‘Climate’ Archives
Much ado about methane
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, but it also has an awesome power to really get people worked up, compared to other equally frightening pieces of the climate story. What methane are we talking about? The largest methane pools that people are talking about are in sediments of the ocean, frozen into hydrate or clathrate deposits (Archer, [...]
Pipeline Inspector-Turned Whistleblower Calls Keystone XL a Potential “Disaster”
Mike Klink: Let’s be clear — I am an engineer; I am not telling you we shouldn’t build pipelines. We just should not build this one. By forcing the White House to make a decision on the politically and environmentally-toxic Keystone XL pipeline as part of an agreement reached in December to extend the payroll tax cut, Republicans are [...]
Silence of the Lambs 2: Media Herd’s Coverage of Climate Change Drops Sharply — Again
The danger posed to the nation and the world by unrestricted emissions of greenhouse gases is truly the greatest story never told. JR: I’ll add my thoughts on this story at the end. by Douglas Fischer, cross-posted from the Daily Climate Media coverage of climate change continued to tumble in 2011, declining roughly 20 percent from [...]
German Solar Output Increases by 60% in 2011
Just weeks after the solar industry installed the one millionth system in Germany, the country’s solar trade association announced that the technology accounted for 3% of total energy generation in 2011 — increasing 60% over 2010 to 18.6 terawatt-hours (18.6 billion kilowatt-hours.) Even with changes to the feed-in tariff that have reduced [...]
Confabulation at Climate Cynics’ Confab
Lord Monckton by Mark Boslough, cross-posted from Real Climate The Third Santa Fe Conference on Global and Regional Climate Change was held during Halloween week. It was most notable for the breadth of opinion — and the span of credibility — of its speakers. I have long complained about the lack of willingness of most contrarians to attend [...]
The Top 10 Anti-Environmental Things Congress Did in 2011
by Miles Grant, cross-posted from the National Wildlife Federation How bad was 2011 for America’s wildlife, air, water, land and public health? After taking 191 anti-conservation votes, even the House of Representatives’ own members called it ”the most anti-environment House in the history of Congress.” That’s not to say the last year [...]
PBS Covers Link Between 2011′s “Mind-Boggling” Extreme Weather and Global Warming: “It’s Like Being on Steroids”
Mainstream news outlets spent a lot of time in 2011 covering the record-breaking year for extreme weather in the U.S. But only a few of them spent much time exploring the link between those events and global warming (see With No End in Sight for Texas Drought, ABC News Explains: “Every Farmer in the World Will Be Affected by Climate Change” [...]
Broader + Deeper = Greater Savings in Energy Efficiency
by Brenden O’Donnell, cross-posted from the Rocky Mountain Institute This is part two in a three-part series published at RMI on Turbocharging energy efficiency programs. The momentum for electric utilities to achieve high levels of energy efficiency savings has never been greater. Regulation has taken the lead. Utilities operating in [...]
Turbocharging Energy Efficiency 1: Utility Efficiency Program Budgets Double to $5.4 Billion
by Matthias Bell, RMI, and Dylan Sullivan of NRDC, cross-posted from the Rocky Mountain Institute This is part one in a three part series published at RMI on turbocharging energy efficiency programs. The utilities in Ohio will tell you that they’re nothing like the energy efficiency leaders in California, Oregon, Vermont, or Massachusetts. [...]
Big Environmental NGOs: The End of Incrementalism in 2012?
by Toby Webb, cross-posted from the Smarter Business blog US environmental NGOs, along with other, more globally minded ‘green’ and conservation-minded NGOs, have been poorly led in recent years. They’ve blown a series of chances to help businesses change using a nuanced approach. Their approach been too cut and dried, too [...]
