Grist | Topics | 532 Results

RESULTS		Results 426 – 450 of 532
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
'Cap and trade': another notion that's past its use-by date It runs together several distinct things	Tom Athanasiou	19 May 2007	Gristmill
There's been a nice, coherent-if-incipient debate on cap-and-trade on this blog lately, which I've alas been too busy to reply to. But I wanted to throw in just one small thought: it just might be time to ditch the whole notion. It conflates at least three things together, and as they are all quite different, the 'trading debate' as we know it is both confusing and confused.Cap-and-grandfather: A market-based system in which existing polluters are granted the right ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, carbon trading, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Efficiency and market failure A new report says regulations are needed	David Roberts	18 May 2007	Gristmill
A while back I mentioned a McKinsey Global Institute report showing that efficiency is the fastest, cheapest way to cut global GHG emissions. Now McKinsey's got a new report out, making a heretical claim: even though homeowners could vastly improve energy efficiency and save tons of money over the long term with current technologies, there won't be widespread adoption of those technologies without market intervention -- i.e., stronger regulations. Whatever will the ma ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking (all these topics)

After the sinks comes the drain Once we blow through the carbon sinks, it's down the drain for us	JMG	18 May 2007	Gristmill
Another sign that the economists' central myth, their creation story in a sense -- that there is a replacement for anything scarce and the replacement appears whenever the price of the depeleting resource gets high enough -- is the most dangerous fantasy in the world: Alas, there are no replacement carbon sinks, and we seemed to have filled ours up. Now we learn that, after you're through in the sinks, you head down the drain.
Topics: greenhouse-gas emissions, climate change mitigation, climate (all these topics)

Bill Richardson's climate and energy plan The boldest plan on the table	David Roberts	17 May 2007	Gristmill
As of today, Bill Richardson has become the boldest, most visionary Democratic presidential candidate on climate and energy policy. (John Edwards is a close second.) No politician from either party has put forward a plan that comes closer to being a realistic response to the energy shortages and climate chaos heading our way. Here's the heart of Richardson's speech today: We need a man-on-the-moon program to end this addiction, this hemorrhage. But we nee ...
Topics: Bill Richardson, climate, elections, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics, presidential race 08, renewable energy (all these topics)

Paying to kill ourselves Just what every taxpayer wants	David Roberts	14 May 2007	Gristmill
This is super, super smart: A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. ... The beneficiaries of the government's largesse -- the nation's rural electric cooperatives -- plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and f ...
Topics: energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking (all these topics)

WWF on coal It's bad	David Roberts	11 May 2007	Gristmill
The WWF has a new briefing out called "Are the costs of using coal higher than the cost of cleaning it up?" It contains the standard "coal is the enemy of the human race" statistics, and concludes with six recommendations for how to reduce coal's impact on global warming: 1. Emerging economies need access to best-available-technologies including last-generation coal-fired power technology and support from G8 nations and the financial sector in ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, coal, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Barack Obama is not serious about global warming That's what his support for CTL shows	David Roberts	11 May 2007	Gristmill
The LA Times has a long story about the growing conflict over coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuel. This is the most important paragraph in the piece, though it is inexplicably buried at the bottom: A new study has concluded that turning coal into liquid fuel yields 125% more carbon dioxide than producing diesel fuel and 66% more than gasoline. If the carbon dioxide is captured and permanently stored, liquid coal emits 20% more greenhouse gas than diesel but 11% less than conv ...
Topics: Barack Obama, climate, climate change mitigation, coal, elections, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics (all these topics)

State emissions registry	David Roberts	10 May 2007	Gristmill
When I interviewed Terry Tamminen about (among other things) California's experience putting together a climate plan, he stressed the importance of putting together a comprehensive inventory of GHG sources: We had pretty good knowledge of emissions from the utilities sector, but it was poor in terms of the agriculture sector, the cement sector, etc. We had to sharpen our inventory to actually start imposing things and knowing if they work. We're encouraging other st ...
Topics: California, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics, state politics, Terry Tamminen (all these topics)

Uh oh! Observed warming since 1990 is greater than the models predicted	Andrew Dessler	10 May 2007	Gristmill
An article in the May 4 issue of Science shows that observed warming in the 16 years since 1990 is greater than predicted by models. Perhaps models are underestimating future climate change. That would be bad news. 'Recent Climate Observations Compared to Projections' We present recent observed climate trends for carbon dioxide concentration, global mean air temperature, and global sea level, and we compare these trends to previous model projections as summa ...
Topics: climate, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions, IPCC (all these topics)

Measure Twice, Cut One of These Days Coalition of 31 states creates greenhouse-gas emissions registry		09 May 2007	Daily Grist
Measure Twice, Cut One of These Days Coalition of 31 states creates greenhouse-gas emissions registry Flipping the feds the collective bird, 31 U.S. states have created a registry to track industrial greenhouse-gas emissions. The states -- joined by British Columbia, Manitoba, and a Native American nation in California -- represent some 70 percent of the U.S. population and all (er, both?) sides of ...
Topics: climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, news, state politics (all these topics)

Better carbon markets The RFFI way	David Roberts	08 May 2007	Gristmill
The NYT has an update on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Northeast coalition of states establishing their own carbon market. It's promising that they seem to have learned the two key lessons of the European carbon market experience, which stumbled coming out of the gate. The first lesson: don't give away credits. Participants in the United States want to avoid that problem by selling some or all of the credits at auction, with the proceeds goin ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics, state politics (all these topics)

Reece on MTR mining	David Roberts	06 May 2007	Gristmill
Erik Reese has an op-ed in the NYT about mountaintop-removal mining and a new program that shows promise in helping landscapes recover from it. Here's the nut: Appalachia's land is dying. Its fractured communities show the typical symptoms of hopelessness, including OxyContin abuse rates higher than anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, 22 states power houses and businesses with Kentucky coal. The people of central and southern Appalachia have relinquished much of the ...
Topics: coal, deforestation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, Kentucky (all these topics)

Highlights of the IPCC's mitigation report It ain't pretty	Joseph Romm	05 May 2007	Gristmill
I want to highlight a few points from the IPCC's Mitigation Report (PDF). First, even the most stringent global greenhouse gas targets can be met at a cost of a mere 0.1% of GDP per year! While the report is not explicit about when action should be taken, it does say that: In order to stabilize the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere, emissions would need to peak and decline thereafter. The lower the stabilization level, the more quickly this peak and decline ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions, IPCC, politics (all these topics)

Battle of the developed vs. the developing Climate change justice is contentious	Joseph Romm	04 May 2007	Gristmill
As this round of the IPCC unfolds, developing countries are scurrying to relieve themselves of any major responsibility for historic emissions and, consequently, aggressive mitigation policies. For example, China has requested inserting language that formally recognizes the percentage of emissions for which developed countries are responsible -- 95 percent from the pre-industrial era until 1950, and 77 percent from 1950 to the start of the millennium. China is als ...
Topics: air pollution, China, climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions, IPCC, United States (all these topics)

Uh oh	David Roberts	03 May 2007	Gristmill
Don't tell JMG!
Topics: climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics, travel (all these topics)

Carbon-free air travel We've got it figured out	Adam Browning	03 May 2007	Gristmill
It's a big problem, but I've been thinking hard about it and I think I've got it figured out: Of course, it will take a while to perfect the technology. Nominate test-pilots in the comments. For my part, I nominate anyone who complains about Al Gore's plane travel without making an equivalent effort to fight global warming. Here's your chance to show him up, big-time.
Topics: green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, travel (all these topics)

Something for everyone in the nuclear debate A good argument	John McGrath	03 May 2007	Gristmill
Via Brad Plumer, this might be the most honest, good-faith argument about nuclear power I've read in the last, oh, year or so. You can read Max Schulz's pro-nuclear argument here, and then read the anti-nuclear side by Bruce Smith and Arjun Makhijani. No surprise, I come down on the anti-nuclear side myself, but at least Schulz doesn't simply ignore or refuse to acknowledge the real risks of nuclear power (waste, proliferation, costs). And in his reply at the bottom ...
Topics: climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, nuclear power, politics, wind power (all these topics)

Infosmog Information technology accounts for 2 percent of world's CO2 emmissions	Jerome Woody	03 May 2007	Gristmill
Just as Steve Jobs was polishing the final draft of his defense of Apple's environmental programs, computer industry analyst firm Gartner announced to the world its findings about Global IT's carbon footprint. It's not good. As an industry, information technology accounts for 2 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, placing it in the same club as the aviation industry. The causes are numerous, including increasing power consumption, use of refrigerator-l ...
Topics: business, climate, e-waste, greenhouse-gas emissions, tech (all these topics)

Cynics can't keep up Sawing off the limbs we've climbed up to see	JMG	03 May 2007	Gristmill
From the article 'Holiday at the End of the Earth: Tourists Paying to See Global Warming in Action,' posted on Common Dreams: 'The idea of global-warming tourism is full of ironies,' he said. 'If enough people expend enough fossil fuels to visit one Warming Island, they will ensure that there will be many more.
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, energy, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, travel (all these topics)

Another blow against denial New Monbiot piece	JMG	01 May 2007	Gristmill
From 'The Rich World's Policy on Greenhouse Gas Now Seems Clear: Millions Will Die,' by George Monbiot: Rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won't find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are usi ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, greenhouse-gas emissions, IPCC, politics (all these topics)

Six months to a trimmer footprint How to reduce your household energy consumption, easy-like	Charles Komanoff	01 May 2007	Gristmill
Last Sunday's New York Times honed in on the dubious practice of Americans buying carbon offsets to brand themselves carbon-neutral. Andy Revkin, the paper's global-warming reporter, quoted me saying, "There isn't a single American household above the poverty line that couldn't cut their CO2 at least 25 percent in six months through a straightforward series of fairly simple and terrifically cost-effective measures." My claim has hit a nerve. Despi ...
Topics: carbon offsets, climate, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking (all these topics)

A refreshing change of pace: sensible policy Imagine: charging polluters to encourage the others!	JMG	29 Apr 2007	Gristmill
Sam Smith, publisher of the estimable e-letter The Progressive Review, is perhaps the ultimate pragmatic environmentalist, with a sharp eye for what works and a sharper ability to deflate the pompous and overly-self-loving. He is often the sole commenter picking up on policy proposals and practices that a less parochial media less obsessed with infotainment would be interested in -- such as the success of congestion charges in London's central district, implemented by Mayor 'Re ...
Topics: cars, climate, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, London, placemaking, public transportation, United Kingdom (all these topics)

Do carbon offsets provide a false sense of security? Dueling assumptions	David Roberts	29 Apr 2007	Gristmill
Kudos to Andy Revkin for giving some exposure to (occasional contributor) Charles Komanoff of Carbon Tax Center fame. Komanoff articulates a common fear about carbon offsets: Charles Komanoff, an energy economist in New York, said the commercial market in climate neutrality could have even more harmful effects. It could, by suggesting there's an easy way out, blunt public support for what will really be needed in the long run, he said: a binding limit on emissi ...
Topics: climate, carbon offsets, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

CO2 rise lags temperature rise, redux	David Roberts	27 Apr 2007	Gristmill
One of the most persistent climate skeptic talking points has to do with how temperature rise seems to lag behind CO2 rise in the historical record, raising questions about the direction of causality. Maybe temperature rise causes CO2 rise rather than the other way around! Our own Mr. Beck addressed the point here, but today RealClimate takes yet another go at it. Of course, skeptic talking points are like zombies -- they never stay dead -- so I'm sure we'll revisi ...
Topics: climate, climate change skepticism, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Sorry climate, I had to dust my keyboard Why we should ban compressed chemical dusters	Eric de Place	27 Apr 2007	Gristmill
I have an untidy habit of eating while I'm working on my computer. Heck, I'm eating a doughnut while I write this post. Unfortunately, my habit inevitably results in little crumbs of sandwich or potato chips or whatever making their way onto my computer keyboard. Every once in a while I look down at my crumb-ridden keyboard, get disgusted, and embark on a cleaning frenzy. And as many office workers may know, one of the easiest ways to clean a keyboard is with those ...
Topics: air pollution, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, ozone (all these topics)

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