pollution

Coal via Shutterstock

Soot is defined as the particulate matter released by the burning of fossil fuels, mainly coal. It is often a black substance that is deemed harmful because the dark particles cause warming by absorbing heat in the air. On a grand scale, black carbon also quickens the melting of glaciers. It is now listed as the number two human contributor to climate change.[read more]

soot pollution/shutterstock

Last week, the EPA created a new standard that will limit the amount of soot produced from manufacturers, power plants, diesel engines, and other polluters. he cost to implement this would range from $53 million to $350 million, but estimates have also shown that it will save up to 40,000 lives, while cutting annual health care bills by up to $9 billion.[read more]

Economists have some hard and fast rules that—to put it mildly—don’t necessarily endear them to everyone around. For one, there’s the idea of trade-offs. It makes so much sense it’s sometime easy to forget how difficult an idea it really is. You can’t always get what you want. But sometimes we so wished it wasn’t true. If only you try...[read more]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a golden opportunity to opt for a smart, low-cost approach to fulfilling its mandate under a Supreme Court decision to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked with global climate change. Such an approach would provide maximum compliance flexibility to...[read more]

I testified about the proposed bipartisan transportation bill outline yesterday, before nine Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. At the end of the hearing, which you can watch here, I said I would be willing to "put my shoulder to the wheel" to help move it forward. Of course, I want to see more than just the...[read more]

Australia's action to put a price on carbon cheered me up a bit.  A brief study of the political tea leaves quickly destroyed the feeling.  Consider this aggregation of Oz political poll data plotted over the time period since the government that is proposing this climate action now was elected:       ...[read more]

Carbon pollution from fossil fuel use reached the highest level yet in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency.  So should we throw up our hands?  No, this is a wake-up call that countries need to significantly speed up the pace of their action to reduce emissions.  And when they come to the Earth Summit in Rio...[read more]

On November 30, 2010, The Ecologist published the above video in association with a story titled US natural gas drilling boom linked to pollution and social strife. Please take the time to watch it and think about the implications of a vastly expanded effort to frack our way into the future. This often touted "bridge" to a renewable...[read more]

If necessity is the mother invention under normal circumstances, then transparency is the mother of all necessity in China. It is something that we have seen over the years as crisis’s propel the media further,something that the recent Yale 360 article As China’s Pollution Toll Grows,Protesters and Media Push Back eludes to: In recent...[read more]

Do risk and compliance have a part to play in reducing pollution? EQ2 certainly thinks so. Steve Burt, the founder and CEO of EQ2, is a former economist having worked at senior levels with Dun & Bradstreet and British Petroleum. His approach, which he calls Granular Resource Economics (GRE), enables companies to quickly see at...[read more]

The World’s 200 Dirtiest Power Plants Forbes.com has an interactive map of the dirtiest coal power plants. Click on the graphic below and you’ll be sent directly to the map. Writer Jon Bruner introduces the map: “Sixty percent of the world’s electricity comes from plants burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon. Many of the highest...[read more]