The kelp soaks up carbon, via photosynthesis, and grows. After about seven months, the mature blades get too heavy for their biodegradable buoys, and sink. Nereocystis leutkeana, commonly known as bull kelp, is the ‘sea vegetable’ around these parts that many of us are familiar with. This is the long brown kelp with the hollow…
Category: Climate Change
Solutionists
Renewable Juneau board member Anjuli Grantham was 350Juneau’s featured speaker yesterday at the weekly Climate Emergency Rally at the Juneau Capitol steps. (Watch the video HERE!) Anjuli introduced her latest climate action project, a fantastic ten-section body of work entitled Juneau’s Climate Change Solutionists. Her ‘solutionists’ project focuses on local people, local action, and the…
Poet Amanda Gorman’s ‘Earthrise’
What if the Biden/Harris inauguration day poet laureate could address climate change? In fact, she’s done just that. As the brief Yale Climate Connection’s article that introduces another terrific Amanda Gorman piece reads, “No effort here to paraphrase or quote from it: That would be like the proverbial narrative describing a photo of a painting…
New climate action task force to tackle Sitka’s carbon footprint
Like Juneau’s climate action plans, some of which reach back over 11 years, Sitka’s efforts to grapple with the climate crisis have confronted similar issues. Like Juneau, Sitka developed a plan a decade ago. Some items were completed, many were not. Both featured carbon reduction goals, but a lack of follow-up and analysis leave many…
The coal industry comes tumbling down in the American West
The end of an era, a dark, toxic and earth-warming era that is finally coming to a close. While jobs are being phased out as the coal industry fades, it is crucial to note that clean energy jobs in the US are booming. ‘As a result of the industry’s consistent growth, clean energy accounted for…
Cooling the Earth
A friend recently sent me the link to this fascinating article and said, “This is why we need science.” Scientists are tapping into a law of physics to create cooling systems that work without special fuel or electricity. Working with colleagues, Aaswath Raman has developed a thin, mirror-like film engineered to maximize radiative cooling on…
How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly
The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035. This is a must read article, an uplifting and inspiring synopsis of the tremendous work of Saul Griffith, physicist, engineer, researcher, inventor, serial entrepreneur, and MacArthur “genius” grant winner. Griffith is the founder and chief scientist at Otherlab, an independent research and design lab that…
Navajo Women Are Bringing Sustainable Solar Power to the Navajo Nation
Another great example of the intertwining realities of climate justice – energy justice – social justice. And, a great story about committed individuals doing something about it. I believe that examples such as that of Native Renewables and Wahleah Johns show once again that we can all choose to be a part of the solution….
Hydrogen as Fuel? An Italian Pasta Factory Shows How It Could Work
Hopefully, experiments like this one will help to propel hydrogen as a fuel into the mainstream more quickly than is presently occurring. While energy is required to produce hydrogen, once isolated, it can be stored, in essence acting as a battery of sorts. And, hydrogen is lighter to transport, making it potentially a better candidate…
In A Post-Pandemic World, Renewable Energy Is The Only Way Forward
There has never been a better time to stop looking back, turn to the future, and build on the momentum now building. We can and we must power our future in a cleaner, cheaper, and wiser way. A post-pandemic economic reconstruction based on restructuring the energy map makes sense. We know we have to do…