Climate Change

When Joseph Aldy trekked up Mount Kilimanjaro with his father in 2000, he was a long way from the farm in Kentucky where he grew up—but close to the things that matter to him. Aldy is an economist who works on energy and climate-change policy. He loves to hike. On Kilimanjaro’s 19,341-foot peak, he got to see the last vestiges of the 11,000-year-old glaciers there—they are expected to disappear within the next decade or so. Read the full story

About the book: The United States produces over seventy percent of all its electricity from fossil fuels and nearly fifty percent from coal alone. Worldwide, forty-one percent of all electricity is generated from coal, making it the single most important fuel source for electricity generation, followed by natural gas. This means that an essential part of any portfolio for emissions reduction will be technology to capture carbon dioxide and permanently sequester it in suitable geologic formations.

"There is regulation in market systems all over the place. There is no such thing as [a] free market in existence in the world because government is an actor in our markets. Its job is to regulate .... Markets can work in concert with public policy." - Daniel Morris, a fellow at Resources for the Future Watch the program

Global warming isn’t uniform. The continental U.S. has warmed by about 1.3°F over the past 100 years, but the temperature increase hasn’t been the same everywhere: some places have warmed more than others, some less, and some not much at all. Natural variability explains some of the differences, and air pollution with fine aerosols screening incoming solar radiation could also be a factor. Download the full report

"It is things like limiting idling time of equipment. It's looking at all of our equipment and seeing that it's sized right for the job," explained John Andrew, assistant deputy at DWR.

Climate scientists have long been concerned about the possibility that warming temperatures will speed changes on the earth’s surface that will in turn accelerate global warming. The best illustration of such a feedback loop involves the melting of sea ice in the Arctic. The ice reflects solar radiation back into space rather than absorbing it. When it melts, it leaves open water that absorbs the heat rather than reflecting it. The more warm water there is, the more ice melts, and so on.

Jason Grumet, President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said there are approaches between simple extensions and cold turkey cutoffs, such as grid operators holding auctions specifically for renewable power. Grumet said the whole tax code should be overhauled to adapt to the new US energy picture, in which an abundance of natural gas has replaced fears of energy scarcity in just five years. Legislators need to rationalize any energy subsidies longer-term, he said, adding, "We need to avoid this year-to-year lobby fest."

“Imagine taking some parts from a car, from an air conditioning system, some more parts from a plumber, and you build a machine that is run with heat instead of gasoline. Then you hook it up to a free energy source such as the sun, and what you get is a clean, sustainable, cost-efficient source of hot water, electricity and even cooling.” Since 2005, Matt and his team have been doing exactly that in Lesotho: Building a solar powered plant for a local hospital as a showcase project for other applications.