As I’m sure readers here have observed, my opinions on climate change are taken directly and exclusively from the 97+% of mainstream climate scientists, some of whom I know personally, that tell us two things:
• anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is real (more…)
In the course of a phone conversation I had yesterday with a young man looking for advice about a career in renewable energy, he happened to mention this Ted Talk, about a fascinating idea to stem desertification in Africa.
The Sahara is expanding southward through the northern regions of Nigeria at the rate of an astonishing 600 meters per year, via a continuously moving avalanche of sand dunes. (more…)
Frequent commenter Glenn Doty writes on my recent post concerning the EV adoption rate:
Your source states that 67,200 EV’s have been sold this year, but that number is a worldwide total sales figure.
Total worldwide sales of ICE’s are north of 60 million thus far this year… so roughly one EV is sold for every 1000 ICEV’s. I don’t think you’ve gotten enough penetration to confirm that this will be anything but an extreme niche. (more…)
A reader just emailed me to say:
I saw your post referring to an article about Norway investing in alternative energy while I was doing some research on solar power. I enjoyed it very much and was glad you shared it with your readers, including myself.
I wonder if you’d heard much about the recent push for “zero-net” household; home and business owners are reducing their energy use and creating their own electricity in various ways. (more…)
Anyone who expects the French to fall in line with conventional thinking on energy (or on anything, really) grossly misunderstands these people. Part of what attracts me to their culture is that they couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thinks of them. (more…)
Here’s an article that makes the same point that I have put forth a few dozen times: there is no nuclear renaissance. At the core of the discussion is the simple and unavoidable fact that nuclear is fantastically expensive – even when the government pays for the insurance (because no private insurer will take on that level of catastrophic risk).
Writing for EmpowerTheOcean, my colleague Emma Websdale notes that Norway may be making a huge investment in renewable energy, and that, if it happens, …. “it will be an unprecedented shift in both the global investment community and also for tangible action on climate change.”
Norway is so sophisticated in so many different ways. Living in the U.S., it’s hard to imagine a population of people who put a significant value on doing something tangible about climate change. But there they are — with an average GDP/capita of twice the U.S. — both sophisticated AND successful — not a bad combination.
I hope readers will check this out: electric vehicle sales are going through the roof. Apparently, the phenomenon I predicted has started to kick in: falling prices, better range, and lots of word of mouth from really ecstatic customers.
Now, of course, the game is to get rid of coal as the answer to the question: what happens when we put an incremental load on the grid in the middle of the night?
I have a good feeling that U.S. President Obama will axe the Keystone XL Pipeline. My reasoning has nothing to do with the noise that environmentalists are making, though I’m not discounting that effect altogether. I’m thinking that none of the other things he seems to want to get accomplished currently (having passed the Affordable Care Act) have any chance of happening. Congress shot gun control dead and said “adios” to immigration reform. What about a grand bargain? Are you serious? (more…)
From your lips to God’s ears, as they say in cliché-land. But is it even remotely possible? (more…)
Here’s news of a 
