Green Energy

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — The adoption of wind and solar for electricity generation around the world is happening at a growing pace, and the likelihood is that it will displace hydrocarbons in fifteen to twenty years (decades sooner than Big Coal, Big Oil and Big Gas expect). Here are some stories […]

Climate Change

The End of Dirty Coal? Britain CO2 Falls 10% on Coal Plant Closings

contributors

The Tree | — The UK could soon see coal use fall back to levels last seen during the industrial revolution as yet another uneconomical coal plant shuts its doors. On Wednesday, energy operator SSE announced the closure of its Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire, blaming rising costs, citing the need for the […]

Climate Change

Tesla batteries: just the beginning of how technology will transform the electric grid

contributors

By Michael McElfresh | (The Conversation) | – Tesla Motors already makes batteries for its electric cars. On Thursday, it’s expected to introduce battery systems for homes, businesses and electric utilities. The spread of cost-effective batteries will fundamentally change the way the electric grid operates. Combined with other innovations, batteries in homes and businesses will […]

Acidification of Oceans

Anger Translation: Why Obama was Ranting against GOP Climate Policy at Press Dinner

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Comedy Central show, Key and Peele, made famous a bit by Keegan-Michael Key on Obama called the “Luther, the anger translator,” which plays on the president’s laid back approach to controversial issues. But at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner, Obama outdid “Luther” in ranting against climate […]

Acidification of Oceans

Fossil Fuels have to Stay in the Ground: But Renewables are anyway Cheaper

contributors

By Will Steffen and Martin Rice | (The Conversation) Ninety per cent of Australia’s current coal reserves will need to be left in the ground for Australia to play its role in limiting warming to no more than 2C. That’s according to a report released today by the Climate Council, “Unburnable Carbon: why we need […]

Acidification of Oceans

Top Ten ways to prove you Love the Earth on Earth Day

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – I was a junior in high school on April 22, 1970, on the first Earth Day, called for by Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wi) (d. 1981). The road leading to our school had been littered with trash, and a group of us went out with black plastic bags and […]

Acidification of Oceans

If Climate Change ends Capitalism, what good are Climate Economists?

contributors

By David Ray Griffin | (Informed Comment) – Since the 1970s, when he essentially founded the economics of climate change, William Nordhaus had been considered its preeminent authority. According to a fellow economist, the optimal economic policy had for decades been simply “what Bill Nordhaus said." This view had been unquestioned, said a 2013 article, […]

Climate Change

China’s Big Clean-Up: Asia’s Hope

contributors

By Mark L. Clifford | (Author of The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s Environmental Emergency) – Asia sometimes feels like one big environmental emergency. Breathing Beijing’s air on a bad mid-winter’s day is more dangerous than breathing the smoke in a forest fire. The appearance of thousands of pig carcasses floating […]

Energy

Clean Disruption: Why Conventional Energy and Transportation will be Obsolete by 2030

contributors

Tony Seba | “Tony Seba gives the keynote address at the NZ SmartGrid Forum at the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand, March 31, 2014. The keynote is titled “Clean Disruption: Why Conventional Energy and Transportation will be Obsolete by 2030″. In this keynote, Seba highlights four areas where the combination of exponentially improving […]