Climate Politics
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Germany’s solar panels produce more power than Japan’s entire Fukushima complex
Germany is the world leader in installed solar photovoltaic panels — and they also just shut down seven of their oldest nuclear reactors. Coincidence? Maaaaybe… Anyway, it's worth noting that just today, total power output of Germany's installed solar PV panels hit 12.1 GW — greater than the total power output (10 GW) of Japan's […]
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Five reasons every wonk in DC is humping the leg of natural gas right about now
The Times wants you to know that our energy crisis is over, because there’s at least one abundant fossil fuel still standing between civilization and the abyss of energy poverty. In a piece remarkable for its complete failure to mention the option of renewables, a bunch of old-economy energy analysts describe a 21st century that […]
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At Chernobyl, it was all under control
A memorial rests in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear plant.Photo: Matti PaavonenThis piece was written by John Perlin. As a visiting scholar last year at the Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells, I met Valery N. Bliznyuk, a visiting professor at Linz and a permanent faculty member at Western Michigan University. His fascinating work in […]
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Rahm Emanuel could be f**king great for America’s cities
Rahm Emanuel as mayor of Chicago? This is going to be f**king great.Photo: Adam FagenSo can the bull-headed, bare-knuckled, notoriously foul-mouthed Rahm Emanuel help save America’s cities? In May, the former Obama chief of staff will be sworn in (and yes, his ex-boss has made that joke) as mayor of Chicago. And the nation’s mayors […]
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Drilling down on oil
It may be true, but domestic oil drilling won’t help.This post originally appeared on the Great Energy Challenge blog, in partnership with National Geographic and Planet Forward. It’s an unfortunate fact that stress has a way of making people crazy. At the moment, rising oil prices are creating a lot of stress. One of the […]
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Congressional asshats get the old, white parody they deserve
Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” has never felt fresher than in this stirring rendition from our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But that’s sort of damning it with faint praise. Upton BillYou know Fred Upton’s Bill will make you ill I thought he’d never be a smokestack guyBut now he hates clean air I […]
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Al Gore hasn’t written his new book and people already hate it
Al Gore is penning a new book about “the political, social and economic forces that are shaping what America and the world will become in ensuing decade.” It sounds exactly like Fareed Zakaria’s The Post American World. Even though his book has yet to be written, people with exclusive access to the inside of the […]
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Sorry, but the U.S. isn’t about to wean itself off of nuclear
The reality is, the United States doesn’t have the option to walk away from nuclear power, which supplies almost 9% of the nation’s energy and about 20% of its electricity. […] Nuclear energy’s drawbacks are glaring at the moment, but it’s worth remembering that no major source of energy the United States is using comes […]
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Representative warns against ‘overreacting’ to tsunami by saving lives or whatever
Shorter Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.): “If the GOP cuts tsunami monitoring, people will die.” If you cut on detection of tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, severe weather events, weather buoys, satellite observation and weather patterns, those sorts of things, people will die. Shorter Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa): “Come on, let’s not overreact to a few thousand people dying […]
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Still giving lessons in how not to communicate
The White House is just lousy at messaging across the board, as I and others have noted many times. Obama also seems to have bad luck. He endorsed offshore drilling shortly before the biggest offshore oil disaster in history. He embraced new nuclear power plants in a speech last February, and now we are seeing […]
