Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1141

Rebutting climate science disinformer talking points in a single line

Please offer suggestions for improving the one liners below.

Progressives should know the most commonly used arguments by the disinformers and doubters — and how to answer them.  You should know as much of the science behind those rebuttals as possible, and a great place to start is SkepticalScience.com.

BUT most of the time your best response is to give the pithiest response possible, and then refer people to a  specific website  that has a more detailed scientific explanation with links to...

Energy and Global Warming News for August 9th: Invest in bicycle and scooter stocks when gas prices rise; Climate talks in Bonn don't yield "single vision"

The Best peak oil investments: Bicycle and scooter stocks

When gas prices rise, more people turn to bicycles for transportation. Will these bike and scooter stocks ride in the oil price's slipstream?

A 2008 survey of bicycle retailers found that the vast majority of bike store owners felt that their sales had increased because many people were turning to bicycles for some of their transportation needs because of high gas prices. 95% of store owners reported that they had new customers...

Governor Granholm: Federal Government must act to create clean energy jobs

This is a guest post by CAP's Kalen Pruss.

New unemployment numbers out today show no improvement in the job market.  Although the July unemployment rate held steady at 9.5%, the economy lost 131,000 jobs last month, more than twice as many as economists expected.  Overall, it's been a very poor summer for job growth, making the Senate's failure to pass job-growing climate and clean energy legislation that much more disappointing.

Industrial states have largely bourn the brunt of the country's ...

Greenland glacier calves the Arctic's largest ice chunk in nearly a half-century

One of the largest of Greenland's marine "outlet" glaciers (i.e. glaciers ending in the sea) has calved an enormous "ice island" that reportedly extends over 100 square miles.  Not since 1962, when a 250 square mile island was formed from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, has such a large area of ice been calved in the Arctic.

I may be on vacation, but climate change isn't.  So here's Nick Sundt on WWF's Climate blog with the story, along with background on Greenland.

Above: Satellite image from...

Are cell phones safe? The verdict is still out

Bruce Stutz, former editor in chief of Natural History, explains the latest research on cell phone safety in this reposting from Yale's E360 online magazine.

While some studies have suggested that frequent use of cell phones causes increased risk of brain and mouth cancers, others have found no such links. But since cell phones are relatively new and brain cancers grow slowly, many experts are now recommending taking steps to reduce exposure.

Does your cell phone increase your risk of...

BrightSource to build largest concentrating solar power plant

On August 4th, 2010, Brightsource Energy Inc., an Oakland, California-based developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, announced that the California Energy Commission's (CEC) siting committee recommended approval of what will be the world's largest solar energy project.  The project, called the Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System (ISEGS), consists of a three-plant, 392-megawatt solar electric generating system located in California's Mojave Desert.  After a 30-day comment...

BrightSource CEO John Woolard: We "understand what it takes" to build major CSP projects like Ivanpah - "We've got to build 50 gigawatts a year of carbon-free power ... and we're failing miserably at doing it."

Green energy superstar BrightSource Energy notched a big win this week when a California state regulator recommended approval of its 392-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert.

The California Energy Commission will now hold a 30-day public comment period before voting on the final decision. Another regulatory approval, this one from the federal Bureau of Land Management, should come down in short order. The company plans to begin construction on the...

Global boiling fuels disasters in nuclear nations - Masters: "The Great Russian Heat Wave of 2010 continues.... Thousands of deaths, severe fires, and the threat of radioactive contamination"

Prior to this year, the hottest temperature in Moscow's history was 37.2°C (99°F), set in August 1920. The Moscow Observatory has now matched or exceeded this 1920 all-time record five times in the past eleven days, including today….

… soil moisture in some portions of European Russia has dropped to levels one would expect only once every 500 years.

That's meteorologist Jeff Masters writing about "One of the most remarkable weather events of my lifetime."  The impact of the decline in soil...

Green options for the back-to-school shopper

Summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and that means it's time for back-to-school shopping. But before you frantically stock up on new school supplies, take a moment to think about how you can green your child's schooling. Purchasing recycled and used supplies, rethinking how you pack lunches, and redesigning your children's morning commutes can have substantial cumulative effects on your family's carbon footprint.  CAP has the story.

Paper will probably be one of the first items on most ...

Governing through a disaster: Lessons from the 1994 Northridge earthquake

This is a CAP cross-post by Kate Gordon and John Emerson.

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may be the worst environmental accident ever to hit U.S. shores. But it is by no means the only disaster. America's short history has been rife with natural and manmade environmental disasters that have tested our nation's ability to balance economic and environmental interests—from the San Francisco earthquake, to the Dust Bowl, to the Exxon Valdez spill.

The federal government...