I wrote recently about some truly exciting developments in soil reclamation with enormous potential for agriculture. (See The Earth.) There is great news in much of this if we pay attention and give these low-tech, largely low-energy-intensive approaches the focus they deserve. The (really) bad news is that although fertilizers have increased agricultural output over […]
California – I wrote last year about Urban Planning as a (Powerful) Tool Against Climate Change and I had the opportunity after that to do an article, also in the context of planning, about the great things that are happening with Sustainability at the Airports. (I’m doing research now for another article on the planning ins […]
"The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations took place in Accra, Ghana, from 21-27 August. The Accra Climate Change Talks took forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto […]
Chokepoints – I’ve written a good number of times about various big renewable energy projects coming on line and in the pipeline, how $7 trillion is one number that a leading expert predicts is going to be the sum total of renewable business globally just a couple of decades down the road, and how distributed […]
The IPCC says “Post-consumer waste is a small contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (<5%) with total emissions of approximately 1,300 Mt carbon dioxide-eq in 2005. The largest source is landfill methane ” Still, that’s a lot of GHG. (See the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group III Report “Mitigation of Climate Change” – Chapter […]
We were talking about the ocean. Now let’s talk about the earth. More specifically, let’s focus on the soil , that which gives us the food that all of us need. There is a truly terrific piece in the latest “National Geographic,” Our Good Earth. It looks at all manner of good news and bad […]
These photos are too good not to put up here. They come courtesy of Bill Romatzick. We met Bill and his wife, Sue, both experienced divers, on our vacation. The first is the flying gurnard which I spotted in the sand on a snorkel trip. The second is a sea turtle. The third is a […]
While on vacation, we spent, not surprisingly, a ton of time in the water. There were some perfectly lovely rock reefs right off the beach from where we were staying and that was a great way to get my daughter (7½) going on snorkeling. Here's the thing: When John Muir started the Sierra Club in […]
We were in St. Martin for vacation. The southern part is Dutch and the northern part is French. The whole island uses desalinated water, so I've been thinking about that some more. Here's a succinct piece from "Scientific American" on desalination: Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by taking the salt […]
Here are some items to begin to pick up some of the slack from the past two weeks. We've been away , and there's some interesting stuff to say about that in a day or two. For now, here are some morsels, I hope, for your delectation. More Renewable Stories , I wrote last week […]
The Ocean of Renewables – I came across this fascinating “Salon.com” post recently, Exajoules of Hope, by Andrew Leonard. Leonard writes “How the World Works,” a regular “conversation about globalization.” In the piece, we learn that “A joule is one watt of power for one second. An exajoule is 10 to the 18th power joules. […]
If you want to step back and look at some of the basics, here are some good sources: This from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. From the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report from the Fourth Assessment Report. From the United Nations Framework Convention on […]
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank devoted to "issues of particular concern to African Americans and other peoples of color," recently launched the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change (CEAC). "There is a fierce urgency regarding climate change effects on the African American community," according to the CEAC's […]
I'm bullish on algae. I've written about it here, here and here since April. According to Valcent, you get 18 gallons of biofuel from one acre of corn per year, 700 to 800 gallons per acre per year from palm, but up to 20,000 gallons from algae , and that's in an open-pond system. It's […]
People say that you can’t rely on solar because it doesn’t run at night, besides how are you going to store energy that you don’t need at a given time? Well the folks at MIT seem to have come up with what amounts to all the answers. “With today’s announcement,” reads the press release, “MIT […]