In The News

Eastern Japan Edgy as Power Demand Soars

July 4, 2011
Japan has a tradition of conservation – and awareness about power usage – that serves the nation well through the current nuclear disaster. Households are accustomed to monitoring temperatures, generating capacity, power loads and comparing power supply and demand with a competitive spirit. A range of policy adjustments and public alerts are preventing severe power shortages. “Now that energy...

Megafires May Change the Southwest Forever

Brandon Keim July 1, 2011
Fires sweeping through remote areas is a natural occurrence. But the same can’t be said about the record-setting megafires raging in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The megafires, large and intensely hot, more regular in occurrence and more destructive, could permanently alter the ecology of that region of the United States, writes Brandon Keim for Wired. Drought has exacerbated fires, and...

Google: Delaying Clean Energy Transition “Only 5 Years Could Leave Trillions on the Table”

Stephen Lacey June 30, 2011
The global economy runs on energy, and most companies depend on limited fossil fuels, which are inevitably in decline. Delaying transition to renewable sources, even by five years, could cost the global economy trillions of dollars, suggests a Google.org study. The search-engine company analyzed economic impact by modeling scenarios and renewable energy’s influence on GDP growth and the...

Global Warming and the Science of Extreme Weather

John Carey June 29, 2011
Insurance industry research anticipates extreme weather events will become routine. Scientists who once hesitated to link extreme droughts, storms or other weather events with human activity, including burning fossil fuels, now report evidence of connections, reports John Carey in Scientific American and the second article of a three-part series. Carey points out that basic physics is behind...

Could Compost Piles Someday Heat a Home?

Kenneth Sturtz June 28, 2011
Organic waste is part of everyone’s garbage, and a group of high school students in upstate New York have set out to study if compost piles could someday heat homes. In that part of the world average low mid-winter temperatures dip below -10 degrees Celsius. Bacteria and microorganisms break down organic materials and produce heat as a byproduct. The students studied three industrial-sized...

Growing Economies, Rising Problems – Part II

Uri Dadush, William Shaw June 23, 2011
The global economy is expected to triple in size by the year 2050, and much of the growth will come from emerging economies, which were viewed not long ago as impoverished and backward. This YaleGlobal series examines the consequences of the changing global economic order. While developing nations accrue more economic power, thanks to their large populations, they’ll remain relatively poor, note...

China Proposes $15bn Indus Dam Scheme

William MacNamara June 21, 2011
Extremism is not deterring China’s foreign-investment plans with Pakistan. The builders behind the world’s largest dam, China’s Three Gorges, have proposed a $15 billion dam project for Pakistan and the Indus River, promising to control floods and produce power, reports William MacNamara for the Financial Times. The Indus is about 3000 kilometers long, passing from Tibet to Kashmir and Pakistan....