Climate Climate & Energy

We Could’ve Sworn Someone Was Already Working On That

Bush confirms plans for U.S.-hosted climate summit Late last week, President Bush solidified plans for an international climate summit in September. The meeting, to be hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will convene 12 to 15 industrial and developing countries, including India and China, to discuss long-term climate goals. But critics are jumping all […]

YearlyKos: Energize America

The Energize America 2020 project that emerged from a collaborative effort in the Daily Kos community is remarkable. It’s easily the most impressive thing I’ve seen presented at YearlyKos — and I don’t just say that because it’s my issue. In terms of substance, process, and practical results, it’s an inspiring example of what the […]

Climate change impacts on wineries: Could this be the last straw for some?

Many of those opposed to action on global warming might change their tune if they knew that it would actually affect their beverage of choice. That's right, global warming might change wine. For more info on this, check out this story from KQED Public Broadcasting in San Francisco.

Anybody listing the lists?

Some people really like lists of things that you can (or maybe should) do for the environment. Some don't.

Those who do can go here.

For those who don't: move along, nothing to see here.

More from YearlyKos foreign policy panel

Hey, look, somebody asked a question about energy in the foreign policy panel! Beinart says this issue has undergone a sea change — everyone’s talking about it. Clemons says the global oil situation is heading in a grim direction. On domestic renewables: "There’s a corrupt game going on between those like James Woolsey who just […]

A: The cropland area of several states

According to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), U.S. farmers planted 92.9 million acres of corn in 2007, exceeding last year's corn area by 19 percent and surpassing the USDA's earlier projection (in March) by 3 percent. To put that number into perspective, it is equal to the total arable (cropland) area of four of the nation's leading farm states: Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) forecasts that some 2.18 billion bushels of that corn will be converted to ethanol this year. At an average expected yield of 149.1 bushels per acre, that translates into 14.6 million acres -- an area equal to the combined arable cropland of the entire northeastern United States (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York State, and New England).

The 6.9 billion gallons of ethanol thereby produced will displace, on an energy-equivalent basis (and not accounting for the energy consumed in producing the ethanol), roughly 3 percent of the nation's annual gasoline consumption.

I just thought some readers would find these numbers interesting.

Economist stuff

Two short articles of interest in The Economist. One describes the nascent attempts to conceive and build a network of high-voltage DC power lines across Europe, which would enable wind and solar to play the role of baseload power. The other is about compressed-air storage. This is nifty, but confusing: Meanwhile, General Compression, a small […]

Heath Row

London airport owner seeks injunction against weeklong climate protest We’ve got juicy legal goings-on from London, and while it’s probably not true that all involved are wearing long, white wigs, we like to picture it that way. Here’s the deal: in mid-August, an estimated 5,000 protesters will descend on London’s Heathrow Airport for a weeklong […]

Climate marches kick off in New Hampshire and Iowa

A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, the first book for a general audience on climate change, and, most recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He serves on Grist’s board of directors. Thursday, 2 Aug 2007 LITCHFIELD, N.H. The climate movement is […]

It’s a thing

Tom Konrad ponders the ethanol situation and wonders: what if, instead of feeding most of our corn to cows, and then growing a bunch of grass to make cellulosic ethanol, we use all the cow corn for ethanol and feed the grass to the cows? Gimmicky hook, but quite a fact-filled, educational article.