Climate Technology

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  • Electric car ad from 1912

    Matt Novak of the always worthwhile blog PaleoFuture just stumbled across this ad for an electric car — from 1912. The Columbus Buggy Company once employed 1,000 people in a factory that produced horse-drawn carriages, and at the dawn of the automobile it attempted to make the leap to motorized versions. At the time, there was nothing odd about […]

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Giant banks screwing the economy are also screwing the climate, says report

    When they're not making massively leveraged bets on the collapsing value of your savings account, the world's largest banks are doing their best to destroy the ability of this planet to support human life, says a new report. Watchdog group BankTrack investigated which banks are financing Big Coal, and discovered that America's largest financial institutions […]

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Interactive map shows hybrid and electric car sales in your area

    See the map This interactive map from NPR, which shows hybrid and electric car sales figures across the U.S., is a handy way of calculating the hippie concentration of your area at a single glance. But it also might help predict which areas will get EV infrastructure soonest, because of high demand. Also, it's kind […]

    Jess Zimmerman Technology

  • The next small thing: How sustainable neighborhoods could reshape cities

    Lower Downtown Denver has become the city’s night life hub — and a laboratory for community-level sustainability.Photo: Wally GobetzI once worked for a New Yorker who loved to wisecrack that the only difference between Denver and yogurt was that “yogurt’s got culture.” Looking at the Mile High City’s endless sprawl of lookalike, Anywhere, U.S.A. subdivisions, […]

    Greg Hanscom Technology

  • Re-Occupy Main Street: Entrepreneurs revive down-and-out business districts

    Designer Will Phillips (pictured) and John Bolster have opened Sandtown Millworks in a former bank with help from a Operation:Storefront grant.Photo: Elizabeth Evitts DickinsonLast week kicked off that special time of year when indulgence and guilt face off in the ultimate death match, prompting headlines like this one in the “healthy living” section of the […]

    Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson Technology

  • Behind closed doors, Obama administration politicizes the regulatory process

    When former Harvard Law Professor and eclectic intellectual Cass Sunstein was named administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), conservative, industry-oriented Wall Street Journal editorial writers enthused that his appointment was a “promising sign.” A slew of subsequent events has proved their optimism well placed, as we have noted repeatedly in CPRBlog. […]

    Rena Steinzor Technology
  • sun over solar panel
    sun over solar panel

    Renewables trump fossil fuels for first time ever

    Last year investors poured $187 billion into electricity from renewable sources (wind, sun, biomass, etc.), versus $157 billion for fossil fuels, calculates Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The progress of renewables has been nothing short of remarkable,” United Nations Environment Program Executive Secretary Achim Steiner said in an interview. “You have record investment in the midst of […]

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Renewables in the U.S.: Growing fast, but not fast enough

    Last month, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released the “2010 Renewable Energy Data Book” [PDF], which is a cornucopia of charts, facts, and figures on energy use in the U.S. The top-line conclusion for climate hawks is familiar: Renewable energy is growing rapidly, but not rapidly enough; it remains a small fraction of overall […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • India could boycott Olympics over Dow Chemical sponsorship

    The Olympics is supposed to be all about fellowship and camaraderie, but the London Olympics Committee might have cozied up to the wrong crowd. Dow Chemicals is set to sponsor the wrap that will cover the Olympic Stadium, and as a result of the company's involvement, the Indian Olympic Association could boycott the Games altogether. […]

    Sarah Laskow Technology

  • After-school EV club is so much cooler than yearbook

    In Kansas City, Mo., high school students enrolled in the after-school program Minddrive are building an electric car. They meet three times every two weeks. They started with a decade-old Reynard Champ Car, and have turned it into an electric vehicle that will drive from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Diego, Calif., over their spring break. […]

    Sarah Laskow Technology