Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
-
Clash With the Titan
Anti-dam activists target billionaire Warren Buffett This weekend, activists are descending on Omaha, Neb., to push for removal of four Western dams they say are killing salmon and causing a health risk to humans. Their target: skillionaire Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway holding company owns PacifiCorp, the utility that owns the Klamath River dams. In […]
-
You know you love it
This AP story is a bit old but it’s incredibly significant so I’m going to go ahead and get in a tizzy about it. It’s about efforts by the city of Stamford, Conn. (among other places) to establish a micro grid district. What’s that, you ask? Within these special zones, sometimes referred to as “energy […]
-
When it’s the Bush administration talking about Hanford
The following is a guest post from Natalie Troyer, publications and volunteer coordinator at Heart of America Northwest. —– Sheryl Crow — who was joking, people — recently suggested that folks use “only one square [of toilet paper] per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required.” […]
-
It’s done
It appears that all the haggling is done and the Working Group III report from the IPCC is ready to go. It will be formally released tomorrow. Andy Revkin has a preview, and the NYT also has a Q&A with Revkin about the all-night negotiations that just ended. More to come.
-
Shot down
Alex Cockburn, who has long been a low-key denier of the human contribution to climate chaos, has decided to take his contrarianism on this issue loud and proud. Because Alex is a bit too prominent to simply ignore, George Monbiot takes a few minutes from his busy schedule to tear the piece into little tiny shreds.
It takes Monbiot only a few sentences to point out that all the arguments Cockburn makes are well known and widely discredited, and that Alex uses zero references. Cockburn's sole source seems to be a guy he met on a Nation cruise. Alex is not only taking a highly destructive position, he is doing so without bothering to do his homework. Monbiot goes on to quote Cockburn himself on the nature of crank arguments. I recommend reading Monbiot's refutation, even if you are familiar enough with the debate to spot all Cockburn's scientific mistakes unaided. Because Monbiot illustrates here how, if circumstances force you, to deal with an opponent who makes an argument totally unworthy of any respect.
-
-
Coal is the enemy of the human race. Coal is the enemy of the human race
The Office of Fossil Energy (no, not Dick Cheney's office -- apparently there is another one) released a new report this week: "Tracking New Coal Fired Power Plants."
An excerpt from the press release:
If built, the plants will be critical in helping to meet future electricity demand in the United States. The new and proposed plants would theoretically produce enough electricity to power 90 million homes.
Coal is vital to the nation's energy security. Providing more than 50 percent of U.S. electricity, coal is an abundant, domestic energy source with more than a 250-year supply at current use rates. America's coal reserves, estimated at 272 billion tons, contain more energy potential than all of the oil in the Middle East.Your tax dollars at work.
-
Sigh
Wow. The Nation has elected to print some flat-footed, idiotic global warming skepticism from Alexander Cockburn, who has made a media career out of insulting people and generally being a dick. I don’t have time to get into it — see previous post — but you can check with Sir Oolius for some initial debunkery. […]
-
Putting iron in the ocean
The risky idea of dumping iron into the ocean to promote plankton growth has been around for a long time. The reasoning: more algae blooms, more CO2 absorbed. But many scientists think that by the time the algae dies, rots, and release methane and nitrous oxide, it will worsen the greenhouse effect. Even most supporters think it should be studied before being tried. The IPCC is expected to dismiss this particular idea as speculative and probably counterproductive.
But Planktos corporation, backed by Silicon Salley, has decided to go full speed ahead experimenting with it -- to hell with possible side effects. They are simply going to dump iron into a 10,000 square kilometer patch in the Galápagos -- one of the most delicate and important ecosystems on the planet.
