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Our Renewable Nation is possibly the most adorable project ever conceived to advocate renewable energy. It's an eco-video project helmed by the McCullough family, who are traveling across the country in a vegetable oil powered VW Beetle. They're visiting wind farms, solar installations, talking to companies developing sustainable technologies, and documenting all their interviews and travels on video. Each of the videos stars 9-year old Carrick McCollough, the cutest kid to campaign in the name of renewable energy. And it's effective. Don't believe me? Just watch the video after the jump, where Carrick implores grownups to not blow it for him and his generation. How can we say no to this?

Growing concerns over climate change and energy security have kicked research on alternative energy sources into high gear. The list of options continues to expand, yet few papers have comprehensively reviewed them. And fewer still have weighed the pros and cons in as much depth as a new study published earlier this month in the journal, Energy & Environmental Science. The results are a mixed bag of logical conclusions and startling wake-up calls. The review pits twelve combinations of electric power generation and vehicular motivation against each other. It is a battle royal of nine electric power sources, three vehicle technologies, and two liquid fuel sources. It rates each combination based on eleven categories. And it was all compiled by one man, Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.

What if it were possible to bury carbon dioxide over a mile below a power plant in the second worst air basin in the United States? In 2011 the greenhouse gas will be pumped below a power plant in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Located in Kern County near Bakersfield, the Clean Energy Systems power plant is powered by different kinds of natural gas and oxygen. It produces five megawatts of energy, enough for 5,000 homes, but the carbon sequestration experiment will increase that to 50 megawatts.

The UK government's renewables consultation called for a green revolution in energy. In doing so, it created a perfect tabloid rod for its own back. The proposed cost-to-consumer calculated by the Department of Business were based on the vanishingly unlikely prospect of an oil price as low as $70 a barrel in 2020. Expected additions to UK energy bills, at that oil price, would be 10-13% for electricity and 18-37% for gas, the government said.

The row over US inaction on carbon emissions reached new heights yesterday after the White House allowed Congress to look at last year's government proposal to officially deem climate change a threat to public health - a plan that aides to George Bush refused to acknowledge or read. The climate plan was finished in December by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a supreme court ruling that required the Bush administration to state whether carbon emissions should be regulated to protect public health.

A bunch of polls have come out that find the public supports strong climate action in spite of aggressive and widespread Republican fear-mongering about energy prices. For instance, the new Washington Post/ABC poll of 1,072 Americans (here) found: While majorities across the board support government regulation of greenhouse gases, it peaks among liberals (88%) and under 30s (80%), vs. 61% of conservatives and 64% of seniors. Support also ranges from 85% of Democrats, 65% "strongly," to 64% of Republicans, 39% strongly. Concern about its cost is broader, and stronger, among those who'd presumably be hit hardest - lower-income adults.

Governors from across the country agree that it will take bold leadership to confront the nation's energy crisis. But they couldn't come to a consensus position on climate change or nuclear expansion or the future of coal.

Last week, Vice President Al Gore presented the American people with a challenge: meet 100% of our electricity needs through renewable energy within 10 years. Al would be the first to acknowledge this is not a minor task. And yet it is an urgent one, a challenge that will require a transformation in how we invest our time and money, and how we view ourselves.

In a week that Gore testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, here he again urges passage of stimulus package and other policies to Repower America with 100% renewable energy: Get Adobe Flash player

A Canadian company says that it has developed a way for makers of precast concrete products to take all the carbon-dioxide emissions from their factories, as well as neighboring industrial facilities, and store them in the products that they produce by exposing those products to carbon-dioxide-rich flue gases during the curing process. Industry experts say that the technology is unproven but holds great potential if it works.

PETROL should be included in Australia's carbon emissions trading scheme, but low-income households should be compensated for higher power and fuel bills, the nation's top climate change expert has warned. Issuing a stern challenge to the Rudd Government to include petrol in the scheme, when it begins in 2010, Ross Garnaut warned of dire consequences for Australia's natural icons unless urgent and decisive action is taken.

A new study shows that Germany has already reduced greenhouse gas emissions to the level pledged in the Kyoto Protocol. But a greater reliance on coal-fired power plants may soon reverse the trend. When it comes to global warming and concurrent efforts to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, Germany has always tried to present itself as a leader. New data set to be released on Friday shows that the country has earned its bragging rights.

Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide.

Researchers developing alternatives to fossil fuels are working with everything from algae to babassu oil to corn, but a California company says it can recycle carbon dioxide into fuel. Carbon Sciences claims it has developed a way of using the CO2 emitted during the combustion of coal, oil and other hydrocarbons to create transportation fuels like gasoline and jet fuel. Should Carbon Sciences - or any of the other firms working on similar projects - accomplish this on a large scale, it could bring a reduction in CO2 emissions as well as an abundant supply of renewable fuel.

Concerns over the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest resurfaced at the weekend after it emerged that deforestation jumped by 64% over the last 12 months, according to official government data. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research this week said that around 3,145 square miles - an area half the size of Wales - were razed between August 2007 and August 2008.

Australia is the dryest nation on earth, always was always will be, the trouble is Global warming is making the situation worse and rainfall is reducing in a disturbing pattern. For two centuries since European settlement the States have fought over 'Water-Right's' and the use of water to the detriment of the environment and ultimately to the sustainability of everyone residing here. The Murray-Darling Basin is 3,370km long, drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural area in Australia. The name of the basin is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River.

In an interview released today by Newsmax, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) - Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) newly minted running mate - was asked for her "take on global warming and how is it affecting our country." "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location," Palin said, adding, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." DeSmogBlog notes that NASA and the National Academy of Sciences disagree:

Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year. Envisat observations from mid-August depict that a new record of low sea-ice coverage could be reached in a matter of weeks. The animation above is a series of mosaics of the Arctic Ocean created from images acquired between early June and mid-August 2008 from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard Envisat. The dark grey colour represents ice-free areas while blue represents areas covered with sea ice.