October 2011
4 posts
Across the Sea But a World Away – From the... →
Session of the United Nations climate negotiations October 2 in Panama City. Source: International Institute for Sustainable Development
Panama is only a short hop from the…
Bill McKibben Links Climate Change to Corruption... →
The climate activism community is now firmly in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) fight. 350.org joined in the tens of thousands on the streets of New York last week; and now environmental…
Worldwatch Presents the Potential for Renewables... →
Matt Lucky presenting the potential for wind energy in Haiti at an energy sector stakeholder meeting in Port-au-Prince (Source: Worldwatch).
Last week, Xing Fu-Bertaux and I…
Right2Know Marchers Begin 313-Mile Walk From NYC... →
While thousands of people participated in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the New York City over the weekend, on Saturday a smaller group of activists set out on a 313-mile march to…
September 2011
10 posts
Palau Asks International Court to Weigh Whether... →
The low-lying Pacific island nation of Palau is trying an interesting, if long shot, way of ensuring its survival by forcing high-emitting nations to rein in their climate impact. New…
A Bold Call To Action: The Dominican Republic’s... →
On January 14th, at the National Palace in Santo Domingo, the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism of the Dominican Republic (CNCCMDL) released its long-awaited
Keystone XL Pipeline Won't 'Play Any Substantial... →
photo: Tar Sands Action/CC BY A new report by the Cornell University Global Labor Institute echoes what opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have been saying on jobs and…
Hurricane Irene: A Great Example of Why GDP Fails... →
If you need a great example of how GDP isn’t really a great way of measuring the actual state of an economy, in its ability to actually meet the needs of people, then a new piece from …
World's Major River Basins Could Double Food... →
Water scarcity is certainly an issue for growing food in some areas, but a new report, published in Water International says that the world’s major rivers basins will have enough…
Solar PV Power Grows 69% Year-Over-Year in US for... →
Following recent reports on how fast solar power is growing in the US, and how many people employed by the solar power industry: A new assessment from the Solar Energy Industries…
Solar Energy is Paving the Way for Better... →
A photovoltaic solar power system at a Partners in Health clinic in Haiti (Source: Solar World)
With Worldwatch’s Energy Roadmaps for the Caribbean work in Haiti, the Institute plans…
The First Worldwide Green Hajj Guide & Eco-Mosques... →
photo: Al Jazeera English/CC BY ND Some timely examples of the intersection of Islam and environmental stewardship, both coming via the good folks over at Green Prophet: 1)…
Natural Gas-Fired Electricity May Be Cleaner than... →
Photo: Coyote Springs Generating Station by Portland General Electric
On August 25, my colleagues at the Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors and I released a new greenhouse gas…
Is Tennis' US Open The Greenest Big Sporting Event... →
image: USTA I don’t know if the United States Tennis Association puts on the greenest major sporting even in the country, of even if you could define that, but the US Open, held…
August 2011
5 posts
Global Production of Biofuels Regains Momentum,... →
Global production of biofuels increased 17 percent in 2010 to reach an all-time high of 105 billion liters, up from 90 billion liters in 2009. High oil prices, a global economic rebound, and…
How Shutting Down Nuclear Power Is Different Than... →
photo: pfly/CC BY-SA Right after the Fukushima nuclear disaster began I wrote about how wind turbines survived unscathed in the earthquake zone and began producing power again…
Worldwatch Report Focuses on China’s Green Future →
By Haibing Ma and Danielle Nierenberg
The new Worldwatch report explores China’s green potentials
China’s environmental problems remain a cause for global concern as climate…
Ambitious Plans and Equally Great Challenges: An... →
by Qiong Xie
China’s offshore wind industry is gaining momentum and entering the large-scale development phase. China’s National Energy Bureau plans to boost the country’s offshore wind capacity…
Warming World May Release Stored Carbon From... →
photo: Dr Emma Sayer Both calculating how many carbon emissions are stored in forests and how this changes over time is a complicated business, but we certainly know that they are…
July 2011
11 posts
We All Suffer When Large Animals Removed From Our... →
photo: Tambako the Jaguar/Creative Commons As Wyoming and the Department of Interior thinking appropriately managing wolves means half of them should be shot on sight, a new study in…
Flying From Frankfurt to Hamburg, With or Without... →
photo: Marcus Bolt/Creative Commons Today is the day! As I reported last week Germany airline Lufthansa has now begun using biofuels on about one-third of its flights from…
Wind Farms Of Small Vertical Axis Turbines More... →
photo: John Dabiri/Caltech An interesting new study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy turns on its head conventional wisdom about both the optimum technical solution…
Winter Warming More Than Summer Across Much Of... →
images: NOAA NOAA has some new maps (h/t Mongabay) showing how temperatures in the US are changing, and have been changing for the past few decades. The image above shows how much…
Cities May Soak Up 10x More Carbon Emissions Than... →
photo: Paul Sturgess/Creative Commons Except in the most concrete of the concrete jungles of cities, our urban centers probably absorb far more carbon emissions than current…
China’s Power Shortage Calls for Sustainable... →
China appears to be heading for its worst power shortage since 2004, putting pressure on already struggling industries and strained livelihoods due to restricted energy access. The 26 provinces…
New Wyoming Wolf Management Plan Proposes Killing... →
photo: William Campbell - USFWS/Creative Commons Wolves can’t seem to catch a break: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and US Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe have …
June Record High Temperatures Beat Record Lows... →
photo: Global Jet/Creative Commons Two important and interesting but unfortunately not encouraging factoids on climate change: Continuing and increasing a trend, in the US record hot…
The Southwest on Fire: Is Climate Change to Blame? →
Natural disasters can provide a dramatic reminder of the impact human activities are having on our planet. In recent months, the Southwestern United States has experienced devastating forest…
Aircraft Punching Holes In Clouds Can Increase... →
Aircraft-induced cloud hole over Antarctica, image courtesy Science/AAAS Definitely interesting: New research in the journal Science shows how airplanes can affect the local weather…
An Advance in Low Head Hydro Technology Opens New... →
This entry is the latest in a Worldwatch blog series on innovations in the climate and energy world.
Natel’s SLH turbine, courtesy of www.natelenergy.com
According to BP’s
June 2011
10 posts
Data Challenges in Green Economy and Green Jobs... →
In a previous post, we discussed the general challenges posed by China’s statistical system. Despite these challenges, the Chinese government has started making a serious effort to establish a…
Texas Becomes Latest State to Require Disclosure... →
Texas has been the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry for decades.
On Friday, June 17, Governor Rick Perry signed a bill that mandates public disclosure of the chemicals that…
New Eco-Friendly Brick Kilns Could Reduce... →
New kilns aim to reduce the sort of air pollution current kilns, above, are renowned for. Photo: Melanie Ko/Creative Commons Bangladesh may already have very low per capita carbon…
The Dominican Republic’s First Utility-Scale Wind... →
The Turbines at Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera are Fully Assembled
Earlier this month, Worldwatch researchers visited the Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera wind farms, adjacent to each…
The Thoroughly Positive Effects of Positivity &... →
photo: Kelly Schott/Creative Commons There’s a really fascinating feature over at Greater Good on the powerful transformative effects that positive emotions have on our…
Bonn Climate Talks: Sailing Forward, But With Half... →
(Photo: The Adopt a Negotiator Project) The Kyoto Protocol (KP) still sits in troubled waters, as three of its signatory countries threaten to jump ship on its continuation beyond…
Whither Ecological Limits? Jairam Ramesh, Economic... →
Photo: Mat McDermott India’s environment minister Jairam Ramesh (above, talking with students at one of the opening events of World Environment Day 2011) has a lot to be praised…
Clinton and Bloomberg Join Forces on Cities and... →
The C40 Summit was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a C40 participating city
Several international organizations have collaborated recently to combat climate change in the world’s largest…
Egg Carton Labels' Animal Welfare Claims Not... →
photo: inspector_81/Creative Commons Perhaps this isn’t surprising for seasoned animal welfare watchers, but for the novice pay attention: According to a new article in the…
Vermont Speeds Up Small-Scale Solar Power... →
Vermont, the Green Mountain State (and greenest in the US, according to Greenopia), has just demonstrated that consciousness—passing a new registration process for small-scale …
May 2011
2 posts
Can the Caribbean Create a Common Electricity... →
A step in the right direction or something else for CARICOM to trip on?
By Mark Konold and Cristina Adkins
In March 2010, Nexant and the World Bank produced a report looking…
From Wind and Sun to Gas: Fraunhofer’s “Renewable... →
The ability to store energy efficiently and cheaply would solve one of renewable energy’s greatest challenges. Many renewable resources, such as wind and solar, cannot provide steady energy…
April 2011
11 posts
Renewable Energy Production May Overtake Nuclear... →
It still may be a relatively small amount of the total US energy supply inasmuch as the shift to clean energy still has a long way to go, but new data from the Energy Information Agency…
A New, Fast-Charge Battery Could Jumpstart the... →
This entry is the latest in a Worldwatch blog series on innovations in the climate and energy world.
Soon to be obsolete?
The Nissan Leaf proudly advertises that it can go 100…
House Votes Yes For Polluters, No To A Clean... →
photo: Ken Lund/Creative Commons The Senate voted against this yesterday: As expected, the House of Representatives voted yesterday (255-172) to prevent the EPA from …
The Enthusiasm Gap: How to Improve Energy... →
The Power Aware Cord: Visualizing Your Energy Usage
International climate and energy policies, including the EU’s 20-20-20 agenda, often contain three key elements: reducing carbon…
House Votes To Deny Climate Change Causes Again,... →
photo: Nicholas Jones/Creative Commons Alice in Wonderland on the Potomac continues in full force, the sane news first: The Senate has rejected a measure that would stop the EPA…
Scrap Subsidies For Fossil Fuels & Support... →
photos (L-R): John Norton/Creative Commons;dtsomp/Creative Commons The latest report from the International Energy Agency on renewable energy is out and in many ways it’s…
The Model Region of Güssing – an Example of the... →
By Hans Kordik, Counselor for Agriculture and Environment, Austrian Embassy
The call for energy independence has been on the political agenda across the globe for many decades. While most…
Transocean Gives Execs Multi-Million Dollar... →
photo: US Coast Guard/Creative Commons In case you haven’t heard the most Orwellian bit of news in the first week of April: Transocean, the company which was operating the…