Climate Climate & Energy

Umbra on micro-wind

Dear Umbra, Are there any worthwhile resources or models that would enable me to generate my own electricity in a cost-effective way, using wind power? This is on a one-household basis. Matt PinesToronto, Canada Dearest Matt, In jargon-land, you are interested in micro-wind. Little did you know! Because you are a blessed Canadian, you have […]

Urbana Renewal

Illinois commission votes to expand state’s clean energy sources The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved a sustainable-energy initiative designed to increase the state’s reliance on renewables, especially wind power. The plan is voluntary, but if it is fully embraced by all of the state’s utilities Illinois could see 8 percent of its electricity produced via […]

Umbra on wind farms … again

Dear Umbra, In your response about opposition to wind farms, you neglected in your enthusiasm to say how much electricity from wind would actually be used and what effect, if any, the farms would have on our overall energy use. Can you cite an example of actual reduction of fossil- and nuclear-fuel use brought about […]

In a warmed world, even food won’t be as good for you

Humanity is on the threshold of a century of extraordinary bounty, courtesy of global climate change. That’s the opinion of Robert Balling, former scientific adviser to the Greening Earth Society, a lobbying arm of the power industry founded by the Western Fuels Association. In a world where atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar from the burning […]

Global concerts to focus on G8, but not climate change

With the G8 Summit just days away, pop stars the world over are preparing for marathon concerts tomorrow in each of the eight wealthiest nations in the world. Modeled after the Live Aid concerts 20 years ago (when the likes of U2, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger performed for some 1.5 billion people and helped raise money for Ethiopia's famine), the Live 8 concerts aim to draw attention to and demand action from the leaders gathering at the summit.

Unfortunately, however, Live 8 is focused on only one of summit leader Tony Blair's two main goals for the meeting -- and it's not climate change. Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely anti-poverty-in-Africa. I just wish some of the media attention this Live 8 concert will get on outlets like MTV and VH1 -- where younger, impressionable viewers will be watching -- could be focused on that other major issue.

Arid Extra Dry

Desertification will be big bummer for hundreds of thousands worldwide Hundreds of thousands of people — some of them the world’s poorest — will be displaced in the next 30 years as the globe’s deserts expand, according to the latest report from the U.N.’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Climate change is likely to intensify droughts, heat […]

Storm Affront

Global warming to cause X-treme hurricanes; Sprite sponsorship in works Coming soon to our warming globe: extreme hurricanes. Research just published in the journal Science suggests that as higher temperatures draw more ocean water into the atmosphere, hurricanes and typhoons will intensify. Over the course of the 20th century, water vapor over the oceans increased […]

A roundup of the latest and greatest in nuke-bashing

I've flirted with the notion that nuclear power is an appropriate short-term bridge from our current dysfunctional energy portfolio to one that is clean and renewable. But the closer I look, the stinkier it gets.

There's this problem that Andy raised. There's also this argument from Patrick Doherty. And of course Gristmill readers have made great points in this thread, this thread, and elsewhere.

Now, some more fuel for the fire. Tim at The Future Is Green points out that world uranium production has already peaked:

U.S. leaders, residents turn backs on impending coastal chaos

Don’t let Beantown become a has-been town. Buckle your seatbelts: it’s going to be a wet ‘n’ wild ride. That’s the prediction — or, rather, the certainty — that today’s global warming carries. Erratic and unpredictable weather is en route, and coastal areas are among the places destined to be hardest hit. So why are […]

The Rapture of Capture

Brits want to store carbon dioxide under North Sea The British government announced today that it will invest about $45 million in technology to capture carbon dioxide and store it under the North Sea — part of a $72 million commitment to combat global warming via energy efficiency, renewables, and new technologies. Keeping CO2 out […]