GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
- An important question for environmentalists to ask is; what should be our stance on how to respond to the recession? A reporter at Grist asks, “Feed the economy, or starve it?”
- Ecology.com explains that the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico was imperiled before the BP oil spill, and that the spill is only one recent event that will contribute to the death of the Gulf.
- A new study reports that we are on track for a worst case scenario with global warming. Nations are not doing enough to reduce green house gas emissions and are not reaching consensus on the international level. Collective inaction will lead to a global tragedy. No silver lining here.
- The first independent review of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), after much controversy over the legitimacy of its findings, has concluded. As expected, some numbers have been adjusted while the basic claims stay intact; humans are causing global climate change and it will have a large negative impact in the next 100 years.
- MotherJones prints a great article about Big Oil. The basic points of the article are: oil on US land is owned by all US citizens, US citizens have given oil to the oil industry for a ridiculously low cost and have asked for almost nothing in return, not even a plan for what happens when a large oil spill occurs.
Solar Power:
- The Guardian interviews Michael Grätzel, who has made it his personal mission to make solar energy cheaper than conventional sources of energy. Mr. Grätzel is backing an alternative to the silicon cell which could make solar energy cheaper and more environmental.
- Technology Review covers more advances in battery technology that will make alternative energy more plausible.
- Plastic solar cells are on their way. I hope non-petrol plastics are used in commercial production of these panels.
