I have been remiss, in the extreme, in my blogging. I'm going tomorrow to what should prove to be an exciting conference, State of the Planet 08, at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. I will report on that soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of tidbits to keep you fed, if not […]
Man, I am a sucker for innovation, for using your head to come up with designs and systems that mimic nature and produce real energy and real energy savings. I’ve been reading a new book on renewable energy and alternative fuels and there’s some wild stuff in there: algae grown using carbon dioxide from power […]
I really do love the coverage in the “Financial Times.” It goes deeper than a lot of sources to give you stories that really mean something, rather than just the latest media frenzy over some political brouhaha or celebrity gossip. It also lives in the critical interface between commerce, public policy and international relations. (You […]
According to CoalSpeak, The Official CoalRegion Dictionary, the above term refers to “tuberculosis, or some virulent strain of TB. Consumption was a common word for tuberculosis many years ago (“consuming’ the lung tissue). “Galloping’ refers to the speed at which the disease progresses.” Ironic, perhaps, that I’m using this term to illustrate one of the […]
Solar Thermal , One of the pleasures of teaching a class on climate change is that students come up with some interesting, stimulating things. In papers recently submitted on renewables, and in following up with a little web surfing, I've come across some further information worth sharing here. I've also been reading a new book, […]
It's been a year since the Foreign Policy Association and I started this blog. There have been 140 posts before today covering a range of topics from developments in legislation, to international relations, to renewable energy, to all sorts of business initiatives, and much more. It's been an education for me and, I hope, for […]
The Heartland Institute organized a gathering of the clans this week in New York City. Skeptics of various shades and stripes sat in on panel discussions and heard speakers make pronouncements along a spectrum of opinion. "Registration for the event exceeded 550" according to one of several press releases I received. I had hoped to […]
The House of Representatives has passed another version of the energy tax package that failed to make it into the energy law passed in December or into the economic stimulus package that became law earlier this month. (See this and this from June on the Senate's failure on the tax portion and also see "Economic […]
Sorry, dear readers, about not being on the blogwaves in the past few days. I plead the press of work and beg your kind indulgence. Here are a couple of quick hitters for now. I do hope to have some heftier posts for you soon. Biofuels and Food – Here’s a leader (Britspeak for editorial) […]
I wrote about one of the several climate change six-hundred pound gorillas at King Coal in November. There was a hard-hitting piece in yesterday’s “Progress Report” called Bad News For Big Coal. (Fair warning: “Progress Report” is a newsletter of the avowedly partisan Center for American Progress, which I’ve noted before, along with the fact […]
Tropical Forest Loss , Following on my last post (see below) about the destruction of hugely productive carbon sinks for conversion to cropland for the production of biofuel feedstocks, it is relevant to see the testimony from three very worthy leaders in the fight against rainforest loss. The House of Representatives' Select Committee on Energy […]
Two recent important studies, published in “Science,” are saying that biofuels are causing quite a bit more harm than good. The A.P.’s H. Josef Hebert wrote this article (appearing in “USA Today”) on one of the studies. “The researchers said that farmers under economic pressure to produce biofuels will increasingly “plow up more forest or […]
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