Green Options

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was born, raised, and lives in that great corn-growing state. Brownback’s official presidential campaign website describes him as: "Principled. Conservative. Republican." Given Brownback’s conservative beliefs and political agenda, I wanted to get his views on clean energy and energy independence for America.

Let me give you a little background on Brownback. He is a Republican United States Senator from the Sunflower State. He is currently completing his second term, which

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While voters, businesses, and politicians are calling for carbon regulation, exactly what that regulation would look like is far from decided.

Carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems are the two most-cited proposals for cutting carbon dioxide (CO2), a major contributor to global warming. Supporters argue over which plan would be the most efficient method of cutting emissions while allowing for flexibility in the economy.

A carbon tax is a tax levied on CO2 emissions. Those

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States continue to take the lead in cutting global warming pollution and more may soon follow, spurred by a federal judge’s ruling last week that Vermont can set stricter vehicle emissions standards — stricter than what the federal government requires.

Furthermore, the widespread state action on auto emissions could persuade the government to enact nationwide fuel efficiency laws, rather than leave a patchwork of state regulations for automakers to work around.

The Christian Science

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Dennis Kucinich is the candidate who is, ostensibly, to the left, of all the other 18 candidates officially in the race to be the next President of the United States.

Given that context, I wondered:

• How will his environmental beliefs resonate with mainstream America?
• What are his views about renewable energy?
• Does he have a realistic plan for energy independence for America?

Let’s explore the answers to those questions.

First, a

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Despite Americans’ rightful wariness of nuclear power, other nations are embracing it: France gets 75 percent of its electricity from it, Australian Prime Minister John Howard called nuclear power “inevitable,” and Finland is building a new reactor.

In fact, the U.S.’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expecting 12 new applications to build nuclear power reactors at seven different sites, plus another 15 are in the pipeline for next year. These are the [...]

Last week China reiterated its commitment to renewable energy, particularly hydropower. The Asian nation plans to triple its hydropower production to 300,000 megawatts by 2020.

Chinese officials also asked the world to cut them some slack in their efforts to cut global warming pollution.

China’s contribution to global warming has been relatively small compared to the more developed Western nations, they argue, and they shouldn’t be held overly accountable. According to Chen Deming

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Two similar reports made their appearance this week regarding the end of the "melt season" for the Arctic region, and the dramatic drop off in the ice sheet. One report believes that evidence is pointing towards a total disappearance of the ice sheet by the summer of 2030, and the other report believes that a 40% drop off will occur by 2050.

The first report, released by the US National Snow and Ice Data

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Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Joshua S. Hill to the Green Options writing team. Based in Donvale, Australia, Joshua is a freelance writer who’s published articles on global warming/climate change at Mongabay.com, and the Canada Free Press. He’ll be contributing to our coverage of these issues, as well as delving into green technology.

It’s been two days since negotiators from

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There was a questionable bit of progress this past Friday at the Vienna Climate Change Talks, where negotiators agreed on loose targets for cutting the emissions that cause global warming.

The 158 nations represented agreed that industrialized countries should cut global warming emissions by 25-40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020. But nations like Canada, Japan, and Russia delayed the talks, arguing instead for a more "open approach" rather than setting hard and fast targets.

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It’s been a busy week for international climate change negotiations. A meeting of the United Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have some watchers feeling cautiously optimistic of future global agreements, while others are less than impressed with the semantics.

The Vienna Climate Change talks saw more than a thousand people from government, industry, and research gather in the Austrian capital to discuss ways to fight global warming. This United Nations-backed meeting is

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A survey of citizens in nine of the world’s most powerful economies has revealed stark differences in their concerns about climate change and the optimism that it can be slowed.

HSBC – one of the largest banking and financial service organizations in the world – surveyed nine thousand citizens across Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, the UK, and the US for the HSBC Climate Confidence Index 2007. Those in the developing

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