I wanted to flag two new books to you and a review of them. The first is The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet by Heidi Cullen and the second is The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Eleventh-Hour Fight to Save the Earth […]
Bonn is home base for the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and it’s where meetings are taking place this week to advance international agreement. With Copenhagen in the rear-view mirror and Cancun up ahead, there is a lot of discussion going of technical matters, and lots of side meetings […]
If increases in global air temperatures or decreases in Arctic sea ice aren’t enough to convince you of the clear and present danger of the climate crisis, then maybe looking at eight other indicators that show the same trend might be. “Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries – Earth has […]
I might more accurately call this post The Catastrophe of the Senate, but that won’t get us anywhere – for the moment. In any event, as you know by now, the concatenation of Republican anti-environmentalism and fear (and no doubt loathing), plus intransigence from Democratic Senators from states where coal and oil are king, has […]
The NY Times editorial page has, for years and years, been pro-nuclear power. With all the usual blinders on. Whatever. But columnist Bob Herbert had a pretty hard-hitting take last week: “We’re Not Ready.” He likens the blithe indifference on safety at offshore oil rigs to that on nuclear power. There is no way to […]
Speaking of roofs – as we were in the last post below – here’s an item from CleanTechnica on the passage of draft legislation in the Senate Energy Committee to help drive a push toward ten million solar roofs in the US by 2020. This is an analogue to the successful California program this now […]
I’ve said all along that US Energy Secretary Steven Chu is a smart guy. He’s got a Nobel Prize in Physics to prove it. (That’s why I say he’s too smart to be taken in by the ongoing boondoggle that is nuclear power.) Here he is talking about a new study from DOE on white […]
(Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with Senator John Kerry and Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner during a media conference in Washington. Photo: AP) If you follow the climate and energy story, I’m not telling you something you don’t know – or couldn’t have predicted: the US […]
For the moment, please refer to my comment on Joe Romm’s tirade about President Obama’s “failed presidency” in light of the decision by the Senate Democratic leadership’s to punt on climate change and energy. If Obama had tried harder, Romm opines, we’d have cap-and-trade. I have enormous respect for Romm’s perspectives and his energy, but […]
As Russia fights to protect land sown with wheat, barley and other crops from record high temperatures, seventeen regions have declared emergencies because of the severe heat and drought. Summer heat may destroy crops in Russia With temperatures likely to remain as high as 36° Celsius (96.8° degrees Fahrenheit) for days to come, Russia’s Agricultural […]
In talking about the limitless potential for renewables last week, I mentioned the letter from three key ministers from France, Germany and the UK calling for more GHG reductions in Europe than are now in law. I also mentioned the backlash from some business interests. An article in the FT today describes a letter from […]
Stephen Schneider was one of the most influential climate scientists in the world. His career covered four decades. He did both the very heavy lifting of research and served to help the public understand the complexities of the subject and the stark reality that the science has been telling us for decades. He has been […]
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