November. Ice is reforming in the Arctic after a shocking thaw last summer. In the Antarctic it’s the northern equivalent of May. If you’ve hung around a pretty cold area ( I grew up in North Dakota and later spent over two decades at 11,000 ft) you would know in your frozen bones that there [...]

Rob Zako of OTRAN sends this important announcement: How is ODOT addressing climate change? a presentation by Damon Fordham ODOT Sustainability Manager Tuesday, November 13, 6:30 pm Lawrence Hall, Room 206 University of Oregon campus, Eugene

A quantum mechanical phenomenon, superconductivity occurs in certain materials when cooled to extremely low temperatures. In this state, current flows in bound pairs of electrons that constitute a superfluid, which can move without power dissipation. With exactly zero resistance, current can circulate forever in superconducting circuits, an oddity that is being exploited in the latest [...]

The estimable George Monbiot starts his latest thus: An Agricultural Crime Against Humanity Posted November 6, 2007 Biofuels could kill more people than the Iraq war. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 6th November 2007 It doesn’t get madder than this. Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid. [...]

So the Salem Statesman-Journal (a Gannett paper) runs this editorial in its on-line forum: Going to college more crucial now than ever Families must find a way to support youths’ educations November 6, 2007 If you’re the parent of a young student and you can’t imagine how you’ll afford college for him or her, please [...]

What’s in a Name? Being an independent journalist has its attractions. One is I can promptly respond to a good idea if one happens to shows up. One has. Instead of calling the first column of the month “Peak Oil” I’m going to expand the title to “Energy Watch.” There is too much going on [...]

Today while walking up SE Hawthorne in Portland, I was greeted on the sidewalk by Dylan, who works against global warming by working for Greenpeace. Dylan tells me there’s a global warming gathering that Portland-area OnwardOregonians might like to know about, coming up this weekend. + Saturday, Nov 3, from 2-4 p.m. Greenpeace is hosting a gathering of [...]

You can’t say you didn’t know any more. A UN official calls turning foodcrops into biofuels “a crime against humanity.” He may be overly optimistic about our future ability to turn other materials into biofuels, but at least he has the moral courage to demand that we stop starving people just to funnel money to [...]

Just asking. Because nothing that competes with $90+ per barrel for oil needs a production subsidy, assuming for a moment that it ever did. If biofuels are worth making at all, then the makers must be making money hand over fist right now, eh? So why are we pouring state subsidies and production equipment tax [...]

In the U.S., about 1.2 billion gallons of fuel are wasted every year from driving on underinflated tires, according to this government report. With oil prices soon to reach $100 a barrel, lack of basic auto maintenance is costly and will increase harmful exhaust emissions. Just in time, a new innovation from Michelin will make [...]