Energy52
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Survey Shows Many Are Clueless On How To Save Energy
People Turn Off Lights in Vain, Ignoring Real Efficiencies
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Climate and the Border: Why Rising Temperatures Will Add Immigration Challenges
When experts warn of the consequences of global climate change, they usually cite impacts on natural systems. They tell us that ice caps will melt, sea levels will rise, extreme weather will become more common, droughts will increase in frequency, oceans will become more acidic and so on. In recent years, we have also come…
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Distributed Generation and Renewables in New York City
As climate change threatens an increasing frequency of heat waves like the ones New York City has been experiencing, we city-dwellers turn to our air conditioners and window fans to keep cool. It’s an act of adaptation: we adapt to the heat by cooling off our homes – but it counters mitigation, as increased electricity…
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Beyond Carbon: How Fixing the Ozone Layer Contributes to Climate Change
The greenhouse effect is not all about carbon dioxide. Several other substances, such as water vapor and methane, also play a key part in trapping radiation. Recently, a family of relatively obscure chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, has entered the spotlight due to its role in global warming. HFCs are highly potent greenhouse warmers –…
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Safe Water or Abundant Energy? Take Your Pick
In the recent documentary Gasland, Josh Fox investigate the rapidly growing practice of hydraulic fracturing or “hydrofracking” that natural gas companies have developed to produce gas from underground shale deposits.
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Sime Darby Supports Sustainable Agriculture and China 2049
The Sime Darby Group, a Malaysian-based multinational company with core businesses in plantation, property, motors, industrial, energy and utilities, has committed $500,000 in support of the Earth Institute’s Tropical Agriculture and China 2049 programs, making the company the newest Earth Institute Corporate Circle Strategic Partner. The Earth Institute also serves on Sime Darby’s International Advisory…
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Let’s Take a Break: NY Senate Passes Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
Fracking is an interesting example of a topic we talk about frequency at the Columbia Water Center – the water-energy nexus. In this case, the link relates water quality to energy supply. While fracking in the Marcellus Shale could provide significant supplies of relatively clean energy (natural gas), it also creates a huge risk for…
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The World is Hemorrhaging Oil—The Oilpocalypse Continues
For several months now we’ve been hearing about the BP Deepwater Horzion catastrophe—which, in spite of some reports to the contrary, is far from over. But that’s not the only place bad things are happening with petroleum — in just the last couple of weeks the world has experienced at least three other major oil…
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Climate Change and the PR Problem
On Friday, July 9, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sent a letter to the individuals who will contribute to the group’s Fifth Assessment Report. Part of the memo instructed researchers how to interact with the media, largely in response to growing criticism of the IPCC’s process and reporting.…
You Asked invites you to share your most pressing questions about climate, science, and sustainability. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School experts will respond with clear, evidence-based answers. Pose your questions and story ideas!