Enviro News Wrap: Japanese Reels from Quake and Tsunami; NIMBYism; Greening the Military, and more…

GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

• Japanese earthquake and tsunami:
  • Four Nuclear plants in Japan are affected by the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and over a dozen are sick from exposure. The risks we take to get energy.
  • National Geographic provides pictures of the earthquake in Japan that hit last Friday.
• A nuclear plant in Vermont was not granted a certificate to continue operating after its initial permission of 40 years. It was built to operate for 40 years, it did, not it is time to close it and replace its generation with a more modern energy source.
• Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) is where people only support a cause or project as long as they don’t ever have to see it (not in their “backyard”). We Americans are a funny bunch.
• Conservatives continue to attack environmentalism, now they are trying to strip the US Environmental Protection agency from regulating greenhouse gases. The EPA is under a U.S. Supreme Court mandate to do so, which came when the EPA under Bush Jr. refusing to do the job it was created to do.

• It is a valid concept but poorly applied: “Do green cars just make people drive more?”
• Increases in efficiency do encourage people to use more because they can now afford to do so. But, the introduction of green cars allows people to drive as much as they want/need in the face of high petroleum costs, and this is a good thing. Green SUVs, now there is a terrible idea that encourages people to be gluttonous with their energy use.
• The Economist reviews a new book by Michio Kaku exploring the future of technology.
• Energy, climate, and the military:
  • Green Energy is finding a home in the US Military, because it just makes sense to reduce costs on the wallet and the environment.
  • The Navy is one of the biggest supporters of addressing climate change and plans to buy green technologies in such high volumes that a private market will be created. This is how we developed and brought to market many of the technologies that are commonplace in the American lifestyle.
• Programs by governments to promote Solar PV are finding too much demand and funds are being sucked up quickly. The Solar PV market is young but growing and right now is one of the few industries actively and aggressively hiring. Full disclosure: I work for a Solar company.
• Great Britain recently dedicated itself to become the “greenest” government in the world; the struggle begins over what that means and what that will look like in the future.
• America wants a “Smart Grid” but which technologies will be used, perhaps superconducting magnets?
• The hit TV series Mad Men chimes in on the high speed rail debate and provides a great short video of the Mad Men ad team pretending to create a marketing campaign for HSR.