Climate Technology
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How to make energy savings info compelling
Over at the consistently interesting EnergySavvy.com, they’ve got a neat little post about the kind of cues that increase people’s participation in energy savings programs. They are helping the Department of Energy pilot test the new national Home Energy Score. You can read their post for all the details; I’ll just pass along the conclusions. […]
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How does your supermarket stack up to the world’s greenest grocery store?
The Whole Foods in Dedham, Mass. is bringing new meaning to the word “greengrocer.” It’s a showcase facility, which means it basically tries out all the company’s environmental best practices to see how they work in the wild. The result is a store with an inspiring combination of architectural and procedural innovations: The building’s steel […]
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By 2015, it will be illegal for New Yorkers to throw electronics in the trash
If you thought forcing restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus was an intrusion by the nanny state, get ready for the Mary F'in Poppins of regulations: To prepare consumers and businesses for the arrival of a 2015 law that will ban the disposal of electronics in the trash, New York state is forcing […]
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Deepwater Horizon firm gives execs safety bonuses, with no apparent sense of irony
Transocean, the offshore drilling firm that ran the Deepwater Horizon rig, has given its top execs massive bonuses for having “the best year in safety performance in our company's history.” Seriously. Here’s what the annual report says: “Yeah, some people died and some animals died and some livelihoods were ruined, but that was only April […]
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Obama to encourage America’s truck companies to do thing they were already planning to do
A group of truck fleet-owning companies that collectively owns 275,000 vehicles is scheduled to get a gold star from the president today, as part of the administration's Clean Fleets Initiative. FedEx, UPS, AT&T, PepsiCo, and Verizon are the charter members of a group that is pledging to reduce its collective petroleum consumption by more than […]
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Solar power from the moon is fake, but also real
Solar panels that transform light from the moon into usable quantities of energy: Fake! Solar panels covering the moon that would transmit massive quantities of energy back to earth using lasers and microwaves: Real! Or at least: proposed with a straight face. I think we can all agree that the slide labeled "Master Plan" pretty much sums […]
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In five years, you could charge your iPod with a snap of your fingers
Yeah, sure, if nanotechnology gets out of control it could lead to a scenario where the entire world turns into gray goo. But if it DOESN’T get out of control, it could lead to a scenario where you can charge your iPod by snapping your fingers — or even just with your heartbeat. WORTH IT […]
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China charges up the on-ramp of the electric highway
Electric charging stations like this one in Shenzhen could become a common sight in China if the government sticks to its ambitious EV goals.Photo: Remko TanisWhen it comes to the future of electric cars, as with other green technologies, the wild card is China. The People’s Republic has invested billions in renewable energy and has […]
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Alexis Madrigal chats about Danish wind power and how to fail well (also, sensors)
This is the fourth in a series from my conversation with Atlantic tech channel editor Alexis Madrigal about themes and stories from his new book, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology. DR: Something that comes up again and again in your book is this seemingly irreducible mystery of wind and how […]
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Map: Every nuclear reactor on earth, present and future
Where my nuclear reactors at? HUH!?! Climate Central just rolled out a series of interactive maps to help you figure that out. Here's the world shaded according to how many nuclear reactors each country has: USA! USA! We have 104. That's almost twice as many as France. France is much smaller, sure, but also, they […]