Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Monoxy, Oxy, Oxycuted
Lest you think environmental news is all gloom, all the time, here’s a little pick-me-up: Thanks to the Clean Air Act, the U.S. has all but eradicated carbon monoxide pollution, one of the most hazardous air emissions, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences reported yesterday. In 1971, when the act set federal standards for carbon […]
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The Progress of Engines
Bulldozers, tractors, irrigation equipment, and other diesel-powered off-road machines will be subject to stricter emissions standards under a new plan announced yesterday by the U.S. EPA. The plan calls for cutting emissions by up to 95 percent, a move that would bring the standards for off-road vehicles in line with those for cars and trucks […]
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West Virginia activist Julia Bonds takes on mountaintop-removal mining
The ancient mountains of Appalachia are corrugated with deep, narrow valleys, some of them no wider than a football field. Coal-mining families, who have lived in these valleys for generations, are now being driven out of their homes by the latest innovation of the very industry that has sustained them for so many years. That […]
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Bangladesh Slowly
Life could get even worse in already disaster-prone Bangladesh if global warming continues unchecked, scientists say. Flooding, which already affects about one-fifth of the country, could increase by 40 percent as heavier rainfall triggered by climate change swamps riverbanks, according to a report in the current issue of New Scientist. Low-lying Bangladesh sits at the […]
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Pampas and Circumstances
The massive economic crisis in Argentina has had an unexpected silver lining for the environment: It has led to a surge in the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in cars, a cleaner fuel than either diesel or gasoline. Argentina is home to the third-largest natural-gas reserves in Latin America and the world’s largest fleet […]
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Great, Britain!
Industries in Great Britain have surpassed goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by almost three times national targets and almost twice international obligations, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs announced this week. In 2000, the British government signed 10-year climate change agreements (CCAs) with 44 industries (including steel, aluminum, cement, chemicals, paper, and […]
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The Thrill of No Drill
With a quarter of a million troops amassing outside Iraq and the city of Baghdad preparing for Armageddon, it’s tough to find anything resembling a silver lining in the headlines. But there was some good news yesterday in the environmental sector: Senate Republicans said they had probably come up short in their efforts to secure […]
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New King Coal
Coal has a reputation as the dirtiest fuel around, but the U.S. Department of Energy hopes to reinvent the stuff as clean energy by building an experimental, coal-fired, emissions-free power plant. The project, known as FutureGen, will be built within 10 years and will cost just 10 percent more than an ordinary coal plant to […]
