Climate Climate & Energy

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 […]

As expected, the news is mostly bad, and then worse, and then worse still

Climate change is already having big impacts on the natural world and notable effects on human societies, according to the latest climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, being released on Friday. In short, climate change isn’t in the future; it’s in the right now. The previous installment from the IPCC, released in […]

When people ask silly questions

"If fossil fuels are the problem, wouldn't running out of them be good?"

There's an old joke about economists and other Panglossians that bears on this question:

A man leaps off the top of a skyscraper and, as he passes by each floor, true to his optimistic tendencies, he says, "Well, so far, so good."

Running out of fossil fuels is like this man running out of floors. The critical thing is not to jump ... i.e., not to commit all that carbon to the atmosphere in the first place.

Canucks 1, US 0

Turns out that springing forward a month early didn’t save any electricity at all in the U.S. From Reuters: But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage. “We haven’t seen any measurable […]

The ubiquitous Richard Heinberg talks with Acres USA

Interesting interview with Richard Heinberg about the effects of peak oil on U.S. agriculture, in Acres USA, "A voice for Eco Agriculture."