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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson

We Can Solve It - 0 views

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    The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis.
Jeff Johnson

The balance of power - 0 views

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    What will happen when the gas runs out, when the deepest oil well of the Arabian peninsula finally runs dry, when the giant drills of the offshore platforms reach nothing but dry rock? Will we face a future of blackouts and electricity rationing, or will we find a way to avert the doomiest scenarios and continue living lives in which energy consumption is crucial to everything we do. Think of the electricity you use in a day. You are woken by the clock radio buzzing into life, and you turn the bathroom light on as you climb into your power shower. After dressing you head downstairs, where you turn on another radio, put some bread into the toaster and turn on the kettle, getting the milk from your fridge to put in your tea. After breakfast you head to work, where the lights are burning - and on go the computer and desktop fan.
Jeff Johnson

The Oil Drum - Peak Oil Update - August 2008: Production Forecasts and EIA Oil Producti... - 0 views

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    An update on the latest production numbers from the EIA along with graphs/charts of different oil production forecasts.
Jeff Johnson

Cogeneration Can Slash Carbon and Costs (ENN) - 0 views

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    Cogeneration of electricity and heat is one of the most promising means of using existing technologies for sustainable ends, but it is also one of the most neglected and least understood. Cogeneration can dramatically increase energy efficiency, slash carbon emissions, and save money. Using cogeneration in combination with heat-pump technology and plug-in vehicles as part of a renewable electric grid, we could say goodbye to gasoline and to coal electricity generation and have a real chance in 10 to 20 years for an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. This transition will not require rocket science but simply the integration of existing technologies.
Jeff Johnson

Air Storage Is Explored for Energy (NYTimes.com) - 0 views

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    [A] New Jersey company plans to announce on Tuesday [8/27/08] that it is working on a solution to this perennial problem with wind power: using wind turbines to produce compressed air that can be stored underground or in tanks and released later to power generators during peak hours.
Jeff Johnson

EarthTalk: Do city 'congestion taxes' really help the environment? | csmonitor.com - 2 views

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    Despite increasing green awareness and steadily rising gasoline prices, Americans and other denizens of the developed world - not to mention millions of new Chinese and Indian drivers hitting the road every week - are loath to give up the freedom and privacy of their personal automobiles. But snarled traffic, longer commute times, and rising pollution levels have given city transportation planners new ammunition in their efforts to encourage the use of clean, energy-efficient public transit. One of the newest tools in their arsenal is so-called congestion pricing (also called variable toll pricing), whereby cars and trucks are hit with higher tolls if they access central urban areas at traditionally congested times.
Jeff Johnson

Climate groups look post-Bush (csmonitor.com) - 0 views

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    This week, a coalition of scientific societies and university organizations is slated to hand the Obama and McCain campaigns detailed steps and budget estimates for improving America's ability to monitor and forecast climate trends and severe weather. This October, the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), based at the University of Colorado at Denver, is expected to offer up an exhaustive agenda for a president's first 100 and 1,000 days.
Jeff Johnson

Flexible nanoantenna arrays capture abundant solar energy - 0 views

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    Researchers have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources. The technology, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.
Jeff Johnson

U.S. Renewable Energy Growth Accelerates (ENN) - 0 views

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    Renewable energy markets surged in the United States in the first half of this year despite uncertainty over federal tax credits and a sluggish national economy, according to mid-year figures. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are all on the rise. At least 17,000 megawatts (MW) of these three energy sources are now under construction. According to the Energy Information Administration, renewable energy will account for about one-third of new electricity generation added to the U.S. grid over the next three years.
Jeff Johnson

Big U.S. retailers look to solar energy (ENN) - 0 views

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    In recent months, chains including Wal-Mart Stores, Kohl's, Safeway and Whole Foods Market have installed solar panels on roofs of their stores to generate electricity on a large scale. One reason is that they are racing to beat a Dec. 31 deadline to gain tax advantages for these projects. So far, most chains have outfitted less than 10 percent of their stores.
Jeff Johnson

Friedman: Learning to Speak Climate (NYTimes) - 0 views

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    Some countries have vintage whiskey. Some have vintage wine. Greenland has vintage ice. Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland's Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate. Greenland is one of the best places to observe the effects of climate change. Because the world's biggest island has just 55,000 people and no industry, the condition of its huge ice sheet - as well as its temperature, precipitation and winds - is influenced by the global atmospheric and ocean currents that converge here. Whatever happens in China or Brazil gets felt here. And because Greenlanders live close to nature, they are walking barometers of climate change.
Jeff Johnson

The Energy Drill (NYTimes) - 0 views

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    Obama was against ending the current ban on offshore drilling, but now he's sort of open to it, if it's part of a bigger energy-independence deal. This has upset a number of his supporters who desperately want a president who will adhere firmly to his positions, even when they become totally irrational. While McCain was never violently opposed to offshore drilling, he has now embraced it as if it is not only the solution to our energy problems, but also the key to eternal salvation. Really, it's a little scary. You can't help wondering if he's been captured by some kind of drilling cult.
Jeff Johnson

This Land - In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can't miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Though painted gray, the turbines stand out against the evening backdrop of battleship-colored thunderclouds and bear an almost celestial whiteness when day's light is right. Airplane pilots can spot them from far away, and rarely does a bird make their unfortunate acquaintance. The sound of 8.5-ton blades, three to a turbine, turning and turning, only enhances their almost supernatural presence. Standing at the base of a turbine's stalk, you hear a whistling whoosh - whuh ... whuh ... whuh - as steady summer winds come like the breath of gods to toy with pinwheel amusements.
Jeff Johnson

A New Day for Desalination? - Environment and Energy - 0 views

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    One of the most common questions in the realm of water security is, what are the main barriers to dramatically expanding desalination? It seems to offer an essentially unlimited supply of water, and it's practiced on a large scale in other parts of the world, so why not here?
Jeff Johnson

Historic German Town Struggles Over Push for Solar Power (NYTimes) - 0 views

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    MARBURG, Germany - This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council's decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a "green dictatorship."
Jeff Johnson

Environmental Initiative Challenges K-12 Students To Develop Green Solutions : July 200... - 0 views

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    The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has teamed up with Discovery and the Siemens Foundation to launch a new initiative called the "Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge." The initiative calls on K-12 students to develop green solutions for their schools, homes, and communities. The initiative comprises several components, including introducing students to concepts in sustainability, educating students on environmental issues, building up STEM skills, and, eventually, connecting students with scientists to tackle environmental challenges through real-world projects.
Jeff Johnson

Missouri Town Powered Entirely by Wind - 0 views

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    Missouri's a pretty tough place to grow most crops. But there's one thing they've got plenty of: wind. So a small town, Rock Port, has decided to use the powerful breezes to its advantage, building four wind turbines to provide power to their town.
Jeff Johnson

Paper Or Plastic? - Forbes.com - 0 views

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    In the past six months, flat-screen plasma televisions have accounted for nearly half of all TVs sold around the world. During the manufacturing process, plasma televisions release a gas called nitrogen trifluoride, or NF3, which does approximately 17,000 times more environmental damage than carbon dioxide. But because NF3 was not widely used when the Kyoto protocol was created, it is not classified and controlled as a harmful gas--so even though we've tightened the belt and reduced some emissions, we've missed new ones that are making things far worse.
Jeff Johnson

The Starbucks Economy (Truthdig) - 0 views

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    Starbucks seems to be a place that carries a whiff of excess. In its own way, it has a lot in common with SUVs, hot tubs and television screens wide enough to fill a wall. That is, it represents the bit-by-bit extravagances that helped get us into the tight economic jam we find ourselves in today.
Jeff Johnson

Earth Track - 0 views

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    Comprehensive and accurate information on government interventions in energy markets. Doug Koplow founded Earth Track in 1999 to more effectively integrate information on energy subsidies. For nearly 20 years, Mr. Koplow has written extensively on natural resource subsidies for organizations such as the Global Subsidies Initiative, the National Commission on Energy Policy, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Greenpeace, the Alliance to Save Energy, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. He has analyzed scores of government programs and made important developments in subsidy valuation techniques.
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