A new alliance to fight climate change was formed this week. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger concluded the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 3 (GGCS 3) yesterday by announcing a new public-private alliance that spans the globe will promote clean energy, climate resiliency, and a green economy.
Over 1500 public officials and
On October 21, the National Research Council (NRC) began operations on a new high-efficiency solar energy experiment at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology, located on NRC property in Ottawa.
“Semiconductors Using Nanostructures
Samco Machinery has shed its image as a dwindling post-recession equipment shop to become Samco Solar, a cutting-edge solar parts manufacturer with a local competitive edge. The Scarborough, Ontario, company had experienced declining profits and related staffing cuts for an extended period of time, until the move was made
Politicians often tout the benefits of going green from both an environmental and economic standpoint. After all, going green helps the economy by expanding the energy sector to one reliant primarily on fossil fuels to one that includes alternative and renewable sources which tend to be cleaner for the environment. Yet, there are varying numbers about how many jobs are truly
Last week, the Department of Education held the national Sustainability Education Summit: Citizenship and Pathways for a Green Economy at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. Approximately 300 participants spent two days discussing ideas and proposals for a national agenda to advance a sustainable economy through education. Participants came from federal
As of the summer of 2010, the landscape for the wind industry has changed dramatically from last year, when the U.S. set a record by installing over 10 GW in a single year and claiming the title of the world’s top wind power producer for the second year in a row.
According to recent statistics provided by
TD Canada Trust is doing what it can for Canada’s green economy. The bank recently commissioned a poll of Canadian house owners to determine Canadians’ awareness of and attitudes toward green energy. The survey, conducted at the end of July and into August, looked in particular at attitudes toward solar panels and found, among other things, that although a third of
Provincial Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, recently toured a hydroelectric project in Kapuskasing, Ontario to promote the province’s push for a greener and more sustainable economy. During his visit, Duguid stated, “I really think the Green Energy Act is good for the North,” referring to the provincial government’s legislation designed to bolster investment in a cleaner,
Late last month, Toronto-based Atlantic Wind and Solar Inc. announced an encouraging step forward in the transition to a greener economy. The firm is planning to launch a brand new financing program designed to help organizations develop large-scale wind and solar energy projects. The Renewable Energy Finance program will focus on helping companies complete
Declaring that today’s green movement should use the same organizational approach as the 1960s civil rights movement, environmental advocate Jerome Ringo called for people of all social and economic levels need to be included in building a clean, healthier future during a recent talk in San Diego.
One of the nation’s foremost environmental leaders, Ringo spoke about the latest policies and practices that are spurring clean-tech industries and the green job marketplace at the California Center for Sustainable Energy while he was visiting San Diego to participate in events celebrating Earth Day 2010.
Ringo described the green economy as a race by nations to become leaders in developing clean technologies that can reduce dependence on foreign oil, prevent global warming and put people to work. One of the best ways to do that, he said, is to engage people who have not been traditionally involved – the poor, low income and minorities – who usually spend a greater percentage of their income on household energy and gasoline and often live in areas with the worst environmental conditions.
I’m in Georgia today to deliver the commencement address at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and I just finished a tour of the University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics (UCEP).
With longstanding support from the Department of Energy, and under the direction of Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi , this Center at Georgia Tech has become a premier site for silicon photovoltaic (PV) research in the U.S. The company that evolved from this work –- Suniva –- is an American success story.
The energy world operates under the premise that more is better. If we build more power plants, we’ll have ample supply, and electricity prices will drop. Even better, if those plants are clean and green, we’ll displace older, dirtier plants and reduce emissions. That will help our economy by producing jobs.
But is that the right way to think about power?
Truth be told, new energy sources are likely to play a smaller role in economic recovery than advances in energy efficiency, according to speakers at a recent symposium held by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, as part of its 30th anniversary celebration.
“Cost-effective investment that can reduce the amount of energy necessary to support a dollar of economic activity is the single most important driver of economic productivity within the United States and around the world,” said John A. “Skip” Laitner, director of economic and social analysis, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
As climate and energy legislation continues to founder in Washington, Senator Maria Cantwell says it’s time for a new strategy. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Cantwell explains why her bill can avoid the pitfalls of cap-and-trade and win the support of the public.
Is carbon cap-and-trade legislation alive or dead in the U.S. Congress? Does the energy bill being proposed by senators John Kerry, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham — or for that matter any climate and energy legislation — stand a chance of passing the U.S. Senate before this November’s midterm elections?
No one seems to be able to answer these questions at this point. In the meantime, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal Act, or CLEAR — sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — has been getting a surprising amount of attention. Instead of a cap-and-trade system, the bill would institute what its sponsors call “cap-and-refund.” Under the bill, the president would, beginning in 2012, set an overall cap on fossil-fuel emissions.
We can’t successfully tackle climate change without changes to the corporate regime which has been in place in America since the Reagan presidency. That’s the underlying message of Charles Derber in his latest book, Greed to Green: Solving Climate Change and Remaking the Economy. It’s a message he delivers with directness in a book much more readable than I expected from an academic sociologist.
He accepts the position of scientists like James Hansen and others who point to the ominous dangers of tipping points in climate and conclude that we are already above a safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which they consider no more than 350 parts per million. It’s not a happy acceptance. “No sane person would wish it to be the scientific truth,” he writes.
Derber recounts the terrible difficulty he had, after realising with despair the seriousness of climate change, in dealing emotionally with the prospect of mass, collective death — “more difficult than dealing with my own personal death.”
The only good news he discerns is that the scientific truth may be spreading and leading to a tipping point in the world’s social and political awareness.