Category: Blog entry

  • Typhoons, Climate Negotiations and a Reality Check

    Typhoons, Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions and a Real­i­ty Check - by Rachel Smolk­er, Biofuelwatch The lat­est round of cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions are open­ing just as we are hear­ing the sto­ries and view­ing images on the news cov­er­age of the dev­as­ta­tion wrought on the Philip­pines by Typhoon Haiyan (aka Yolan­da).  Coin­ci­den­tal­ly, the last round of cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions, COP 18 in…

  • False Solutions for Forests: Biomass Energy, Sustainable Timber, and Carbon Markets

    False Solu­tions for Forests: Bio­mass Ener­gy, Sus­tain­able Tim­ber, and Car­bon Markets - by Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth In the land­scape of glob­al defor­esta­tion, a ten­sion exists between poli­cies and prac­tices aimed at draw­ing a sharp halt to the exploita­tion of forests and for­est peo­ples and those designed to stim­u­late a vague­ly promised mar­ket shift toward…

  • Environmental Greats Debate Nuclear Power

    By Rod Adams, Novem­ber 12, 2013 The ener­gy Collective Dur­ing the pro­mo­tion­al peri­od lead­ing up to CNN’s ini­tial air­ing of Pandora’s Promise, Michael Brune, exec­u­tive direc­tion of the Sier­ra Club, and Robert Stone, the direc­tor of Pandora’s Promise, engaged in a mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sion about nuclear ener­gy host­ed by Kate Bolduan. Dur­ing the dis­cus­sion, Brune explains that the Sier­ra…

  • hina’s Coal Problem

    Christi­na Nunez Nation­al Geographic Pub­lished Octo­ber 22, 2013 Choked with smog that shut down roads, schools, and its main air­port, the city of Harbin (map) this week offered a strik­ing reminder that Chi­na has a long way to go in address­ing the haz­ards caused by its depen­dence on coal. Vis­i­bil­i­ty in the north­east­ern city of more than 10…

  • New York is getting brighter!

    By: Kristofer Set­tle Nov 2, 2013 Source: the ener­gy collective The streets of New York City will be a lit­tle brighter (lit­er­al­ly) over the next few years. Last week NYC May­or Michael Bloomberg and Trans­porta­tion Com­mis­sion­er Janette Sadik-Khan announced a new effort to replace the city’s cur­rent amber street­lights for white, more ener­gy-effi­cient light-emit­ting diode (LED) bulbs through­out the five bor­oughs.…

  • Yosemite’s Burned Areas Are Alive

    Yosemite’s Burned Areas Are Alive - by Chad Han­son, Octo­ber 3, 2013. Source: Los Ange­les Times It was entire­ly pre­dictable. Even before the ash­es have cooled on the 257,000-acre Rim fire in and around Yosemite this year, the tim­ber indus­try and its allies in Con­gress were using the fire as an excuse for sus­pend­ing envi­ron­men­tal laws and expand­ing log­ging oper­a­tions on fed­er­al land. “The Yosemite Rim…

  • Commission Revises Archaeological Conditions for Hu Honua Bioenergy

    Com­mis­sion Revis­es Archae­o­log­i­cal Con­di­tions for Hu Honua Bioenergy - by Tom Cal­lis, Octo­ber 4, 2013. Source: Hawaii Tri­bune-Her­ald The Hu Honua Bioen­er­gy project was back before the Wind­ward Plan­ning Com­mis­sion briefly Thursday. Third Cir­cuit Court Judge Greg Naka­mu­ra, who is han­dling the appeal of a con­test­ed case hear­ing regard­ing the 21.5‑megawatt bio­mass pow­er plant under con­struc­tion near…

  • Biomass Injustice

    Two Bio­mass Injustices - by Ron Saff, M.D., Octo­ber 27, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun Turkey Creek res­i­dents face two deep injus­tices: health risks from air pol­lu­tion and noise pol­lu­tion. Tons of car­cino­gens will soon belch from the bio­mass plant. In a 2009 let­ter to then-Sen. John Ker­ry, the Amer­i­can Lung Asso­ci­a­tion stat­ed that bio­mass burn­ing releas­es tox­ic…

  • Anti‑G.E. Trees Group Censored by University of Florida

    Envi­ron­men­tal group kicked off UF campus - by Jeff Schweers, Octo­ber 28, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun An envi­ron­men­tal group that was sched­uled to make a pre­sen­ta­tion on Mon­day at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered trees was kicked off cam­pus over the week­end and its mem­bers threat­ened with arrest and banned for three years. Orga­niz­ers with the Glob­al…

  • October 2013) ANTI-BIOMASS CAMPAIGN CALL RECORDING & NOTES: “Debunking Wildfire Myths”

    Anti-Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tion Cam­paign — Nation­al Con­fer­ence Call  Thurs­day, Octo­ber 3, 2013 at 6pm EST TOPIC: “Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths” RECORDING: Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths — Octo­ber 2013 We dis­cuss how we can improve our advo­ca­cy about wild­fire and for­est prac­tices and how those top­ics are insep­a­ra­ble from bio­mass incineration.  What’s chang­ing with our West­ern U.S. for­est ecosys­tems, pub­lic bud­gets, and wood…