greenhouse gas
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A study asked 22 scientists to predict how global warming might affect ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Observations show them melting much faster than expected.
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Renewable energy growth falters as carbon dioxide hits record levels
The past couple of weeks have seen the convergence of two troubling trends. Perhaps most troubling, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography released data last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have reached record levels...
Eric C. Evarts -
An Earth Day Twitter poll: When will it be socially unacceptable to drive a car with a tailpipe?
Every year, as Earth Day rolls around, we survey the automotive landscape looking for progress in the industry's efforts to reduce emissions and limit global warming. We've identified a lot of progress recently. More than a dozen new electric models are set to go on sale in the coming year, and...
Eric C. Evarts -
Earth Day affirmation: New satellite data confirms Earth is warming and possibly at a faster pace
Just in time for Earth Day, new satellite data corroborates scientists' findings that the Earth is warming at an alarming pace. The new data, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, corroborates findings from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies Surface Temperature...
Eric C. Evarts -
UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmap
A new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had...
Eric C. Evarts -
California Autobahn: Bill proposes to cut emissions by adding fast lanes
In the wake of the debate over California’s complicated, delayed, and over-budget Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project, a bill introduced to the California State Senate last week comes up with a simpler solution: just add more freeway lanes, and get rid of the speed limit...
Bengt Halvorson -
There's nothing like hitting people where they live to goad them into action. After a year of record fires in California and floods in Texas and on the East Coast, more Americans are taking climate change seriously—and significant portions are willing to take financial steps to combat it. The first poll, from the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute [PDF], shows that more frequent extreme weather events are causing Americans to shift their views on climate change, and that 60 percent, across all political stripes, believe it is caused primarily by human activity. Among the 48...
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Short(er)-range Tesla, Porsche Taycan wagon, U.S. cuts CO2: Today's Car News
A new shorter-range Tesla Model 3 drops into the mix—but not the $35,000 model that many deposit-holders have been waiting for. Porsche will add a more utilitarian hatchback design to its upcoming Taycan electric-car lineup. And VW gives its vehicle lighting more of a message. All this and...
Eric C. Evarts -
EPA: Cleaner power generation offset increase of vehicle emissions in 2017
U.S. emissions of global-warming greenhouse gases fell 2.7 percent in 2017, despite the Trump administration's efforts to revive coal use in the U.S., the EPA announced on Monday. The EPA released data for 2017, showing an even larger 4.5 percent drop in emissions from power plants compared with...
Eric C. Evarts -
Pruitt's EPA emission rollback reasoning may well fail in court
Despite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those...
John Voelcker -
Paris climate accords look more and more like fantasy; the reality could be far worse
New York Magazine article draws dire conclusion that catastrophic climate change is nearly inevitable, with or without Paris climate accord.
Eric C. Evarts -
Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis
While the name of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is often preceded by "embattled" these days, his agency is now on record as rejecting its own recommendation of just 16 months ago. It concluded in July 2016 that the auto industry had handily met lower carbon-emission limits from 2012 through...
John Voelcker -
Today, there are roughly 750,000 plug-in electric vehicles on U.S. roads and about 3,800 powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Proponents of each type of vehicle argue strenuously that their powertrain is a better way to produce vehicles with zero emissions from the tailpipe. Electric cars can be charged at home overnight, and electricity in many areas is far cheaper than gasoline on a per-mile basis, say the plug-in vehicle supporters. DON'T MISS: Why a Fiat 500e driver got a Honda Clarity Fuel Cell as his next green car: low cost Ah, but hydrogen vehicles have far longer ranges, need to be fueled...
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Number of electric cars California needs to cut 2030 emissions unclear: 4 million or 7 million?
One of California's largest electricity producers recently published a white paper that analyzed how the state will achieve its 2030 greenhouse-gas targets—and it called into question targets set forth by California regulators. Specifically, Southern California Edison (SCE) said the targeted...
Mark Stevenson -
Electric cars emit less carbon than average U.S. new car, everywhere in the world
When electric cars first arrived in 2011, it was a reasonable question: Aren't you just shifting emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack? The answer is yes, but the carbon emissions per mile of an electric car—properly measured on a wells-to-wheels basis—are virtually always lower...
John Voelcker -
Comment period ends tomorrow on EPA proposal to loosen emission limits on cars
The period for public comments on the EPA's proposed reconsideration of finalized rules to cut emissions of the climate-change gas carbon dioxide from light-duty vehicles will end on Thursday, October 5. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 10 it would reopen the Comment...
John Voelcker -
Trump EPA to hold unneeded 'critique' to challenge climate science
The best analog to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's latest action might be for the U.S. Geological Survey to undertake a "scientific critique" of theories that the world is round. After all, numerous authoritative sources over the years have raised doubts that the Earth is not flat. Surely their...
John Voelcker -
Energy use for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles: higher than electrics, even hybrids (analysis)
It's now clear that the zero-emission vehicles of the future will be powered by electric motors. The electricity to power those motors, however, will come from one of two competing technologies: high-capacity batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The debate over which technology is superior, which has...
John Voelcker -
The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, is working to eradicate every Obama policy to limit the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Having variously called the science behind climate change a "Chinese plot" to hurt the U.S. and referred to it using an expletive for bovine excrement, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He pledged to do that, and he is doing exactly what he said he would. DON'T MISS: Trump Administration goal: undo every climate-change effort A substantial number of U.S. corporations, however, are not following suit. Instead, they are retaining policies that commit...
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More than two-thirds of Americans accept climate science, regardless of Trump
The new U.S. administration has made it clear that it does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change. From President Donald Trump down through his nominees for key roles—Scott Pruitt for EPA adminstrator, Rick Perry for Department of Energy head, and others—key elected and...
John Voelcker -
China axes 103 coal-fired power plants, citing smog, overcapacity
During negotiations for the Paris Climate Treaty signed last fall, a major concern among critics was whether the carbon emissions of China's sprawling and inefficient energy sector could be reined in. With China, the U.S., and dozens of other countries signing the agreement, the world's most...
John Voelcker -
Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid: lifetime carbon emissions 24 percent lower vs standard minivan
Cars that run entirely or partly on electricity from a battery pack have no tailpipe emissions, but to judge their overall impact, you have to look at lifetime wells-to-wheels emissions. That includes emissions associated with extracting, refining, and burning the fuel used to make the electricity...
John Voelcker -
Methane from livestock nearing worst-case scenario for climate change: scientist
Methane emissions may rival carbon dioxide as a climate-change instigator, new research suggests.
Stephen Edelstein -
Global carbon emissions have been flat for three years now
A new study estimates global carbon emissions did not increase dramatically in 2016.
Stephen Edelstein