The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released The Open PV Mapping Project showing the progress of solar installations on private roofs from 2000 to (currently) now, beginning with a flurry of activity in California, then moving to Wyoming, of all places, and WIsconsin. Gradually the states turn yellow and then orange over time as they add more solar power.
While it may not be news to cleantechnica readers that climate change will kill more members of more species than wind turbines, it is interesting to see the actual figures comparing bird loss from climate change versus from wind turbines.
The study found at least 950 entire species of terrestrial birds that will be threatened with extinction as a result of climate change under several scenarios, even at the lower estimate of temperature gains, just counting species of non-sea birds in the higher latitudes; outside the tropics.
For parents who were suckered into Disney’s Baby Einstein concept, the company has announced they will give full refunds on up to four videos. The basis of the refund is to compensate parents who actually believed the videos would make their children smarter. UPI reports:
The move comes after Disney’s Baby Einstein Co. last month announced “enhanced consumer satisfaction guarantees” after lawyers had threatened a class-action suit for false advertising. “The Walt Disney Company’s entire Baby Einstein marketing regime is based on express and implied claims that their videos are educational and beneficial for early childhood development,” a letter from the lawyers reportedly said.
On September 25, I wrote about a Google Earth tour (narrated by AL Gore) and new Google Earth tools and layers which help people to look at the possible effects of climate change under three different scenarios. Now, three new tours have been launched that allow the exploration of critical rainforests and real-life success stories.
The tours (embedded below) have a great wealth of information and inspirational stories bound into succinct Google Earth or YouTube videos.
This week Newsweek’s cover story promotes an exclusive ranking of “The Greenest Big Companies in America”.
Blacklight Power has signed a contract with Akridge in Maryland, marking the sixth utility to sign up for a mysterious form of energy that defies quantum physics. The company claims that it can create energy by lowering the energy level of hydrogen atoms to below their “ground” state. Most scientists agree that this is impossible.
But that hasn’t stopped “six utilities” from signing on for the theoretical power, (though one of the utilities; Akridge Energy LLC is apparently owned by a property company.)
In an increasingly anti-science culture, scientific consensus doesn’t count for much, but the consensus is that you can’t lower hydrogen atoms below their ground state.
The six utilities are going out on a limb. Or perhaps they know something we don’t:
Four British newspapers are quoting a self-published author who claims supposed wind turbine health problems in a piece that could be pretty much summed up as:
The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Belfast Telegraph are printing the same piece (unverified by any third parties) by a New York pediatrician who has set herself up as an “expert” on wind with her own vanity press. Nina Pierpont thinks “Wind Turbine Syndrome” can cause abnormal heart beats, sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks migraines, sleep deprivation, and general irritability.
And it is fine that a pediatrician, like anyone else, has an opinion, but that doesn’t make this science. Pierpont is claiming that her book is peer-reviewed (by other pediatricians, I assume?) which is not true. Other pediatricians (who are doctors for children) have not “peer-reviewed” her work.
More relevantly; acousticians (who actually do study the aural efffects of things like wind turbines) have not “peer-reviewed” her work.
How could they? Can a mathematician or a weatherman “peer” review a climate scientist’s work? Of course not. They are not peers. Same thing with acousticians versus childrens doctors.
A “peer”, by definition, works in the same field of study.
We already know that Fox News’ telepundit Bill O’Reilly believes anthropogenic global warming is real and shouldn’t be ignored. Now we know he’s not a huge fan of a cap-and-trade policy because it would fatten the wallets of Goldman Sachs and Al Gore.
The UK is on target to double its 2010 Kyoto goal!
The UK’s Kyoto target was 12.5 percent by 2010. 23 percent is nearly twice that.
Now Britain is on course to cut its greenhouse gas by about 23 percent by 2010 from the 1990 level — nearly double its target under the Kyoto agreement, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said on Friday.
This 23 percent reduction puts the UK well on the road to its 2020 goal, which is the [...]
Is there really the threat of a swine flu pandemic, or is it just a cash cow for big pharma?The media has been having a heyday with the fear of a “swine flu” pandemic, and rumors and fear-mongering have taken the stage. One doctor tries to cut through the crap with his article, “Swine Flu: New Pandemic or Just Makin’ Bacon?”
Editor’s Note: This post is a guest contribution by Frank Sesno, Emmy-award winning journalist and former CNN Bureau Chief. ”Planet Forward” is an innovative, viewer-driven program driven by the power of ideas, as citizens make their case for what they think about the nation’s energy future. The show debuts TONIGHT (8pm), in a primetime PBS special. See Frank Sesno’s last post for CleanTechnica here.
[...]
Subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter
Some Rights Reserved • Green Options Media • San Francisco, California • Legal
