In another kind of housing crisis, New Zealand homes built with chemical-free wood are leaky, while their owners are up a creek. Twenty years ago, changes to New Zealand’s construction and building inspection codes, the introduction of new materials, a shift in the style and design of homes, and, ironically, pressure from environmentalists, all combined to sow the seeds of… Read more →
“Organized hypocrisy” saved the recent UN climate talks in Durban South Africa. The phrase refers to a common feature of diplomacy. Statesmen often tacitly agree to pretend to believe each other’s duplicities. The fiction saves all involved from the inconveniences that would result were the lack of agreement to break into the open. Thus, in the accord reached at the… Read more →
Le nuove restrizioni alle emissioni di gas varate dalla EPA, ente preposto alla protezione ambientale negli Stati Uniti, rischiano di sferrare un doloroso colpo all’economia americana. A seguito delle nuove regole in vigore entro la fine del 2014, più di 32 centrali a carbone saranno dismesse. La chiusura di un numero così elevato di impianti causerà centinaia di esuberi, oltre… Read more →
For more than 90 years, the coal-fired power plant in Glen Lyn, Va., has been churning out electricity and contributing to local prosperity. Of late, it has generated nearly a quarter of the revenue for the $1 million budget of the town. Yet when the plant ultimately shuts down to comply with new federal air pollution regulations by the end… Read more →
Insolventi due big tedesche delle energie alternative Tramonta il miracolo del fotovoltaico tedesco, quel complesso mix fatto di eccellenza tecnica e sostegno politico che ha trasformato un Paese praticamente snobbato dal sole in una Mecca del solare. Per la seconda volta nel giro di una settimana un big del settore in Germania è stato costretto a dichiarare insolvenza: dopo la… Read more →
More than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to shut down and an additional 36 might have to close because of new federal air pollution regulations, according to an Associated Press survey. Together, those plants — some of the oldest and dirtiest in the country — produce enough electricity for more than 22 million… Read more →
While not entirely explaining increased yields for corn and soybeans over the past 15 years, one Ohio State University agricultural economist said statistical evidence on linear yield trends shows biotechnology could play a role. Carl Zulauf, a professor with the Department of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Economics and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, studied yield trends for corn,… Read more →
Something has gone wrong with global warming. It’s not that the world has stopped heating up. It’s that the anti-warming political movement, which seemed almost unstoppable when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, has stalled. Last week’s United Nation’s climate change conference in Durban ended with little more than an agreement to talk some… Read more →
