New report on massive growth of renewables last year

Climate Progress is the title of my blog posts' main home, as much as the "progress" part strains credulity at times. I only see two major quantitative areas of sustained progress: clean energy deployment (especially in Europe) and private sector clean-tech funding.

Those folk at Clean Edge, who wrote the best 2007 book on clean tech, The Clean Tech Revolution, have quantified these gains -- and made predictions about the future -- in a new report you can read here. Some interesting factoids:

Higher food prices mean crappier cafeteria fare for kids

As food prices rise, who gets hit first and hardest? Clearly, urban dwellers in the global south, where people spend...

Are you an EcoDaredevil?

On Earth Day, Wallace J. Nichols gave a keynote address at Duke University in honor of Evel Knievel entitled "Jump the Chasm: Are you an EcoDaredevil?" After the address, Elliott Hazen, a Duke University PhD student, was honored with the first EcoDaredevil award.

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Growing up in the 1970s, I idolized Evel Knievel. To me, he was a rock star, sports hero, and folk legend in one. He was both a daredevil and a cool character. Back then, his jumps over buses, fountains, and canyons inspired me to launch my bicycle into the air and over puddles, mounds of dirt, and many a hapless friend. Occasionally, in honor of his ill-fated jump over the Snake River Canyon, I'd jump my bicycle into the neighbor's pond.

Now, I find new inspiration in my childhood hero.

On the oddity of privatizing nature

Given the uncertainty accruing to traditional investments in today's economy, here's a trend to consider: the monetizing of ecosystem services. One of the first public discussions of this, the Biodiversity & Ecosystem Finance Summit taking place in New York this weekend, aims to answer this question: how can financiers and corporations take a lead in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation? (I can think of a few ways, yes.)

Welcome to the developing area of "biodiversity finance," which seeks to monetize biodiversity and ecosystem assets like wetlands, rainforests, reefs, and so forth so they can then be protected -- at a profit. Sounds spooky, right? But there are examples out there already, and not just the conservation-minded hobby ranches à la Ted Turner that we're seeing all over the Rocky Mountain West. Take this example [PDF] from Virginia, where private equity has bought the last large piece of the Great Dismal Swamp:

Upward from the Climate Security Act

Climate Solutions Policy Director K.C. Golden has some thoughts on where to go with national climate legislation after last week's down vote on the Climate Security Act.

As thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through the nation's capital last week, the U.S. Senate tied itself in a procedural knot, preventing a vote on the substance of the Climate Security Act -- the first meaningful climate legislation to reach the Senate floor.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "the most important issue facing the world today." But the minority stalled -- insisting on a full reading of the nearly 500-page bill -- while the storm raged outside. Once again, the "world's greatest deliberative body" did nothing about the world's biggest problem.

Twenty years after our preeminent climate scientist Jim Hansen warned Congress of the need for immediate action, this dilly-dallying is enough to make you scream.

New Senate alternatives to L-W would take climate policy backwards — way backwards

George Voinovich. There’s an important story in yesterday’s edition of E&E (as always, $ub. req’d) about two alternatives to Lieberman-Warner...

Two simple, effective, and diametrically opposed climate policy proposals

This is the second in a series; see part one. I said in my previous post that of the three...

Will wonders never cease: not only sane economist, but author of a textbook!

Upon occasion, I've been accused of having, shall we say, an uncharitable attitude towards the self-styled "science" of economics.

I firmly believe that not all economists are Dungeons and Dragons geeks in suits or political sycophants whose only talent is covering their guesswork with a fog of intentionally obscure jargon. It's just the 98 percent who give the rest a bad name.

However, when one stumbles on one of the rest, it's worth noting. I'm greatly enjoying The Political Economy of World Energy: an introductory textbook by Ferdinand E. Banks. Professor Banks is like vodka: sharp, clear, and delivers a strong kick.

He has his flaws -- he has a serious jones for nuclear power stations, greatly underestimating their capital costs, and is quite a bit too optimistic about hydrogen as a fuel. But he freely admits his limitations, and his writing is so good that you can forgive him his mistakes.

Here is an excerpt from his brief introductory survey of world energy. I chose this excerpt because it's not only fun but because he makes a number of important points about how we tend to think about energy and economics. Enjoy:

Finding jobs at the Ceres conference

Photo courtesy Cheryl Levine Last week, I attended the Ceres conference in Boston. My table was sitting down to lunch...