Wind power is a rapidly growing renewable energy source that the Department of Energy envisions will produce 20% of the electricity demand in the United States by 2030. It is especially attractive …

This is the research of some friends of mine. If you dig wind energy and the stuff their up to, vote for them!

Blistering attack on the wind energy industry. While I think the death of 573,000 birds per year is deplorable, it bears mentioning that domestic cats kill an estimated 3.7 billion birds per year.

573,000 die by turbines ——> 3,700,000,000 die by cats

Granted, this estimate does not separate “ordinary birds” from bigger birds of prey like eagles, but if you care about the environment enough to write passages like this —

Each death is a tiny crime scene. So workers walk out underneath the spinning rotors and cover the dead bird with a tarp. It lies there, protected from scavengers but decaying underneath its shroud, until someone from the government comes to get it.

— is it really necessary to separate into categories?

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage wants to strip from state law goals for increasing the state’s wind energy capacity over the next two decades. LePage’s energy director, Patrick Woodcock, made recommendations Thursday to rewrite the state’s 2008 Wind Energy Act, shifting focus from growing wind energy capacity to lowering electricity costs…

Hmm… I have to admit that I am skeptical of LePage’s motivation, particularly when I read later in the article that he wants to fast-track natural gas. I think that arguments against the industrialization of Maine’s natural landscape could be sustained, but I think it is very backwards to cut back on existing legislature to foster fossil fuels.

There are a couple reasons why floating wind turbines may be the “future of wind energy” — winds are stronger and more consistent further from shore, corresponding to higher and more consistent levels of energy. The sea depth also increases with distance from shore however, and current fixed-bottom foundation technology is not economically feasible at those depths, necessitating a floating design.

Lastly, floating wind turbines far at sea may crush the NIMBY tendencies of the eastern coast of U.S., which has been struggling with the idea of offshore wind power for years. Out of sight, out of mind?

As someone in the wind energy field, I greatly look forward to the research opportunities this floating turbine will present.

Oslo, where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage, is forced to import garbage to supply its waste-to-energy incinerating plants.

Wow!!

This is an outspokenly liberal piece and I haven’t checked up on all the claims. That being said, I rather loved the environmental fire-and-brimstone that Cesca dropped at the end of the article…

It did not escape my notice that the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” was signed during the media-storm surrounding Prop 8.  I am pretty unhappy about the fact that the president signed it, but when I read articles like this saying “Many members of Congress were apparently unaware” of what they were voting on, I get angry (and you won’t like my green self when it gets angry).

Voting on a bill you haven’t read seems to me like signing a lease without looking at the contract. I’m sorry that the politicians felt duped, but I’m even sorrier that our politicians let things like this through.

I do not dispute that the temperature of our oceans is rising. I will also be quick to say that global warming is a real thing, too… but my impression is that the tie between these type of weather events and global warming is not strong.

A few of my graduate school friends study climate change using climate models and lots and lots of statistics. If you ask them, “Can we expect to see more, stronger storms in the future?”, they sort of shrug their shoulders and dodge the question, ultimately saying that it all depends on the statistics. 

I think the real problem here is that we have somehow fallen under the delusion that we are in control of our environment - Mother Nature reminds us that we are guests on this planet.

One thing that makes my life in Norway very different is a lack of microwave. I’ve noticed that a lot of people here just don’t seem to have them, nor do the grocery stores carry much in the way of microwave-meals. Easier to be healthy when you have fewer unhealthy food choices.