & Energy

The global nature of global warming

This is my formal rebuttal to Brooke Coleman (director of the Renewable Energy Action Project), specifically to comments found in Tom Philpott's latest corn ethanol article. I'm using my access to the bully pulpit to pull it out of comments, like I did the last time a corn ethanol enthusiast joined the discussion.

Welcome to the best environmental blog on the planet, Brooke. You don't seem to have a very high opinion of this community, but maybe you'll warm up to us. I don't speak for the whole community of course, I'm just one of the many who come here to learn and engage in reasoned debate.

You seem to think that anything is better than oil. But believe it or not, in the real world, we sometimes have to pick between the lesser of two evils, at least until something better comes along.

Plowing under the world's remaining grasslands and forests to grow industrial agrofuels dwarfs the damage done by oil spills. What happens when you take grain off the world food market and stuff it into American gas tanks? I'll tell you. Someone somewhere on this planet takes advantage of the high prices to plant more of it to fill the hole in the human food chain. Where is the arable land they need to do that? It is under an existing carbon sink or has another crop on it already. The second leading cause of global warming is deforestation. How hard is that concept to understand? Global warming is global. What we do here screws everybody.

The 100 most vulnerable nations have contributed least to climate change

Another short new briefing (PDF) from the International Institute Environment and Development (IIED), this one on the 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change: • Human-induced climate change is likely to have the heaviest impact on small low-lying island and coastal states, African nations, Asian mega-deltas and the polar regions. • The 100 most vulnerable […]

CCS: Always almost ready, but never quite

Over at Earth2Tech, reflecting on Washington’s recent rejection of a coal plant application, Alexix Madrigal stumbles across the essence of the carbon capture and sequestration issue: It highlights an interesting aspect of the CCS debate. Fossil-fuel energy companies are well-served by having the technology remain on the drawing board, devoid of any "industrial-scale" field deployments. […]

What’s up with the climate conference in Bali?

Have you been hearing chatter at cocktail parties and on witty webzines about a big climate-change bash in Bali? Wondering what the deal is? We’re so glad you asked. The action in Bali isn’t on the beach. Photo: iStockphoto The rumors are true: From Dec. 3 to Dec. 14, more than 15,000 people from 190 […]

New briefing finds improvement but new challenges for climate reporting

A short new briefing (PDF) from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) says that media coverage of climate change has improved, but still shows several flaws: • There are many criticisms of how the media has covered climate change to date, but many signs of improvement too. For journalists new to the topic, […]

The question for China and India is not whether to make the transition away from coal, but how soon

In part one I made the point that if China and India develop along the same path as the West, we’re all doomed. This fact is becoming increasingly clear to everyone. One way or another, whoever foots the bill, they’ll have to change, and that means shifting to a more expensive-in-the-short-term source of electricity, of […]

Another distraction debunked

Fertilizing the ocean with iron looks to be just so much ... fertilizer.

U.S. could slash emissions at little cost through boosted efficiency, says report

The U.S. could significantly slash its greenhouse-gas emissions “at manageable costs to the economy,” says a new study from consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Assuming no significant change in consumer lifestyle, researchers did an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of various options for reducing GHG emissions. Their conclusions: “clean coal” is expensive and unproven, increasing renewable energy […]

McKinsey & Co. on how to reduce greenhouse gases

McKinsey & Company is a very large, very old, very prestigious consulting company. They’ve just released an ambitious report called "Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost?" Here’s what they did: Starting in early 2007, a research team from McKinsey worked with leading companies, industry experts, academics, and environmental NGOs to develop […]

Kansas Supreme Court to hear case against landmark coal-plant permit denial

In October, Kansas made an important first by denying a construction permit to a coal-fired power plant due to its carbon dioxide emissions, saying such emissions could harm human health and the environment. The companies behind the $3.6 billion project, as well as other business groups, were outraged by the decision. (Enviros rejoiced.) Attack ads […]