Climate Climate & Energy

Monbiot: We can provide all or most of our electricity from renewable sources

In his July 3 column, George Monbiot reminds us of how much worse the threat of global warming may be than the consensus IPCC position. But he also reminds us that there are reasons for optimism too. He cites three studies that point to the fact that there is every reason to believe Europe and the UK can supply between 80 percent and 100 percent of electricity needs completely sun, wind, water, wave, tide, and minor amounts of biomass and geothermal energy, V2G Vanadium flow batteries, and pumped storage.

Given that electricity can drive just about all energetic processes of our civilization -- domestic, commercial, industrial, and transport, that means that we have economically reasonable substitutes for just about all carbon use now.

And the Peanuts Are Free-Range

With fans and fanfare, Boeing unveils new fuel-efficient aircraft Yesterday, Boeing unveiled a new fuel-efficient airplane to a crowd of more than 15,000 workers and onlookers, as tens of thousands more watched by satellite. The 787 Dreamliner — nicknamed the “greenliner” — boasts a body that’s half carbon-fiber composite; because the material is lighter than […]

Hope There’s a High Ceiling for the Kangaroos

Australia to build 1,740-mile corridor for wildlife affected by climate change State and federal leaders in Australia have agreed to create a 1,740-mile wildlife corridor spanning the east coast of the continent — in part to allow plants and animals to flee the effects of global warming. “The effects of climate change will likely be […]

The LA Times reports on global warming and skinny whales

Kenneth Weiss, a surfer/reporter who last year headed the team that won a Pulitzer for the Los Angeles Times for a series on our trashed oceans, returns to the front page today with a story about how global warming appears to be damaging the arctic feeding grounds of the gray whale, leading to "skinny whales" and unusual behaviors.

The whales are journeying far to the north of their usual territory looking for the sea-bed crustaceans that make up the bulk of their diet -- and foraging off California and along the western coast as well.

The story tops the front page of the print edition, but for some reason is buried in the California/local edition online. Nonetheless, it's worth a look, for the graphs, maps, and photographs, as well as the text. Here's the bottom line:

Leaving Dustbusters in the Dust

High-tech gadgets will overtake appliances as energy-suckers, says report Primed to overtake kitchen appliances and lighting as the biggest drain on domestic power, high-tech gadgets — we’re talkin’ to you, iPhone — will use nearly half an average household’s energy by 2020, according to U.K. nonprofit Energy Saving Trust. In a report cleverly titled “The […]

Stick It Where the Sun Do Shine

Groovy new battery could change the way energy is stored A type of battery created by Ford Motor Co. in the 1960s for use in electric cars could help utilities around the world. Sodium-sulfur batteries provide efficient energy storage, and could reduce the need for new transmission lines, substations, and power plants. The new generation […]

Also, Could You Paint Tom Sawyer’s Fence?

South Korea ships oil to North Korea in nuke-shutdown deal South Korea will ship oil to North Korea next week as part of a six-nation agreement reached in February that trades energy aid for a shutdown of the North’s main nuclear facility. Funny story, though: North Korea hasn’t shut down the reactor. But it totally […]

Emphasis on the ‘rare’

Trees are terrific in every way but one: they make lousy carbon offsets. That was the point of the "First rule of carbon offsets." But a number of comments and some media queries have led me include two rare exceptions: certified urban trees and certified tropical forest preservation. The word "certified" is key in both cases.

For these two rare cases, I would allow trees to comprise no more than 10 percent of an overall offset portfolio (which should be heavily weighted toward efficiency, renewables, fuel switching, and perhaps carbon capture and storage). Also, their offset value should probably be discounted over time (because urban trees are unlikely to be permanent and tropical forest accounting is quite uncertain).

Energy 101

The Oil Drum has an excellent post that provides a neat framework, and then a huge series of links to specific stories that fit into the framework. The subject is energy.

Nicely done, TOD.

Predicts rabbit out of hat in three years, too

Here's a film clip of Al Gore making a firm prediction that "next generation ethanol" not dependent on corn or food crops will move out of the lab in "three years."

He discusses the energy balance question, fails to question the use of coal for process heat, and suggests that there is some sort of "distribution network" that's going to be built.

Sad.