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U.S. Not Adequately Prepared for Nuclear Disaster

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:24:33 +0000

WordsAgainstChaos.com :: A report from the American Medical Association finds the US is not prepared to deal with the public health crisis that would ensue from a major nuclear accident. There is also evidence suggesting that aging nuclear plants are less stable and less secure than the public is led to believe. [...]

Carl Safina: Biological Effects of BP Spill are Hemispheric (video)

staff — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:08:24 +0000

Carl Safina's detailed TED talk on the fate of the Gulf of Mexico explores some of the unseen victims and impacts of the BP oil spill. He demonstrates how dispersants have made the spreading oil slick into an unrecoverable mess that is too pervasive and too blended to be cleaned. Fresh from a visit to the Gulf, Safina explains that the ongoing environmental disaster is building in severe biological trauma to the ecosystem of the entire hemisphere.

Waste from Energy Consumption Chief Impediment to Human Development (video)

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:30:43 +0000

Professor Paul Ehrlich —of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences— says waste generated by human consumption of energy and industrial processes is the single greatest brake on human development; energy is abundant, but there is not enough absorption capacity in nature to safely continue generating waste from energy consumption.

Solar Impulse Achieves First Ever 24-hour Solar Flight

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:00:18 +0000

Switzerland-based Solar Impulse has achieved the first-ever 24-hour solar-powered flight, flying both night and day on solar power alone. World Radio Switzerland reported "History is Made: Solar Plane Makes it through Night", and the first manned nighttime solar flight is a major technological achievement. The plane was flying, as company partners and engineers have said, at the limits of the technology.

Citizens Climate Lobby Takes Campaign to Capitol Hill

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:16:32 +0000

The Citizens Climate Lobby is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization, working to organize citizen volunteers, by state, county or Congressional district, to lobby elected officials for a strong emissions reduction plan that will prevent catastrophic climate change and speed the transition to clean energy. On June 22 and 23, the CCL team took its message to Capitol Hill, meeting with 45 different members of Congress, or their energy and climate staff, in both the House and the Senate.

Obama Commits to National Mission for Clean Energy Future

Joseph Robertson — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:37:17 +0000

Pres. Obama addressed the nation last night from the Oval Office, on the tragedy unfolding across the Gulf of Mexico, and issued an impassioned call for the entire nation to rally to the cause of breaking its "addiction to fossil fuels". The president's vision goes beyond the question of "energy independence", which tends to favor expanded offshore drilling, to a push for a comprehensive transition to clean, renewable sources of energy and the phasing out of carbon-based fuels.

BP Well Casing Likely Breached

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:30:30 +0000

There is mounting concern the ongoing flow of oil from the damaged BP Deepwater Horizon well in the Macondo field may be the result of one or more serious structural breaches in the cement well casing below the sea bed. Statements made on 7 June by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, suggest the well casing has ruptured, there are multiple points of seepage across the surrounding sea bed, and the well can likely only be closed from below, if or when the two relief wells connect with the damaged well.

Fuel Efficiency: Hybrid, Electric, Solar or ‘Exotics’ (discussion)

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:15:20 +0000

The quest for the most fuel-efficient vehicles has entered a new phase, with major government private-sector investment in research and development for industrial-scale commercial production of a new class of gas-electric hybrid vehicles and EVs (all-electric cars). Swiss-based Solar Impulse is building the world's first 100% solar-powered airplane, an achievement that will revolutionize the travel, industrial production, transport and fuel sectors.

High-speed Rail Program Integral to Energy Overhaul

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:22:03 +0000

Pres. Barack Obama has proposed a national high-speed rail program that would develop eight to ten regions for high-speed rail (currently, only the so-called northeast corridor, running from Washington, DC, to Boston, through Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, has a regular high-speed service), as part of a phased-in long-term economic recovery plan. The rail project comes into play also as part of Obama's plans for a comprehensive energy-sector overhaul, aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

UK Announces Plan for 40% Low-carbon Energy by 2020

staff — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:57:53 +0000

The Labour party government of the United Kingdom has announced plans to establish an aggressive overhaul of national energy markets, shifting to 40% low-carbon energy sourcing, across all industries, by 2020. The energy secretary, Ed Milliband, will be given control of allocation of electricity across the energy grid, in an effort to speed the green-energy revolution to allow the UK to meet its legally-binding agreed emissions cuts of 34% by 2020.

Solar Impulse Unveils 1st 100% Solar-powered Airplane (discussion)

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:02:05 +0000

Swiss-based Solar Impulse unveiled this month the first ever 100% solar-powered airplane with global reach. The HB-SIA is the culmination of six years of daring research and hard work. The aim of Solar Impulse is to demonstrate the ability of solar power to enable a plane to fly around the world with no combustible fuel.

‘Plan C’ Promotes Community as Tool for Abating Ecological Threats

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:51:08 +0000

The book Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change addresses the problem of resource depletion and the degradation of our environmental base by illustrating how community erosion due to a culture of excess leaves human society without adequate means of planning for a world in which exponential growth is not the norm. Resource depletion already means the endless expansion of resource consumption is not possible, so author Pat Murphy proposes a localized community-oriented approach to overhauling the prevailing economic paradigm.

‘WindCube’ Marks New Phase in Wind-power Amplification

staff — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:01:45 +0000

The wind-power generation paradigm is wind turbines turning due to the pressure of oncoming winds. The standard is a single fan with three blades that turns at a relatively slow and constant rate to maximize energy extraction from wind currents passing over the blades and turning the turbine. The 'WindCube', however, fits a wind-amplification paradigm, a possible first-step to a new era in wind-turbine technology.

Economic Downturn Cannot Be Allowed to Slow Shift to Green Resources

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:02:12 +0000

The issue is not, as so many would like to believe, whether carbon-based fuels are affordable to the end-user. They are not. The total costs per gallon of gasoline are estimated at more than $11, covered by government subsidies, public-private research funding, tax incentives, military spending, public health funding, and funds devoted to cleaning up the ill effects of pollution. Capitalist markets need not be dependent on unsustainable excesses in resource use, but we are in the current global economic crunch, because they have been.

Obama Pledges to Push for 2.5 Million New Jobs via Infrastructure, Recovery Package

staff — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:26:31 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday in his weekly radio address —now also a video staple on YouTube— he has already tasked his economic team "to come up with an economic recovery plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January 2011". Obama has long pledged he would incentivize development of a green-energy economy, as a response to the imperatives of economic sustainability, job-creation and reduced environmental impact. The president-elect added that "it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job-creation", ostensibly a first building-block in what may be a broader economic recovery, which he hopes will be in full swing before the end of his first term.

How a Generative Economic Strategy Trumps ‘Trickle-down’

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:39:07 +0000

To understand the relevance and virtues of Barack Obama's economic vision, we have to look at the long history of struggle between American laissez-faire capitalism and American middle-class capitalism. We are on the verge of what is likely to be a comprehensive philosophical shift in economic policy toward generative investment, which means counting as economic imperatives the resilience and productive expansion of the positive bases of economic growth, i.e. human and environmental health and well-being, resource-density and cyclical models of resource use and reproduction.

Texas to Deliver Wind Power to Millions of Urban Homes

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:41:26 +0000

The state of Texas has approved a major new project to build transmission lines for wind power, with funding in the amount of $4.93 billion. Already the national leader with 5,300 megawatts of installed wind-power generating capacity, Texas will, when the infrastructure development is completed in 2013, have more wind-energy capacity than Germany presently does.The project is a major step toward freeing the American economy from high-contaminant power generation.

High Gas Prices Direct Assault on American Commuter-Consumer Lifestyle

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:00:21 +0000

As gasoline prices were escalating seemingly without hope of stalling or coming down, due to all-time record oil prices, and in the context of a severely weakened consumer economy, we found ourselves confronted with a major challenge to the basic assumptions of the dynamics of our economy. We have seen, in just one [...]

Nuclear Power & Offshore Drilling May Help Keep Oil Prices High

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:25:18 +0000

With gasoline prices at record highs, and the strain on a weak American economy already at an extreme, Pres. Bush is pushing Congress to hold an "up-or-down vote" on renewed exploration of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) before its August recess. Opponents protest that none of any oil found there would be available for production for 10 to 15 years, and the OCS plan is an attempt to deliver oil firms an otherwise unjustifiable gift, taking advantage of the pressurized situation of exorbitant prices.

Food price crisis: more complex than first thought & putting food beyond the reach of the planet’s poor

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:25:18 +0000

Food prices are skyrocketing. Initially, many put the blame on the rising demand of biofuels in the transport sector, but bio-ethanol is far from the only thing driving up food prices. New diets, soaring oil prices and climate change are all in the complex soup of explanations behind the recent development putting food beyond the reach of the planet’s poor.