environment
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The Great Transition, Part I: From Fossil Fuels to Renewable Energy
By Lester R. Brown The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about pollution and climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, […]
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Will Obama’s Poll Decline Finally Break the Silence on Climate?
Four years ago, when Barack Obama was running against John McCain for the Presidency and when the climate crisis was not as severe as it has become, both Obama and McCain were in agreement that 1) it existed and 2) action should be taken on it. As importantly, they both spoke about this issue throughout […]
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Oil on Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaac reveals risks of offshore drilling
Images of oil leftover from 2010's BP spill washing up on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaac serve as a sad reminder that it’s impossible to clean up a major marine oil spill.
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King Coal’s Road to Nowhere: the Coalfields Expressway
In the tranquil, misty mountains of southwest Virginia, the coal industry is trying to build its very own road to nowhere. King Coal’s latest scheme is to try and take $2 billion of federal funds — our tax dollars — to build the Coalfields Expressway through rural Southwest Virginia. Coal companies plan to use mountaintop […]
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Obama administration can still protect streams from mountaintop-removal mining, despite setback in D.C. court
Environmental and community advocates got some jarring news Tuesday when a federal judge rejected EPA’s “guidance” on surface mine permitting in Appalachia — the centerpiece of its three-year effort to curtail the environmental damage caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining. While it was unwelcome news, it was not as devastating as portrayed in the initial round of […]
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Hydropower: Dammed If You Do
No, that is not a picture of cooling ponds inside a nuclear reactor. Those are dust covers on the turbines at the Grand Coulee dam. According to the photographer, you have to pass through a metal detector to get this far into the power plant. Come to think of it, the nuclear power industry could […]
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Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies Must Be One of the Major Outcomes of Rio+20
What if I told you that governments around the world were spending almost $1 trillion dollars a year to subsidize activities that are driving global warming? What if I told you that the leaders of the major countries had committed to phase-out these fossil fuel subsidies in 2009 but they hadn’t really done much to […]
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Mark Ruffalo & One Hulking Solar Opportunity in NY
Actor Mark Ruffalo is taking a break from playing a big, green superhero in the movies to talking about something bigger and greener happening in New York: new solar policy. With rising electricity needs, plenty of sunshine, and a local workforce primed for jobs, New York has what it takes to lead the nation’s solar […]
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Critical List: Northeast cap-and-trade program dropped emissions; World Environment Day
It’s World Environment Day — bring out your green-minded celebrities! In the Northeast, power plants’ carbon emissions fell an average 23 percent during the three years of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s cap-and-trade program (compared to the previous three years). By 2050, Latin American and Caribbean countries could be racking up $100 billion in damages […]