The drought gripping much of the U.S. may be a reprise of even worse ones the continent has suffered before
U.S.
Drawing Battle Lines Over American Coal Exports to Asia
The Powder River Basin in southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming can be as beautiful as its name suggests, but that’s not why mining companies call it home. The region has one of the richest deposits of coal in the …
Solar: U.S. Slaps Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels, But the Trade War May Be on Hold
The solar industry in the U.S. has been holding its breath over a much-delayed review by the Commerce Department over allegedly unfair trade practices by Chinese solar panel makers. A few solar manufacturers—notably SolarWorld, …
Air War: U.S. and Europe Clash Over Proposed Carbon Reductions for Airlines
Depending on the calculations, air travel accounts for perhaps 3 to 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, far below sources like deforestation, coal-fired electricity and automobiles. Yet I’ve always thought that airplanes play …
Amid Paeans to Energy Efficiency, the World Is Getting Less Efficient
The watchword for the week at the Clinton Global Initiative‘s (CGI) annual summit in Manhattan this week has been “efficiency.” (It narrowly beats out “traffic,” which is what you’ll be caught in trying to get anywhere in the city for the next few days.) I wrote about an industry consortium led by the Carbon War Room that will …
Cloudy Days for Solar—But the Sun Hasn’t Quite Set
In some ways, the days are bright right now for solar power. The average price of solar modules has fallen 30% this year, continuing a steep reduction from the year before. New installations more than doubled last year, enough to make solar a $60 billion market. If you’re in the market for rooftop solar panels for your home—or just …
New Population Projections Show Us Growing Unsustainably, But We Can Put on the Brakes
Pencil in October 31, 2011 on your calendar. It’s not just the one day of the year you get to dress like Edward Cullen without everyone thinking there’s something deeply wrong with you. According to the United Nations Population Division (UNPD)—the demographers who rule over all demographers—that’s the day when the 7 billionth person …
Can Green Energy Scale? Wind Power Is Getting There
It’s a question we ask all the time: when will green energy scale up? After all, renewable power won’t really make a difference until it can provide a bulk of the country’s energy supply. That hasn’t happened yet—while technically renewable sources provide around 20% of U.S. power, nearly all of that is biomass or hydro. Wind …
Radiation Reaches the U.S.! And…?
America is a great country, but we do tend to make other people’s dramas our own. You know that uncle who comes over to Thanksgiving dinner, hears about another relative who recently had a heart attack and spends the rest of the meal asking everyone at the table if they think the chest pain he had last week is serious too? Well, to rest …
Why Dismissing Climate Skeptics—Even When They’re Wrong—Is a Bad Idea
Right now the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding hearings into climate science. You can watch them here, if you’re really masochistic, or you can follow expert live blogging from Science magazine’s Eli Kintisch and others over here. I’m at a hydraulic fracturing expert panel for the …