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Breakthrough Responds: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Cut It
In the real world, the American polity and the American market are not ready for a tough carbon price. The best way to respond to the climate challenge right now is to massively expand the role of the federal government in researching, developing, and deploying clean technology.

This is a response to Max Epstein's guest post, "In Defense of Carbon Pricing: Why Clean Energy RD&D Isn't Enough." Our response is written by Breakthrough Generation fellow Zach Arnold.

Before anything else, I want to thank Max for his thoughtful post. His arguments have been a big help in clarifying our own thinking.

In my response, I'm going to try to define the problem we're trying to solve, and clarify the differences I see between a carbon price driven regime (as Max advocates) and an investment-led regime (as we're more fond of at Breakthrough). I'm then going to explore the political feasibility of a carbon price, and what a politically sustainable carbon price can and can't do to address climate change. In doing so, I hope to show that, for now, we can't rely on carbon pricing to drive the shift to a clean energy economy.

Continue reading "Breakthrough Responds: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Cut It" »



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Clear-Eyed About Nuclear
If we're serious about solving climate change, we have to be clear-eyed about what it will take. To wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we have to revisit nuclear.

Written by Helen Aki, Breakthrough Generation Fellow.

There are a lot of good justifications for fossil fuel independence. It will divorce us from politically unstable oil suppliers, it will liberate us from high energy costs, it will lead us into the glorious possibility of the twenty-first century. But let's be honest with ourselves: if we're pursuing fossil fuel independence because we want to stop carbon dioxide emissions and avert catastrophic climate change (and we are), we will need more than solar panels, wind turbines, and cars that go "whizz!". We have in reserve a proven technology that is ready for mass deployment. It currently supplies 372GW of energy world wide, and if scaled up three to sixfold, it could account for 2/7ths of greenhouse gas emission stabilization. It is close enough to cost-competitive with coal-fired electricity that a modest carbon tax would make it cheaper than coal. But it is politically unpopular and characterized as dirty, evil, and dangerous.

If we want to "solve the climate crisis," or at least make significant steps towards transitioning towards a carbon-neutral, clean energy economy, we need to face one inconvenient truth: We have to go nuclear.

Continue reading "Clear-Eyed About Nuclear" »



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While We're Out There...or: A Call For Pragmatic Political Solutions
Deep sea wind farms might not have an immediate effect on gas prices, but drilling for oil out there won't either. And, considering the fact that both off shore drilling and deep sea wind have about the same 10-year frame for return on investment of resources, it only seems prudent to explore every "American Solution" we have at our disposal.

By Adam Zemel, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

Deep sea wind turbines have a lot to offer:
Data shows that the wind is stronger and more consistent farther out from shore, meaning that deep sea wind farms could provide more and more constant energy than even the more typical offshore wind turbines being argued over in plans like Cape Wind

This (older) article from MIT discusses building wind farms 100 miles off shore, which shows another strength for deep sea wind: 100 miles away from the shore, farther than the human eye can see, is not anyone's backyard. There is no threat from NIMBY activists, or NIMFrontY activists, or NIMYPeriod activists. A patch of water 100 miles away from land is not in anyone's yard at all!

Continue reading "While We're Out There...or: A Call For Pragmatic Political Solutions" »



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Buddhism, Nihilism, and Deep Ecology
Nature is no wiser than technology, and claiming adherence to nature's laws is an attempt to bypass the messy business of ethics and values.

Carbon-sucking trees. Mirrors in space. Biochar. Some of the proposed solutions to climate change seem better suited to the annals of science fiction. Geo-engineering -- along with nanotechnology and bioengineering -- belongs to a class of scientific innovation that many fear will threaten the integrity of life as we know it. Humans have been innovating new technologies since the first forward-thinking caveman used a rock to crack a nut from its shell, but new technologies still sometimes manage to weird us out. Certain technologies -- fertilizing the oceans with urea, for example -- just don't seem natural. Environmentalists of the deep ecology school fear that a tech-heavy approach to climate change glosses over the real issues (human greed and overconsumption), and could drive us toward a future more Blade Runner than ecotopia.

Continue reading "Buddhism, Nihilism, and Deep Ecology" »



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Synthetic Air Capture Technology: How Artificial Trees Can Do More than Decorate your Living Room
High tech solutions still early in the developmental phase often have the potential to play a significant role in transforming our national energy system. With continued support for RD&D, Carbon Capture and Storage - including synthetic air capture - will likely become a new, viable American energy technology.

By Joanna Calabrese, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

Why can't we just suck all of the C02 out of the atmosphere and get it over with? This is a question that people- from elementary school children to top energy researchers-have asked in the pursuit of new climate-solving technologies. Researchers at Columbia University responded with a resounding YES! last year in their unveiling of the world's first successful demonstration of air capture technology.

A new "air extractor" technology presented by Klaus Lackner, a professor of Geophysics at Columbia's Earth Institute, offers something no other carbon capture technology on the drawing board has.

Continue reading "Synthetic Air Capture Technology: How Artificial Trees Can Do More than Decorate your Living Room" »



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From Edison and Tesla to America's Supergrid
Direct current technologies, once defeated by Nikola Tesla's alternating current system, hold great potential in creating a supergrid for America's renewable electricity sources. A $70 billion project by the EU will channel solar power from the Sahara to Europe, America should take note.

By Helen Aki, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

Once upon a time in New York, Thomas Edison created an electrical system run on direct current. This early form of electricity captured the interest of the Northeast, but was more of a scientific curiosity than a utility: Edison's direct current lines were the only known way to make a light bulb glow, but they provided barely enough energy to illuminate a room.

Enter Nikola Tesla, with a better idea...


Continue reading "From Edison and Tesla to America's Supergrid" »



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Quote of the Day
"Abu Ghraib became a bizarro world where detainees were kept on dog leashes, subjected to ""invasion of space by female" and bombarded with intolerable sounds, including "meows from cat-food commercials, Yoko Ono singing and Eminem rapping about America." From the...

"Abu Ghraib became a bizarro world where detainees were kept on dog leashes, subjected to ""invasion of space by female" and bombarded with intolerable sounds, including "meows from cat-food commercials, Yoko Ono singing and Eminem rapping about America."

From the Times review of Jane Mayer's new book on American torture.



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The Promise of Solar Photovoltaic Thin-Films: Not Your Uncle's Solar Panel
Promising current and next generation solar photovoltaic (PV) thin-film technologies are an important part of the U.S. response to the energy challenge. PV generated electricity will become increasingly cost-competitive with smart deployment policies and quantities manufactured.

By Chris Knight, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

Mention solar photovoltaics (PV) to a group of energy activists or policy wonks, and you'll elicit several different responses. "It's soooo expensive," will say one person. "Why don't we use more of it?" will be the cry of another. And if you have anyone from California in your group, you'll surely hear "Dude, its hella cool!" Lost among these responses is an understanding of the future potential of the cheapest PV technologies: thin-films.

Continue reading "The Promise of Solar Photovoltaic Thin-Films: Not Your Uncle's Solar Panel" »



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SPECIAL ISSUE: New American Energy Sources
This week, Breakthrough Blog is putting the spotlight on potential new American energy sources.

Breakthrough Blog's week-long Special Issue puts the spotlight on potential new American energy sources. By plugging in to new, clean energy sources we can re-charge our economy, secure our energy future and win true energy freedom.

The time is now for a sustained national effort to make clean energy sources a reality. Transforming our nation's entire energy economy will require a level of expertise, innovation, and generational effort unlike any before, and it will take a lifetime to achieve. The Breakthrough Generation is ready for this challenge.

Links to posts in the series are below the fold...

Continue reading "SPECIAL ISSUE: New American Energy Sources" »



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Biochar: Charcoal May Hold the Key to A Cleaner World
This developing technology could solve our global warming woes as it tucks away the world's carbon away for thousands of years. The biggest barriers to exploring and scaling up this solution are economic. Let's break through them and fully utilize this powerful earth and climate scrubber.

By Alisha Fowler, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

This month's issue of Plenty Magazine put a spotlight on biochar, a type of charcoal produced from plant matter that could revolutionize our farmland and curb global warming emissions on a global scale.

Continue reading "Biochar: Charcoal May Hold the Key to A Cleaner World" »



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Breakthrough Blog

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Breakthrough Responds: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Cut It

Clear-Eyed About Nuclear

While We're Out There...or: A Call For Pragmatic Political Solutions

Buddhism, Nihilism, and Deep Ecology

Synthetic Air Capture Technology: How Artificial Trees Can Do More than Decorate your Living Room

From Edison and Tesla to America's Supergrid

Quote of the Day

The Promise of Solar Photovoltaic Thin-Films: Not Your Uncle's Solar Panel

SPECIAL ISSUE: New American Energy Sources

Biochar: Charcoal May Hold the Key to A Cleaner World

Guest Post: In Defense of Carbon Pricing: Why Clean RD&D Isn't Enough

How Canada Can Become a Global Leader

Special Feature: Al Gore's Climate and Energy Speech

Slow, Dirty, and Expensive: Retying the Gordian Knot

A 10-Year Quick-Fix to our Energy Woes? Get Real, Gore.

If we can go to the Moon . . .

Gore Issues "Moon Shot" Call...

Canadian Climate Policy: Irrelevant Unless it Develops Breakthrough Technologies

Will Google Gore Overcome Gaia Gore?

Gore Embraces $3 Trillion Clean Energy Investment

The U.S. Can Become a World Leader in Solar Power

Railroads: Fast, Clean and ELECTRIC

It Is Time.

The Aptera, the coolest car of the 21st century... and BEYOND

Research, Develop, Deploy and Repeat

Beyond Market Fundamentalism: Government Leadership in Energy Innovation

George Carlin and Deconstruction

Electify America: The Coolest Car of the 21st Century Doesn't Go Vroom

Electrify America: Re-tooling and Re-charging the American Auto Industry

Electrify America: Volkswagen's New Plug-In Hybrid is Hot!

Rising Energy Prices Signal Failure for Emissions Trading Schemes (Surprise!)

Are Long-Term Targets Meaningless?

Electrify China: Street Smarts, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love China

SPECIAL ISSUE: Electrifying Transportation

Electrify America: The Founders Were Right, Let's Look to France!

Electrify America: Re-charge Detroit

Drilling Into Energy Independence

Breaking Through the Stalemate

Against Anti-Consumption

Productivity (read: Growth) is the Answer to Our Woes

You Can't Always Get What You Want: India's Clean Energy Pursuit

Some Refreshing Common Sense! BLM Removes Solar Roadblock

Quote of the Day

Michael Shellenberger Appears on Hannity and Colmes

Breaking Old Mindsets

Climate Change Gets The Fingar: Intelligence Community Weighs in on Climate Security Risks

Energy Delayers, Get Out Of The Way: A New American Energy Future Awaits

Breakthrough Generation Featured as "Breakthrough Technology"

A Win for Cape Wind

Corporate Social Responsibility Throwdown at the Economist

Bjorn Lomborg Supports $33 Billion Clean Energy Investment

What Do We Want? Cheap, Abundant Solar! When Do We Want It? Now!

Is James Hansen Undermining his Credibility?

ATTN James Hansen: Cap-and-Dividend NOT Worth Fighting For

Jeffrey Sachs Joins Demands for $30 Billon Annual Investment in Clean Energy

Network Nation: Building American Empowerment

A Coal Baron Environmentalist?

What Does the Future of our Global Energy Consumption Look Like?

Cap & Trade: An Outsourcing Extravaganza?

Bug Juice :: Oil 2.0

Upsurge in Emissions in China

Bring Back the Future

Sticker Shock - Fuel Prices Now American's #2 Concern

Climate Uncertainty as a Case for Action

New Climatic Change Analysis Challenges IPCC Scenarios

Congress Politicizes Energy Incentives, 116,000 Jobs In Jeopardy

When Small Isn't Beautiful

China: Ready, Set, Modernize!

India: Mini-Cars and Malnutrition

Brazil: "Lungs" -- or Bowels -- of the Earth?

International Energy Agency Calls for Massive Clean Energy Technology Push

Is Consumption Evil?

The End of an Era for Cap and Trade?

Breakthrough Generation Launches

Gandhi the Modernist?

Personal Ideology: What's yours?

Action Before Certainty: the Volatality of Cost Estimates

"Neither Reasonable nor Prudent" -- Cutting Carbon Carries High Risk for Companies

Who Killed Cap and Trade?

Who Should Pay to Cut Carbon?

IEA Calls for "Massive Increase of Tech RD&D"

Conservation to Conservatism

The Unintended Consequences of Lieberman-Warner

Europe and Kyoto

Tackling Costs Head-on: Igniting a Clean Energy Economy and Winning the Frame Game

Why Sky Trust Won't Fly

Cost-containment is Inevitable -- So What's the Alternative?

Don't Read This Post if You are Over 30 Years Old

The UnGandhi Generation

On the intoxication of recovery

Ozone Hole No Model for Climate

The Fig Leaf of Targets and Timetables

Lieberman Warner Climate Security Act Round Up

Samuelson: Call it Cap and Tax

New Gallup Study Uncovers Divergence on Climate

Grist understates the coal challenge

Interviews with Innovative Thinkers

A Fairytale Alternative to CSA

How Much Will It Cost - and Where Will the Money Go?

Will the Climate Security Act Reduce Emissions?

The Conversion Clock is Running in Reverse

Thumbs Down to "Green" Taxes in Britain

Google Earth & British Crown Team-Up in Fight Against Global Warming

Experts Respond to "Dangerous Assumptions"

World Bank and UK Government on Climate Change Implications of Development

Japan Joins the Global Coal Resurgence

Anatomy of a Smear

Farming Nano-Fibers: The Next Breakthrough in Photovoltaics

Wired Calls for the Death of Environmentalism

More Voices Whittle Away at Carbon Price Orthodoxy

Environmental Defense: What about Investment?

Carbon Capture: Solution or Scam?

Peanuts for Clean Energy

Romm Calls for Breakthroughs - By Another Name

What About Solar & Wind?

To Win Climate Policy, We Need a New Social Contract

Economic Trump, Environmental Hope?

Which Reporters Get it on Climate?

Economy Trumps Environment

Reality Check: This isn't the Great Depression

What Makes Smart Tax Policy?

Israel Leads Quest for Electric Car

The Future: Violent Resource Wars or Clean Energy Economy?

Environment America Campaigns for Clean Energy Economy

New Conservative or Neo-Progressive?

A Shift in the Global Warming Debate

Is CCS a Scam? Greenpeace vs Expert Consensus

Don't Count on China to Put the Brakes on Development

Overview of Our Debate with Energy Blogger Joe Romm

The Political Psychology of Fear

Elements of Any Successful Approach to Climate Change

What the Gas Tax Holiday Should Teach Us

Why an Emerging Chinese Middle Class is Good for the Environment

Tuesday Interview with Taxation Expert Monica Prasad

Breakthroughs Depend on Learning While Doing

Investing in Our Future

Russia Rejects Future Emissions Limits -- Who's Next?

In Praise of Petroleum?

Xenophobia Goes Global

Xenophobia Destroyed Immigration Reform -- Is Health Care Next?

Overcoming Fear in Foreign Policy

Against Fall Narratives

Fear, Insecurity, & Conservativism: an Interview with Sociologist Robb Willer

Against a Fear-Based Politics

Bush's Empty Legacy

China's Plea for Clean Energy

Malaria & Greenhouse Gases

Car Culture

The Wisdom of Investment in a World of Mounting Wedges

The Sixties Were the (Population) Bomb

Joe Romm's Fuzzy Math

Apres Earth Day, Le Coal

Against Narratives of the (Musical) Fall

GMOs: Organics Best Friend?

The Central Question of Mitigation

Can a Coal Power Plant Ever be Good?

The Coming Bursting of the Green Bubble

Tuesday Interview: Vice Magazine: "Breakthrough Institute Wrests Environmentalism Away From the Dumbs"

Memphis, 40 Years After

Is global warming a higher priority today than it was 20 years ago?

Adaptation and Public Investment: The Expert View

What is Joe Romm Complaining About?

Return of the Prodigal Son

An Interview with Solar Power Expert Ken Zweibel

Maybe Horses Will Fly - Developing Countries and Global Warming

Maryland's Failed Global Warming Bill

Solar Energy Not Quite Ready For Prime Time

Holding the Poor Hostage

The Debate Gets Civil: Romm Apologizes For Unfair Attacks

No Clean Tech Breakthroughs Needed? Think Again

Romm vs. Expert Consensus on Energy Technology

An Interview with Energy Expert Frank Laird

Misinformation Campaign

The Global Warming Debate Grows Up

Case Closed

The Green Politics of Personal Destruction: Deconstructing Joe Romm

Joe Romm's Dissembling

Misinformation from Grist

Joe Romm's Challenge

"Dangerous Assumptions" FAQ

Expanding Wedges: a News Roundup

More Inconvenient Truths

The Technology Challenge: An Interview with Physicist Marty Hoffert

The End of Carbon Price Orthodoxy

YouTube's Political Revolution

On Scientific Progress and Politics

Adapting to a Changing Earth:

A Post-Partisan Al Gore?

Everyone an Investor: An Interview with Dalton Conley

Department of Energy grants $14 million dollars to Solar

Cold on Global Warming

Sugar and Oil: Learning the Right Lessons from Brazil

The Many Sides of Al Gore

Sugar and Oil: Learning the Right Lessons from Brazil

From Synthetic Trees to Carbon Sponges: an interview with Scientist Klaus Lackner

Where's Your Better Plan?

Will Prostitutes Be Better Off With Johns like Spitzer in Prison?

The Myth of Emissions Reductions in Europe

Our Next Moonshot: an Interview with Activist Barbara Hill

Solar Thermal in the Southwest

The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind--and cheaply, too!

The Cloth of Science: an Interview with Roger Pielke, Jr.

Big Foot

Al Gore Misrepresents the Emissions Challenge

Gas Prices Soar, Threatening Global Warming Legislation

Gandhi versus Development: Part Two

Surprise, Transgression, and Dancing: An Interview with Political Theorist Bill Chaloupka

Misguided Mandating

Gandhi versus Development: Part One

Nature is no guide

For an "Investor Society"

Solar Breakthroughs Needed, Says New UC-Berkeley Study

Rethinking Deforestation: Macro Drivers Plow over the Amazon

High Energy Fashion

Obama's Nietzsche

Creating a "Solar Valley"

So Much for Peak Oil, Plug-In Hybrids, and Reliance on Foreign Dictators

Growing Calls from UK for New Apollo Energy Project

The NY Times has it Backwards

Michael & Ted Take on Conservatives

The Little Car that Environmentalists Love to Hate

More Electricity than you ever Dreamed of...

Against Eco-Asceticism

China to be #1 in Wind Power

No Impact, Man

Take Action to Stimulate Clean Energy!

The Ethical Environmentalist

Solar is Waiting in the Wings

Yeasayers Yea-Say Break Through

The Birth of Death, and the Hawaiian Sun

When Diplomats Boo: How Global Climate Talks Reached a New Nadir

A Small Step for CA

Breakthrough Institute 2008 Youth Conference: Breakthrough Generation

Open Letter to Senator Inhofe

Putting the Green in Green

Top Energy Scientists Call for $30 Bi Annual Investment in Clean Energy

The Peacock at Grist

Hansen's Holocaust Comparison: Or, Why Moralizing on Global Warming Won't Work

Gratitude

Pielke on the Politics of the IPCC

Connecting the Dots

Michael Pollan and Break Through on You Tube

From the Nightmare to the Dream

The New Climate Debate

The New Debate over Climate Erupts at the Times

A Hybrid is Born

New York Times on Break Through

Global Warming After Gore

Preparing for the Fires Next Time

How Global Warming Will Force Political Realignment

Off Message

Student Climate Movement Needs a Breakthrough

Prins and Rayner in Nature

Portland Strikes Back

Is Minneapolis the coolest town in America?

Tell them about the dream, Al!

Political Science

American Power

The DoD and Silicon Valley: A Model for the New Clean Energy Technologies

From Simmer to Boil

Environmentalism's Existential Moment

Abstract Art

Public Leery of Climate Change Remedies If Energy Costs Rise

Boston Phoenix on Break Through

The Failure of Carbon Pricing

Rear View Politics

How Scientism Enervated Environmentalism

Tom Friedman Cuts to the Chase on Global Warming

One Reason not to dis Barack Obama

Book Excerpt in The New Republic's Screaming Monkey

Energy Price Anxiety

John Marburger on the BBC

What Lomborg Gets Right

Making Solar as Cheap as Coal in China

Toxic by Nature

The Nietzsche Family Circus

9/11, Fear and Rational Thought

Break Through's Concrete Ideas

Monday Night Existentialism

Morphine as a human right

The Nokia Effect

Risking it All

Former Coal Lobbyist to Head Anti-Cape Wind Group

Fire Up the Chainsaws

The Power of Status

The Many Selves of Patti Smith

Daily Show on Cape Wind

Death of the Civil Rights Movement?

Solar Dreams

In Love with the Sun

Albert Ellis, 1913 - 2007

Enough with Chariots of Fire nostalgia

Our Wet Drought

When Pat Buchanan's Right, He's Right

What "Sicko" Misunderstands About Health Care

Your Grandma on Global Warming

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