Sep/090
500 MW Chinese Wind Farm Begins Construction – To be Completed 2010
Yes, the Chinese are getting very serious about alternative/sustainable energy. And it’s a good thing too – according to the New York Times:
Already, China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. And it has increased coal consumption 14 percent in each of the past two years in the broadest industrialization ever. Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego. New York Times Article
From Treehugger:
Announced back in October 2008, the first phase of what will be a 1.5 GW wind farm outside of Jiuquan city, Gansu Province, China has begun. Being built by electric utility China Huaneng Group, the initial 500 MW is expected to come online in the first half of 2010, Cleantech reports:
China Huaneng says that when this phase is completed it will reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 3.37 million tons per year.
500 MW Chinese Wind Farm Begins Construction – To be Completed 2010
via 500 MW Chinese Wind Farm Begins Construction – To be Completed 2010 : TreeHugger.
Jul/090
Germany’s Green-Energy Gap
It’s true: kicking the fossil fuel habit is hard. Solving the climate change problem is hard. This article explores some of the issues Germany is having in its attempts to ramp up wind power.
“Renewable sources should eventually replace conventional electric power plants. But the new and the old will probably coexist for many decades yet, as they do outside the German city of Cottbus.”
Jul/090
The Coming Carbon Bubble
I’ve been thinking that the next boom and bust cycle for Wall Street will likely be the Green Bubble. Here’s an article that supports this theory – but centered around carbon trading.
“…The U.S. carbon market is barely out of the womb, and there are already a whole slew of variables that could knock it into disarray. If the administration can keep its eye on the ball when it comes to regulation and not be distracted by the sweet nothings the i-banking community is sure to be whispering in its ear, CO2 will grow into a stable and well-adjusted market. If not, we’re looking at our next problem child [aka Carbon Bubble!]. Hope for the best—but don’t exhale just yet.”
Jul/090
Sarah Palin on Climate Change
I have to be honest. I’m kind of a recovering conservative. One day, I woke up and realized that I’m more aligned with the left than the right. Just to save everyone a bunch of grief (mostly me) I won’t say who I voted for the the two elections before Obama. But I did vote for Obama, and I don’t mind saying it.
I think Sarah Palin has gotten a really rough ride from the media, and a lot of other folks for that matter. I don’t agree with her politics for the most part, but I don’t like to see anyone getting raked over the coals.
Nevertheless, when I heard her say during her press conference something about “the real climate change” in Washington, I became very annoyed. I believe we all believe things without good evidence for believing those things – I’ll raise my hand and say “guilty” to that. But, I happen to be convinced that any intelligent person who honestly looks at the evidence for global warming (or global weirding as Amory Lovins would quip) and climate change will at least come away with the following idea: hmmmm, there’s probably something here to study further. I believe the conclusion such a person would not reach is “climate change due to human activity is a myth”.
I think that many people who can vote are particularly susceptible to believing without further investigation ideas that are tossed out by people in prominent positions. Even if such a prominently positioned person isn’t particularly well credentialed in the field of study to which the idea belongs.
So when I hear people in prominent positions declare that actual climate change isn’t real, albeit somewhat subliminally, I get frustrated. I want to say “shame on you for using your position of prominence to put an idea out there that you apparently haven’t studied”.
Oh well, I guess that’s politics in a nutshell: selling your positions for whatever reason by whatever legal means at your disposal. And there’s nothing illegal about non-critical thinking (thank goodness).