Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
-
Climate talks collapse over carbon sinks, and Americans just don't see the problem
Bill McKibben reports from The Hague: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Depending on how you spin it, the collapse of the climate negotiations in The Hague, Netherlands, could leave you confident that much progress has been made, despairing that a Bush presidency dooms the future of new talks, or convinced […]
-
Burning Rubber
6.5 million — number of tires recalled this year by Bridgestone/Firestone 270 million — number of scrap tires generated in the U.S. in 1998 500 million — number of scrap tires currently in U.S. stockpiles 35 — number of U.S. states that ban whole tires from landfills 59 — number of tire fires in the […]
-
Pounding the Pavement
3 million — number of acres of open space developed each year in the U.S. 40 — percentage increase in acreage of developed land in the U.S. between 1982 and 1997 1891 — year in which the first road was paved in the U.S. 2.4 million — number of miles of paved public roads in […]
-
![]()
![]()
Farmers are reaping rewards from wind energy
Farmers and ranchers in the United States are discovering that they own not only land, but also the wind rights that accompany it. A farmer in Iowa who leases a quarter acre of cropland to the local utility as a site for a wind turbine can typically earn $2,000 a year in royalties from the […]
-
A Hull of a Problem
The U.S. oil industry is engaged in a cynical ploy to dodge federal regulations that require safer tankers, putting the Pacific coastline, from Alaska to California, at risk for a huge oil spill, writes Jim Fulton, the head of the David Suzuki Foundation in Canada. In the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, […]
-
![]()
![]()
How Ballard is leading the charge to spread fuel cells far and wide
"Our long-term goal is very simple," said California Gov. Gray Davis (D) outside the state capitol in Sacramento in April 1999. "Zero emissions in the air. Zero. Nada. Nothing. Zip." A crowd had gathered to hear Davis announce a major new state initiative, and to see the latest non-polluting automobiles to be unveiled by DaimlerChrysler and Ford. Running on electricity, the peppy performance of these cars dazzled the spectators. The two auto giants promised to have them in commercial production around 2003 or 2004. A new era of environmentally friendly transportation had begun.
