Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published January 19, 2011 and has No Comments
Image credit: The Nation Richard Heinberg has talked about life after economic growth before. Now, as part of its ongoing exploration of peak oil, The Nation magazine gives him a platform to expound his views to the world. It doesn't make for comfortable or upbeat viewing, but he delivers a message that we should all be paying attention to—especially ...
Read more...published January 14, 2011 and has No Comments
photo: sbamueller / Creative Commons Last December Canada's Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development admitted that the nation is badly prepared to handle an oil spill . Yet, according to a new article in TheStar.com Environment Canada has now mothballed ... Read the full story on TreeHugger See the original post: Canada Mothballs High-Tech Oil Spill Detecting, Arctic Ice ...
Read more...published January 7, 2011 and has No Comments
Image via Freshness In light of the presidential report on the Gulf oil spill that's due to be released next week, speculation is running rampant that the companies involved -- BP, Halliburton, and Transocean -- could soon be facing criminal charges. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger See the rest here: BP, Halliburton Likely to Face Criminal Charges Over ...
Read more...published January 5, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: mikebaird , Flickr, CC If there was anything that Obama impressed upon the American public in the wake of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig , it was that if offshore drilling was to continue, it must be safer and better scrutinized. A few months ago, the administration said that it would require every oil company ...
Read more...published January 4, 2011 and has No Comments
Image: NASA Earth Observatory There was plenty of anger and eye-rolling when the Obama administration announced that its team had determined that over half of the oil from the BP spill was "gone" . Today, the federal government sticks by that number (it now says a proper peer review has been completed). But even if half the oil is ...
Read more...published January 2, 2011 and has No Comments
If you've seen the commercials that make up Chevron's new "We Agree" campaign , you might well be infuriated. Despite its refusal to take responsibility for dumping 16.8 million gallons of crude oil into the Ecuadorian Amazon in 1992, Chevron has a new self-image of a benevolent oil company. It supports small businesses, invests in renewable energy, fights AIDS, ...
Read more...published December 27, 2010 and has No Comments
Image: sbamueller via flickr A report by the Canadian government warns that Canada and the U.S. will both shift toward heavier forms of crude oil as global sources of lighter crude become scarcer. The biggest problem with that shift is one the report also recognizes: "Generally, heavier forms of crude oil, such as that contained in the oil sands, ...
Read more...published December 17, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo by me, Brian Merchant When I was down in the Gulf, one of the first things I reported on was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's plan to construct giant islands to protect the barrier islands from the incoming oil slick. The plan sounded highly dubious from the get-go, and I couldn't find a scientist or oil spill expert who ...
Read more...published December 15, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: Steve Snodgrass , Flickr, CC Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil for allowing the largest oil refining plant in the nation to emit over 8 million pounds of illegal air pollution for over five years now. The Sierra Club and Environment Texas claim that the Exxon refinery, which operates on the Gulf coast, has violated ...
Read more...published December 10, 2010 and has No Comments
Image: GOOD Ever wonder how much electricity it takes to keep a single light bulb running for the year? The folks over at GOOD did, and they produced this great infographic to make the answer (alarmingly) clear. The short of it? It takes way more than you'd think. Here are a few of the more surprising revelations from the ...
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The office building, going for LEED Platinum, is built on top of a brick factory from another era. It rises to the challenge. Go here to read the rest: The Centre For Green Cities At Evergreen Brickworks Demonstrates How To ...
"The stakes are very high and scientists are not the best people to deal with the social, ethical or political issues that geoengineering raises." View original here: Geoengineering is a Technical Fix for a Political Problem
