Bringing the age of steam into the information age
‘Greetings from the Stone Age’ proclaimed the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung upon the opening of a brand new coal power plant near Hamburg this year,…
Articles
Monsanto fears
Neil Young is like good wine, improving all the time. The older he gets the better he becomes. Nothing sad, nothing pathetic no sign of…
The Shaky Science Behind Predicting Earthquakes
It is a typical day and Italy is shaking. I am standing in the monitoring room at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, in…
Fossil Fuels (emissions) here to stay
Gone are the days of the fossil fuels golden age but we are still in a period of abundance. New supplies added to the world…
The Dream of Flying with no Fossil Fuel
The longest distance ever flown by a solar airplane in aviation history: 13 hours and 20 minutes of flight, reaching an altitude of 8,534 meters…
US Geothermal Stuck in the Mud, but 2014 Global Growth Boosts Industry
The geothermal industry’s efforts to grab a bigger slice of the growing renewable energy pie met with some success in 2014, though that wasn’t reflected…
Global warming slowdown: No systematic errors in climate models, comprehensive statistical analysis reveals
Skeptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: it is true that there has been a…
Russia Blamed, US Taxpayers on the Hook, as Fracking Boom Collapses
As Congress removes restrictions on taxpayers bailing out the too-big-to-fail banks, the right is blaming environmentalists and Russia for the demise of the fracking…
The World’s Most Efficient Coal-Fired Power Plants
International efforts to mitigate climate impacts have intensely scrutinized carbon emissions from the electricity sector. Coal, in particular, has been targeted as a source of…
Sos Enattos: Lula’s hidden treasure
A hidden jewel. Very well hidden. Maybe too well. The mine of Sos Enattos (Lula, Italy) is one of those treasures often unknown even to…
Study identifies which fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground to avoid dangerous climate change
A third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80% of current coal reserves globally should remain in the ground and not be…
The Beloyarsk reactor: history in the making?
The kick-off of commercial power production by the 800 MWe BN-800 reactor at Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station in Russia last year could be a defining…
Anthropocene : the “Great Acceleration” driven by human activities and not by natural variability
The second half of the 20th Century is unique in the history of human existence. The last 60 years have without doubt seen the most…