Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour – 02.02.18

NUKE POWER SHUTDOWNS are getting us closer to Solartopia.  We join TIM JUDSON and KEVIN KAMPS to explore the growing parade of atomic power plants being closed for reasons of economics, old age and grid limitations in light of the massive influx of renewable energy. Coming from the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE & BEYOND NUCLEAR, we explore the situations …

Ruth Milka – 2016: The year solar panels became cheaper than fossil fuels

It’s finally happened. The renewable energy future has arrived. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), installing new solar panels is cheaper than a comparable investment in coal, natural gas, or other options. Solar and wind is now the same price or cheaper than fossil fuels in more than 30 countries. According to Michael Drexler, head of development investing at …

NDC Savings Club – Air Pollution – 10.19.16

Air Pollution is a mixture of solid particles and gases in the air. Car emissions, chemicals from factories, dust, pollen, mold spores, power plants, and human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. Ozone, a gas, is a major part of air pollution in cities. When ozone forms air pollution, it’s also called smog. Some air pollutants are poisonous.

Exposure to chemicals released during fracking may harm fertility

COLUMBIA, Mo. – More than 15 million Americans live within a one-mile radius of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) operations. UOGs combine directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release natural gas from underground rock. Scientific studies, while ongoing, are still inconclusive on the potential long-term effects fracturing has on human development. Today, researchers at the University of Missouri …

Nika Knight – EPA’s Own Advisory Board Demands Revision of Deeply Flawed Fracking Report

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science Advisory Board, a panel of independent scientists, is calling on the agency to revise last year’s much–maligned report that declared fracking to have “no widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources.” “The EPA’s own analysis shows that dirty oil and gas fracking contaminates drinking water, confirming what millions of Americans already know.” —Lena Moffitt, Sierra Club As the Washington Post reports: The …

IAN URBINA – Piles of Dirty Secrets Behind a Model ‘Clean Coal’ Project

DE KALB, Miss. — The fortress of steel and concrete towering above the pine forest here is a first-of-its-kind power plant that was supposed to prove that “clean coal” was not an oxymoron — that it was possible to produce electricity from coal in a way that emits far less pollution, and to turn a profit while doing so. The …

Unhealthy ozone days could increase by more than a week in coming decades

If emission rates continue unchecked, regions of the United States could experience between three and nine additional days per year of unhealthy ozone levels by 2050, according to a new study from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) published in Geophysical Research Letters. “In the coming decades, global climate change will likely cause more heat …

No Fossil Fuel? No Problem—7 Ways We’re Already Living More Locally

1. Community cooperative utilities As a chain of volcanic islands, Hawai‘i doesn’t have coal and natural gas readily available to generate electricity. The state depends on oil, shipped in by tanker, to generate electricity. In 2002, Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) became the first and only member-owned utility company in the state, aiming to solve this energy problem. At that …

Global Energy Use Indicates We’re Heading Toward Climate Emergency Faster Than We Thought

Empowering women. Improving education. Expanding access to technology. Reducing infant mortality. These goals have all been heralded as keys to sparking sustainable economic growth in the developing world and improving the lives of billions of global citizens. But a new study suggests that if the planet is to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, there might need to be an …

Richard Heinberg – 100% Renewable Energy: What We Can Do in 10 Years

If our transition to renewable energy is successful, we will achieve savings in the ongoing energy expenditures needed for economic production. We will be rewarded with a quality of life that is acceptable—and, perhaps, preferable to our current one (even though, for most Americans, material consumption will be scaled back from its current unsustainable level). We will have a much …