Serengreenity

The next round of the battle over climate change policy on Capitol Hill will involve more than the usual suspects. Way more.

Less than ten days after claiming a breakthrough on climate change in Copenhagen President Obama is facing a mutiny from senior Democrats who are imploring him to postpone or even abandon his cap-and-trade bill.

Although the world's governments meeting in Copenhagen struggled to agree on a plan of action to curtail carbon dioxide emissions, the green technology innovations reported by New Scientist during 2009 suggest reasons for optimism.

Electricity is hard to store, which is why nearly all of it is consumed at the instant it is generated, and energy storage is still in its infancy. Now a Phoenix company, Solar Southwest Technology, is going at the problem with a new twist.

The pending federal effort to lessen carbon emissions, especially from coal-fired power plants – called the “cap-and-trade program” – has one single goal: To improve air quality and slow down global warming – if, that is, global warming actually exists.

Led by Brazil, global forest loss in 2009 likely declined to its lowest level in more than a decade. 2009 was also notable for progress made on REDD, a proposed climate change mitigation mechanism that would pay tropical countries for protecting their forests.

Surveys conducted by National Trust wardens across England and Wales indicate that wildlife has struggled to cope with a changing climate and loss of habitat, but that there have also been winners.

The uranium industry was born on the west end of Energy Alley, the run from Green River, Utah, to Rifle. It has burst into bloom and sputtered to obscurity more than once.

The country's top legislature adopted on Saturday an amendment to the renewable energy law that requires electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable energy generators.

Colbert Steam Plant ranked 99th in the nation in its production of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas under the watchful eye of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Regardless of their stances on global warming, scientists do agree that Pennsylvania’s carbon dioxide emissions come mainly from fossil fuels, including coal.

Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.

This year environmental lawyer Srisuwan Janya and his Stop Global Warming Association rewrote the manuals on environmental advocacy and raised the bar on how far one can go to protect the public's health and challenge big industry in the process.

How much is the planet worth? Not a jot, according to most economists' calculations. In nearly all their earlier calculations and prescriptions, economists have taken the earth for granted. Time to get real.

The nation’s progress against global warming will be halting at best if gains made on the carbon front are offset by increased releases of methane from natural gas facilities.

Across the country, trial lawyers and green pressure groups are teaming up to sue electric utilities for carbon emissions under "nuisance" laws. Carbon litigation without legislation is one more way to harm the economy, and the rule of law.

Thumbs up to Westport businesses that are embracing the need to go green, cutting their energy use and, in some cases, actually giving unneeded energy back to the grid.

With trillions of dollars at stake in the battle over global warming, now would be the time for the press to closely scrutinize the claims of those who would reorganize the world's economy from farm to factory and laboratory to living room.

Even had there not been a climate change summit in Copenhagen, China would still set itself on a path of low-carbon development. As one of the countries most affected by climate change, it has become imperative for China to act now to avert a climate catastrophe at a relatively low cost.

Gas flaring is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. But Nigeria, with a serious gas flaring problem and with no solution in sight, managed to get the world to look the other way at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

Despite tumbling prices, creating a so-called floor price for carbon could discredit the market for emissions trading in Europe.

A Phoenix company, Solar Southwest Technology, wants to marry solar energy and a wind farm.

Two solar farms planned in the West would use technology that allow utilities to generate electricity after the sun goes down.

Installing solar panels on pitched roofs often requires rope skills, which is a big reason why some solar companies -- like wind turbine repair companies -- are hiring climbers.

Some rock climbers are figuring out how to earn a living at their hobby -- by scaling wind turbines that need repair.

The first new uranium mill in the United States in a quarter-century draws closer to final approval.

Citing scientific research, New York City asks the state to ban hydraulic drilling in its upstate watershed.

Authorities say the risk is not high, but natural gas shortages are becoming possible in Anchorage, and the city needs to prepare.

The Port of Los Angeles is expanding its program to supply ships with power, rather than let their engines run, to reduce emissions.

Public transit ridership falls from last year's record highs.

A bill by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, would create two new national monuments in the Mojave Desert to prevent solar and wind development, but would also ease the creation of such facilities in other areas.

Tioga Energy gets a new round of funding to pursue an innovative strategy for rolling out solar power.

Some voices argue for a fresh look at population control as a means to limit climate change, and to help the poorest countries adapt to some of the changes global warming will bring.

An advocacy group scores companies on their environmental track record.

A more lucrative version of Ontario's feed-in-tariff program has attracted thousands of renewable-energy investors.

G2 picture editor Sarah Gilbert chooses some of the most enduring images of the year

Oregon designers receive accreditation from Congress for New Urbanism.

International Energy Code Council considers major overall.

Experts provide legal and financial advice on building green.

Unico announces three Seattle properties earn LEED-EB designation.

Bainbridge Island offers incentives to Living Building Challenge developments.

The build-out of the smart grid holds opportunities for energy savings and a boon to the green building industry, but only if it connects to ‘smart’ buildings.

Green Light cooperative turns development model upside down.

Near downtown Portland, Leftbank Project is looking to build a viable community.

An investment fund focused on energy efficiency launches.

Human health impacts could soon play a bigger role when sizing up building projects.

Dubai has made headlines in recent weeks for its financial woes, and many are saying this once-booming desert metropolis has gone bust. But the emirate does have something to celebrate: The Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is due to officially open on January 4.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has changed the way it measures building height.

Now that New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is remaining in office for a third term, presumably the agenda set out by Amanda Burden, director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the planning commission, will stay its course.

One of the country’s oldest architecture firms has teamed with one of its youngest, betting on expansion while other practices scale back.

Look up from your cellphone and your pixelated field of vision stretches to the skyline.

A tectonic shift took place among winners at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF), as projects from developing countries accounted for a significantly larger percent of the honors than they had in the past.

Looking to join such acclaimed museum dining rooms as The Modern at The Museum of Modern Art, and Terzo Piano, atop the Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Wright is the latest destination restaurant with a legacy of art and architecture.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has broken ground on the $1.7 billion Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, South Korea.

Today, the United States Artists Foundation announced the 50 winners of its annual award program.

Each month, the average person in a developed country emits one metric ton of carbon dioxide; a U.S. resident emits that amount every two weeks.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services has awarded $508.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build or renovate 85 community health clinics around the country.

The Copenhagen-based architectural firm of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), featured in Record’s Vanguard issue, has expanded its partnership as of December 1.

Construction's unemployment rate continued to to rise in November, climbing to 19.4% from October's 18.7%, while the nation's overall jobless rate declined slightly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

In an effort to accelerate the development of cost-effective, sustainable concrete, Masdar, the developer of the planned carbon and waste-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, is holding a concrete mix design competition.

In early November, more than 150 representatives of architecture and design organizations came to Chicago to hold the inaugural meeting of the Association of Architecture Organizations (AAO).

Cubellis, a top-earning international architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Boston, has closed.

Architectural photographer Robert C. Lautman, Hon. AIA, died of pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 2009.

After years of rumors, speculation, and rhetorical jousting, the George W. Bush Presidential Center is finally public.

Long-term exposure to air pollution dramatically increases the risk of pneumonia for older adults, according to a new study. Using air monitoring station data and air pollution models to gauge exposure in different geographical sections of Hamilton, Ontario, researchers found that adults over 65 exposed to nitrogen dioxide — which is closely associated with […]

For decades, fisheries managers have reared hatchery salmon and released them into rivers to supplement declining populations of wild salmon. And for years, a large percentage of hatchery-raised Atlantic salmon have perished in the wild, returning to their native streams far less frequently than wild salmon. Now, researchers at the University of Gothenburg i […]

Every day, NASA’s Earth Observatory publishes images of our world from a perspective rarely seen by human eyes — from satellites high above the planet’s surface. In 2009, these images once again provided an extraordinary view of the powerful forces of nature, of the widening footprint of human civilization, and of the point where they often meet. In February […]

A California senator introduced legislation that would protect more than a million acres in the Mojave Desert, including land eyed by developers for solar and wind energy projects. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a longtime supporter of desert protection, has proposed protecting 1.7 million acres of desert, including a 941,000-acre Mojave Trails National Monumen […]

The bitter battle over health care legislation, fears that global warming legislation could harm the weak U.S. economy, and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit to set binding CO2 emissions reductions targets will make U.S. Senate passage of a carbon cap-and-trade bill difficult in 2010, according to senators from both parties. Politico reports that […]

Stewart Brand is perhaps best known as the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, the eclectic compendium of environmentally friendly living that became a bible of the counterculture and the back-to-the-land movement in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. But times have changed, and so has Brand. In his new book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, B […]

When the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog embraces nuclear power, genetically engineered crops, and geoengineering schemes to cool the planet, you know things have changed in the environmental movement. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Stewart Brand explains how the passage of four decades — and the advent of global warming — have shifted his thi […]

Federal officials are promoting the use of a chalky residue from coal-burning power plants as a fertilizer on U.S. farms, even as regulators simultaneously consider new rules for the waste, which contains small amounts of toxic metals. During the Bush administration, U.S. officials began promoting the agricultural use of a synthetic form of gypsum, a calcium […]

Reverberations from the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit continued to be felt worldwide, with political leaders blaming each other for the meeting’s outcome, U.S. senators saying that the lack of progress will make it harder for Congress to pass a climate bill, European Union carbon prices falling, and some businesses lamenting the continuing lack of […]

Much was left undone in Copenhagen, and the many loopholes in the climate accord could lead to rising emissions. But the conference averted disaster by keeping the UN climate negotiations alive, and some expressed hope that the growth of renewable energy technology may ultimately save the day. BY FRED PEARCE

The Copenhagen summit turned out to be little more than a charade, as the major nations refused to make firm commitments or even engage in an honest discussion of the consequences of failing to act. BY BILL MCKIBBEN

The Malaysian government will allow logging to take place in a contested area of rainforest on the island of Borneo, rejecting an attempt by local tribesemen to declare part of the forest as a protected “peace park.” Hoping to establish a model of conservation and land management, and draw attention to excessive logging on traditional lands, Penan tribesemen […]

In a last-minute flurry of diplomatic activity, U.S. President Obama managed to piece together a limited agreement on climate change that falls short of even the modest expectations for the 12-day summit meeting in the Danish capital. Rather than emerging with a legally binding treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions — the original goal of the confe […]

Living near wind farms does not pose adverse health effects, according to a new study. The research, conducted by a seven-member panel of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions, was funded by the American and Canadian wind industry associations. The 85-page report says there is no medical basis for concerns that the […]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton injected new life into the Copenhagen summit Thursday as she told delegates that the U.S. would contribute to a fund designed to raise $100 billion by 2020 to help developing nations adapt to climate change. But Clinton said the U.S. offer was contingent on forging a global climate treaty that requires developing nat […]

Speaking to a gathering of mayors in Copenhagen, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced plans to add 25,000 charging stations for electric cars across the city by 2015, turning London into a center of plug-in vehicle technology. By creating the right conditions, Johnson said the city can encourage a “golden era” of electric cars, and he predicted that every re […]

With only two full days remaining at the Copenhagen climate summit, negotiators said they were close to reaching agreement on a pair of key issues — the size of a fund to help developing nations deal with global warming, and the creation of a program under which industrialized nations would pay developing nations not to log tropical forests. Leaders of the A […]

Increased levels of black soot from air pollution sources across Asia have accelerated the rate of glacial melting on the Tibetan Plateau, exacerbating the effects of global warming in what is home to the planet’s largest non-polar ice masses, researchers say. Temperatures in the region have increased 0.3 Celsius (.5 F) in the last 30 years — twice the globa […]

As the Copenhagen climate summit entered its final four days with wide differences still separating major blocs of countries, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, Yvo de Boer, called on participants to begin making more concessions and step up the pace of the talks. Saying the conference has entered “a very distinct and important moment in the process,” de Boe […]