GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
- In the Republican primaries Rick Perry stands out as the most anti-environmental candidate as he steps into the race late.
- The price of oil is key to the expansion of renewable energy while oil’s price volatility destabilizes the global market and the daily lives of Americans. Let’s get ourselves off of this stuff.
- China is known for suppressing its people and not letting environmental or human health concerns stand in the way of economic progress, but recent protests over an unsafe chemical plant have affected government decisions.
- The Great Barrier Reef is under attack on multiple fronts, this time from poor agricultural practices.
- A contributor to the Atlantic Monthly ponders “What’s up with $8 eggs at the farmers market?” MotherJones follows to say that cheap nasty food is really expensive but is subsidized by the government and doesn’t pay for the damage to human or environmental health, that’s what’s up with $8 for a dozen eggs. An issue involved in this is that poor people can not afford “real food,” but in the Bay Area two visionaries are building a bridge between the diets of rich white people in Berkeley and poor black people in Oakland.
- With Apple soaring to record profits Technology Review asks what Apple can do to improve the world with all their extra cash. Idea number 5 is to build a better battery that will make renewable energy able to overcome petroleum, coal and natural gas as the main source of energy for the globe. If you’re wondering how batteries can affect the renewable energy market here is an informative article on storing energy so large solar thermal plants can produce energy at night. There are two types of energy generation plants, load and peak. You need load plants to generate energy 24/7 and you need peak plants to produce energy when everyone in an area is using a lot energy (think 2pm in the summer in Texas). Solar is great for dealing with day time peaks in energy demand but won’t be a viable source of energy at night until a scalable means of storing energy is developed.
- In the world of renewable energy venture capital is vital, but with the most recent meltdown in the US and global markets, capital for green ventures is scarce.
