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The right questions

This WaPo op-ed on the electrical grid is ho-hum. Turns out we need to improve the grid! But one thing jumped out at me: For real long-term progress, our leaders […]

WALL-E takes top honor and Quantum of Solace disappoints

The best eco-movie of the year is Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E — easily one of the best movie dystopias ever. It ranks with Blade Runner, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Mad Max Beyond […]

Report highlights vital fact on energy: Efficiency gets cheaper the more you spend on it

A while back I did a roundup of reports. I left one out because I wanted to highlight it in its own post: Synapse Energy Economics Inc.: Costs and Benefits […]

Institutions, motivations, and assumptions in economic analysis

A belated Merry Christmas, everyone! Yes, it’s possible that most of Grist’s readers are not Christian (I’m not, for one). But December 25 is the day celebrated as Christmas by […]

Will carbon cap-and-trade be the next Ponzi scheme?

Even as the tsunami of Bernard Madoff’s busted Ponzi scheme was submerging hapless rentiers around the world, another esoteric financial enterprise quietly took a step forward this week. At a […]

Sleep tight everyone!

What a comforting thought: The safety of Russia’s nuclear industry is being undermined by the country’s economic crisis and the situation is expected to to worsen in 2009, according to […]

Thinking big on climate offers better ratio of risk to reward than timidity

The cost of keeping climate-chaos temperature rise under two degrees centigrade may be only 2 percent of world GDP, according to a new study by leading international scientists released in […]

Biochar: magic bullet?

“If biochar could be massively applied around the globe, we could end the emissions problem in one to two years.” — soil scientist and Cornell professor Johannes Lehmann

Old Man Winter declares war on renewable energy

Guess what. The sun doesn’t shine as much in winter, so your home solar system won’t generate much power in the cold months. Oh, and it might SNOW on your […]

N.Y. Times is ready for regime change at the EPA

The Gray Lady’s editorial board offered up a big lump of coal to President Bush’s EPA chief in a Christmas Day editorial. The NYT notes that even former GOP-appointed EPA […]