Tricky Tradeoffs

Here's a tough issue to consider. Harvesting energy from wind turbines has proven successful and this technology is one of the fastest growing approaches to alternative energy. But, as the popularity grows, local objections to the aesthetics of wind turbines on ridgelines and even the noise generated by the turbines in some spots has prompted negative responses from residents. As reported in this Boston Globe article, people who have moved to small towns to escape the noise and constant thrumming of industry in cities sometimes object to even the relatively quiet swoosh of turbine blades cutting through air.

Residents say that town officials and company representatives repeatedly assured them that the wind farm would be silent. Instead, they say, the windmills have disrupted their mountainside idyll. On days with low cloud cover, when the pulsing, rushing noise is loudest, wind farm neighbors say it can disrupt their sleep and drown out the rushing brook that was once the only sound here.

"It changes your whole feeling about being in the woods," said Tammie Fletcher, whose mountainside house boasts floor-to-ceiling views of the ridge where the windmills now stand.

We're clearly at a crossroads where dramatic action is needed to curtail the gases that precipitate global warming. Do individual concerns over solitude and silence take precedence? After all, building a 28-turbine wind farm in a rural area probably doesn't feel that much different to the residents than routing a four-lane freeway directly past their homes and businesses. Is it conscionable to steamroll the rights of the individual in favor of a collective initiative that theoretically could affect the lives of every living creature on the planet? It's certainly closer in magnitude to an annoyance when compared to the potentially catastrophic risk of living next to a nuclear power plant, which contains enough fissile material to contaminate an entire state in the event of a meltdown.

Even benign technology, however, when forced upon an individual or upon a community bears serious consideration. This crossroads will be the apex of many debates as we (the collective "we" of humankind) grapple with the monumental transitions that will be necessary to ensure survival in coming years.

Small Temperature Changes, Big Impact

A few degrees of temperature change don't matter very much, right? Why the big concern over global warming? This Boston Globe article illustrates some of the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of temperature variations across New England.

Techno-Fixes Don't Work

The announcement by Richard Branson that he would award a $25-millon prize to the inventor of an effective carbon-sequestration technology solution to combat global warming looks--at first glance--like a terrific way to inspire innovation and tackle the climate change issue head on. At second glance, as Kelpie Wilson describes it in a Truthout article, Virgin, the Dynamo, and the Prize, it's just one more way to circumvent the root causes of the problem, as well as another example of a misguided reliance on technology to get us out of difficult jams.

From this article:

The truth is that we already have all the technology that we need to save ourselves. Most of the world does not drive cars, use air conditioning or fly in airplanes, let alone spaceships. Provide an African village with a few solar panels and they can have lights at night, and a refrigerator to store medicines. Add a satellite dish and a computer, and they have the world's knowledge and culture at their fingertips. If the environment around them is healthy, it can provide everything else they need for a good life - water, food, clothing, shelter, musical instruments and the enjoyment of nature.

The new, post-carbon civilization will require that we be open to radically new ways of living. At the same time that the industrialized world helps African villagers upgrade their lifestyles to include electric lights and computers, it needs to downgrade its own lifestyles to eliminate wasteful consumption and feel the Earth again.

But what will motivate the rich populations of the industrial world to do this? Conventional wisdom says that they will never give up their wasteful luxuries. They will embrace every techno-fix imaginable before making even the smallest sacrifices, because they feel that they have already won the prize. The prize, in fact, is their monopoly over fossil fuels and the concern is that someone - greens, Arabs, Venezuelans or Russians - will take it away. It's no accident that Daniel Yergin's definitive history of the oil industry is called The Prize.

The techno-fix solution has appeal, because it deludes us into thinking we are clever enough to control the mechanisms that make life on earth possible. A more humble approach would admit that we break more things on earth than we fix and arrogance is at the heart of our most threatening problems.

Changing the Patterns of Energy Use

Representative Bart Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, is convinced that government must play a role in changing the way that energy is produced and consumed. Accordingly, he is re-introducing a measure, H.R. 364, to create a research agency to move beyond traditional energy sources and develop technologies to address 21st century challenges.

In Energy Research for All, Alec Dubro of TomPaine.com wrote:

Many of today’s IT chiefs, as well as probably most consumers, choose to believe that the modern computer industry was created by the genius of the marketplace. At this point, much of the development is private sector, but the entire information industry rests on a network of publicly financed and directed research.

And so it must be with energy development. The private sector by definition pays for research with a direct, and ideally rapid, return on investment. Moreover, such research is proprietary, hidden from public view. Then, there is the question about the seriousness of research conducted by the energy companies. If the management of Exxon-Mobil has a choice between pursuing a known technology that brought them $40 billion in profits last year and unknown technologies that may never pay off, it’s not too hard to see where their sympathies and attentions lie.

Taxpayer-funded research, on the other hand, can be broader and less focused, looking well beyond the next quarterlies. ARPA-E, if it materializes, would benefit existing and startup industries, as well as continuing research. And it can meet public standards rather than profit-motivated goals.

Will our energy development proceed in an entirely profit-motivated direction or in a way that meets the goals and standards of the public? This bill could help in the creation of technologies that address public concerns.

5,000 Years Ago

Every now and then a story comes along that effectively illuminates the long, uncertain history of humankind. Here's such a story, triggered by retreating glaciers, that hints at climate catastrophes thousands of years ago and the fate of one man unexpectedly trapped in ice in the prime of his life.

Do Something

Instead of sitting back passively, reading blogs and news items about the perils of global warming, consider taking positive and immediate climate action and participating in Step It Up 2007! It's now 63 days until April 14, 2007, the official National Day of Climate Action, and Step It Up Now! hopes to expand the 599 events planned in 46 states across the country even further.

What are they trying to accomplish? From their Web site:

This is our organizing hub for a National Day of Climate Action--April 14th, 2007. On this one spring day, there will be hundreds and hundreds of rallies all across the country. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

One of the supporters of this initiative, noted environmental author Bill McKibben sums up the sentiments behind the action in this way:

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.

We can sit back and wait for the predictions to come true. Or, we can turn back the forces that drive global warming through concentrated, committed, grassroots action. Which side of the equation would you like to be on?

Tags: global warming, climate change, Step It Up Now!, grassroots

The Greening of Garbage Trucks

Those big, belching trucks that collect your garbage while getting around 4 mpg may soon be replaced by hybrids that produce energy while braking, gain extra energy from stored hydraulic power while creeping around city streets, and shut off automatically when stopped. This same technology, being prototyped and tested in several cities, also makes sense for delivery vans, shuttle buses, and postal vehicles.

As reported by Frank Greve in a McClatchy Newspapers article, Hybrids could turn big U.S. truck fleets green, hybrid hydraulic vehicles capture up to 75 percent of braking energy, compared to the 25 percent that is typical of hybrid electric vehicles.

Right now, however, the purchase incentives are stalled by a crucial component that must be provided by the EPA:

Hybrid trucks seemed to get a major boost from Washington under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which offers tax credits of up to $12,000 per hybrid truck to compensate for their higher price. The incentive was to start in January 2006, but hybrid makers and potential customers still can't count on it.

That's because the size of the tax credit, which the Internal Revenue Service oversees, depends on how much fuel a hybrid truck saves, and the EPA hasn't come out with a system to measure the fuel savings.

Fuel savings could be enormous once this hurdle is overcome.

Glimmerings of Hope for U.S. Climate Change Action

Serious action to contend with climate change has been seriously lacking in the U.S. for the last six years, squelched by the jackbooted dominance of the Bush administration and a compliant, Republican majority Congress. The first stirrings of action are appearing in the Congressional chambers, as David Roberts describes in this TomPaine.com article,
Going for Broke on Climate Change, but the pace and magnitude of this movement may not be as dramatic as befits the planetary challenge.

As Roberts says:

All the buzz has, for the first time in decades, awakened greens to the possibility of fundamental change. But they should remember that the interests of the planet and the interests of the new congressional leadership are not entirely in alignment. Right now, the overriding political objective for Pelosi and Reid is to position the party favorably for the 2008 elections. That means Getting Things Done, passing a bill to show that they, unlike their Republican predecessors, take global warming seriously.

But a climate-change bill that can pass through today's Congress—much less avoid a Bush veto—will inevitably be feeble. Worse, it could lock the U.S. into a slow, bureaucratic response and dampen public pressure to act.

The most promising bill, the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, introduced by Vermont's redoubtable Senator, Bernie Sanders, also has the most teeth. This bill proposes measures to reduce global warming pollutants by 80 percent by 2050.

Tags: global warming, climate change , Bernie Sanders, pollution

Tackling Global Climate Change

The American Solar Energy Society has issued a new report, Tackling Global Climate Change in the U.S.: Potential U.S. Carbon Emissions Reductions from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficency by 2030, that provides a comprehensive picture of the current energy problems and prospective solutions. Good light reading for a winter evening...

Tags: climate change, energy, global warming

Biofuels or Food Crops: Chile Decides

As a reminder that alternative energy solutions don't always present clear-cut scenarios, the government of Chile is struggling to decide whether or not to boost biofuels production nationally, a path that some environmentalists say would divert croplands better devoted to providing food to the nation. In this Inter Press Service News Agency article, Home-Grown Biofuels - Big Time?, Daniel Estrada lays out the issues, pro and con, and in the process frames many of the crucial issues surrounding the biofuels debate.

Tags: biofuels, energy

Worst Polluters Eschew Warming Pact

A rallying cry from French President Jacques Chirac to create a new organization for dealing with global warming threats drew 45 nations across the planet, as detailed in this Boston Globe article. Unfortunately, the worst polluters (the United States, China, and India) refused to sign on.

The call from Chirac comes in the face of the depressingly negative threat scenarios contained in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As discussed in the article:

The world's scientists and other international leaders also said now that the science is so well documented, action is clearly the next step.

"It is time now to hear from the world's policy makers," Tim Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, said Friday. "The so-called and long-overstated 'debate' about global warming is now over."

Once more for emphasis: action is clearly the next step.

Tags: global warming, climate change, IPCC report

Disinformation for Dollars

In a move that clearly indicates the utter desperation of the global warming deniers, the American Enterprise Institute (a thinktank financed largely by ExxonMobil) is offering $10,000 a shot to scientists and economists who write articles that cast doubt on the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The most recent report from this organization detailed harsher consequences if global warming is not reversed.

Science correspondent Ian Sample in a Guardian Unlimited article described the situation in these terms:

The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees.

The letters, sent to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN's panel as "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and ask for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs".

When all else fails, the oil industry knows the value of deep pockets and how to use them.

Tags: global warming, lobbying, climate change, IPCC report

A Vision of Hell

Mark Lyman, author of the upcoming Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, paints a grim picture of life on earth at the end of the century if we don't curb greenhouse gas emissions. In a commentary in The Independent, Lyman's tone is less than cheery as he describes hell on earth:

An eco-alarmist fantasy? Unfortunately not - having spent the past three years combing the scientific literature for clues to how life will change as the planet heats up, I know that life on a 6C-warmer globe would be almost unimaginably hellish. A clue to just how unpleasant things can get is contained within a narrow layer of strata recently exposed at a rock quarry in China, dating from the end of the Permian period, 251 million years ago. For reasons that are still not properly understood, temperatures rose by 6C over just a few thousand years, dramatically changing the climate and wiping out up to 95 per cent of species alive at the time. The end-Permian mass extinction was the worst ever: the closest that this planet has ever come to becoming just another lifeless rock orbiting the sun. Only one large land animal survived the bottleneck: the pig-like Lystrosaurus, which for millions of years after the disaster had the globe pretty much to itself.

Clues as to how the world looks in a long-term extreme greenhouse state also come from the Cretaceous period, 144 to 65 million years ago, when there was no ice on either pole and much of Europe and North America was flooded by the higher seas. Tropical crocodiles swam in the Canadian high Arctic, whilst breadfruit trees grew in Greenland. The oceans were incredibly hot: in the tropical Atlantic they may have reached 42C, whilst at the North Pole itself, the oceans were as warm as the Mediterranean is today. The tropics and sub-tropics were so hot that no forests grew, and desert belts probably extended into the heart of modern-day Europe.

Why does he base this scenario on six degrees?

In the latest report from the IPCC, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked till the end of the century, global warming will raise the average temperature of the planet an additional 6.4 degrees C. It doesn't sound like much until you take a sober look back in time at past temperature indicators.

Related tags: global warming

Human Behavior and Global Warming

As the planet warming forecasts escalate and the developed nations start paying attention, the depth of the problem is evident, but the necessary solutions are still unpalatable to the governments, industries, and those who support unfettered capitalism as the economic system of choice.

As Jean-Marcel Bouguereau, Editor in Chief of Nouvel Observateur, points out (in an opinion piece reposted at Truthout.org):

Suddenly, people are sounding the alarm everywhere. Not without some hypocrisy. Even George Bush mentions, thanks to new technologies, a "post-Kyoto strategy" - while he's refused to sign that protocol. And in Davos, the heads of companies have just salved their collective conscience by increasing the numbers of debates and roundtables on climate change. But only 20 percent of them consider protection of the environment to be a priority. These company bosses know that the break with growth that the Rome Club advocated as far back as 1972 is a death sentence for a capitalism that can't allow itself a drastic reduction in production and material consumption. It's a whole different economy that must be put into effect, based on other values.

Three big obstacles to curbing global warming that typically play bit parts to the energy use issue need to be faced if we're going to make serious progress:

1. An economic system built around the notion of unlimited growth (the creed of the cancer cell)

2. Growing population pressures around the world and the resulting implications on resources and energy use

3. The increasing appetite for meat consumption across the world (this piece, Hard to Swallow, touches on the impacts)

Energy use is important, but it's not the whole story, and I'll explore some of the related issues in future entries.

In Love with the Lusty Wind

Kelpie Wilson is one of my favorite environmental writers, always in the thick of the issues, deeply informed, and not afraid to mix it up a little or confront the opposition directly to get a point across. Her interview style is equally illuminating. In this Truthout interview with wind energy expert Randall Tinkerman, the conversation meanders naturally from the differences in European and American wind power approaches to the viability of some of the latest technologies. Tinkerman has strong opinions on futuristic technologies:

Globally, we need to fill the existing areas of strong resources with the technology that is available or on the drawing boards today. That still requires a large commitment to be accomplished. When we have windpower meeting 20 percent of global use, we can begin to explore some of the more exotic technologies at the fringes of our expertise.

As an example, many people support micro-turbines on buildings as part of our energy future. From an architectural standpoint, that may be cool, and from a showcasing of renewables standpoint, that may be effective. However, given that the cost of energy from the turbines is so much higher, (people like to build where the winds are weakest, not strongest) why not just have city-dwellers invest in the cost-effective modern rural turbines, and ship the power back home?

Lots of good information packed into this interview, providing a revealing snapshot of wind power today.

California 100 Years Hence

Having lived in California for a number of years (before moving to Vermont), this article struck home with unusual forcefulness. It's one thing to speculate on the perils of global warming in the abstract or through effects-laden spectacles like The Day After Tomorrow. It something else entirely to hear sober planners and scientists describing San Francisco and Oakland International airports completely under water, flood surges that would place major highways under several feet of water, and beaches and wetlands disappearing as sea walls go up to try to keep the rising waters away.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean crept seven inches higher during the past century, as global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters.

According to the article, rising waters are proceeding at a pace equal to the worst-case scenarios predicted by scientist, which translates to a three-foot rise within a century.

This is disturbing news for anyone who lives near a coastal area, which includes a growing percentage of the world's population.

The number of people living within 60 miles of coastlines will increase by about 35 percent compared to 1995, the mapmakers say.

This type of migration will expose 2.75 billion people to coastal threats from global warming such as sea level rise and stronger hurricanes in addition to other natural disasters like tsunamis. A reminder of the risks of seaside living came this week in the form of a tsunami that killed at least 350 people and devastated many on Indonesia's Java Island.

One more indication of how inexplicable human behavior can be...

Grass May Surpass Corn as Ideal Biofuel

Soya and corn are the crops usually mentioned in discussions about biofuels, but a group of Minnesta researchers found that grasses, such as wild lupine and goldenrod, offer a carbon-negative alternative. In a special report in New Scientist, Humble grasses may be the best source of biofuel, the research team focused on mixed-species agriculture plots left fallow. The more grass species present, the higher the potential energy yield.

How to Save Trillions of Dollars

While the few remaining global warming skeptics always cite costs as the reason for not immediately imposing measures to reduce global warming gases, a recent study by Tufts University indicates that the savings of taking action now could be enormous when weighed against the costs of catastrophic effects of climate change. Reuters summarized the potential savings indicated by Tufts in this piece, Climate Change Inaction Will Cost Trillions: Study.

Honda Fuel Cell Prototype Breaks Stereotypes

Always an innovator in fuel efficiency, Honda has some new tricks that clean up diesel power and advance fuel cell technology: Honda Shows Off Cleaner Diesel, Streamlined Fuel-Cell Cars.

105 MPG Moonbeam

Out of Camden, Maine comes a homebuilt 105 MPG microcar demonstrating that Yankee ingenuity is alive and well as the downslope of the peak oil era approaches. Powered by a 150cc four-stroke engine, the Moonbeam was fabricated by Jory Squibb for $2339 in materials and a 1000 hours worth of labor. For hauling groceries or traveling around town, this microcar, based on a Honda Elite motor scooter, has a lot going for it.

Action on global warming

Bill McKibben, one of the earliest and most articulate writers on the issues of global warming, notes that Haggling Over Global Warming may be finally giving way to direct action in a number of areas. The question is: which are the best directions to devote our attention given the magnitude of the crisis and the divergence of opinion. As always, Mr. McKibben provides a sound rationale for moving forward on the central issue of our day.

Methane from Permafrost Raises Global Warming Ante

A new phenomenon that affects calculations about increasing greenhouse gases is causing concern about climate scientists. As permafrost melts in various locales around the world, methane is released, a greenhouse gas that has 23 times the heat-trapping capability of carbon dioxide. The risk of dramatically accelerating temperatures is considerable.

Vermont Walk Against Global Warming

Vermonters get involved in the movement to do something real about global warming, as described in this Burlington Free Press story, Vermont Walk Against Global Warming.

Honey, We Killed the Planet

Nicholas Von Hoffman writing for The Nation speculates on the day (maybe only 40 years hence) when the last remaining stores of oil will sit in the basements of the rich, like vintage wine, as the planet becomes a vastly different place for humans. Read it and weep: Honey, We Killed the Planet.

Not on my ridgetop

Even in places where there is a strong environmental ethic in play (such as Vermont), the resistance to wind turbines on ridgetops is a highly contentious issue, as discussed in this Wired article. Even when developers try to place the turbines in remote settings, local folks often rise up in protest, not wanting to impair the aesthetics of the region. In fairness, however, consider the aesthetics when global warming pushes the temperatures a few degrees higher and turns forests into wastelands. Or, consider the aesthetics of mountain-top removal for coal or the impact statewide of a nuclear power plant mishap that contaminates a sizeable portion of the state. Wind turbines are clearly the preferable choice.

Cities, States Act Alone to Thwart Global Warming

Given the lack of federal leadership on the global warming issue, cities and states across the country are engaging in direct action, enacting legislation and mandates that collectively are making progress in areas long neglected. This article from the Washington Post, Cities, States Act Alone to Thwart Global Warming, illustrates a number of encouraging examples.

Ocean Power Can Be a Global Warming Cure

A demonstration is ready to launch in the San Francisco Bay, an area where an enormous tidal flow offers the potential for electricity generation near the Golden Gate bridge, as described in this article, Ocean Power Can Be a Global Warming Cure.

Jellyfish Plague Blamed on Climate Change

One more example of how climate change is impacting the world (and making it dicey to take a swim): Jellyfish Plague Blamed on Climate Change.

Tesla Roadster outperforms Jaguar XKR

Well, it might be a bit expensive ($80,000), but it's fast and has a 250-mile range. Welcome a new electric-powered car on the scene that is capable of outrunning a Jaguar XKR: Electric car gets speed boost with the Tesla Roadster.

Coastal homeowners may feel heat of global warming

Coastal homeowners may feel heat of global warming as insurance companies re-evaluate the potential costs of extreme weather events. A company that forecasts the risk of natural disasters for the insurance industry, Risk Management Solutions, updated their computer model recently and determined that average annual insurance losses will increase 25 to 30 percent in the coastal Northeast, primarily because of hurricane activity.

Wood-burning plants gain power

Wood-burning facilities for generating electricity are getting fresh consideration throughout New England as oil prices rise and other options are struggling for traction: Wood-burning plants gain power - The Boston Globe.

Time to Get Serious About Climate Change

Quasi-scientists and pseudo-scientists (aka oil industry flacks) have industriously worked to deflect the judgment and knowledge of genuine scientists and climatologists, often elbowing their way into the media and purporting to offer an alternative view to the 98 percent of the scientific community that recognizes human-induced climate change is real and threatening the survival of many different species (including the short-sighted creatures causing the problem). Lately, however, the media seems to be shining a light on more responsible viewpoints, as this article from the San Francisco Chronicle illustrates; Time to Get Serious About Climate Change.

Behind The Blackouts

Blackouts being experienced once again across America, resulting in deaths and disruption as heat waves sizzle from New York to St. Louis to California, are a distinct byproduct of electric power deregulation, Tyson Slocum argues in this article, Behind The Blackouts, published on TomPaine.com.

The best cure for the disease: locally controlled power systems...

European Heat Wave Shows Limits of Nuclear Energy

The nuclear power plants that are supposed to save us from the effects of global warming have one small problem: they don't work very well when it gets warm. France, heavily reliant on nuclear power, was forced to shut down many plants during the recent heat wave in Europe as drought-impacted rivers couldn't supply the volume of cooling water needed to keep the plants operating safely. If you can't see the irony here, you should spend some more time listening to the nuclear power boosters, who still haven't strayed that far from their original cheerleading slogans and their promises of "power too cheap to meter." For the full story: European Heat Wave Shows Limits of Nuclear Energy.

No More Oil Wars; Clean Energy Now!

Prevaricators and rationalizers of every stripe snort at the notion that there could be any relationship between our oil gluttony and the spiraling cycle of warfare in the Middle East, but, for those willing to take a hard look, the evidence is abundant. Spreading democracy is a convenient banner for ensuring control of the known oil reserves--60 percent of the world's total--buried in the Middle East.

Ted Glick, in a special for Truthout, builds a compelling case around the link between the bottomless quest for oil and the endless cycle of war in the Middle East: No More Oil Wars; Clean Energy Now!.

Wildfires are raging -- why isn't concern about climate change?

One more harbinger of the ultimate impact of global warming on the planet: uncontrolled wildfires increasing in prevalence and intensity, as discussed in this article from Grist:

Wildfires are raging -- why isn't concern about climate change? |
By Maywa Montenegro |
Grist Magazine | Soapbox | 25 Jul 2006

More Weird Weather

The recent heat wave throughout California was distinctive not because of record-breaking temperatures, but because of duration of high temperatures over an extended period, as discussed in this San Francisco Chronicle article, THAT WAS THE WAVE THAT WAS / Bay Area's string of hot days is longest on record -- odd weather patterns blamed.

Cooling the Mall, Heating the Planet

For 99 percent of the span of human history, people managed to get by without air conditioning. The fact that we no longer seem to be able to function without air conditioning in our homes, businesses, and autos adds one more factor to the energy consumption equation and also contributes significantly to global warming. Stan Cox of the Land Institute makes the case in this article, Cooling the Mall, Heating the Planet.

NASA Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet

Now what might compel this (odd and twisted) administration to remove mention of protecting the home planet from the NASA mission statement? Perhaps a fear of putting too much focus on the issue of global warming, as implied by this New York Times article.

EUROPE: Global Warming, Not Just Heat Wave

Another summer, another slate of record-breaking temperatures across Europe as more meteorologists and climate scientists weigh in on the numerous indicators pointing to global warming. In this Inter Press Service News Agency article, EUROPE: Global Warming, Not Just Heat Wave, Hervé Le Treut, meteorologist at the French Centre for Scientific Research, stated, "We are observing and suffering the first effects of global warming."

New temperature record in Britain

Great Britain has the longest continuous set of temperature records anywhere in the world. None of those temperatures come near those seen in the last few years, a point noted by the two writers of this article in The Independent. And today is predicted to break all records. Of course, global warming is just an invention of liberal doomsayers.

Innovative Autos Hit the Road

With dinosaur SUVs still rumbling en masse across the roads of America, on the fringes of the mainstream automotive world innovative new vehicle designs are beginning to appear, many of them from smaller firms willing to deviate from the cast-in-iron model that still dominates much of the world. Alternative fuel vehicles, hybrids, tri-brids, urban autos, and other eye-catching form factors are gaining the attention of investors as oil prices top $75 a barrel. In this reprint posted by Obvio, a Brazilian company with some remarkable auto designs, the investment possibilities and future of transportation are considered: Traveling the Highway to a Renewable Energy Future.

More Atomic Bomb Balm From the New York Times

Harvey Wasserman, author of several books on renewable energy, knows his way around the slippery arguments of the pro-nuclear power crowd. So, when presented with the usual misleading and unsupportable line of reasoning in a piece in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, his instinctive response was to dice the article to shreds, point by point, in a strong critique, More Atomic Bomb Balm From the New York Times, As Wasserman points out, referring to a draft report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, nuclear power is clearly a boondoggle:

"To begin with, this very long article fails to mention that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has issued a draft report showing that between 99% and 124% of the nation's electricity can be supplied by renewable means by the year 2020. Since nuclear power supplies only electricity, this simple fact makes complete mincemeat of any pretext for bringing it back. If we can get the juice cheaper, safer, cleaner and more quickly from nature, why build sitting ducks for terrorists that have only 50 years of failure to show for a trillion dollars invested?"

Why, indeed?

Why Nuclear Power Cannot Be A Major Energy Source

The growing chorus of nuclear power advocates, energized by what they see as an opportunity to revive a dead industry, have become more vociferous as of late, claiming that building a new generation of nuclear power plants is the only effective way to contend with global warming and oil depletion. Masquerading as environmentally concerned, scientifically grounded rationalists condescendingly setting the romanaticists of the environmental movement straight, flacks such as Stewart Brand, Patrick Moore, and james Lovelock, have become enthusiastic boosters for the technology, casting it as our only hope for the future. However, if you look at nuclear power at a system theory level, from one end of the fuel cycle to the other, the vision can be seen as fatally flawed. In this piece, Why Nuclear Power Cannot Be A Major Energy Source, David Fleming explains why nuclear power is not a "clean" fuel, not a viable option for the future, and not the only choice in town.

The opening to the article, published on the site of FEASTA--The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability--does a great job in framing the argument:

"It takes a lot of fossil energy to mine uranium, and then to extract and prepare the right isotope for use in a nuclear reactor. It takes even more fossil energy to build the reactor, and, when its life is over, to decommission it and look after its radioactive waste."

"As a result, with current technology, there is only a limited amount of uranium ore in the world that is rich enough to allow more energy to be produced by the whole nuclear process than the process itself consumes. This amount of ore might be enough to supply the world's total current electricity demand for about six years."

Read this article. Pass it on to friends. We only have a few years to start making smart energy choices and adopting a sane approach to our patterns of energy consumption as they affect global climate change. Nuclear power is a dead-end choice wiith the emphasis on "dead."

Weather Extremes and Media Indifference

If you've found the news reports of extreme weather-related events unsettling, you're not alone. However, because of a mainstream-media machine tightly linked to many of the industries that contribute most heavily to global warming, the likely culprit behind these events is generally ignored. Few news stories on floods, hurricanes, droughts, or heat waves suggest any correlation with the steady rise in global temperatures. Most often, these correlations are restricted to the OpEd pages, as is this piece in the Boston Globe, Katrina's Real Name. The disaster unfolding in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast is one more link in a growing chain of anecdotal evidence that corroborates what most climate scientists are saying--the effects of global warming are being experienced already in increasingly deadly ways.

Solar Nanotechnology Arrives

After decades of fits and starts, solar energy gets a boost from some new technology emerging from the Silicon Valley. Offering the promise of mass-produced light-collecting plastics that could be embedded in building materials or spread across rooftops, the nanotechnology firms involved in this pursuit are confident that costs can easily be reduced to levels similar to non-renewable sources of energy. Freedom from the grid may be near at hand.

Climate Change: Warnings of Imminent Disaster Fail on Deaf Ears

The title, Warnings of Imminent Disaster Fall on Deaf Ears, says it all.

California Farmers Embrace Solar Power

The abundance of California sunshine during large parts of the year have helped the region become one of the most important agricultural producers in the world. Now, many California farmers are using that same sunshine to produce electricity, lowering their needs for centralized power delivery, particularly during the long, hot summers. One second-generation farmer, Pat Ricchiuti, has cut his annual $1.5 million energy bill by 50 percent after installing 7,730 solar panels, which generate 1 megawatt of energy.

Nuclear Power is Wrong Answer

Among the many myths that bob around largely uncontested in the mainstream media, perhaps the most glaring is the assertion that nuclear power is the technology of choice to solve the global warming problem. As this Baltimore Sun article, Nuclear Power is Wrong Answer, points out, nuclear power is not clean, green, or sustainable.

The Cost of Clean Energy

Amid the claims and counterclaims over which energy solutions make sense for the future, the Union of Concerned Scientists has compiled a clean energy analysis that pulls together hard numbers and provides a compelling argument for turning to renewable energy options now. The bottom line is that if the United States adopted a 20 percent national renewable energy standard, consumers will save money on energy costs and jobs will be created. You might be surprised by just how much will be saved and how much will be gained.

Ocean Data Support Global Warming Projections

Mounting evidence continues to support the well-established scientific judgment that human activities are warming the planet. A new study confirms that the Earth is absorbing more energy from the Sun than is being reflected back into space, as this article from the Environment News Service, Ocean Data Support Global Warming Projections, details. The latest hard data matches computer models of this imbalance and the lead author calls the research "the smoking gun that should put to rest any lingering doubts about humanity's role in global warming."

The End of Oil Is Closer Than You Think

The title of this story from The Guardian UK, The End of Oil Is Closer Than You Think, says it all. The roller coaster is nearing that first big drop and the ride promises to be wild and wooly.

Lining Their Pockets: The Global Warming Debunkers

Guess who is paying for many of the junk science studies and intemperate critiques of global warming scientists? Why, it's none another than ExxonMobil, the company that has pumped more than $8 million into trying to downplay the greatest threat the planet faces. As Chris Mooney points out in this Mother Jones article, Some Like It Hot, the goal is to undermine the scientific consensus that humans are causing the earth to overheat.

Revisiting Chernobyl

Those who swear by the safety of nuclear power should be airlifted to the Ukraine and left to stroll around the deserted streets of Pripiat to get a small sense of the impact of a large-scale radiation release. This Inter Press story offers some insight: ENVIRONMENT: Some Chernobyl Clouds Will Not Clear.

The latest novel from Martin Cruz Smith, Wolves Eat Dogs takes detective Arkady Renko to the Zone of Exclusion surrounding Chernobyl for a chilling, well-researched taste of the magnitude of the disaster and the effects on the remaining local residents.

Wildly Popular Hybrids

Spiraling gasoline prices have led to booming popularity for hybrid vehicles. As the Toyota sales manager in Baltimore says in this Baltimore Sun story, A Winning Hybrid Shows the Way, "People love this car. We could sell as many as we can get."

Enabling Sustainable Development

Project results unveiled by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this week provide strategically significant information for siting wind turbines and solar collectors, as described in this release from the Environment News Service, Mapping Reveals Earth's Best Sites for Wind, Solar Power. Focusing on 13 developing countries, UNEP hopes to make a difference in helping launch successful sustainable energy developments in regions with limited resources.

Where is the "Sound Science"?

As Derrick Z. Jackson reminds us in this Boston Globe article, President Bush has told us he needs to see the "sound science" on global warming before joining the rest of the world in combating it. A recent report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, commissioned by the United Nations relied on 1,360 experts from 95 countries and devoted $24 million to compile a hard science perspective on the human impacts to our planetary ecosystem (including global warming). The Bush administration to date has been curiously silent on the sobering conclusions of this assessment.

Powerful Winds Aloft

Wind turbine energy systems are prone to the inconsistencies of wind forces near ground level, but at higher altitudes wind forces are persistent and strong. An Australian engineer, Bryan Roberts, has designed an approach to launch self-powered aircraft equipped with wind turbines skyward and working with a San Diego startup company, Sky WindPower, is seeking to commercialize the invention. This Wired article, Windmills in the Sky, provides the details.

Homeland Insecurity: Nuclear Plants Open to Attack

Nuclear power is safe and clean and our only future energy option as long as you don't take into account the mining and transport of uranium, the shutdown of reactors in heat wave conditions (as occurred in France during the record-breaking heat a couple of summers ago), the costs and risks of decommissioning reactors, the storage of wastes, and the possibility that terrorists might crash an aircraft into a reactor facility (as discussed in the Washington Post article, Homeland Insecurity: Nuclear Plants Open to Attack . In the age of terrorism, it would be difficult to find a worse choice than nuclear power to bank on for the future.

Missing the Big Picture

Bill McKibben is always an entertaining read and he's particularly sharp and well focused in this Orion article, On Not Quite Getting It.

Plug-in Hybrids Get Astounding Mileage

Suppose you could take that high-mileage Prius sitting in your garage and modify it so that it gets 180 m.p.g. rather than 45? This is the question that a couple of inveterate tinkerers asked as they set out to make their fuel-efficient car even more fuel efficient by plugging it into the garage wall outlet at night. Not surprisingly, Toyota and Honda frown about this kind of modification to their carefully engineered creations. Will such a vehicle be available commercially any time soon? [New York Times, requires registration]

Hydrogen Fueling Station in Vermont

Thanks to a Department of Energy Grant secured by Vermont representative Bernie Sanders, Northern Power Systems and Proton Energy Systems will be constructing an advanced hydrogen fueling station near Burlington, VT. A partnership with EVermont helped bring about this project, which will begin as soon as local approvals have been completed.

Energy deregulation is good for you

Some of the very same companies that engaged in market manipulation to cheat consumers are now banding together to lobby for more energy deregulation. With an energy bill set to be unveiled in Congress in early April, these stealth lobbyists hope to sway opinion in their favor.

"It is disingenuous for this lobby group to push deregulation policies that they claim are good for consumers when history shows that their own companies used these very policies to profit from the biggest consumer rip-off in history," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.

The Long Emergency

"People cannot stand too much reality," Carl Jung said, as James Howard Kunstler reminds us in this Rolling Stone article, The Long Emergency. The reality that Kunstler paints is truly grim, even for those of us who hope there is a way out of our pending energy crisis through alternative energy and efficiency improvements. The year of peak oil production (as has been projected by other analysts, as well) may be 2005. As we slide downhill, forced to give up the amenities that many take for granted, the behavior of the citizens of our oil-addicted society is likely to be less than civic-minded.

Hot air and global warming

Never underestimate the ability of the current administration to obfuscate in the face of facts and, if that fails, to declare the sun rises in the West, as this article from the Boston Globe, Hot air and global warming, points out.

Rise of Sea Level Inevitable

As discussed in this article from the journal Science, the most recent computer modeling shows that the global warming patterns in place at the moment will result in an evitable rise in sea levels worldwide. This presumes that no additional greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere (which, of course, isn't the case at the moment). As the world's greatest producer of greenhouse gases, the United States, sleeps, the need for urgency grows. The Union of Concerned Scientists offers some suggestions for changes in this piece, Global warming is real and underway.

The official position of the U.S., as expressed by James L. Connaughton, senior environmental and natural resources advisor to President Bush, is that more study is needed, as expressed in this article published by The Royal Society.

Ten Simple Ways to Save Energy

Amidst the earth-shaking news (the latest global warming warnings) and the deeply disturbing news (the opening of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling), sometimes it's good to just step back and consider the day-to-day things you can do to make a difference in this world. This E-Magazine article, Ten Simple Ways to Save Energy, offers tips on personal ways that everyone can cut energy use in their home. If enough people followed this advice, maybe we wouldn't have to sacrifice the few remaining areas where wildlife can thrive to the engines of industry.

Demand for Hybrids Exceeds Supply

The popularity of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles is rising, as evidenced by long waiting lists for available models and steadily increasing production from manufacturers. The winner of a recent contest to create a slogan came up with the phrase "Green Cars Today, Blue Skies Tomorrow" and she is now driving the grand prize, a 2005 Toyota Prius.

Oil Production About to Peak

While forecasts for the point at which oil production worldwide begins to decline have been made by analysts for years, John S. Herold, Inc. breaks the analysis down company by company. Noteworthy for being the firm that first identified the pending collapse of Enron by bringing to light their dwindling profit margins, this latest analysis shows seven of the major oil companies reaching production peaks within 48 months. From there, it's all downhill.

As the executive vice president of Herold puts it, "If the dinosaurs are going extinct, we are trying to figure out which ones are going to go extinct the soonest."

Mount Kilimanjaro Stripped of Snow

For those global warming skeptics, recent photos of Mount Kilimanjaro without its snowcap for the first time in 11,000 years should be reason for pause. How many wake-up calls before the flat-earth crowd gets the message? Reuters tells the story at this link.

Worldwide Wind Power

A new organization, The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), promises to bring together leading forces in this swiftly growing industry, including more than 1,500 organizations distributed throughout 50 countries. As described in this news release, Wind Power Goes Global, from the Environment News Service, this newly formed group represents virtually all of the major wind turbine manufacturers, companies that have a collective wind power capacity of 47,317 megawatts.

Battles Over Wind Energy

It's not too surprising that with wind energy gaining popularity around the world, conventional energy producers are stepping up the attacks. As pointed out in this article, New Dispute Blows Through Wind Energy, the attacks are often deceptive and those with interests in fossil fuel and nuclear energy have a habit of twisting the facts to support bogus arguments.

Biofuel replacing oil in Asia

A number of Asian countries are turning to biofuels derived from local crops to counter the costs of importing foreign oil. Ethanol and biodiesel typically cost more than oil, but these fuels help support agricultural prices and add to the self sufficiency of countries, as described in this article, Asia Pushes Ahead on Biofuel.

Study predicts city flood threat due to warming

Part of my childhood was spent in the tiny town of Magnolia, located on Cape Ann, an energetic half-day bicycle ride from the city of Boston. The mental picture framed by this article in the Boston Globe, Study predicts city flood threat due to warming, gives me that unsettled end-of-the-world kind feeling that I remember from the Cuban missile crisis. We have no divine right to inhabit this planet, and the consequences of our indifference to global climate change may be making this and similar pictures all too real.

Billions Must Change Habits

News has been arriving from every direction lately on the global warming front, much of it bad. Credible scientists are no longer arguing about whether humans are causing global warming; they are discussing the potential impact and the timetables for when that impact will become evident.

Dr. Hermann Ott, the director of the Berline office of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, puts it in these terms: "What we face is an unprecedented challenge: Compared to what we're up against now, the nuclear threat was tiny. What we're faced with now is as destructive as a nuclear war, but unlike the Cold War. There is no individual here with his hand on a launch button. Billions of people have to take individual decisions about what they're going to do - and it's running up against vested interests. It has massive implications for the way we think about our economies and it runs up against the limits of a capitalist society. Our choices now are simple: hope for a technological miracle or try to steer the tanker a little bit from its current path and hope that that's sufficient. Mankind is, for the first time, in the position to actually do this, to consciously steer a different course. We've never had or even been able to do that before - but now we can and it's our biggest challenge. Nature does not forgive."

For more of the interview with Dr. Ott, visit: It's Too Late to Stop Climate Change.

Tilting at Windmills

Is it an either/or situation? Either we stop putting barriers up against the construction of wind energy installations in remote places or we can kiss all of the pristine wilderness goodbye... Bill McKibben answers the question in this New York Times story, Tilting at Windmills.

Power from the Waves

Marine power doesn't get much attention, but the source of this power--the ocean--offers abundant possibilities, as detailed in this article, U.S. Cities Eye Ocean Waves for Power Supplies.

Thousands of Jobs from the Climate Stewardship Act

The Climate Stewardship Act, a bi-partisan effort to spur technological innovation in renewable energy and create jobs, tackles two problems at once. As explained in this article, Global Warming Bill Means Thousands of New Jobs, this legislation could generate 800,000 new jobs by 2025.

Windmills and the Dutch

New innovations in wind energy are coming out of the Netherlands as the Dutch turn a traditional energy source into a modern technology being embraced across Europe. For details, visit: Wind Energy Gains Momentum in Europe.

Apocalypse Now

How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth is the subtitle of
this article, published in The Independent. As another slant on an increasingly inescapable message--we're rapidly making the planet uninhabitable--this piece summarizes the concerns from the Met Office in Exeter, where 200 of the world's leading climate scientists hashed out the issues in what ought to be (but, sadly, isn't) the primary concern of every citizen and every government on the planet. With people collectively hitting the snooze button on the latest round of wake-up alarms, the prospects look very grim.

Actions to Halt Global Warming

A group of UK economists, scientists, and politicians gathered last week in Exeter to discuss possible actions for averting global warming. Their conclusion, as detailed in this Nature.com article, UK climate meeting calls for action, was that major investments are needed immediately to reverse global warming trends and help people adapt to climate change dangers. The consensus was that we don't need more research; we need to take action now to avert the dangerous risks.

Flower Power

Green Week in Berlin showcased a variety of potential energy sources based on agricultural waste. German manufacturers generated some 1.1-million pounds of farm-based fuel, known as "flower power" locally, which includes biodiesel sold in about 1,800 petrol stations. For details, visit: German Farmers Championing 'Flower Power' for Cleaner Energy.

Convincing the Complacent Ones

It's not just in the U.S., but British scientists have noted how curiously complacent the UK public is to the threats of global warming. On the one side, you have evidence and studies from thousands of climatologists around the world; some of the most comprehensive, extensive computer modeling that has ever been performed to map climate change events; and the consensus of vast majority of the world's leading scientific organizations. On the other side, you have a handful of skeptics who have been thoroughly debunked by credible scientists; hack writers like Michael Crichton who use flimsy rhetorical arguments to bolster weak, improbable plot lines (State of Fear); and a laughably incompetent news media that pretends there is still a great debate over whether human activities cause climate change.

This article from The Guardian, How we put the heat on nature, examines the reasons behind public complacency and the rising fears of those scientists who are confronting climate change issues.

Stop Hogging Resources

In an curiously emblematic gesture, the owner of a double-parked Hummer in the Boston Back Bay region hurled scalding Starbucks coffee in a meter maid's face as she was writing him a ticket. In this article by Derrick Jackson, he skewers the sense of entitlement shown by the world's premiere energy users toward the rest of the planet. A single sentence from the article strikes at the heart of the issue: "An angry man in one of America's largest gas-guzzling cars in one of the most chronically congested parts of the city throws some of the nation's most expensive coffee at a working-class woman."

Point of No Return

One of the world's leading climate experts, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, fears that we've already reached the point where a reversal of global warming will be impossible unless immediate, drastic actiions are taken. Ironically, he was appointed to his post as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by the Bush administration after Exxon, a staunch opponent of action to combat global warming, complained that his predecessor was too "aggressive" in demanding action. In this article in The Independent, Dr. Pachauri concludes, "We are risking the ability of the human race to survive."

Solar Strides

A Canadian research team has devised a way to capture light energy outside the visible spectrum, using nanoparticles small enough to be dispersed in typical solvents, such as paint. The process described in this article, Solar Photovoltaic Breakthrough Taps Infrared Light, opens up possibilities for some very exciting applications.

China Goes Nuclear

Just about the time that most of the world has recognized that nuclear power is expensive, impractical, and dangerous, China is embarking on a major drive to build a series of nuclear reactors to meet projected power needs. As described in this article, China Promotes Another Boom: Nuclear Power, China's aggressive plans for reactor construction include building more than one a year until 2020. Public discussions on the risks and implications of increased reliance on nuclear power have been minimal; the government censors news coverage of this sort.

Homegrown is Best

When it comes to biofuels, such as ethanol, countries are best served by producing their own fuel from local sources, a senior scientist at a Greenpeace research lab in England stated. As reported by Reuters in this article, clean-burning ethanol can generate pollution during production if fertilizers and pesticides are used to grow the corn, sugar, or other crops on which the fuel is based. Fossil fuels burned during manufacturing processes and shipment also contribute to pollution. Just as the hydrogen for fuel cells can be produced in clean processes (using renewable energy sources) or dirty processes (using nuclear power or fossil fuels), biofuels are only truly clean when they are produced cleanly.

Do You Want Clean Car Options?

It's Monday--a good day to let your voice be heard. In response to recent California regulations intended to fight global warming through cleaner automobile technologies, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (with a membership that includes Ford, Toyota, GM, and Daimler-Chrysler) is suing to block the implementation. Their claim: consumers don't want clean car options. The Union of Concerned Scientists is coordinating a letter-writing campaign to convince their president, Fredrick Webber, otherwise. Take action by following this link.

Fuel-Cell Vehicles Gain Momentum

The major automakers have been experimenting with fuel-cell vehicles for years with mixed results. This year, however, those experiments are beginning to fruit, suggesting we are advancing toward a new generation of automotive machines that compare admirably with the performance of conventional gas-burning autos. This article, Automakers Put Hydrogen Power on Fast Track, tells the tale. Is it time to start planning a network of hydrogen filling stations?

Willie Nelson Bets on Biodiesel

As a long-time supporter of American farmers and the driving force behind Farm Aid, Willie Nelson makes an ideal proponent for biodiesel fuel. He makes an even more interesting energy company executive, as described in this story, Willie Nelson Bets on Biodiesel. Combining forces with three business partners, Willie recently launched Willie Nelson's Biodiesel and has begun marketing the vegetable-based fuel to truck stops throughout the midwest. As Willie explains it, "There is really no need going around starting wars over oil. We have it here at home. We have the necessary product, the farmers can grow it." If anyone can give a boost to this industry, Willie can.

As the Blades Turn: A Mighty Wind

Despite the hammerlock of a domestic energy policy that seems determined to anchor our future to a sinking ship (fossil fuels), the promise of wind power grows mightily. As discussed in this piece from emagazine.com, [E] - A Mighty Wind (by Doug Moss), wind power is a reality and the graceful spinning blades of wind turbines are finding many new homes around the world.

2004: The Year Global Warming Got Respect

Reporting for the National Geographic News, John Roach declares 2004: The Year Global Warming Got Respect. Despite the obfuscating of the oil industry apologists and the foot-dragging of the business-as-usual power brokers and the tin hat theories of the scientifically challenged miscreants, global warming is being taken seriously around the world. Now, if only the U.S. will take a cue from the rest of the world and begin to address the threat in a rational way, perhaps that respect can be turned into useful action.

Foreshadowing Things to Come

As images of the tsunami aftermath stun the senses, this earthquake-generated event offers a glimpse of the potential consequences from extreme weather events linked to global warming. In this post, Informed Comment, Juan Cole focuses on the important points: global warming is a real phenomena in the collective judgment of the vast majority of the scientific community and the potential impact is deadly.

Tsunamis and Nuclear Power Plants

Natural disasters humble us as a species. They serve as reminders that for all our technological prowess, the natural world packs a far more powerful punch. Less arrogance and more humility is a reasonable response to these kinds of reminders. A good place to start might be to reconsider the siting of nuclear plants in light of potential catastrophes, as argued in this perspective, t r u t h o u t - Russell D. Hoffman | Tsunamis and Nuclear Power Plants.

For a list of relief agencies helping tsunami victims, follow this link.

Fuel-Cell Vehicles Close the Gap

Fuel-cell vehicles will be getting a toehold in the real world and making a small step towards commercialization when dealerships for Zap start doing business sometime in 2005, as described in this article, Wired News: Fuel-Cell Vehicles Close the Gap. Prices clearly will be an obstacle for some years to come, but hydrogen fueling stations are already popping up in places such as Sacramento, California. Definitely a product launch that we want to see...

Costly Effects of Warming

U.S. opponents of the Kyoto protocol invariably speak of the economic costs of implementing measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but they're not so vocal about the bottom line costs of extreme weather. As this BBC article points out, the insurance industry is reeling from the effects of the fourth warmest year since tracking began (according to the World Meteorological Organisation). The year 2004 was the most expensive ever for the insurance industry with record payouts for damages incurred from hurricanes, typhoons, and other natural disasters.

Factor in the expense of agricultural losses, health costs, destruction of wildlife, and similar costs and it is clear that the cost of not responding to global warming is the much greater expense.

The View from Tuvalu

Perhaps if we lived in Tuvalu, there would be a heightened sense of urgency over the threat of global warming. A scant three meters above sea level, the capital island of Funafuti suddenly found itself immersed in sea water from the Pacific Ocean. Rising sea levels take on a dramatic reality when they're lapping at your front door.

Despite the vast preponderance of credible scientists convinced that human activities are steadily warming the planet, President Bush and the current administration are still in denial.

Wind Power Wins Big

If you're looking for some bright spots in the overall environmental picture since the U.S. elections this last week (and you may need night-vision goggles to see anything bright through the black results), voters in Colorado demanded that the state include solar and wind power in their energy portfolio. As reported by John Gartner in Alternet, Ammendment 37 requires that Colorado utilities that service 40,000 or more customers turn to renewable energy, targeting a level of 3 percent by 2007 and 10 percent by 2015. The measure gained approval by 52 percent of the voters, which in the currently skewed perspective of the major news media, is a "clear mandate."

Do It Without Oil

Eliminating oil use can be accomplished within a few decades, according to a new plan released by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Through modern technologies and intelligent strategies, American businesses can gain a competitive edge and increase profits without the need for additional federal regulations or higher taxes. Partially funded by the Pentagon, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security provides guidelines for achieving greater energy efficiency and substituting biofuels and natural gas for oil-intensive operations. RMI co-founder Amory Lovins sums up the findings of the study, "Because saving and substituting oil costs less than buying it, our study finds a net savings of $70 billion a year. That acts like a giant tax cut for the nation. It simply makes sense and makes money for all."