Climate Climate & Energy

It Seems We’ve Stood and Talked Like This Before

Climate change could make some climate zones disappear, worsen asthma It’s been a while since we’ve done a probable-effects-of-climate-change story, and we’d hate to leave you hanging. So: according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate change could reinvent the world’s climate zones by 2100 (feels closer all the […]

Outback Darkhouse

Sydney, Australia, to put the lights out for climate change Last month, Australian officials announced that traditional incandescent light bulbs would be phased out by 2010 and replaced by compact fluorescents and other efficient lighting technologies. But Sydney is getting a jump on the energy-conservation action: this Saturday, bulbs across the city will be going […]

Inconvenient headlines

Tom Athanasiou (exec. director of EcoEquity) reminds us of two things. The first is that domestic programs for emission reductions just aren’t going to cut it. We have to find some equitable way to draw China and India into the fold. The second is something I’ve been meaning to propose: Let’s all of us pull […]

Mary Anne Hitt, director of Appalachian Voices, answers questions

Mary Anne Hitt. What’s your job title? I’m the executive director of Appalachian Voices. What does your organization do? We bring people together to solve the big environmental problems facing the central and southern Appalachian Mountains — mountaintop-removal coal mining, air pollution, and the loss of our native forests. What are you working on at […]

Still

An extensive Christian Science Monitor analysis reveals that "nations will add enough coal-fired capacity in the next five years to create an extra 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year." In all, at least 37 nations plan to add coal-fired capacity in the next five years — up from the 26 nations that added capacity […]

See me in Seattle

I'm giving a presentation Wed., Mar 28 to the Green Builders Guild on Solutions to climate chaos for Green builders, homeowners, and citizens. Location below the fold.

I’m Hot, Sticky Sweet

Vermont’s maple-syrup industry braces for climate change Will warmer winters stop the flow of Vermont maple syrup? That’s the question of the day in the Green Mountain State, where folks worry that climate change will make the $200 million industry — which provides 32 percent of U.S. syrup output — dry up. “I’ve always been, […]

Carbon trading vs. carbon taxes on Science Friday

The question of climate change has finally moved on from is it happening? to what should we do about it?.

There has been some great discussion here at Grist on carbon trading vs. carbon taxes (e.g., here or here).

For those who want more, Bill Chameides, chief scientist of Environmental Defense, was on Science Friday to talk about carbon trading. Check out the mp3 here.

Bill basically reiterates the points he made here on Gristmill a while back. But it's still worth listening to.

Now We Can Watch Them Go Up

NOAA scientists unveil online emissions-tracking tool The U.S. might not be ready to cut its carbon emissions, but it’s ready to measure them. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has unveiled a nifty new online tool that tracks carbon dioxide levels around the world. And guess what it’s called? CarbonTracker. We’re in love! “This is […]

Not In My Back Yardarm

Biggest U.S. oil-tanker company slapped with $37 million in dumping fines They would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling pipe fitters: the nation’s largest oil-tanker company, Overseas Shipholding Group, will pay $37 million for gooping up U.S. seas. For nearly five years, the company’s ships dumped waste oil and sludge […]