Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Giving Us Tropopause
The tropopause has risen by an average of 650 feet globally in the last 22 years because of global warming and ozone depletion, according to a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research. For those of you who’ve forgotten your junior high school science, the tropopause is the atmospheric layer […]
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The Rain in Lesotho Caused Mainly Lots of Pain
Rain. Drought. Hailstorms. Tornadoes. Frost. You’d be hard-pressed to name a weather phenomenon that hasn’t afflicted the African kingdom of Lesotho in recent times, destroying its crops and leaving one-third of its 2.1 million people on the brink of starvation. Now, many scientists are saying that those people, along with nearly 40 million other Africans […]
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Caspian’s Unfriendly Ghost
The discovery of what may be one of the world’s largest oil fields under the Caspian Sea near Atyrau, Kazakhstan, has western oil companies excited, but environmentalists deeply concerned. The field, estimated to contain about 40 billion barrels of oil, 10 billion of them recoverable, is being developed by a consortium including British Gas, ExxonMobil, […]
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Cell-ebrate
In what could be the first significant step toward mass-marketing fuel-cell vehicles, Toyota and Honda put the world’s first such cars on the road yesterday. The cars are being leased to the Japanese government and several public organizations in the U.S. — at the whopping price of between $6,500 and $9,800 per month, meaning the […]
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Oil and Trouble
Coastal areas in Spain are suffering the effects of a Nov. 13 spill that sent millions of gallons of oil into the waters off the nation’s northwestern coast. Although high winds and strong currents have kept most of the spilled fuel oil farther out in Atlantic waters, waves of oil crashed over a 20-foot sea […]
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Braked Alaska
The oil giant BP has withdrawn from the lobbying group that is leading the campaign to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling, company spokesperson Paul Laird said yesterday. The decision underscores the growing concern among oil companies that the drilling debate could damage their public image. In the past, BP had […]
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If You Drive Alone, You Drive With Saddam
For some U.S. citizens, solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel-efficient cars have become the ultimate patriotic statement. With a war looming in the Middle East, green groups are framing the cause of energy conservation in terms of national security. They are issuing reports, creating websites, and hitting the airwaves with the message that true security […]
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Fueltide Greetings
The Bush administration is weighing a proposal that would require auto manufacturers to improve the fuel efficiency of SUVs and light trucks by a teensy bit. Working off data submitted by the Big Three automakers in Detroit, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent a draft plan to the White House that would raise […]
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A Big Pay Off?
Led by climate change skeptic ExxonMobil, a collection of oil, gas, and other energy companies has pledged at least $175 million over 10 years to Stanford University to create a Global Climate and Energy Project. One goal of the project will be to help develop renewable energy technologies. Critics say the gift amounts to small […]
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Dam Straight!
In what environmentalists hope is the beginning of a major trend, 60 dams across the U.S. are slated for demolition this year and hundreds more are targeted for removal. Last week, for example, Portland General Electric signed a deal to remove the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River in Oregon and a smaller dam on […]
