WE CAN STILL SAVE THE PLANET
UK Solar Capacity Grows 900% in 18 Months
Renewables may get a fraction of the government support that nuclear did in the beginning , but that doesn't mean that the support isn't working. Take the example of the UK, for instance. I already had anecdotal evidence of a solar boom with my parents, brother and many of their neighbors going solar on the back of tumbling prices and significant feed-in tariff subsidies. New figures would seem to confirm the anecdotes, with Energy Matters reporting that UK solar capacity grew a staggering 900% in just 18 months :
Innovators and Innovations
Sep 8th 2011, 14:54 by A.M. | VENICE VENICE is renowned for its canals, gondolas, and its glamorous film festival. It is less well known for its green credentials. Yet the work of a team of scientists sifting through micro-algae on the neighbouring island of Pellestrina may change that. Researchers on this tiny, thin strip of land aim to power the city's entire port by harnessing the bio-energy potential of algal life. They are busy identifying which of the lagoon's native species of unicellular micro-algae can be bred in new bioreactors to provide efficient biomass for electricity and motor fuel production.
Algal energy: Venice turns green
Photo: out of ideas via Flickr/CC BY Leave it to the nation's premier fake newspaper to pen the best real article on climate change I've read in weeks. Unless you're one of these people , you know the Onion's schtick pretty well by now (satirical, zeitgeist-skewering news stories often pegged to current events). So you'll probably know what to expect from an article entitled " We Need To Do More When It Comes To Having Brief, Panicked Thoughts About Climate Change "...A snippet: The 20 hottest years on record have all taken place in the past quarter century. The resulting floods, wildfires, and heat waves have all had deadly consequences, and if we don't reduce carbon emissions immediately, humanity faces bleak prospects.
Why Nobody Does Anything About Climate Change, As Explained by The Onion
Bill Clinton Slams GOP Climate Deniers During Global Initiative Conference
"We look like a joke, right?" Former President Bill Clinton wasted no time at his annual philanthropic conference with an attack on GOP climate deniers. At the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual NYC meeting, Politico reports that the former president said , "If you’re an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial ...
Route of proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline — which would carry unstable, corrosive, goopy, hard-to-clean-up bitumen right down the middle of the country — could be a tempting target for terrorists. That’s one of the points I make in a new “Room for Debate” post on the New York Times website.
Keystone XL could be a terrorist target—and more from my post in the N.Y. Times
The Environmentalists
Senate Dems finally move disaster aid - On Congress
September 13, 2011 Senate Democrats were successful the second time around Tuesday, narrowly advancing a $7 billion disaster aid package that Republicans blocked a day earlier. On a 61-38 vote, all 53 members of the Democratic caucus and eight Republicans from disaster-afflicted states agreed to move forward on legislation that would help areas of the country hit by Hurricane Irene and recent tornadoes, flooding and wildfires. Sixty votes were needed. Republicans who cast an “aye” vote were Sens.
Is A Just And Sustainable Global Governance Possible?
Globalization is a fact of our daily life. A decision made in the US, China or Europe by governments or corporate entities will affect what we eat, the energy we use, what we buy, and can even have an impact on how we are kept informed of world events. This is, of course, considering that a large fraction of news outlets are controlled by diversified mega-corporations with either an economic or a political agenda at stake in reporting the news. The Globalization Of The Corporate Empire
Click on the map for a closer look at oil and gas wells in the United States and offshore. Click on the map for a larger view of shale gas plays in the continental U.S. Drilling for oil and natural gas is growing across the United States. The use of hydraulic fracturing has opened up resources in many parts of the country where drilling was not previously occurring. Although drilling can create jobs and income, many fear the effects of drilling on their health, land and quality of life.
Don't Get Fracked!
Even as it takes fire over its $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, the Energy Department intends to keep pushing billions of dollars in additional guarantees in the next week and a half. For the department, it’s a matter of bad timing: Last month’s collapse of Solyndra has thrown a cloud of suspicion over the entire clean-energy loan guarantee program, just as DOE nears a Sept. 30 deadline to close on $9.3 billion in pending applications. Continue Reading Some Republicans have accused DOE of slapping together the remaining guarantees to beat the clock. "With $10 billion still on the shelf, the last thing we can afford from the Obama administration are more of the same sloppy, poor investments in the final rush to get the cash out the door," Rep.
Despite Solyndra scandal, DOE set to guarantee $9.3B more in loans - Darius Dixon
China Goes Solar as America Stumbles
SOURCE: AP/Alexander F. Yuan A worker transports a cart of cement in front of a building covered in a wall of solar panels at a factory of Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. in Baoding. This city southwest of Beijing is promoting itself as a manufacturing center for solar, wind, and other gear by transforming into a living showcase of environmental technology.s Newest Fellows are Innovating for the Environment
Submitted by: John Converse Townsend on 09/13/11 Our hearts and minds have been focused on nature’s power after the recent earthquake in Virginia, and the major blow from Hurricane Irene that tore up the Atlantic coast. But if we look past these most recent disasters, we can see signs of opportunity in the environmental recovery and conservation efforts of Ashoka’s change agents. Ashoka’s French Fellow, Julien Noé , is helping transform the existing electricity market in France with Enercoop, a grassroots cooperative model for incentivizing citizens to rethink their consumption practices while boosting France’s renewable energy production capacity.Workers decontaminate the roof of a kindergarten about 12 miles from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan last month. Several hundred Japanese seniors have volunteered to take part in the cleanup effort. Hiro Komae / AP
Japanese Seniors: Send Us To Damaged Nuclear Plant
An Alternative to Coal Jobs
Photo courtesy of Paul K Anderson. Used with permission. If coal export terminals are too risky for many ports because of their checkered past on the West Coast , there is a alternative strategy for economic development: clean up and redevelopment of polluted port sites. It’s a strategy that is proving to create many more jobs than coal, and with far less pollution. First, though, to understand how poorly coal export stacks up, let’s consider the facts at Longview.I love a big enviro event that doesn't require thousands of flight to Washington DC. Heading to the capitol is not the only way for us to be heard. That's why on Saturday I'll be at the Moving Planet event that's in my home city of San Francisco -- and chances are there is an event in or near your community , too (or you can start your own event). So what's Moving Planet?