For a long time, people have believed that it’s impossible for solar and wind to provide more than a fraction of our overall energy mix. After all, you cannot just turn on the sun or wind with the flick of a switch. But a recent report by a team of President Obama’s economic advisers suggests […]
Posted inAudio
Wanted: A home that withstands weather
Green is “in vogue” … if you’re talking about this year’s trends in real estate. Barbara Ballinger is a freelance writer who follows housing trends. She says potential homeowners are looking for softer colors and copper surfaces. But they’re also considering how a home will handle the changing climate. Ballinger: “It’s not just the square […]
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Climate change activism … It’s elementary
Six-year-old Mars Engel Dixon may be the youngest climate-change activist in America. Engel Dixon: “Well the atmosphere is the blanket actually and it traps all those greenhouse gases, methane, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” Kids today are growing up in a time when climate change is affecting their health and environment. Mars has been concerned […]
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The art and science of naming storms
Ike, Igor, Irene, Ingrid … What do these four names have in common? They all start with the letter “I”, and they can never again be used for a hurricane. The World Meteorological Organization began naming tropical storms in 1950. A storm is given a name when its wind speeds reach 39 miles per hour, […]
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Nonprofit installs solar on leaders’ homes
Imagine if every presidential mansion in the world were powered by the sun’s energy. That’s the vision of “Solar Head of State,” a nonprofit organization that believes solar power on the homes of world leaders will inspire others to try clean energy. Ellsmoor: “It’s a really great endorsement of the industry and the renewable energy […]
Posted inFood & Agriculture
Could carbon farming help the climate?
Healthy soil could be an ally in reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere – and farmers can dig it, too. (Carbon Farming)
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A gas well explosion sparks activism
It’s been ten years since a gas well exploded near Deb Thomas’s house in Wyoming. Thomas: “It blew for three days. They didn’t have a heavy enough mud to stop the blowout. Twenty-five houses evacuated.” Demand for natural gas has grown, in part because burning it creates less global warming pollution than coal. But Thomas […]
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Partnership protects drinking water from wildfires
When wildfires rage across the landscape, they don’t just threaten homes, they pollute clean drinking water. Catastrophic wildfires in 1996 and 2002 burned hundreds of thousands of acres in Colorado. Christina Burri of Denver Water says those fires dumped millions of tons of ash into reservoirs. They also destroyed all the vegetation, and with nothing […]
Posted inThis Is Not Cool
Sea ice video addresses key questions
A new six-minute video on the changing nature of Arctic sea ice and its implications for weather far and wide answers the ‘Why does it matter to us?’ question.
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Ancient farming practice reduces pollution
Tractors emit carbon dioxide. Livestock emit methane. All told, agriculture causes about ten percent of global warming pollution. So Dawit Solomon of Cornell University is looking for ways to produce more food without making climate change worse. He thinks a technique used by West African farmers for hundreds of years may be part of the […]
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A new kind of energy storage
Solar panels and wind turbines can generate a lot of power. But without a way to store the energy produced by these clean sources, their ability to provide most of our electricity is limited. Imre Gyuk directs the energy storage program at the Department of Energy. He explains that electricity has traditionally been produced on […]
Posted inAudio
Water: Don’t fight it, work with it
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it exposed flaws in the city’s stormwater systems. Lott: “The city is famously below sea level in parts, not because it was below sea level when we settled here, but because we have pumped all the water out of the soil and actually caused the city to sink. And […]