Climate Climate & Energy

Put That in Your Pipe and Spill It

BP spills in California, wants to open Alaska pipelines Beleaguered oil giant BP has admitted to yet another misdeed: a leak of 1,000 barrels of refined petro-product from an underground pipeline at the port of Long Beach, Calif. About 870 barrels had been recovered as of yesterday; authorities believe the leak did not taint water […]

We’ve Got a Helsinki’n Feeling

Asia-Europe Meeting provides lots of talk, little action A club of 38 European and Asian leaders concluded a two-day summit in Helsinki, Finland, yesterday, saying what they always say and failing to make the concrete plans they always fail to make. The leaders agreed to continue to cut greenhouse gases after the Kyoto Protocol expires […]

Come On, Baby, Do the Loco Oceans

Rising ocean temperatures caused by anthropogenic warming, says study Well here’s a shocker: turns out it’s global warming causing the globe’s oceans to warm, a phenomenon linked to more intense hurricanes. Such is the counter-counter-intuitive conclusion of new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Over the 20th century, average sea-surface temperatures […]

A Q&A

The best guide I know to the climatological consensus is soft-spoken Kelly Redmond, who helps lead the influential and wide-ranging Western Regional Climate Center. The WRCC has done a great deal of work for the US Global Change Research Program on climate change issues, such as investigating the possibility that global warming could seriously degrade the Sierra snow pack on which much of California depends for water.

But don't let all that brainpower discourage you! Although a scientist, Redmond mostly speaks in commonsense English, has a bit of the poet in him, and has long worked to help ordinary folks (and reporters) understand climate issues.

For a story on fire in Southern California, I emailed some questions to Redmond. His answers were so helpful and illuminating, I expanded the interview to a wider discussion of how climate in the Western U.S. is changing.

Unto the Lease of These

Judge halts oil lease sale to protect Alaskan wetlands Ruling that the Bush administration failed to properly consider the impact of oil development on sensitive wetlands, a U.S. district judge has temporarily blocked an upcoming Alaska oil-lease sale of about 1.7 million acres. The Bushies had heard the call of up to 2 billion barrels […]

Green Is the New Camouflage

U.S. general in Iraq calls for renewable power The latest dirty hippie to issue an urgent call for renewable power is … U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer. The top U.S. commander in western Iraq recently sent the Pentagon a “Priority 1” request for solar panels and wind turbines to augment traditional diesel generators. […]

Eur-eek!-a

Fat new oil deposits found in the Gulf of Mexico Beneath some 20,000 feet of earth and 7,000 feet of water, 175 miles off the U.S. coast in the Gulf of Mexico, lies an enormous field of oil and gas — enough to potentially double U.S. oil reserves. The lucky SOBs who found it are […]

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Methane emissions from Siberian bogs are “time bomb,” scientists warn Thawing Siberian bogs may be releasing up to five times more methane than previously thought, potentially creating a vicious cycle wherein more warming releases more methane, which causes more warming, which … well, you get the picture. “It is a ticking time bomb,” says Katey […]

A project on the effects of coal mining in Appalachia

Photographs and oral histories from Coal Hollow -- a project on the effects of coal mining on poor Appalachians in West Virginia -- will be on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography on the Daytona Beach campus of the Daytona Beach Community College from August 31 - October 29.

Whether or not you make it down to Florida, check out the book and DVD. The kind of poverty that wouldn't be out of place in the most desolate developing nations exists in the hills of our own American Southeast, and very few people seem to give a damn. Every American citizen should have to look these people in the eye.

Take Backs

Russia sues to overturn approval for giant Shell energy project Russia is suing to overturn its initial approval of a $20 billion Royal Dutch Shell oil and gas project, citing alleged environmental violations. (As Shell is locked in an ownership dispute with state-run oil company Gazprom, some analysts suspect the litigation has more to do […]