A few hours ago, Japan got hit with an earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale, the biggest temblor in more than a century. The damage done extends to at least two nuclear power plants. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the top civil servant in the nation, said that there was a mechanical failure […]
Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency, and Nicholas Stern, the most distinguished economist in the world working on climate change, have an op-ed in today’s Financial Times: Urgent steps to stop the climate door closing. They say we must have a much greater emphasis on energy efficiency, a “price on carbon” […]
Recent concerns about a drought afflicting China’s wheat-growing region and the threat to the supply of wheat available to Chinese people has abated with rain and snow finally arriving in the last two weeks. The New York Times reported that after 50 days without rain in China’s northern wheat-growing region, precipitation arrived to meet budding […]
With every bit of news about instability in the Middle East, oil industry analysts get on TV and tell us that the price of oil is going to go ever higher. On one of the cable networks yesterday, I watched (with some annoyance) a discussion of gasoline hitting $5 a gallon. Over in the UK, […]
The excellent folks at Renewable Energy World have themselves awarded their “2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards — Projects of the Year.” The categories were Solar, Wind, Biomass, Geothermal and Hydro. I was particularly pleased to see The Wild Center in the Adirondacks as the biomass winner. The Wild Center is the brainchild of an […]
Florida’s political bigshots spent part of the week-end at the country’s first hybrid solar/natural gas power plant. Florida Power and Light’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center has more than 190,000 mirrors that cover about 500 acres (202.34 hectares). The mirrors track the sun during the day to focus the sun’s rays onto water-filled pipes. […]
I’ve written about the need we have on this small planet for convergence, including in this post, “Galloping Consumption,” from just about three years back now. The following is a great little movie, succinctly illustrating the situation. Thanks to Germanwatch for this and for all the excellent work that they do. P.S. Further to this, […]
Welcome to the Foreign Policy Association’s relaunched Energy Blog. As we all know, energy comes from a variety of sources with different international political-economic concerns tied each of them. Oil is affected by politics in the Middle East and affects politics around the globe. Coal and natural gas play different roles in global energy and […]
I’ve said this any number of times: Environmental protection is much more about public health than it is about the natural environment. Every time you hear somebody tear down the EPA or some other environmental protection agency, just remember that sometimes they may be the only thing standing between you and lung disease, cancer and […]
As part of its “Room for Debate” series, The New York Times convened a panel of experts to discuss the causes and possible solutions to currently high global food prices, in particular, whether the world is producing enough food. The panelists pointed out that some of the usual suspects from the 2007-2008 crisis are at […]
I noted a great innovation a few years back – kites to enhance the power of ocean-going shipping. Last week, we looked at Sustainable Shipping in general, plus I got a heads-up from the good folks at Forum for the Future on their Sustainable Shipping Initiative. Today there’s a story at GreenBiz.com on Cargill’s plans […]
To what degree are the current protests throughout the Middle East a product of high food prices? A recent Voice of America article noted that though the major causes of the revolts in the Middle East are government oppression, corruption, unemployment, and poverty; “experts say the rising price of food was one of the sparks […]
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