Climate Change

Congress might be a little preoccupied this week with saving the world from the consequences of the overleveraged, unregulated excesses of the financial industry, nevertheless, they may actually make time to find a way to create a package of tax credits that will bolster the renewables industry, keeping its incredible recent momentum going.  Senate to […]

Permafrost , I wrote about the problem of thawing permafrost here recently.  One group of researchers in Canada, at least, believes that permafrost is more "stubborn" than previously thought and will melt more slowly than predicted.  See this story from AFP.  The qualification in this is that the uppermost layers of permafrost may degrade as […]

There are two important reports just out on energy efficiency.  One is from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the other is from American Physical Society.  There is also a major building energy conservation program getting underway in the UK.  (I have written about the critical subject of energy efficiency here, here and here since […]

In my review of a really great read, Cape Wind, I mentioned Bluewater Wind's proposal for Delaware waters.  There was an informative story in yesterday's "NY Times" magazine on this project:  Wind-Power Politics.  It's got some great inside politics on how the Bluewater project forged ahead, was sideswiped by some key state legislators working with […]

I am not going to say a lot here about how Governor Palin and the Republicans are treating the climate change issue at this point.  I looked at McCain and Obama back in June.  It is very interesting to note, though, that Palin's entry in the race has generated a huge amount of ink,  and […]

Green Jobs , A report out yesterday from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and commissioned by the Center for American Progress, says that a $100 billion, two-year national investment in renewable energy, mass transportation, and a "smart grid" for electricity, would yield two million new jobs, with a […]

I wrote recently here about the (really) enormous carbon sequestration potential of the terra preta approach to soil enrichment for agriculture.  Well, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the earth already has sequestered many billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane over time.  The bad news is that as the world warms, the […]

Google and EGS , This press release from Google, Google.org invests more than $10 million in breakthrough geothermal energy technology, describes their participation in fostering a new approach:  Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).  Working with two companies and SMU's Geothermal Lab, they hope to bring EGS into full flower soon. As I have pointed out before, […]

I wrote recently about some truly exciting developments in soil reclamation with enormous potential for agriculture.  (See The Earth.)  There is great news in much of this if we pay attention and give these low-tech, largely low-energy-intensive approaches the focus they deserve.  The (really) bad news is that although fertilizers have increased agricultural output over […]

California – I wrote last year about Urban Planning as a (Powerful) Tool Against Climate Change and I had the opportunity after that to do an article, also in the context of planning, about the great things that are happening with Sustainability at the Airports.  (I’m doing research now for another article on the planning ins […]

"The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations took place in Accra, Ghana, from 21-27 August. The Accra Climate Change Talks took forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto […]

Chokepoints – I’ve written a good number of times about various big renewable energy projects coming on line and in the pipeline, how $7 trillion is one number that a leading expert predicts is going to be the sum total of renewable business globally just a couple of decades down the road, and how distributed […]