CO2
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Pachauri’s call for 350 ppm is breakthrough moment for climate movement
Amazing news just arrived at 350.org headquarters. Rajendra Pachauri is the U.N.’s top climate scientist. He leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which every five years produces the authoritative assessment of climate science. Its last report, in 2007, helped set the target of 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the […]
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“Acid Test” documentary on ocean acidification premieres tonight
Photo: Yuriy via PicasaDive into the NRDC’s new documentary Acid Test and you’re immediately immersed in a beautiful undersea world complete with vibrant coral reefs, graceful kelp beds, and rhythmic schools of fish. But Acid Test is no Blue Planet, thanks to heavy use of green-screen technology. And what’s in front of those screens is […]
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Audio slideshow: Chris Jordan on America’s coal consumption
Artist Chris Jordan is known for his creative representations of American consumption habits, but even he was shocked to find out the numbers involved in producing coal-fired electricity. After learning about mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian range, Jordan decided to illustrate just how much coal we consume each day — and the project turned […]
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Why CO2 regulation will lead to lower electricity prices
An observation on the greenhouse gas policy debate: Excluding those who question whether we need a GHG policy at all, the debate is fundamentally one about where certainty is most important. Some think the most important thing is price certainty and argue for a tax. Others think the most important thing is emissions certainty and […]
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Can we really make the drive-thru a source of power?
My father believes that the one modern invention above all others to contribute to the downfall of the planet, not to mention our civilization, is the drive-through — or, in the spirit of efficiency on which it’s based, the drive-thru. Your idling could light this sign!Not only does it encourage laziness and obesity by tempting […]
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Making Buses Cool Again
Transmilenio municipal buses are seen on a street of Bogotá, Colombia (from a post first published here). Transportation is responsible for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. This means that bold changes in transportation policies — for both the developed and developing world-must be part of solving the climate crisis. The trick is […]
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What the heck is CCS and can it really help fight climate change? An expert explains
Artist’s rendering of a power plant with CCS technology.Image: Prosjektlab/BellonaIt is conventional wisdom among People Who Matter that burning coal is going to continue, even accelerate, no matter what kind of legislation is passed or international agreements are forged. That’s why carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) — technology that buries power-plant carbon dioxide emissions underground […]
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So what is carbon anyway?
This is an excerpt from the book The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Greatest Threat, newly released in paperback. Carbon is all over the news, but what is it?“You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious play of carbon amounts to.” — Michael Faraday Welcome to the Carbon […]
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Coal the culprit in rising emissions intensity
I wrote last week about a curious fact: even though total CO2 emissions from the US electric power sector have dropped during the recession, the emissions intensity of the US power supply — that is, the amount of carbon per megawatt hour produced — actually inched upwards. The decline in total emissions is good news […]
