Is the ocean too big to boil? We look at the oceans, covering 3/4ths of the planets surface, and they look too vast for humans to have any permanent impact on them. Yet the oceans are filling up with plastic trash, with radiation from Fukushima, there are growing dead zones…
Prof. James Hansen and a group of scientists released a paper today claiming we need to go nuclear to prevent climate change. Generally speaking I’m against nuclear power, and point at the Fukushima disaster as proof of my fear of that technology. But.. the scientists behind the paper make an…
Professor James Hansen and a team of climate scientists from around the world released on Tuesday a scientific paper, “Assessing Dangerous Climate Change,” to call for serious action now to address climate change. The scientists argue that Humanity has already delayed action enough that drastic action is now required to…
Is Climate Change the be-all-end-all problem that “we” are facing? Yes, I agree with the sentiment of the picture you see here (facebook)- namely, the effects expected from Climate Change are so huge and far-reaching that there’s no “adapting” to it, really, at least not in any simple straightforward way. …
Climate change, and climate change denial, stands to become a huge political issue according to poll results released on Friday by the League of Conservation Voters. The organization polled a bipartisan sample of voters under age 35, and found climate change concern to be very high, and that overwhelmingly the…
How do we calculate the average greenhouse gas emissions of a vehicle fleet? The European Union has legislated a target of an average 95 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer by 2020. Clearly when an automaker sells an electric car, that car lowers the automakers fleet average environmental footprint. …
Monday’s inaugural address by President Obama raised the hopes of environmentalists around the world by promising to take serious action about climate change. However, by Wednesday his Press Secretary, Jay Carney, was deflecting questions about a carbon tax, saying the administration has no intention of proposing a tax on carbon.…
Northern California has been hammered on Saturday and Sunday with several waves of rain storms and drenching rain, and have triggered flash flood alerts in the mountains. The San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto has overflowed its banks and flooded U.S. 101 in the East Palo Alto and Palo Alto…
It took the Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy, for N.Y. City Mayor Bloomberg to choose a Presidential candidate to endorse. Bloomberg had criticized both candidates for failing to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. On Thursday, Bloomberg announced his endorsement for President Obama, describing him as a leader who is far…
The Wednesday, October 31st edition of CNN International’s Amanpour featured an interview with Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY), about the aftermath and impact of “super storm” Hurricane Sandy. Governor Spitzer talked at length about the risks from climate change, the lack of political attention on this issue, as…
In the wake of the Superstorm, Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast this week, it’s appropriate to revisit the Climate Change debate. Governor Cuomo, while in the midst of overseeing disaster response in New York, seems to have done so, and is talking about the reality of climate change,…
A survey of plug-in electric car owners in California show positive economic and environmental benefits, in the largest electric vehicle market in the U.S. California is leading the U.S. in electric vehicle adoption, with over 12,000 plug-in electric vehicles in the state, representing over 35% of the total in the…
In an op-ed published on Australian website businessinsider.com.au, Ross Blade makes an effort to tell us how large electric vehicles will cook the planet, while small electric vehicles won’t. Ross Blade, for those who don’t know, is the Chief Executive of Australian based companies Blade Energy Solutions and Blade Electric…
Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. For all of human history until about 300 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide. That’s a useful amount—without some CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap…
Today is a “Spare the Air” day in Silicon Valley so it seems like a good day to look at the environmental consequences of different car choices. One of the reasons to choose green transportation is potential environmental improvements. Spare the Air days are issued by the Bay Area Air…
