Climate Technology

Google.org funds V2G demonstration projects

Sweet mama! Google.org is going to give vehicle-to-grid technology a much-needed boost, to the tune of $10 million. The company is going to modify six cars, a mix of Toyota Priuses and Ford Escape hybrids, with batteries that can draw juice from the grid and feed juice back in. The promise of this technology is […]

Prospects May Have Shifted During Flight

Booming airline industry gives nod to climate change The world’s biggest air show opens in France today, and the commercial airline industry is all hepped up on salted peanuts: after two years in the red, it’s expected to reap $5 billion in profits this year. Both Boeing and Airbus announced billions of dollars of aircraft […]

Dorgan Grinder

As oil prices dip, industry faces questions about summer supplies Oil prices dipped from a nearly nine-month high today, and everyone’s atwitter over what the summer will hold. The industry is beset by turmoil, with hostage-takings in Nigeria and turf battles in Gaza the latest contributors to price and supply instabilities. In addition, the U.S. […]

Intel It Like It Is

Tech companies go for the green This week, a consortium led by big tech kahunas Google and Intel kicked off an effort to reduce the power use of the approximately 250 million personal computers and servers manufactured each year. Participants that signed on to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative — including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun […]

The financial giant is ready to take on climate change

The investment firm Goldman Sachs has released an environmental policy framework (PDF) and invested billions of dollars in clean energy and research into environmentally-friendly markets, a stark contrast with the inaction of our own government.

In their environmental policy framework, Goldman Sachs recognizes climate change and its threat to financial markets and general livelihood. Consequently, they advocate limiting emissions, participate in Europe’s carbon market, and have agreed to voluntarily report and cut their own emissions by 7 percent by 2012.

You can find their progress in their 2006 Year-End Report (PDF), which includes the partnerships they have forged, research papers they have commissioned, and even exact numbers for emissions from their real estate utilities.

From GreenBiz News:

Market analysts have called the U.S carbon market a "hibernating giant." With Goldman Sachs leading the way, the conservative wing of Wall Street seems to have woken up. And so the question is: when will lawmakers on Capitol Hill follow suit?

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Honda ditches Accord hybrid

Honda is ditching the Accord Hybrid because it discovered that … are you sitting down? … people who buy hybrids like good gas mileage.

Are the two inextricably linked?

The G8 wants to “decouple economic growth from energy use.” Is that possible? That’s the central question of out times, I guess. Walden Belloon thinks not: The only effective response to climate change is to radically reduce economic growth rates and consumption levels, particularly in the North, and in the very near future. The climate […]

How scary …

… is this picture?

Holy $%#!

The Big Three automakers might just dodge the bullet again. Amazing.

A couple of podcasts for your commuting pleasure

I've run across these shows in the past couple days, and thought fellow Gristmill readers might like to hear them too. The first is Science Friday's "Hour One" from last week. There is a segment on carbon sequestration, which I have yet to form an opinion on, and also one on generating hydrogen. The second, which I'm actually listening to as we speak, is about the economic benefits of "going green." Apparently being environmentally conscious is a smart business move! Go figure. The podcast comes from a series called "TED Talks" and the show can be downloaded here.

Enjoy!