The Answer, My Friend – Wind Farm Off Cape Cod Clears Hurdle is the story from the “NY Times” the other day. As you know, offshore wind projects have been hurtling forward in Europe, but have lagged years behind in the US. The Cape Wind project generated an extraordinary and largely unforeseen backlash when it was proposed in 2001. While the opposition has gone through its paces, other projects have come to life on the Atlantic Coast , see Offshore Wind in the Northeast. With the green light for Cape Wind from the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, the developer, Jim Gordon, says he thinks construction can begin late this year and he can get power up and flowing by the end of 2011. Score one big one for the Environment over NIMBY.
Soot – When Rajendra Pachauri addressed the Asia Society (see last post below), he had a little video from TERI on its “Lighting a Billion Lives” project. This aims to employ solar PV to power lanterns all over rural India. What I would have liked to ask him was how TERI and others are addressing the cooking smoke that causes such extraordinary damage to health throughout the developing world and, very much not incidentally, exacerbates global warming. See Black Carbon and Solar Cookers.
An article the other day from “The Independent” highlighted new research on the importance of reducing particulate pollution. A study by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies “shows that cutting down on the pollutant, which has so far been largely ignored by climate scientists, can have an immediate cooling effect , and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution at the same time.”
“The Independent” has great coverage on climate change. For many more stories, go here.
“Lawful Excuse” – Here’s a story I missed from September, also reported in “The Independent.” Owing to a wonderful quirk of British law, activists from Greenpeace, who caused more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, successfully argued that ” they had acted lawfully, owing to an honestly held belief that their attempt to stop emissions … would prevent further damage to properties worldwide caused by global warming.”
Jim Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute, testified at the trial. As reported here, Hansen called for ” an immediate moratorium on new coal-fired power plants that do not capture or sequester CO2.” According to the article, there is some dissension in the highest reaches of the British cabinet about how to proceed on these plants.
(See also Coal Takes Some Lumps and Baby, It’s Coal Outside from the blog for more on how coal-fired plants are hitting the wall here in the US of A.)
Climate Law – Speaking of the law, here’s another positive development: Center For Climate Change Law Launched At Columbia reads the release from Columbia Law School. Mike Gerrard, one of the premier environmental lawyers and environmental law thinkers in the country, is heading up this new effort. As we move ahead with a federal cap-and-trade regime, and get closer to a comprehensive international agreement, climate law is going to be center stage. Columbia University is well placed to help develop the law and the lawyers to execute it.
Essay Competition – As my FPA colleague, Cassandra Clifford reported the other day at her excellent blog on Children, the World Bank has a competition for students on the essay subject: “How Does Climate Change Affect You?” Go here for more.
Carbon Market Burgeoning – Point Carbon, a superb ” provider of independent news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets,” had an eye-catching release last week: “4.9Gt CO2e traded in 2008 , up massive 83% on previous year.” It’s subtitle was equally arresting: “Carbon market worth almost €100bn in 2008, more than double 2007’s figures.” Not chopped liver. As we move forward with mandatory carbon regimes in the US, Europe and elsewhere, these numbers are going to skyrocket. See any number of my posts on the Carbon Markets for more on what could be the world’s most-traded commodity in just a few years hence.
Crops that Fight Warming – Here’s an item from Reuters that jumped off the screen at me: Sun-reflecting crops could ease global warming. One of the researchers is quoted as saying “We found that different varieties of most food crops do differ in how much solar energy is reflected back to space.” This is a promising approach for a number of reasons, including the relatively low cost of switching over to crops with higher reflective properties and the possibility that farmers could receive carbon credits.
I issued the “FPA Climate Change Challenge” over a year and a half ago here. I wrote “Who’s got a good idea? Okay, I’ll start this off. Are you ready? Since light color reflects heat efficiently (albedo effect), then why don’t we start breeding white grass and get people to accept this for their lawns and golf courses? We should also use these on roofs.” Now I know I’m not daft.
