Before repairing the climate, we'll have to repair the impacts of racism
"If you wonder why more black people aren’t so quick to fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, it’s because we’re too busy fighting the school-to-prison pipeline — or in places like California, the pollution-to-school-to-prison pipeline. Not to mention all of the other racial ills making our lives hectic, before we can even think about something like climate. As Anthony Giancatarino of the Center for Social Inclusion recently wrote, 'to truly address climate change, we need to understand how our past and current policies have reinforced climate change and inequity and the implications for our work.'"
The most under-reported financial story is the "carbon bubble"...the overvaluation of fossil fuel resources and the correction that will follow when those resources prove less valuable than expected. This is yet another reason to manage a transition away from an economy dependent on extraction and pollution.
California's Monterey Shale: Bonanza or bust? Nobody really knows
"Just to clarify: these numbers don’t reflect how much oil is underground in California. Most geologists agree that there’s still plenty down there. The EIA is attempting to estimate how much could be pumped out with current technology. As with other oil and gas reserves around the country, this number fluctuates quite a bit based on assumptions about the geology and what oil companies can accomplish."
At some point we will have to come to terms with the fact that some things that are cheaper are not better, and actually hurt us. Freedom does not mean the ability to choose things that damage us because we save money, and it certainly does not mean that we limit a healthy life only to those who can afford it.
School cafeteria food fight becomes an all-out war
"First Lady Michelle Obama came out swinging against the waiver idea on Tuesday. In a rare display of public opposition to a legislative proposal, Mrs. Obama said that the plan, authored by congressional Republicans, 'is unacceptable to me not just as first lady but also as a mother.'"
...especially when the economics of "things that are good for us" have shifted so rapidly.
US Solar Power Rises 79% as home panels beat warehouses
"Total installations may reach 6.6 gigawatts this year, driven by residential rooftop systems and more than 12 gigawatts of utility projects under development, said Shayle Kann, vice president of research at Boston-based GTM Research, which publishes the quarterly market reports with SEIA. This was the first quarter when residential systems exceeded commercial and government solar."
Only too words can describe this:
So cool.
Forget roofs, are solar roads the next big thing?
"A less obvious benefit, as pointed out by Jan Kleissl, an environmental engineering professor at University of California-San Diego, is how carbon footprints can be reduced simply swapping out asphalt altogether. 'The problem with asphalt is that it’s a dark surface that absorbs energy in potentially harmful way,' he explains. 'Energy is turned into heat and thus increases the temperature of the air, which causes the urban heat island effect where people end up using more air conditioning.'"
Enjoy the journey
Forget roofs, are solar roads the next big thing?
"A less obvious benefit, as pointed out by Jan Kleissl, an environmental engineering professor at University of California-San Diego, is how carbon footprints can be reduced simply swapping out asphalt altogether. 'The problem with asphalt is that it’s a dark surface that absorbs energy in potentially harmful way,' he explains. 'Energy is turned into heat and thus increases the temperature of the air, which causes the urban heat island effect where people end up using more air conditioning.'"
Enjoy the journey
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