Articles by Sarah Laskow

What wind turbines can learn from fish

Wind turbines are loners. They need to give each other space to be effective. But a new design for wind farms, using a different type of turbines than the giant-fan kind going up all over the place, takes a page from a very social group of animals -- schooling fish -- to create the same amount of energy with shorter turbines, in a smaller area of land.

These wind farms use vertical-axis turbines, which are often described as looking like egg-beaters.

Critical List: Al Gore curses about climate skepticism; garden thieves steal tomatoes

Sometimes even Al Gore can’t resist cursing when he talks about climate skeptics. Listen here.

EPA's scientific integrity policy doesn't do a particularly good job at its intended purpose: protecting scientists from political influence.

Heavy-duty trucks have to meet fuel efficiency standards too. No word yet on monster trucks.

Tar-sands emissions could negate all other Canadian carbon cuts

A report from Canada's environmental agency predicts that the rise in greenhouse-gas emissions associated with mining tar-sands oils will be more than double the decrease in the country's emissions from other sources.

Environment Canada said in its emissions trends report that the country could avoid 31 megatons in emissions by 2020. Most of those savings come from switching out natural gas for coal in electricity generation. But in that same period, emissions from tar-sands oil could rise by 62 megatons, the report said.

U.K. media down on renewable energy

The news media often gets flack for its "balanced" reporting on climate change that gives undue credence to climate skeptics. But in the U.K., at least, high-circulation newspapers can’t even claim balance when it comes to renewable energy. The Guardian reports on a study of news coverage of renewable energy in July 2009, when the discussion was largely about the "pros and cons of low-carbon energy sources.” The results: