Climate Climate & Energy

An interesting approach to bird safe wind power

Ottawa, Canada-based company Magenn has developed a "floating wind turbine" for personal and infrastructure power generation. The helium-filled device floats up to 1,000 feet into the air, using high altitude wind gusts to generate power up to a kilowatt. The power is transfered down via two "tethers" attached to the turbine.

Magenn states that its compact design and flexibility eliminates the risk of birds getting chopped up near it, a problem associated with standard fan-based turbines. It looks a bit weird, but most out-the-box ideas usually do.

Summarizin’

The summary for policymakers (PDF) of the report by the IPCC Second Working Group is out!

A summary of the summary:

Fuel-efficient vehicles could save you several times over

A proposed new California law would take from the guzzlers and give to the sippers:

Call it the Robin Hood approach to global warming. California drivers who buy new Hummers, Ford Expeditions, and other big vehicles that emit high levels of greenhouse gases would pay a fee of up to $2,500.

And drivers who buy more fuel-efficient cars -- like the Toyota Prius or Ford Focus -- would receive rebates of up to $2,500, straight from the gas-guzzlers' pockets.

Roughnecks have it really rough

It's harder to view oil and gas workers as disposable when their stories are told. And that's what Ray Ring does in the latest issue of High Country News. In a special report, Ring painstakingly documents the stories of oil and gas boom workers who have lost their lives and limbs in the past six years, all in the service of cheap energy. I won't quote much here, since the story simply must be read, but here's an small excerpt:

Workers get crushed by rig collapses, they fall off the steel ledges and the maze of catwalks and ladders and walkways, they get caught in spinning chains, winches and cables. Sometimes they get strangled by their own fall-protection harnesses. On or off the rigs, they handle flammables, and sometimes they get fireballed. They succumb to poisonous hydrogen sulfide, which occurs in natural gas before it's processed; one whiff is fatal. They get slammed by valves and pipes that explode under high pressure. They get hit by lightning, freeze to death and die of heat stroke, because the work takes place outside, and it goes on 24/7, 365 days a year, pretty much no matter what.

Philpott talks ethanol

My face may be made for radio, but I don’t especially like the way my voice sounds. Even so, I accepted an invitation to talk ethanol on today’s Sunday Salon show on Berkeley’s KPFA radio station. I’m glad I did. The host, Sandra Lupien, was very well-prepared and asked great questions. The other guests were […]

Oil diplomat or man of the people?

On the defensive after George Bush and Lula da Silva of Brazil started getting friendly over ethanol, Hugo Chavez has now backed away from plans for building a massive array of 29 ethanol plants.

His rationale tears a page from the nascent biofuel backlash movement, saying that land should be used to feed people, not to fill "rich people's cars." As with most things Chavez, this is probably largely about politics and somewhat about people: he doesn't want to be outflanked by Bush's new foothold in the region. But it's a stand that will win him points in many quarters, and he's expected to make it again later this month at a South American energy summit.

Act nowor forever hold your pleas

The battle over the TXU coal plants has been well chronicled on these pages.

As an elegant companion to the efforts to shut down coal, there's a proposal in the Texas Legislature -- sitting in committee right now -- that would develop a world-class solar energy program for Texas.

Why Ask Why? Try Everything Dry

American Southwest soon will face permanent drought, says study Tired of depressing climatic news? Too bad, here’s more! A new study in Science predicts that as early as 2021, global warming could create Dust Bowl-like conditions in the American Southwest. Much of the region has been severely dry since 2000, and researchers say 18 of […]

Brakes on a Plane

Flight ads should carry health warnings, says U.K. group Advertisements for flights should include a health warning, tobacco-style, to remind people of their contribution to climate change, a U.K. think tank said this week. (So creative, those Brits!) “The evidence that aviation damages the atmosphere is just as clear as the evidence that smoking kills,” […]

We Hear Mars Is Nice This Time of Year

Top scientists say global warming is triggering ecosystem changes around the globe The natural world is already getting knocked around by climate change, the world’s top climate experts said today. In the second of four reports being released this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group looked at the impacts of global […]