Climate Climate & Energy

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 […]

The Texas Planet Massacre

Texas may approve 16 new coal-fired power plants The state of Texas, which spews more greenhouse gases than Canada or the U.K., is set to reduce its emissions. And by “reduce” we mean “massively increase.” Texas may soon approve construction of 16 new coal-fired power plants. And not the fancy new “clean coal” kind, either […]

National efforts to cut GHG emissions will suffer

Everyone is justifiably excited about the good news out of California, but a much more representative microcosm of the climate debate can be found in the great state of Texas.

Texas leads the nation in GHG emissions -- it spews more than Canada or the U.K. It has no plan for reducing those emissions. It has rejected legislative efforts to reduce them for years. In essence, Governor Rick Perry has said that he won't do anything until the feds do, which we all know is never.

Now it seems Texas is set to dramatically increase its emissions.

The state may soon approve the construction of 16 old-school coal-fired power plants:

The approval of 16 new power plants that burn coal, by far the most carbon-intensive fuel for making electricity, would add an estimated 117 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, more than the individual emissions from 33 other states and 177 countries.

The power companies say cleaner-burning coal technologies aren't "proven." The business lobby and the governor's office say curbs on GHG gases would hurt the economy.

Not Management Material

BLM slacks on environmental monitoring in Wyoming For the past six years, the Bureau of Land Management has been slacking on its commitment to assess and limit the impact of natural-gas drilling on wilderness in western Wyoming, says, um, the Bureau of Land Management. A leaked internal assessment for the BLM’s Pinedale, Wyo., field office […]

They Should Eat Their Spinach

Iron-deficient phytoplankton don’t absorb as much CO2, study finds Phytoplankton’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide is hindered by a lack of iron in their diet, according to a study in Nature. Climate models have estimated that phytoplankton in the world’s oceans have absorbed about 55 billion tons of carbon dioxide, but the new research suggests […]

Bill McKibben sends dispatches from a global-warming march

Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, published in 1989, the first book for a general audience on climate change. A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, his forthcoming book is titled Deep Economy. He’s participating in a five-day walk calling for action to fight global warming — From the Road Less Traveled: Vermonters […]

Lebanon Sequitur

Lebanese oil spill continues to spread Six weeks after Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, spilling 10,000 to 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea, the disaster continues to be disastrous. The slick has traveled an estimated 90 miles north, affecting every one of Lebanon’s approximately 200 beaches, and may reach Syria […]

The Big Seep

Global warming could lead to release of more methane from seafloor A warming ocean could release more of the potent greenhouse gas methane in a vicious cycle that leads to more warming, says a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Petroleum and methane seep consistently from small cracks in the […]

April Showers Bring April Flowers

Spring is springing earlier in Europe, study finds Across Europe, spring is arriving an average of six to eight days earlier than it did 30 years ago, according to new research published in the journal Global Change Biology. Scientists studied 125,000 sets of observations of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21 European countries, […]