Climate Technology
All Stories
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The Price Is Finally Right
High oil prices raise interest in renewables, and this time it may stick Whenever the price of oil spikes, interest in renewable energy spikes along with it — but despite the perpetual hopes of advocates, interest recedes as prices go back down. This time, though, as oil tops $55 a barrel, it may be different. […]
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It’s All About the Benjamins
Neglect of clean energy hurts economy as well as environment The lack of aggressive clean-energy policies at the federal level is taking its toll on the U.S. economy. As recently as a decade ago, U.S. companies claimed 50 percent of the market for solar photovoltaic panels, but now that number is down to 10 percent, […]
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Tennessee Faults
Conservationists use market to save Cumberland Plateau hardwood forests The 19.4 million acres that comprise the Cumberland Plateau and surrounding mountains in the southeastern U.S. contain more threatened and endangered species than any ecosystem in the country outside California’s Central Valley. But the hardwood forests that cover the area are rapidly being clearcut and replaced […]
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That’s the Story of the Hurricane
Global warming could intensify hurricanes, some climate experts say After this year’s unusually devastating hurricane season, many folks who study hurricanes were quick to reassure the public (and Congress) that normal climatic fluctuations, not global warming, were to blame. But at a press conference yesterday, a group of climatologists, including several present and past members […]
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An interview with Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard, world-class mountaineer, diehard surfer, obsessive fly fisher — oh yes, and founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc. — is as famous for his brio and gutsy outdoorsmanship as he is for his visionary business strategy. A Maine-born blacksmith, Chouinard has built Patagonia, a purveyor of top-quality outdoor goods, into a $230 million company […]
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For the Price of a Starbucks Latte, You Could Save the Whales Too
Group says power plants could cut mercury by 90 percent for cheap Electric utilities could use commercially available technologies to reduce their mercury emissions by 90 percent and it would cost consumers the equivalent of a cup of coffee per household per month, according to a new National Wildlife Federation study. The group looked at […]
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They’ve Been Working on the Railroad
Recycled plastic railroad ties making inroads There are nearly a billion wooden railroad ties holding together the railroads and subways of the U.S. That’s a lot of wood, and thus a lot of trees. It’s also a lot of creosote, a preservative chemical used on wood and deemed by the U.S. EPA “probably a human […]
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Pork-laden corporate tax bill socks it to the environment
Oink, oink. The monstrous corporate tax legislation that recently sailed through Congress — passing in the Senate 69-17 last Monday, only days after it passed in the House — has given the environmental community a terrible case of Coulda-Been-Worse Syndrome. “We’re well aware that this bill reflects the kind of sausage-making, vote-building, pigs-at-the-trough mentality that […]
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Airlines start cutting emissions and raising efficiency Once considered burdensome headaches, techniques to cut pollution and increase efficiency are now being embraced by many large airlines. Why? “It turns out that good environmental behavior is also cost-effective,” said Bengt-Olov Nas of Norway’s Scandinavian Airlines System. The principal driver is rising fuel costs: The price of […]
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The White Man’s Halliburton
White House favoring Halliburton over clean water OK, you might want to sit down, because we’ve got a real shocker here: The Bush administration, headed by two former oil executives, one of whom was the CEO of Halliburton, from which he still receives payments, may be pulling strings to help shield the company against environmental […]
