Climate Technology
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Here come Japan's post-nuclear model solar communities
If you thought Abu Dhabi's uber-green Masdar city was ambitious and/or doomed, just wait until you see what Japan's cooking up. In a pair of nearby cities in Hiroshima prefecture, Fukuyama and Onomichi, a coalition is going to power as much of their grid as possible with solar energy.
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Issa wants cheaper cars, more climate change
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), whose official role as chairman of the House oversight committee is to be an administrative gadfly, is investigating the new fuel economy standard the Obama administration announced last Friday.
Issa is concerned about how the Obama administration negotiated with car manufacturers over these standards, which will push the average fuel economy of the country's fleet of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The problem, according to Issa, is that the standards could make cars cost more money and limit consumer choice. -
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The newest front in green energy: churches
Sure, some religious folks see climate change as anathema to their worldview, but plenty -- probably most -- do not! And with the help of their religious leaders, they're banding together into blocks of citizens who can negotiate for cheaper, cleaner energy, as well as discounts on energy-efficiency retrofits.
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Your next plastic cup could be made out of fish
Plastic is actually a pretty revolutionary material — we wouldn't want to go back to a time before it existed (just a time before people started throwing it in the ocean). But it's made from petroleum, and we haven't really got any to spare. So viable plastic alternatives — corn plastic, algae plastic, chicken feather […]
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Critical List: New fuel economy standards; flat screens use less energy
Both options currently on the table for raising the debt ceiling would cut environment and energy spending.
The president will announce new fuel economy standards -- cars and light-duty trucks will need to be at 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
The EPA is proposing the first air standards for fracking. -
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The biggest green scam in America
Wayde McKelvy raised tens of millions of dollars for a new, clean-energy company that the SEC says was nothing more than an old-school Ponzi scheme.
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The plastics industry will do anything to keep you using plastic bags
Plastic bags are the genital warts of litter -- they're incredibly widespread, nearly impossible to get rid of, and can lead to much worse problems down the line. The only thing that works is prevention -- i.e. not using them in the first place. But the plastics industry doesn't take too kindly to that. Here's a sampling of the tactics the industry has used to keep people from weaning themselves off plastic bags:
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Toyota concept bike has psychic gear shift
Parlee Cycles and tech company Deeplocal are working together on a bike inspired by the Toyota Prius. It's a reasonably slick-looking machine, but the really weird and bizarre part is the "neuron shifting." The bike uses a gaming neuroheadset, which detects the brain's electrical activity like an EEG, to let riders shift between gears using only their minds.
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Conservatives try to force military to accept dirty fuels it doesn't want
The U.S. military has said that it does not want to use high-carbon fuels, but congressional conservatives are trying to force it to.
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Could you use the internet to heat your house?
Servers generate so much heat that they have to be kept in super-cooled rooms, lest the entire Cloud collapse. People's houses need heat, at least in the winter months. Two great tastes that go great together?
