Grist | Topics | 155 Results

RESULTS		Results 76 – 100 of 155
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
The NYT's Tom Friedman is wrong We are not yet the 'people we have been waiting for' to solve 'global weirding'	Joseph Romm	04 Dec 2007	Gristmill
In general, I am a big fan of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, one of the few national columnists who writes regularly and intelligently on energy and climate matters. But his recent column, 'The People We Have Been Waiting For,' goes off track -- twice. First, he writes: ... sweet-sounding 'global warming' doesn't really capture what's likely to happen. I prefer the term 'global weirding,' coined by Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, politics, tech (all these topics)

Who's the true 'G'? Cheap, possibly green PC hot item at Wal-Mart	Jerome Woody	28 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Wal-Mart has always been a place of consumer frenzy at the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and this year is no exception. What's different is that one of the items flying off the shelf faster than they can restock it is the "Everex gPC," a cheap (less than $200) desktop computer. The tech news world has been buzzy about gPC's popularity, in particular questioning what the "g" stands for. It could stand for "green," thanks t ...
Topics: consumerism, green living, green products, tech, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Dream of hydrogen car goes down in flames Full-cell company bought by Daimler and Ford	Joseph Romm	21 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Ballard -- the Canadian fuel-cell company that once hoped to be the 'Intel Inside of the hydrogen car revolution -- has sold off its automotive fuel-cell business to Daimler and Ford. You can listen to a good CBC radio story on it, which includes an interview of me (click on 'Listen to the Current,' Part 2). You can read Toronto Star columnist Tyler Hamilton on the story here. A Financial Post post piece headlines the story bluntly: 'Hydrogen highway hits dead end: B ...
Topics: business, cars, energy, hydrogen, scientific research, tech (all these topics)

The inaugural California Green Innovation Index New report summarizes clean tech in California	Joseph Romm	20 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Everything you could possibly want to know about clean technology in the Golden State can be found in an excellent new report, the California Green Innovation Index, published by Next 10, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. The report tracks the state's economic and environmental performance and analyzes key indicators to better understand the role green innovation plays in reducing emissions and growing the economy. California is a state where growth has alwa ...
Topics: California, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, tech (all these topics)

Plug-in reality check The debate on plug-ins begins	biodiversivist	19 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Alan Durning's article makes a lot of good points about the need to do more than just improve the efficiency of our personal transport. It's a great article, but it also contains a few inaccuracies that I feel obligated to clear up before the global warming deniers (among others) try to use them. I can tell from the comments on Alan's post that some readers are under the mistaken impression that his conclusions are a reflection of the EPRI/NRDC (PDF) report cited, but ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, innovation, Prius, tech (all these topics)

Technology alone won't alleviate climate change NYT's Andy Revkin and E. O. Wilson get suckered by Newt Gingrich's phony techno-optimism	Joseph Romm	16 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Newt Gingrich is an anti-environmentalist who spreads disinformation and has done more than any politician in the last two decades to thwart a sensible climate policy that includes a major clean technology component, as I have explained. Absent serious regulations, no technology-only strategy can possibly avoid catastrophic global warming (as we should have learned in the 1990s). Some well-meaning people, like The New York Times' first-rate climate reporter Andy ...
Topics: books, climate, energy, Newt Gingrich, politics, tech (all these topics)

Who will reincarnate the electric car? Automakers want to delay the transition to electric vehicles	Joseph Romm	13 Nov 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Marc Geller, who blogs at Plugs and Cars, serves on the board of directors of the Electric Auto Association, cofounded Plug In America and DontCrush.com, and appeared in Who Killed The Electric Car. ----- The IEEE Spectrum Magazine for November 2007 touts on its cover: 'Battery or Fuel-Cell Cars? A California Cabal Will Decide.' Interesting choice of headlines. Surely a strong argument can be made that something approaching a caba ...
Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, innovation, tech (all these topics)

Zero to sixty in less than one second ... and vice-versa Electric motorcycle delivers man to side of van	biodiversivist	11 Nov 2007	Gristmill
'I'm the owner, not the driver, so this is going to be interesting to say the least.' Indeed: Note the woman straddling the Killacycle. Note, shortly thereafter, the Killacycle embedded in the side of the van. Middle-aged men should not be driving Killacycles. May you have a full and speedy recovery, Bill. As for my A123 batteries, they just crossed the 1500 mile mark with no detectable performance loss. I'm also getting pretty good at popping wheelies.
Topics: innovation, tech (all these topics)

It's the PC Thing to Do Kansas, Minnesota pledge to green up government computer systems		09 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 7:29 AM on 09 Nov 2007 Think of states that are environmental frontrunners, and Kansas and Minnesota may not leap immediately to mind. But it's those two that are taking the lead in reducing energy use from government computer systems. Teaming up with the industry-backed Climate Savers Computing Initiative, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) -- whose states each ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, Kansas, Minnesota, news, politics, state politics, tech (all these topics)

McKibben on waste-heat recovery A very promising climate change solution with an image problem	Erik Hoffner	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Bill McKibben's new column in Orion magazine reports on one of the most effective ways to cut carbon emissions that we've got, a mature technology which stands ready to recycle enormous amounts of waste heat into electricity. It boggles my mind that we're not doing this everywhere, instead of discussing new coal plants or nukes. Talk about low-hanging fruit! The article centers on the fine work of the Chicago company Recycled Energy Development, piloted by frequ ...
Topics: Bill McKibben, business, climate, energy, energy efficiency, recycling, tech (all these topics)

'MidEast Oil Forever?': Part I Drifting toward disaster	Joseph Romm	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Eleven years ago, I wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly with various predictions and warnings on oil and energy technology and climate. Since those subjects remain hot today -- concern over oil prices and peak oil is at a three-decade-high, and Shellenberger and Nordhaus have reignited the technology debate with a variety of historically inaccurate claims about the clean energy R&D message -- and since this is probably the best thing I wrote in the 1990s, I ...
Topics: oil, climate, tech, energy (all these topics)

The meaning of global warming, part two Stabilizing climate means embracing technology, public investment, and global economic development	Grist	11 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, the latest in the ongoing conversation about their new book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. ----- This week saw a watershed moment for those of us committed to moving environmentalism from a politics of limits to a politics of possibility. Senator Barack Obama proposed a $150 billion investment to develop and deploy clean energy technology on a ...
Topics: business, climate, energy, politics, tech (all these topics)

Storage in the spotlight Congress finally pays attention to energy storage tech	David Roberts	09 Oct 2007	Gristmill
I missed this when it happened, but (via Hill Heat) it's nice to see that the House science committee recently held a hearing on energy storage technology. It's a woefully underappreciated piece of the energy puzzle and overdue for some concerted attention. In the context of the hearing, the Subcommittee also discussed draft legislation entitled Energy Storage Technology Advancement Act of 2007, a bill soon to be introduced by Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-T ...
Topics: energy, energy storage, politics, tech (all these topics)

The meaning of global warming, part one Stabilizing the climate requires technology, public investment, and global economic development	David Roberts	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, the latest in the ongoing conversation about their new book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. ----- Thank you to everyone here who has participated in this discussion. We are grateful to Grist to making the space for this debate, and to everyone who has chimed in. Through agreement and disagreement alike, it is inspiring to find this man ...
Topics: business, energy, climate change mitigation, climate, tech, politics (all these topics)

Debunking Shellenberger & Nordhaus -- Part III What Californians know that Shellenberger & Nordhaus don't	Joseph Romm	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
'The kind of technological revolution called for by energy experts typically does not occur via regulatory fiat' claim Shellenberger & Nordhaus. Actually, that is typically the only way it occurs. I defy anyone to name a country that has successfully adopted alternative fuels for vehicles without employing some kind of regulatory mandate. This is also true in the electricity sector. Consider that in terms of electricity consumption, the average Californian gen ...
Topics: California, cars, climate, electric vehicles, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, hybrids, tech (all these topics)

Debunking Shellenberger & Nordhaus: Part II Breaking the technology breakthrough myth	Joseph Romm	04 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Do we need 'disruptive clean-energy technologies that achieve non-incremental breakthroughs' to solve the global warming problem, as S&N (and Lomborg, and Bush, and his advisors) argue? Let's hope not -- for the sake of the next 50 generations. Why? Two reasons: Such breakthroughs hardly ever happen. Even when they do happen, they rarely have a transformative impact on energy markets, even over a span of decades. Consider that solar photovoltaic cells ...
Topics: climate change mitigation, energy, politics, climate, tech (all these topics)

Techno-obsession	David Roberts	03 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Renewables still represent only a tiny fraction of our electricity generation. Everyone seems to assume, without much argument, that the reason for this is technological. Why?
Topics: tech, renewable energy, energy (all these topics)

No news is good news The Solar Power Conference revealed no breakthrough solar tech -- and that's a good thing	David Roberts	03 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Jim Raras, Jr., COO of Inpower Systems. ----- Every year the biggest players in the solar industry convene at the Solar Power Conference in Long Beach, Calif., to discuss the latest advancements in solar technology. This year, one of the most notable facets of the meetings was what was not said. During a 90 minute CEO panel discussion about the current and future state of the solar industry, the word "breakthrough" was ...
Topics: solar voltaic power, energy, tech (all these topics)

'Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah' Bush climate speech follows Luntz playbook	Joseph Romm	29 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Bush has given us a new drinking game: Down a shot whenever the President uses the word 'technology' in a climate speech. You'd get 19 shots for yesterday's 21 minute speech! As predicted, Bush closely follows the Frank Luntz playbook on how to seem like you care about the climate when you don't. Bush stated the basic do-nothing message well: Our investments in research and technology are bringing the world closer to a remarkable breakthrough -- an age of clean en ...
Topics: climate, politics, tech, energy, George Bush (all these topics)

Charmer in the Dell Dell Inc. pledges to go carbon neutral		26 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 12:40 PM on 26 Sep 2007 PC manufacturer Dell Inc. has announced plans to go entirely carbon neutral by next year. (Take that, Nokia!) The company will focus on energy efficiency and renewable power, and offset additional emissions. In addition, Dell's "Plant a Tree for Me" program, wherein customers can direct funds to global tree planting, will expand to "Plant a Forest for Me," a partnership with other org ...
Topics: business, greening biz operations, greenish companies, news, tech (all these topics)

Electronic Boogie Greenpeace releases another ranking of tech companies' environmental records		21 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 4:09 PM on 21 Sep 2007 Greenpeace has released the fifth version of its Guide to Greener Electronics, and lauds the tech industry for making "great improvements" since the first scorecard hit the scene in August 2006. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Dell took the top three spots this time around; Apple, the CEO of which was rankled by his company's dead-last ranking in April, is now soli ...
Topics: business, e-waste, greenish companies, Greenpeace, news, tech (all these topics)

Hope for efficient gaseous CO2 removal? New membrane technology for capturing CO2	JMG	20 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Well, here's hoping ...
Topics: climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, tech (all these topics)

Discover Brilliant: Smart grid R&D	David Roberts	19 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Next up, a discussion of trends in energy industry R&D. Starring: Gridwise Council, Alison Silverstein (Moderator) PIER and California Energy Commission, Merwin Brown, Director of Transmission Research Modern Grid Initiative, NETL, Steve Pullins Bonnevile Power Authority, Terry Oliver, Chief Technology Innovation Officer Oliver: Electric utilities invest tiny amounts of money in R&D -- "less than the dog food industry." This is bad on ...
Topics: business, electricity grid, energy, tech (all these topics)

Discover Brilliant: Renewables and buildings	David Roberts	17 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Now it's "Moving the Technology Frontier," about technologies that are going to create "tectonic shifts" in the cleantech space, with Stan Bull, head of R&D at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Steve Selkowtiz, Building Technologies Program Leader at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bull is first up. Says NREL's budget is $200-$250 million. That seems tiny to me. Makes the point that available solar energy dwarfs what is avail ...
Topics: electricity grid, energy, green building, renewable energy, tech (all these topics)

Greentech and EEStor Ultracapacitor company claims it will revolutionize electric cars	David Roberts	09 Sep 2007	Gristmill
The AlwaysOn Network has selected its GoingGreen 100 -- the 100 top companies in greentech, based on "innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value creation, and media attention or 'buzz.'" Here's the category I'm watching: Energy Storage A123 Systems Bloom Energy Cobasys Deeya Energy EEStor GridPoint Jadoo Power Lilliputian Systems ZPower (Gridpoint was the top company in AlwaysOn's overall ranking ...
Topics: energy, business, tech, innovation, cars, electric vehicles (all these topics)

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