Climate Science
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Congress is making ignoring science a habit
In a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee climate hearing, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) jokingly asked if some of his fellow colleagues were going to overturn the law of gravity, “sending us floating about the room.” It seems funny until you realize that it’s in response to a disturbing trend in Congress of misusing, manipulating, […]
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A pre-voyage interview with climate-crusading Navy sailor [VIDEO]
Before John David Shelton raised anchor to raise greater awareness of climate change, he agreed to sit down and answer some questions on camera — from tales of tattoos and piercings to the most embarrassing thing he’s done in the name of the environment. Spoiler alert: it’s not that embarrassing. Help John David reach his […]
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Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion
The future’s looking sooty.Photo: Tami Heilemann, DOIInterior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday an enormous expansion in coal mining that threatens to increase U.S. climate pollution by an amount equivalent to more than half of what the United States currently emits in a year. A statement from Wild Earth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife […]
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Why does Congress have Clean Air Act phobia?
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. It’s a sad state of affairs when members on both sides of the aisle in Congress seem to think it is a good idea to attack the Clean Air Act — the landmark law that Richard Nixon signed and George H. W. Bush strengthened. Yet the hits on […]
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Japan’s wind farms save its ass while nuclear plants founder
Wind turbine in Yokohama, JapanPhoto: shibuya246If Japan’s wind turbines were to get a new theme song, it would be Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries“, and it would ring out from the hills upon which they stand triumphantly, unscathed by the the country’s earthquake/tsunami double whammy, lifting their skinny, still-turning blades like antennas to heaven. While Japan’s […]
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The Climate Post: The aftermath in Japan
Japan’s been through a lot in just one week.Photo: Matthew BradleyLast Friday, Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 quake — its most powerful earthquake on record, and the strongest anywhere in the world in the past 140 years — with its epicenter off the coast, creating a 30-foot-high tsunami that swallowed up whole towns and killed more than 5,000 people. […]
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Majority of Americans still understand global warming, despite best efforts of Fox
A new Gallup poll shows that 52 percent of Americans understand that global warming is due more to human activities than natural variation, and only 43 percent believe the opposite. That’s marginally better than last year — 50 to 46, barely holding on to a “believe in science” majority” — but way down from 2007, […]
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Nervous China to break up with nuclear, run back to coal
China is suspending its development of nuclear power plants amid rising public anxiety. As the country’s economy develops rapidly, nuclear power had been seen as key to answering the need for rapid growth in production of electricity. Some 28 reactors – or 40 per cent of the world’s total under construction – are being built […]
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Sen. Jay Rockefeller: Climate science is ‘unequivocally true’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Opposing Republican efforts to forbid climate regulations, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that the science of human-made climate change is “unequivocally true.” Rockefeller, a strong defender of his state’s coal industry, spoke out on the Senate floor against an amendment submitted to a small business bill by Senate Minority […]
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A little background on the EPA’s new mercury and air toxics rule
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Today, the EPA announced the most important actions to clean up air pollution from dirty coal-burning power plants since the Clean Air Act was last updated in 1990. EPA’s proposed mercury and air toxics standards for power plants that burn coal and oil are projected to save as […]