This election year has seen U.S. energy policy and the debate on global warming (does it exist, if it does who/what is responsible, and what we should do about it) get quite a bit of airtime, but from a distinctly 2012 tack. Both issues have traditionally been favorites of both parties’ respective bases; the Democratic base consistently tries to make the Party focus on tackling global warming and getting America off of fossil fuels immediately....
With movies like The Day After Tomorrow depicting the apocalyptic consequences of global warming, the issue of climate change has since transformed from being simply a “Hollywood problem” to a reality we must confront. Global warming deniers have long since been discredited, and an urgency to address climate change has heightened in policy spheres and also in the public imagination. It is the unfortunate fact that climate change is not an issue...
McKibben to discuss the future of the climate change movement. Columbia Political Review: There seems to be a very marked difference in the tone of your new book, Eaarth ,compared to your previous works. You say that global warming is no longer a threat we need to deal with but one we need to cope with. Where do you think the rest of the world stands on this at the moment? Bill McKibben: I think most people around the world have an idea that gl...
...ract resources from Antarctica’s mainland or from the Weddell and Ross Sea areas, which comprise almost all of the continent’s endowment of hydrocarbons. The emergence of these new technologies – as well as global warming, which allows ice-breaker tankers to reach Antarctica more easily than ever – has contributed to dropping the estimated cost per barrel of Ross Sea crude oil by some 50 percent. American, Chinese, and Russian experts...
role in commercial and cultural exchanges between mighty Asia, old Europe, and the great new world. However, currently, the world’s geostrategic center is shifting northward, and few of us are paying attention. Due to global warming, a new metaphorical Mediterranean Sea is currently forming to the north. The Arctic Ocean is relentlessly opening its waters to humans, at an even faster pace than was initially forecast by the global scientific comm...
...Another idea is to inject aerosols or incredibly fine particulates into the stratosphere in order to slightly increase the reflectivity of the entire atmosphere. The argument being that this could delay the effects of global warming by temporarily cooling the earth in much the same way that particulate matter from volcanic eruptions does. By their very nature, these techniques are highly controversial, both scientifically and politically. They a...
Illustration by Amalia Rinehart While public concern about global warming has waned in recent years, ever-more scientific evidence shows that climate change is a grave and growing nightmare. Among problematic signs are the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps at an increasing rate, and the corresponding rise in sea levels. While perhaps a distant concern both geographically and temporally for much of the world’s population, rising sea levels...
...l that much, they still have moral and altruistic feelings no matter how much we’re subjected to forces that try to beat them out of us. People are still rational. I don’t know if it will be working against global warming or constant war and the preparation for war, or worrying about our neighbors’ poverty, or reforming the educational system so all kids have a chance, or treating immigrants as human beings, but people are going...
...dard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, also anticipates continued favorable market conditions for the nuclear industry: increasing base-load demand, natural gas supply constraints, stringent clean air requirements, and global warming concerns ensure that nuclear power will remain a crucial component in meeting future energy needs. The next reactor scheduled to come online domestically is not entirely new; it is the completely rebuilt Brown’s Ferr...
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