Carbon and De-carbonization

price of carbon

Instead of charging polluters a fee for dumping their carbon dioxide into our shared atmosphere, we are all paying the cost of the consequences of attempting to store about 30 tons per year in our air.[read more]

Arctic Ocean acidification

After three years of ongoing research by an international team of scientists, a study commissioned for a first-ever comprehensive assessment of Arctic Ocean acidification was presented last week.[read more]

renewable energy/shutterstock

Renewable energy is ideologically very attractive. But such ideological perfection can easily switch off the critical thinking of environmentally-conscious individuals and this is exactly what we are seeing at the moment.[read more]

bound by oil prices?

So, when gas prices go up, we all suffer and our economy lags. What we really need are more choices to break the iron-clad grip that oil prices have on our lives and our economy.[read more]

carbon emissions/shutterstock

There is vastly more carbon in the ground than can safely be put into the atmosphere, whatever temperature limit you think there should be. Policy should seek to ensure the available carbon budget is used as wisely as possible.[read more]

emissions by state/EIA

A lot of the debate over energy and climate change has focused on changing how people live. But in a lot of ways, where someone lives is as important as how they live.[read more]

energy choices/shutterstock

It’s time we stopped wasting time with brain dead energy saving mantras and got on with the real task of building a clean energy infrastructure so we can use far, far more electricity.[read more]

GDP/shutterstock

It isn’t about “Green GDP” or “green accounting.” It’s honest accounting. Every ton of coal, every barrel of oil causes more in external damages than it adds value to GDP. Properly measured GDP ought to reflect that fact.[read more]

South Korean carbon emissions

With roughly 18 months until launch, South Korea appears ready to create the world’s most ambitious cap and trade market, with the highest global price on carbon.[read more]

new DOE Secretary Moniz

The budget proposal for FY2014 would give Moniz a solid start in advancing the low-carbon economy, by increasing funding for renewable energy, advanced vehicle research and development, and energy efficiency programs.[read more]

atmospheric CO2

Our goal to be avoided, 450 ppm, is now feeling a bit close for comfort, given we are already at 400 ppm and 300 ppm was only passed under the previous British monarch.[read more]

Alberta Tar Sands

Time for a tar sands reality check.Here's the top 10 reasons Canada needs to rethink their unrelenting desire to expand tar sands operations.[read more]

“America is too dependent on foreign oil” is a frequent refrain of American politicians and policymakers with an agenda. Now, it seems possible that the immense new discoveries of American shale gas and its liquid twin “tight oil” may be able to displace these imports. But is this realistic?[read more]

what of future energy needs?

 

If carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are to stop increasing, then nearly all of oue future energy consumption must come from technologies that produce zero emissions.[read more]

electric car/shutterstock

Even if there is enough lithium to displace the 1 billion internal combustion engine cars that now pollute the earth with electric cars, it is the electronic waste problem that should dominate the question.[read more]