After the devastating 8.8 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan last week, millions are without power, adequate food or water supply.   The earthquake was so powerful, that Japan moved 8 feet and the axis of the Earth shifted. The human death toll is still being determined, however, recent reports are comparing this natural disaster to the massive destruction caused during WWII; nothing has taken a similar toll on Japan since.

To add confusion to chaos, Japan is now dealing with a number of nuclear power plans that may face possible meltdown.  A cause for local and global concern, Japanese officials have resorted to using sea water to cool a reactor that exploded a couple of days ago in hopes to keep it under control while electricity… [view entry]

Photo by flickr.com/photos/arimoore/

On February 26th, The New York Times released a front page exposé on the new “gold rush” of natural gas exploration in the United States: Hydrofracking.  Natural gas is a relatively plentiful domestic energy resource and some environmentalists and policy-makers alike have heralded the recent jump in natural gas exploration as a means to curb carbon emissions (natural gas, supposedly, releases less carbon into the atmosphere than fossil fuels like oil and coal).

Nevertheless, the NYTimes article presents a disturbing case against such massive, and oftentimes unregulated, exploration. Hydrofracking, or the injection of water and chemicals under high pressure into rock formations to extract natural gas, can directly impact the quality of groundwater, and inevitably, our drinking water.  Drilling supporters have responded that no contamination of groundwater… [view entry]

Following the release of President Obama’s 2012 federal budget, buzz around high speed rail projects in the US has increased. In the budget, $8 billion is allocated for high speed rail projects in FY 2012 and $53 billion is allocated over the next six years. Vice President Biden, a self-proclaimed train lover and regular rider, stated recently “We know that public infrastructure investment increases private-sector productivity, promotes growth, and creates jobs.”

Nevertheless, debate on up-front costs, accessibility and ridership continues to haunt the high-speed rail future in the US, even though Ray LaHood, the current Secretary of Transportation, believes that no realistic alternative currently exists that makes more sense stating “…there is no amount of money that could build enough capacity on our highways and at airports to keep up… [view entry]

Sick of traffic? Tired of the long, isolated commute to and from the office? You’re not alone, and many analysts say it’s only going to get worse. In fact, according to a recent Grist article, Texas A&M just released its Urban Mobility Report, a report that quantifies just how much of a toll daily commuting and car congestion take on your physical, financial and emotional well being. Not to mention how much personal time you lose sitting idle in traffic. It was also reported that metro Chicago and DC are the worst-off given the current “years delay per auto commuter” index. Astoundingly, Chicagoan and Washingtonian car commuters lose 70 hours of their lives to rush-hour traffic every year. These cities are, not surprisingly, followed closely by Los Angeles… [view entry]

The NYTimes recently cited that current NASA data matches NOAA data making 2005 and 2010 the two hottest years on Earth in recorded history. [NASA data is available here.]

From extreme flooding in Pakistan, California, Australia and Tennessee, to significant snow fall in England and France, to raging fires in Russia and extreme heat in New England, 2010 was indeed a notable weather year. While climate deniers continue to correlate varying weather patterns with the natural cycle of the Earth, climatologists disagree stating that the global average surface temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for the entire 20th century. In fact, according to the NYTimes article, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since the year 2000. It will be interesting – and perhaps… [view entry]

A recent Sierra Club magazine article illustrates, in a unique diagram, how the United States, with 4.5% of the world’s population, is responsible for nearly 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions.  In fact, state by state, U.S. CO2 output equals that of entire countries, as illustrated on the map.  Data are from the 2007 U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In a victory for environmentalists, on Friday, a US federal court denied an appeal by industry groups to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions starting in early January, 2011. The Obama Administration supports the EPA’s regulation of GHGs, including carbon dioxide, from major industrial sources due to the inability for more comprehensive national climate legislation to pass through Congress this summer.

Beginning in January, the EPA will require big emitters such as power plants, refineries and cement manufacturers, to obtain permits for polluting greenhouse gases. Companies will also have to follow EPA guidelines regarding the best technologies to control emissions when expanding or building new plants or factories.

Critics of the regulations argue the EPA is not equipped to handle the task of controlling GHG emissions and that… [view entry]

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, located in the town of Vernon on the boarder of Massachusetts and Vermont, has been a topic of environmental concern and debate for many years.  On Sunday, November 7th, the plant shut down due to a cooling water leak, but was back online to the New England grid early next Thursday morning.

Local residents and politicians, fearing the dated, aging plant could lead to potential nuclear disaster, have been pushing to permanently close the plant for years.  In fact, the consensus in the Vermont Legislature is that Vermont Yankee should be closed when its 40-year license expires in March, 2012.  Entergy, the Louisiana-based power company that owns the plant, has since put the reactor on the market as of last week given the continued… [view entry]

If there’s one clear cut hope for the future of energy, its that a completely clean and renewable source of energy, like the sun, could one day come to completely replace our current addiction to fossil fuels. Solar energy, if applied properly could provide the Earth with years of nearly endless power with virtually no environmental drawbacks. However, there are some major hurdles to clear before this dream of a sustainable future through solar energy could become a reality. Currently, the biggest drawback to solar panels is the low efficiency of these devices, even under constant sunlight. Most photovoltaics today only run at a top efficiency of 20%, making them mere complements to other energy sources, rather than complete replacements.

Despite these setbacks, new research from across the world has recently… [view entry]

When we tested all our electronics with the Kill-a-Watt, we found out that the ten-year-old desktop was using a lot of energy, even when it wasn’t powered on. Since we were mostly just using the desktop for storing our music and pictures—we’re primarily laptop users now—we thought it would be a good idea to replace the poor old thing with network-attached storage (NAS for short).

A NAS is a mini-server built specifically for storage. If you work in a corporate environment, there are probably more than a few hanging around on your network. Only in the past five years or so have they started to be sold into the home market. It’s basically a tiny computer built around a bay for hard drives. When I started looking, my basic… [view entry]