“If every country committed to spending 0.05 per cent of GDP on researching non-carbon-emitting energy technologies, that would cost $25 billion a year, and it would do a lot more than massive carbon cuts to fight warming and save lives.” IfsYearsCountryFightingEnergyTechnologyCuttingCostCommittedSpendingBillionsMassiveCentsCarbonGdpSave A Life Author:Bjorn Lomborg
“I drove an electric car for seven years because of its advanced technology, not because I have any concerns about energy resources. I have none at all. And when environmentalists say that global warming is dangerous, unprecedented and that we'll have a tipping point for atmospheric carbon dioxide, it's just nonsense.” YearsEnergyTechnologyDangerousCarResourcesConcernSevenGlobal WarmingNonsenseElectricCarbonSeven YearsUnprecedentedEnvironmentalistCarbon DioxideTippingTipping PointElectric CarAdvanced Technology Author:Burt Rutan
“War and, apparently, hurricanes are very good for the oil business. But I've got to believe at a certain point, as a nation, we're going to go in a different direction toward an increased sense of personal responsibility, a lowering of each individual's carbon footprint and a real collaborative effort to help sustain our planet.” BelieveDifferentWarRealHelpingCertainIndividualEnergyNationsEffortResponsibilityPlanetsVery GoodOilAlternativesCarbonOur PlanetHurricanesPersonal ResponsibilityFootprintDifferent DirectionsCarbon FootprintCollaborative EffortOil Business Author:Stephen Gaghan
“Carbon trading engages finance directors. It takes the issue of energy efficiency right to the top of the company.” EnergyCompanyIssuesDirectorsFinanceEfficiencyCarbonTradingEnergy Efficiency Author:Elliot Morley
“Thus, human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment of the kind that could not have happened in the past...Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.” YearsHumansKindPastEnergyHuman BeingsMillionsEnvironmentHappenedRocksCenturyOceanClimate ChangeScalesExperimentsAtmosphereCarbonLarge Scale Author:Roger Revelle
“Preventing global warming from becoming a planetary catastrophe may take something even more drastic than renewable energy, superefficient urban design, and global carbon taxes.” MayEnergyDesignBecomingTaxesGlobal WarmingUrbanCarbonCatastrophePreventingRenewable EnergyDrasticUrban DesignCarbon Tax Book:Hacking the Earth Source: Hacking the Earth
“Once the renewable infrastructure is built, the fuel is free forever. Unlike carbon-based fuels, the wind and the sun and the earth itself provide fuel that is free, in amounts that are effectively limitless.” EarthEnergySunForeverWindAmountBuiltFuelCarbonInfrastructureLimitlessAlternative Energy Book:Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis Source: Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis
“For carbon-neutral cities, there are things worth talking about in how our consumption patterns can change - sharing goods, etc. - but those are a fraction of the impacts of transportation and building energy use. If we need to choose priority actions, the most important things are to densify, provide transit, and green the buildings.” IfsNeedsImportantUseActionEnergyCitiesTalkingBuildingGreenImportant ThingsImpactPatternsPrioritiesEtcGoodsConsumptionCarbonTransportationFractionsEnergy Use Author:Alex Steffen
“The only place Al Gore conserves energy these days is on the treadmill. I don't want to suggest that Al's getting big, but the last time I saw him on TV I thought, "That reminds me - we have to do something about saving the polar bears." Never mind his carbon footprint - have you seen the size of Al Gore's regular footprint lately? It's almost as deep as Janet Reno's.” WantMindBigsLastsEnergySawsTvsBearsSizeSavingThese DaysAlsLast TimeCarbonGoreFootprintTreadmillsPolar BearsCarbon Footprint Author:Ann Coulter
“The horn of dilemma of energy politics is what really drives concern about this energy in this country, at the gut level for most people, is high gas prices. And if you really want to fight global warming and try to reduce our carbon emissions, the cleanest, easiest, most rational way to do it would to make the price of gas even higher through very stiff gas prices.” PeopleIfsWayWantTryingCountryFightingEnergyLevelsHigherConcernRationalGlobal WarmingGutsGasCarbonHornsDilemmaEmissionsGas PricesCarbon Emissions Author:Rich Lowry
“The transition from coal, oil, and gas to wind, solar, and geothermal energy is well under way. In the old economy, energy was produced by burning something - oil, coal, or natural gas - leading to the carbon emissions that have come to define our economy. The new energy economy harnesses the energy in wind, the energy coming from the sun, and heat from within the earth itself.” WayWellsEarthEnergyNaturalEconomySunWindOilBurningHeatGasTransitionCarbonCoalEmissionsHarnessNatural GasOil And GasCarbon EmissionsNew EnergyAlternative EnergyGeothermalGeothermal Energy Author:Lester R. Brown
“Ecology also teaches that all life on earth can be viewed as a competition among species for the solar energy captured by green plants and stored in the form of complex carbon molecules. A food chain is a system for passing those calories on to species that lack the pant's unique ability to synthesize them from sunlight.” EarthFormEnergyAbilityTeachUniqueGreenCompetitionPlantSpeciesComplexesPassingPassingsChainsSunlightEcologyCarbonCapturedMoleculesCaloriesFood ChainSolar EnergyGreen Plants Author:Michael Pollan
“The wealth of any ecosystem is its perennials. The primal herbivore-predator-disturbance-rest dance is literally the breath and pulse of the earth. Grasses recycle oxygen far more efficiently than trees. The turnover is faster. Grass reaches out and turns solar energy into carbon. Tillage hyper-aerates the soil, burning out carbon. But because a plant creates bilateral symmetry at the soil horizon, it sloughs off root mass when the top gets chopped off.” EarthTurnsEnergyWealthTreeMassRootsBreathsPlantBurningFasterGrassSoilHorizonReach OutCarbonOxygenPulsePrimalEcosystemsPredatorDisturbanceSymmetryHyperSolar EnergyTurnoverSlough Author:Joel Salatin
“Sure, you can say nuclear power is somewhat less carbon-intensive than burning fossil fuels for energy; beating your children to death with a club will prevent them from getting hit by a car. Ravaging the Earth by one irreparable means is not a sensible way to prevent it from being destroyed by another. There are alternatives. We should choose them and use them.” WayShouldMeanChildrenUseEarthEnergyCarOur ChildrenClubsNuclearDestroyedBurningAlternativesYour ChildrenFuelSensibleCarbonFossilsFossil FuelNuclear PowerIrreparableBurning Fossil Fuels Author:Rebecca Solnit
“I work very hard on finding good characters who can explain things to me, and I use them to help tell the story. I organize my pieces not just around people but around animals and plants, energy flows, the path that carbon takes through the food system.” PeopleHardCharacterHelpingStoriesUseEnergyAnimalPathPiecesFindingsFlowPlantOrganizeCarbonGood CharacterEnergy Flow Author:Michael Pollan
“By fundamentally changing how we design the places and systems that enable our daily lives, we can slash emissions way beyond the immediate carbon savings - because our own personal emissions are just the tip of a vast iceberg of energy and resources consumed far from our view.” WayEnergyViewsDesignResourcesSavingDaily LifeCarbonConsumedSavingsEmissionsIceberg Author:Alex Steffen
“We really need to kick the carbon habit and stop making our energy from burning things. Climate change is also really important. You can wreck one rainforest then move, drain one area of resources and move onto another, but climate change is global.” NeedsImportantMovingEnergyHabitResourcesAreasClimateClimate ChangeBurningKicksCarbonWrecksDrainsRainforest Author:David Attenborough
“We can come up with a working definition of life, which is what we did for the Viking mission to Mars. We said we could think in terms of a large molecule made up of carbon compounds that can replicate, or make copies of itself, and metabolize food and energy. So that's the thought: macrocolecule, metabolism, replication.” ThinkingLifeMadeSaidEnergyTermDefinitionsCome UpMissionsCopiesMarsCarbonCompoundsMoleculesVikingsReplicateMetabolismReplicationDefinition Of Life Author:Cyril Ponnamperuma
“There's no free lunch. If you want an industrial economy, you need energy. If you want energy, it will produce pollution. You can have it in two forms. You can have it dissipated in the atmosphere - like carbon dioxide - which then you cannot recover, or you can have the waste concentrated in one small space like nuclear. That is far easier to deal with. The idea that you can be able to create renewable energy at a price anywhere near the current price for oil or gas or coal is a fantasy.” IfsWantNeedsTwoIdeasAbleFormEnergySpaceDealsFantasyEconomyProduceEasierWasteCurrentsOilNuclearAtmosphereGasLunchPollutionCarbonCoalRenewable EnergyCarbon DioxideSmall SpacesFree Lunch Author:Charles Krauthammer
“For electric power generation, we are very optimistic about solar-thermal technology, and we’re intrigued by the potential of enhanced geothermal energy to replace coal-based power generation. Traditional carbon capture and sequestration-based coal power generation is somewhat unlikely to be competitive.” EnergyTechnologyGenerationsTraditionalOptimisticCaptureElectricCarbonCoalUnlikelyIntriguedThermalElectric PowerGeothermalGeothermal Energy Author:Vinod Khosla