EcocentricEnergy
I have a piece on the home page today about the persistent problem of energy poverty in the developing world. We know that the poorest countries of Africa, Asia and South America are held back by diseases like HIV and TB, along with lack of education and infrastructure. But a major part of what keeps the poor poor is simply lack of …
EcocentricEnergy
President Obama laid down a bold challenge to America in his State of the Union speech last week: get to 80% clean energy by 2035. Clean energy is a deliberately vague goal, since it will likely include nuclear, natural gas and (not really existing) clean coal in the mix. But traditional renewable energy like wind and solar will need …
EcocentricOil
We’re only a couple of months shy of the one-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill, but there’s still a great deal of uncertainty over just what happened—and what might be left over. As I’ve written before, recent studies seem to jibe with the government’s earlier reports suggesting that much of the oil in the Gulf has either …
EcocentricEnergy
The story went up on the home page a couple of days ago, but wanted to put it on the blog as well. I wrote about my tour of the first phase of Masdar City, the low-carbon settlement being built on the edge of Abu Dhabi. It’s a long way from being truly sustainable, but the city should prove a valuable testing ground for green …
EcocentricPolitics
Tonight’s State of the Union may be remembered as the moment when the White House stopped working on climate—and started working on energy.
Of course, it’s not quite that simple. Whatever initiatives President Obama chooses to launch with his annual speech, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will likely keep working on …
EcocentricEnergy
While American society has bickered on climate and energy, the White House has dithered and Congress has been deadlocked, the U.S. military has been busy going green. The Pentagon has spent some $300 million in economic stimulus financing and research money to improve the military’s energy efficiency and develop alternative fuels. The …
EcocentricPolitics
As Politico first reported last night, Carol Browner will be stepping down from her post as White House climate and energy czar. Browner, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator in the Clinton Administration, was a key member of the “Green Dream Team” of cabinet appointees and White House aides who accompanied …
EcocentricUncategorized
How much is nature worth? On one hand, the question seems absurd. Is it possible to put a price on the value of an endangered species? Or figure out the dollar worth of a clean river, or uncontaminated air. Environmentalism—at least its more romantic strain—has largely defined itself in opposition to the naked market, where …
EcocentricEcocentric
As I wrote earlier this week, energy and climate were going to on the agenda when Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama met in Washington. The countries are the number one and two carbon emitters in the world, major energy consumers and global leaders in clean tech manufacturing. If the world is going to come to grips with …
EcocentricEnergy
Whoever said environmentalism doesn’t pay has never been to Abu Dhabi. The desert emirate, which possesses 8% of global oil reserves, has allocated serious money over the past several years on the Masdar Initiative, a multi-pronged effort to advance the cause of sustainability and clean tech. The best-known example is the low-carbon …
