Environment

The Big Oil lobby is always talking about how unreliable wind and solar energy are. They say the wind doesn’t blow all the time, and the sun doesn’t shine at night. But actually, there are ways, such as hydropumps, to store renewable energy for use later. And increasingly sophisticated computer programs are getting good at […]

Wind energy is on a roll in the United States, having doubled since 2008 to 50 gigawatts, enough to power 13 million homes. So why is Mitt Romney bad-mouthing it in favor of dirty, world-destroying fuel like coal? Even other Republicans are annoyed at Romney about this stance, and on Tuesday President Obama had a […]

It is not proper to speak of “climate skeptics,” since all scientists (including we social scientists) are skeptical of all data and theories every day, all the time, and are willing to change our position if enough information and analysis emerges to challenge the old paradigms. But beyond just skeptics, there are always in any […]

The solar-powered Solar Impulse airplane built by a Swiss concern, having flown successfully from Madrid to Rabat, has just completed a flight over the Moroccan countryside that included having to get above the Atlas mountains: This video on the earlier Europe-to-Africa passage shows the plane in flight: I like flying, but am aware that the […]