Washington Post (August 20)
“If you care about climate change or air pollution, you cannot casually write off nuclear power, which produces virtually no carbon dioxide emissions while generating a tremendous amount of reliable power.” Renewables simply can’t fill the gap quickly enough. Without nuclear, burning additional fossil fuel is the alternative. “No one concerned about climate change should be willing to take it off the table…. The right response to Fukushima is to make sure reactors meet high safety standards, not to make the fight against global warming much harder.”
Tags: Air pollution, Climate change, CO2, Emissions, Fossil fuel, Fukushima, Global warming, Nuclear power, Renewables, Safety
Washington Post (April 25)
“The government should eliminate energy subsidies of all kinds — for fossil fuels as well as renewable energy. Then Congress should put a significant tax on carbon-dioxide emissions and set it to rise over time. The resulting market forces would decide how the economy would move to a greener state.”
Tags: CO2, Congress, Economy, Emissions, Energy subsidies, Fossil fuels, Government, Market forces, Renewables, Tax, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (January 15)
“For too long, carbon dioxide has dominated the discussion of greenhouse gases.” Methane and other short-lived gases need more attention. Methane “is 80 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide for 20 years after it is released, and 20 times more potent over 100 years.” Reducing methane leaks would not only be good for the environment, it would also boost energy self sufficiency. In the U.S. alone, 6 million homes could be powered by the methane that is currently “lost through wells and leaky pipes.”
Tags: CO2, Energy, Environment, Greenhouse gases, Methane, Self sufficiency, Short-lived gases, U.S.
Financial Times (November 24)
“‘Lung washing tours’ are the new thing in Chinese tourism.” Sales have taken off as people seek refuge from the polluted air, but these often require vast treks to reach a place with clean air. “The truth is that despite what the tour operators say, fleeing pollution is not all that easy in today’s China – no matter how much money you spend (and carbon dioxide you emit) getting away.”
Wall Street Journal (September 22)
“Global CO2 emissions increased to 35.1 billion metric tons in 2013, a new record and a 29% increase over a decade ago. Of the year-over-year carbon climb, China at 358 million metric tons jumped by more than the rest of the world combined and is responsible for 24.8% of emissions over the last five years.” Developing nations now account for nearly 60% of emissions, which means “that regardless of what the West does, poorer countries that are reluctant to sign agreements that impede economic progress hold the dominant carbon hand.”
Tags: Agreements, China, CO2, Developing nations, Economic progress, Emissions, Record, West
New York Times (September 23)
The U.S. “has made commendable progress in reducing its emissions, and is halfway toward meeting Mr. Obama’s pledge at the Copenhagen climate summit meeting in 2009 to reduce its emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.” Globally, however, progress is not being made. “Steadily increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, rising sea levels, more violent weather events, persistent droughts…. The burden on the United States to set a positive example is as heavy as ever.”
Washington Post (August 27)
Governments need to rapidly “head off the ample risks of continuing to release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the air and to set about it with speed and ambition.” A draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) concludes “the increasing amount of greenhouse gases that humans have emitted into the atmosphere has almost certainly been the chief driver of the warming of the planet over the past half-century…. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the IPCC notes, has shot up by 40 percent since 1750, with concentrations of the gas now increasing at a faster rate than at any time in the last 22,000 years.”Governments need to rapidly “head off the ample risks of continuing to release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the air and to set about it with speed and ambition.” A draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) concludes “the increasing amount of greenhouse gases that humans have emitted into the atmosphere has almost certainly been the chief driver of the warming of the planet over the past half-century…. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the IPCC notes, has shot up by 40 percent since 1750, with concentrations of the gas now increasing at a faster rate than at any time in the last 22,000 years.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Climate change, CO2, Global warming, Governments, Greenhouse gases, IPCC, Planet
New York Times (August 11)
“In a welcome development for the planet, the cars on American streets are becoming much more climate-friendly much sooner than many had expected. Consumers are increasingly buying fuel-efficient hybrid and electric vehicles thanks to breakthrough innovations and supportive government policies…. Increased fuel efficiency helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions from passengers cars by 16 percent from 2005 to 2012.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Cars, Climate-friendly, CO2, Consumers, Emissions, EVs, Fuel efficiency, Fuel-efficient, Government policies, HEVs, Innovations, Planet
The Economist (August 10)
China’s emissions are a worldwide concern. “Since 1990 the amount of CO2 pouring from Chinese smokestacks has risen from 2 billion tonnes a year to 9 billion—almost 30% of the global total. China produces nearly twice as much CO2 as America. It is no longer merely catching up with the West. The average Chinese person produces the same amount of CO2 as the average European.”
Bloomberg (August 2)
“Earth’s atmosphere seems to have found a way to get back at the human race. For almost three centuries, we humans have been filling the air with carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. Now, it turns out, the climate change these emissions have wrought is turning people against one another.” Researchers have found “a surprisingly close link between climate change and civil wars, riots, invasions and even personal violence such as murder, assault and rape.”
Tags: Air, Atmosphere, Civil wars, Climate change, CO2, Earth, Emissions, Greenhouse gases, Human race, Methane, Researchers, Violence
