Cooling the planet at the gas roots

For years, the task of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions was seen as a job mainly for central governments… But with the major emitters such as the US and China outside the treaty, and with the Kyoto nations failing to meet their 2012 goals, the idea of millions of self- sacrificing individuals taking responsibility for their own energy-excessive lives seems like The Next Best Thing.

2006 Boston ASPO: Renewable Energy Sources

Controlling carbon and CO2 emissions requires, at root, finding some other way to generate electricity, to power vehicles, and to heat spaces. Fortunately for the future of mankind, there is a plethora of well-developed technologies in existence just waiting for mankind to start using them on a vast scale. The big problem is getting past the inertia of previous ways of doing things.

Biofuels – Nov 1

Biocrude? Algae-to-oil project /
‘WTO must set rules for biofuel trade’ /
Ethanol could corrode pumps, testers say /
Turning forest slash into cash /
Europe set for biodiesel boom -Goldman Sachs

N. America energy policy – Nov 1

Bush admin appoints Exxon’s Lee Raymond to solve America’s energy crisis /
U.S. drops bid over royalties from Chevron /
$450 million for coal research /
British Columbians in dark about ‘Enronization’ of energy

Environment – Nov 1

New Yorker: The Last Drop: Confronting the possibility of a global [water] catastrophe /
Atlantic current stopped for 10 days in 2004 /
Rasslin’ swamp gas (methane) /
The thirteenth tipping point /
Nine ‘laws’ of ecological bloodymindedness

Reactions to the Stern Report

How climate change is revolutionizing economics /
The approaching storm: economists have seen it for years /
Fossil fools: OPEC, Australia and USA say global warming doesn’t exist /

OPEC says British climate change report “unfounded” /
UK Insurance Journal on the Stern Report

Solutions & sustainability – Oct 31

NY Times on Bioneers /
Live from Pop!Tech: Live green or die /
Slow Food movement has global outreach /
Coming to a theater near you: carbon-neutral movie /
New book “Energy: use less, save more” /
Greening the planet, one backyard at a time

Climate policy – Oct 31

“The Great Warming” – movie review /
Climate research center’s oversight up for bidding /
California: Schwarzenegger, Angelides both profess to lean green /
Scientists, American public disagree sharply over global warming /
New culprit in climate change? Try airlines

NZ energy minister: ‘the end of cheap oil’

Whether conventional oil production will peak in the next year, or the next decade or a decade or two later, is moot. But it will peak and, in policy terms, the timeframe is short…
The Government believes the more serious and more immediate problem is climate change, and that is why we as a nation need to actively reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produce.