Bubble, Bubble, Methane is Trouble: A vast storehouse of methane under the Arctic Ocean has perforated and is starting to leak, researchers disclosed. While scientists have long been preoccupied with methane release from thawing permafrost on mainland Siberia, the underwater stores in the adjoining East Siberian Arctic Shelf are much larger, and the release of [...]
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Photo Credit: http://camworld.org The Unstoppable….Solar Lobby?!? A skirmish this week in Arizona revealed that the solar industry, while still adolescent, is developing some political brawn. A bill in the state legislature proposed expanding the definition of “renewable” to include nuclear power, a move that would have allowed the state’s lone nuclear plant to fulfill [...] As Europe announced it would reach its goal of 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020, the U.S.’s climate soap opera entered a new chapter. President Obama converted his energy bill into a hybrid in hopes of driving it through Congress. To get the Senate to agree to a cap on emissions, he [...] Silicon Valley leads solar, hypermilers go electric, and British Airways makes jet fuel from trash. [...] Why is it that many solar panels are the size of a hallway rug, while a typical wind turbine is the size of an office building? I’ve always wondered whether we would ever learn to harvest wind on a smaller, simpler scale. Turns out we can. [...] The very idea of a solar refrigerator is a contradiction: Use the hot sun to keep things cold. How could such an oxymoron possibly work? [...] In parts of India they’re called chulhas, in Malawi chitetezo mbaula, in Central America the Lorena, and in East Africa the jiko. The names and designs vary, but the principle is the same: a low-cost, efficient stove that replaces the open fire. [...] The University of Arizona's Water Wall Near the Smithsonian building in Washington, D.C. stands a house with a wall of Coke-bottle plastic. Sandwiched between two layers of plastic is water. The wall’s surface conserves heat and also plays tricks with the light, so you can’t help but reach out and touch it.
CO2 is removed in the plant's two tall silvery columns (top). Today, as part of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting, I hopped a bus and toured three of Wisconsin’s leading renewable-energy projects. Heartened as I was to see innovation in action, I could also tell we’re still in Mile One of [...] My current reading is “Climate Change as a Security Risk,” a sort of threat dossier on a warming world. Amid mountains of dry data, the authors take a few imaginative leaps to picture how the world looks if we start preparing now, and what happens if we don’t. [...] |
 David Ferris is a journalist who writes about eco-business and eco-technology for publications like Popular Mechanics, Sierra magazine and Forbes. Learn more. |
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