By Greenpeace International | Jan. 22, 2013: TORONTO – Canada’s tar sands ranked fifth of the 14 largest carbon intensive projects in the world, according to a new report from Greenpeace International. The “Point of No Return” notes government hypocrisy on major energy projects – like the tar sands – which increases climate change and places READ MORE
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With Obama talking the talk on climate action in his State of the Union address yesterday, now seems a good time to start compiling a planned set of blog entries about renewable energy. Many many others have done so online already (as evidenced by the fact I’m linking to them!) but I’d like to communicate my cautiously nascent optimism in my own words. I’m growingly confident that I’ll live to see renewables dominate global electricity production, as dominantly as oil dominates global transport today, with immense and commensurate environmental benefits. That moment won’t come a moment too soon, either, . . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Our Renewable Future part 1: clearing “myth”conceptions 
 Clean tech, cleantech, coal, electricity, energy, energy storage, environment, Germany, grid parity, grid storage, intermittency, intermittent, john cook, natural gas, our renewable future, peaker plant, peaking plant, photovoltaics, PV, renewable energy, renewable energy future, Renewables, skeptical science, solar, solar PV, technology, Wind energy, wind power Assorted content for your Friday reading. - Paul Dechene interviews Marc Spooner about Saskatchewan residents left behind in the province’s boom: One way that our growing income gap can be hand-waved away is by pointing to the fact that every other province that goes through an economic boom faces this. Perhaps it’s just a natural result of us going through a transitional phase? Spooner doesn’t find that argument compelling. “That implies a very non-responsive government,” he says. “Can we not learn from our neighbours in the west? Can we not see what happened in Alberta and be forward-looking and do . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Ed Broadbent comments on both the growing problem of inequality, and the one institution which can do something about it:Canada is not doing better. From 1982 until 2004, almost all growth in family i… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links Assorted content to end your week.- Christopher Curtis and Stephen Maher break the news that the Cons have falsified donation records, claiming donations to their Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding association from individuals who deny ever making contributio… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links Eventually people will have to get it through their heads that cleaner alternative energy isn’t just for tree-hugging hippies. Eventually these energy sources — along with energy conservation, reducing/re-using other products, and population redu… . . . → Read More: The Ranting Canadian: Eventually people will have to get it through their heads that… Read more: Sweden Wants Your Trash . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Sweden Trashes Canada In Renewable Energy Wednesday night was one to remember. After a scramble to get my passport renewed (I only noticed last week it had expired over the summer), my husband and I traveled by ferry from Victoria British Columbia to take in the first night of Bill McKibben… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Fossil Fuel Industry’s Bottom Line Will Destroy Our Climate: Do The Math The PBS Frontline program “Climate of Doubt” masterfully exposed the strategies and tactics that climate denialists have used to delay, if not undermine meaningful action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change in… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Hurricane Sandy Reminds Us We’re All Paying The Price For Politically-Created Climate Of Doubt One serious drawback of some forms of renewable energy, such as wind or tidal power, has been that they don’t conform to peak market demand. Some are intermittent, some work best at off-peak, low-demand hours. What’s been missing is a viable means of storing surplus renewable energy production. A Brit engineer seems to have come up with a solution, liquid air, that is nearly as efficient as conventional battery technology. Water vapour and oxygen are removed from the air. The remaining nitrogen is then super-cooled until it liquifies using off-peak renewable energy production. The liquid solarf.jpg This is a guest post by Stefanie Penn Spear. Originally published at EcoWatch. In 2009 it seemed as though Congress was finally going to pass legislation that would transition our country to a renewable energy future. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill, would have created a cap and trade system on greenhouse gases, required electric utilities through a renewable electricity standard (RES) to meet 20 percent of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020, subsidized renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and . . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Congress: Expedite Renewable Energy From a long time friend of the blog who has written to Health Canada in the wake of news of their study on wind turbines, this letter below. He advises he has “absolutely no financial or corporate involvement in any wind project. My interest social, economic and environmental.” These are the kind of concerns I’m sure Health Canada will be hearing much more about. For submissions to Health Canada, comments are open until September 7th and you can find more information at this link. 18 July 2012 To: David S. MichaudConsumer and Clinical Radiation Protection BureauHealth . . . → Read More: Impolitical: Dear Health Canada – part II This and that for your Tuesday reading. - Dave Coles writes that the Harper Cons are using their power to protect the privacy of international arms dealers, while at the same time demanding stringent reporting requirements for labour unions and their members: Labour unions are among the few institutions that can and do provide a counterbalance to the power of corporations. Yet the Conservatives are not requiring companies that bargain with trade unions to file detailed reports to the Canada Revenue Agency on their salary, political or lobbying spending. Additionally, they are not requiring other professional associations that collect fees . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links Assorted content to end your weekend. - Will Hutton discusses how the increasing gaps in economic equality are leading to radical differences in opportunity – with the U.S./U.K. push toward private schooling serving as a particular source of exclusion: (T)he middle class of whatever ethnic background is spending more on what Putnam calls its children’s “enrichment activities” so important for psychological wellbeing and character building; in fact they are spending 11 times more than those at the bottom. In 1972, working-class children from the bottom quartile of earners were just as likely to participate in a wide . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links News yesterday that Health Canada has decided to do some research: “Health Canada to probe possible health effects of wind turbines.” This study is going to be very carefully watched. Early indications from its rollout are not good on the impartiality front, what with Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre immediately using the announcement to wield it against the McGuinty government to seek a halt to a wind project in the Ottawa area. Further, there was the phone call from the PMO to Wind Concerns, a leading opponent of wind energy who were very active politically during the Ontario election . . . → Read More: Impolitical: Dear Health Canada This and that for your Thursday reading. - The OECD is the latest independent observer to confirm Thomas Mulcair’s point that dutch disease is a real problem for Canadian manufacturing. And Marc Lee calls for a green industrial revolution as a better path toward economic development and environmental responsibility than the Cons’ focus on resource extraction alone. - Andrew Coyne sees the ongoing opposition resistance to the Cons’ omnibus anti-environment bill as a battle for the very soul of democracy: This is how it happens. This is how it has happened: the more powers government acquires at the expense of . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links 20090217-army-solar-panel.jpg Republicans on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee have decided that the military’s push for clean, renewable energy has gone far enough, and have proposed for next year’s budget that the Pentagon not spend a dime on renewable energy sources that cost more than traditional dirty energy. This news comes on the heels of the Navy’s announcement of their new “Great Green Fleet,” which features an aircraft carrier and strike group that are all powered by renewable, cleaner energy sources. The shift in policy came from the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California Republican Howard “Buck” . . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: House Republicans Attempt To Nix Military’s Clean Energy Initiatives shutterstock_90778001.jpg Ever wonder why a blooming green energy industry has faced such harsh opposition? Now, as the old adage goes, "the cat's out of the bag." The Guardian today revealed the network of fossil-funded groups coordinating the ongoing onslaught of attacks on renewable energy, particularly wind power. A memorandum passed to The Guardian from the Checks and Balances Project details the organizations and personnel acting as ringleaders to build an astroturf echo chamber of clean energy critics. Guardian reporter Suzanne Goldenberg writes in "Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama's clean energy strategy," "A number of rightwing . . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: The Guardian Exposes Fossil Funded Groups Coordinating Renewable Energy Attacks
ALEC, american legislative exchange council, american tradition institute, American Wind Energy Association, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, anti-wind, ATI, ATR, AWEA, Checks and Balances Project, clean energy, climate change, Climategate, denial-a-palooza, Desmogblog, echo chamber, Gabe Elsner, global warming, Green Energy, Greenpeace USA, Heartland Exposed, Heartland Institute, James Hansen, John Droz Jr., john locke foundation, Kert Davies, Koch, Koch brothers, koch industries, michael mann, Peter Kelley, President Obama, propaganda, Public Relations, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power, Susan Goldenberg, the guardian, university of virginia, Wind energy, wind power, Wind Power Facts This and that for your Tuesday reading. - Andrew Coyne is rightly alarmed at the Cons’ move to short-circuit any debate about major policy changes through an omnibus budget bill. And Bea Vongdoaungchanh reports that the biggest of those changes is to set our environmental laws back by half a century. - David Macdonald highlights the $114 billion bailout which was necessary to keep Canada’s banks afloat. And while it might be fair to say the potential price was worth it to avoid unnecessary disruption, I’d defy anybody to justify the Cons’ being so generous with the banks while looking . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links ALEC Exposed Image.jpg The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as covered previously by DeSmogBlog, is the "Trojan Horse" behind mandating that climate change denial ("skepticism," or "balance," in its words) be taught in K-12 classrooms. Well, ALEC is at it again, it appears. Facing an IRS complaint filed by Common Cause, one of the leading advocacy groups working to expose the corporate-funded bill mill, ALEC has also launched an assault on renewable energy legislation, according to a well-documented report written by Bloomberg News. The two developments are worth unpacking. Common Cause IRS Complaint The Washington Post . . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: ALEC Launches Assault on Renewable Energy Industry
2005 Energy Policy Act, ACCCE, ALEC, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, american legislative exchange council, Americans for Tax Reform, bloomberg, Bloomberg News, BP America, clean coal, climate change, climate change denial, climate change skepticism, Common Cause, Desmogblog, Dick Cheney, Energy Environment and Agriculture Task Force, Energy Task Force, ExxonMobil, fossil fuel, fossil fuel subsidies, global warming, Grover Norquist, Internal Revenue Service, irs, Peabody Energy, ProPublica, renewable energy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Trojan Horse The Transition movement has produced a movie about growing community and hope in these difficult times: In Transition 2.0 is the new film from Transition Network, capturing inspiring stories of Transition initiatives around the world, responding to uncertain times with creativity, solutions and ‘engaged optimism’. * More links: In Transition Movie 2.0 Transition Network.org The billboard picture below has been making the rounds on Facebook recently. The billboard’s source is votesolar.org, whose mission is to bring solar energy into the mainstream. Just substitute “Canada” or “the world” for “America” in the paragraph below, from Vote Solar’s website: Think of America’s problems. Global warming. Air pollution. Fossil fuel addiction. Your [...] But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money–booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, [...] In President Obama’s address last week, he made it clear that it’s time America ends the $4 billion in annual subsidies to oil companies that are earning historic profits, and invests in new technologies. Prime Minister Harper, are you listening? In 2009 PM Harper promised to end subsidies to big oil, but has so far [...] I was in New York earlier this month to present at the Association of American Geographers big annual conference. As well as an excellent stroll along the High Line (thanks Gena!), I got to talk about Solarize Portland — one of my favourite examples of how people can reshape their cities in unexpected ways. I’ve posted a slidecast below. View another webinar from Alex Aylett Solarize – as you can guess from the name – is a neighbourhood-scale solar energy program. I’ve written about it here before. It’s an empowering example of what people are capable of when they work collectively in their communities. . . . → Read More: openalex: Green Urban Innovation: Solarize Portland and the Power of Communities |
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