apple juice

Surprise, surprise, Coal is dirty, and the full effect of coal is not accounted for in its cost.

In a post-election news conference, President Obama noted that it was doubtful that Congress would do anything to address global warming “this year or next year or the year after.”

Maybe the year after that?

Here’s a little hope: A Novel Tactic in Climate Fight Gains Some Traction

 

Another reason for the lack of recent blogging is my mild depression regarding all things government. Health care: underwhelmed. Financial regulations: meh. More tea party crazies in government: Positively scary.

And then this…

We’re Gonna Be Sorry

I could blame Republicans for the fact that not one G.O.P. senator indicated a willingness to vote for a bill that would put the slightest price on carbon. I could blame the Democratic senators who were also waffling. I could blame President Obama for his disappearing act on energy and spending more time reading the polls than changing the polls. I could blame the Chamber of Commerce and the fossil-fuel lobby for spending bags of money to subvert this bill. But the truth is, the public, confused and stressed by the last two years, never got mobilized to press for this legislation. We will regret it.

 

Friedman’s op-ed actually opened up a new line of reasoning I hadn’t considered before. What exactly would the motivation be for climatologists to fake global-warming? If someone could answer that for me, I’d love to know.

The Pratt House project is an example of a burgeoning movement in the building industry. With the growing concern over the environment and energy, builders and architects are devising ways to dramatically cut the energy use in people’s homes, for both new construction and retrofits. In the U.S., all buildings represent about half of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

Via: This Green Home Will Heat Itself

At some point in the future, we’re going to either convert or build a new house that is passively heated and cooled. All of the research I can find so far says that we will need an auxiliary heat source, but that we should be able to achieve a very energy efficient home in minnesota.

No fluke: new survey finds $4 gas is the tipping point: “The survey found that if gas were to shoot to over $4 a gallon again, 40 percent of car shoppers would ‘consider purchasing a new fuel-efficient car right away.’ About the same amount, 41 percent, said that $4 gas would make them choose a ‘more efficient car the next time they were ready to buy a car.’ Even at $3.75, 29 percent of car shoppers thought buying a more efficient car ‘right away’ was the right move. Takeaway point: when gas prices go up, people will want to have greener cars. The question is what kinds of vehicles will be available then the inevitable happens. “

(Via AutoblogGreen.)

i’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We need a gas tax that establishes a price floor for a gallon of gas.

A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining by James Hansen: “Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of the nation’s coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds — an undeniably catastrophic way of mining. This technique has buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris and by 2012 will have serious damaged or destroyed an area larger than Delaware. Mountaintop removal also poisons water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust. Coal ash piles are so toxic and unstable that the Department of Homeland Security has declared that the location of the nation’s 44 most hazardous coal ash sites must be kept secret. They fear terrorists will find ways to spill the toxic substances. But storms and heavy rain can do the same. A recent collapse in Tennessee released 100 times more hazardous material than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.”

(Via WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future.)

One thing you can do is call Xcel and ask to be on the 100% windsource program. Also, call or email your legislator and ask them to support policies that would end the process.

I just found The Story of Stuff via an article at the New York Times.

The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste…

“Cheerful, but brutal” is a perfect description for this video.

I’m too much of a sucker. Technology “stuff” is a major impediment to being more environmentally friendly. It just never stops.