Climate Climate & Energy

Stickin’ to the Mann

“Hockey stick” climate study largely holds up to collegial scrutiny The dispute over global-warming science has become something of a soap opera in the U.S., and the latest episode portrays a stinging blow to skeptics. Previously, on As the World Burns: In June, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chair of the House Energy Committee, ordered an […]

The Blown Star State

Texas planning massive wind-energy project off Galveston coast Texas has proposed what could become the nation’s first offshore wind farm, about seven miles off the coast of Galveston Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The massive project would involve construction of around 50 wind turbines over some five years and would be expected to generate […]

Ol’ Dirty Bastards

Oil companies made record profits, and all we got was this moral outrage Pity the poor oil firms: The five largest are expected to reap a record $28 billion in collective earnings this quarter, and all signs point to a lucrative six months to come, but they can’t brag about it — at least not […]

An eye on this year’s record-setting hurricane season

1 — rank of Hurricane Wilma in Atlantic storm intensity on record1 12 — Atlantic hurricanes so far this season, tying a record set in 19692 21 — named storms so far this season, tying a record set in 19332 145 — wind speed of Wilma at press time, in miles per hour3 140 — […]

Covert Ploperations

CIA investing in “plug and play” clean power generator Warning: this blurb will self-destruct in five seconds. It seems clean energy has a spooky new backer. The CIA is investing, via a venture capital firm, in a Virginia start-up called SkyBuilt, which has developed a clean electricity generator for use in the field. The Mobile […]

Sweet and Blowdown

Wind-energy customers pay less than those buying fossil-fuel power Customers of Xcel Energy in Colorado who purchase wind power got a pleasant announcement last week: Not only would they not be paying a premium for their clean energy — they would be paying less than customers getting electricity from natural gas and coal-power sources. Xcel […]

Noah Man’s Land

Major new study says severe weather is likely on the way Winter as we know it in the northeast U.S. will vanish. Summers across the country will be hotter, particularly in the parched Southwest. Rain will be less frequent but more torrential when it happens. Loss of property will be “catastrophic,” exotic diseases will spread, […]

Lost power source

Fans of the hit TV show Lost might have been wondering how the hatch/bunker gets its power. Last night we found out: geothermal energy.

Another example of a green energy source being mentioned during prime time television -- granted, it was for about five seconds, but we'll take what we can get!

And visitors to the Lost message boards can get a brief science lesson on how geothermal energy works from poster SlowElectron.

Helter Swelter

2005 shaping up to be the warmest year on record Is it warm in here? Readings from about 7,200 weather stations worldwide indicate that 2005 will probably be the hottest … year … ever — breaking 1998’s record by about one-tenth of a degree Fahrenheit. The Northern Hemisphere is heating faster, with the average 2005 […]

Jacques Leslie’s Deep Water sheds light on dam dramas

What does hell look like to an environmentalist? In the classic Encounters With the Archdruid, writer John McPhee imagines this particular inferno. The outer ring, he writes, is a moat filled with DDT. Inside lies another moat brimming with burning gasoline, and still deeper are masses of bulldozers and chainsaws. In the middle — at […]