Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Bill Bradlee and David Kroodsma, climate-fightin’ bike riders, answer questions
Bill Bradlee and David Kroodsma. What work do you do? How does it relate to the environment? David: Over the past 17 months, I bicycled from California to the southern tip of Argentina to raise awareness of the international consequences of global warming. I gave talks, visited schools, got in the media, and posted information […]
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Hybrid power plant
I guess as a blogger in good standing I should have some kind of instant opinion on this, but I don’t: California approves the first "hybrid power plant" — 90% natural gas, 10% solar. So why did Inland Energy decide to make solar a relatively small part of its plant rather than the main power […]
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Betting the heat
Here's an excerpt from a great article on global warming:
In 2005, Annan offered to take Lindzen, the MIT meteorologist, up on his bet that global temperatures in 20 years will be cooler than they are now. However, no wager was ever settled on because Lindzen wanted odds of 50-to-1 in his favor. This meant that for a $10,000 bet, Annan would have to pay Lindzen the entire sum if temperatures dropped, but receive only $200 if they rose.
Talk is indeed cheap.
"Richard Lindzen's words say that there is about a 50 percent chance of [global] cooling," Annan wrote about the bet. "His wallet thinks it is a 2 percent shot. Which do you believe?" -
Alabama’s Bankhead forest next?
Until today I was ignorant of the spread of this nasty sort of mining. Its impact is well documented in the antelope and sage grouse country of the intermountain West, leaving a trail of ruined land and poisoned wells. But companies are also drilling and fracturing this stuff out of the ground in the East, too.
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Not as simple as it seems
Before any Grist readers write off this article in the Economist, read it through and get to the conclusions at the bottom. They might surprise you.
They also contain another lesson not mentioned in the article: we need to value comprehensive ecosystem services from forests, not just any single dimension.
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Wen, the Time Is Right
China agrees to participate in post-Kyoto negotiations China has agreed to participate in talks about a framework to fight global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Enviros danced a joyful jig, as the decision puts pressure on other, non-communicative nations (we’re not naming names). China is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol as […]
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How to save the last carbon sinks
Marcel Silvius recently declared in the Herald Tribune that palm oil is a failure as a biofuel. Rhett Butler over at Mongabay thinks otherwise, as he argues in an article titled, um, "Palm oil is not a failure as a biofuel." His main point is that even if America and Europe were to reject palm oil biodiesel as inherently unsustainable, the forests would still be converted to palm oil by China. We can't stop its development by refusing to use it, so we (by "we" he means Europe) need to get in there and finance the establishment of sustainable practices now or we will have no say in the matter later. China will own the industry: -
Methane from landfills is hott
The Boston Globe has a nice article on a source of renewable electricity that doesn’t get nearly the attention it ought to: methane generated by landfills. This, like so many cogen opportunities, is a no-brainer.
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An interview with Rep. Jay Inslee, clean-energy champion from Washington state
Rep. Jay Inslee’s two central passions, clean energy and global warming, received scant attention during his last eight years in Congress. Now, after a power shift on Capitol Hill, he’s at the center of high-profile efforts to attack climate change and promote a new energy economy — not to mention get his colleagues up to […]
