Magazine

March 18, 2016 By John Perlin John Perlin is an analyst in the physics department of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He oversees solar installations at the university, and he writes, speaks, and lectures about solar energy. Many people believe that solar energy is a twentieth century phenomenon, untried and untested. But I discovered through writing […]

November 13, 2016 By Femke Wijdekop, Institute for Environmental Security Source: Great Transition Network The current legal regime allows states and corporations to despoil the environment with impunity. This injustice has inspired a new movement of legal experts and citizens calling for the codification of ecocide as a fifth crime against peace, joining genocide, crimes

January 13, 2017 Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Sept. 3, 2016. How Hwee Young/Pool Photo via AP In mid-November, while Americans were preoccupied with election returns, China sent some of

September 9, 2016 Author: Noel Castree Professor of Geography, University of Wollongong It’s literally epoch-defining news. A group of experts tasked with considering the question of whether we have officially entered the Anthropocene – the geological age characterised by humans’ influence on the planet – has delivered its answer: yes. The British-led Working Group on the Anthropocene

August 19, 2016 By Jessika E. Trancik Assistant Professor of Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Electrifying transportation is one of the most promising ways to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, but so-called range anxiety – concern about being stranded with an uncharged car battery – remains a barrier to electric vehicle adoption. Is

By Paul N. Edwards Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan Starting later this month, the world’s nations will convene in traumatized Paris to hammer out commitments to slow down global climate change. Any long-term solution will require “decarbonizing” the world energy economy – that is, shifting to power sources that use little or no

July 8, 2016 By Richard G. “Bugs” Stevens, The Conversation New LED-based streetlights are whiter than traditional ones and contain more blue light, which can disrupt people’s circadian rhythms. meltedplastic/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it. The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA’s annual

July 29, 2016 By Carl Smith Physicist and writer John Perlin is the author of Let it Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy. Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute, has called the book “the solar bible.” In his introduction to the book, Amory Lovins, cofounder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, notes

August 5, 2016 International report confirms 2015 was Earth’s warmest year on record Source: NOAA A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the warmest year since at least the mid-to-late 19th century. Last year’s record heat resulted from the combined influence of long-term global warming and one of the