Since a buildup of humanmade carbon dioxide is causing the planet to warm, why not just suck this greenhouse gas straight out of the atmosphere? That's one strategy scientists have proposed to combat climate change. But a new analysis suggests that the approach may be neither economical nor practical.

Now a new analysis from the same group suggests that investment in clean energy has already topped investments in coal, natural gas and other fossil fuel infrastructure

Few today realize that electric cabs dominated Manhattan's streets in the 1890s; that Boise, Idaho, had a geothermal heating system in 1910; or that the first megawatt turbine in the world was built in 1941 by the son of publishing magnate G. P. Putnam--a feat that would not be duplicated for another forty years. Likewise, while many remember the oil embargo of the 1970s, few are aware that it led to a corresponding explosion in green-technology research that was only derailed when energy prices later dropped.

In other words: We've been here before. Although we may have failed, America has had the chance to put our world on a more sustainable path. Americans have, in fact, been inventing green for more than a century.

Half compendium of lost opportunities, half hopeful look toward the future, Powering the Dream tells the stories of the brilliant, often irascible inventors who foresaw our current problems, tried to invent cheap and energy renewable solutions, and drew the blueprint for a green future.

A map of solar activity around the city of San Francisco.

In contrast to green technologies like solar power and biofuels, which take decades of research and massive funds to scale, big data tools offer a relatively capital-efficient way to use proven technology to better manage resources, fight climate change and get ready for the 9 billion people on the planet by 2050. If there’s no Moore’s Law delivering rapid and exponential progress for things like batteries, and solar panels, why not try to leverage Moore’s Law in a more indirect way for greentech via big data? Here are 5 companies that are leveraging big data to help the planet:

Developed countries are "outsourcing" more than a third of their carbon emissions associated with products and services to other countries, researchers say.

A study of trade data found that some countries in Western Europe have more than half of their total carbon dioxide emissions occurring elsewhere, especially in developing countries such as China.

Edward Burtynsky has built a career in fine art photography meeting this challenge. He began photographing conventionally beautiful landscapes in large format. As he relates in the video Manufactured Landscapes, he had an epiphany while attempting to photograph in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. He realized that every bit of landscape within sight had been completely reshaped by coal mining. Nothing was "natural." The landscape as reshaped by man instead became his subject.

Oil is Burtynsky's latest book. The extraction, distribution, consumption, and declining availability of petroleum are all explored through his large-format photographs.

A startup based in Cambridge, MA--Joule Biotechnologies--today revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. If this yield proves realistic, it could make it practical to replace all fossil fuels used for transportation with biofuels. The company also claims that the fuel can be sold for prices competitive with fossil fuels.

Policymakers often feel trapped between conflicting goals when addressing climate change. On the one hand they see the need for urgent action, but on the other they fear higher costs, slower economic growth, and a reduced standard of living for the citizens they serve. The media often reinforces these concerns with messages that tackling climate change is all about higher prices, economic sacrifice and reduced consumer lifestyles. But taking strong steps to restrain climate change need not invite economic gloom. Our research shows that by adopting the right mix of policies, incentives and new technologies, policymakers in the world’s wealthier, developed nations would dramatically restrain the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, even as they promote job growth and wealth creation.

Information and communications technologies will become a major source of greenhouse gas emissions but can abate far more of them.

Research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) and McKinsey's global energy and materials practice finds that a concerted global effort to boost energy productivity—the output we achieve from the energy we consume—would have spectacular results. Using existing technologies, we could cut global energy-demand growth by more than half over the next 15 years.

Een internationaal team met onder andere Leidse onderzoekers bouwde en analyseerde een lichtvangend systeem dat lijkt op het fotosynthetisch systeem van groene bacteriën. Dit systeem absorbeert licht zeer efficiënt en zet het om in bruikbare energie. Met meer kennis over de structuur van dit systeem komt de dag steeds dichterbij dat we deze natuurlijke zonnecellen op grote schaal kunnen gaan produceren.

New electricity meters being rolled out to millions of homes and businesses are riddled with security bugs that could bring down the power grid, according to a security researcher who plans to demonstrate several attacks at a security conference next month.

Voor wie nog niet overtuigd is van de zinloosheid van kleine windturbines in een stedelijke omgeving: hieronder de gedetailleerde resultaten van twee recente praktijktests in Nederland en in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Beide tests vullen elkaar door een verschillende aanpak zeer goed aan, en laten overtuigend zien dat kleine turbines in bijna alle gevallen zowel vanuit financieel als ecologisch oogpunt een zeer slecht idee zijn. De toekomst is aan zonne-energie en grote windturbines.

Hybrid cars and wind turbines need rare-earth minerals that come with their own hefty environmental price tag.

At last a book that comprehensively reveals the true facts about sustainable energy in a form that is both highly readable and entertaining.

That’s why we need a climate bailout along with our economic bailout. Hal Harvey is the C.E.O. of a new $1 billion foundation, ClimateWorks, set up to accelerate the policy changes that can avoid climate catastrophe by taking climate policies from where they are working the best to the places where they are needed the most. “There are five policies that can help us win the energy-climate battle, and each has been proven somewhere,” Harvey explained. First...

Waar gaat het om? De Tweede Kamer heeft ingestemd met een aanpassing op de Energiewet waardoor straks iedereen verplicht is een zogenaamde slimme energiemeter te laten installeren. Deze energiemeter registreert op detailniveau (per kwartier!) uw verbruik, al deze gegevens worden dan verzonden naar uw energiemaatschappij en lekker lang opgeslagen zonder dat u er veel aan kunt doen. Tevens is het aftappen of het manipuleren van de slimme meters door derden niet al te moeilijk. Kortom, inbreuk op de privacy nummertje zoveel is aan de lijst toegevoegd.

Forty miles north of San Francisco, on the site of a former industrial park, work is underway on the ambitious new Sonoma Mountain Village, a 200-acre development that aims to be truly sustainable. The development is America’s first to be certified as a “One Planet Community,” part of an effort to build healthy and sustainable neighborhoods in the UK, US and Canada.

After a year of watching adults engage in devastating recklessness in the financial markets and depressing fecklessness in the global climate talks, it’s refreshing to know that the world keeps minting idealistic young people who are not waiting for governments to act, but are starting their own projects and driving innovation.

In regions where pumping and distributing water requires significant electricity use, policies that lead to reduced water consumption could address climate change more efficiently than requiring businesses and households to use less energy, according to water expert Peter Gleick.

Essay: As the world faces economic turmoil, cleaner energy can create jobs and reignite global growth.

Better Place is working to build an electric car network, using technology available today. Our goals? Sustainable transportation,globa energy independence and freedom from oil.

WattzOn gives you tools to track your energy consumption, compare it to others' and understand its consequences in order to discover how to reduce your role in climate change.

Wilt u na het zien van de Tegenlicht-uitzendingen Here comes the sun en Het land van zonnestroom en windenergie zelf aan de slag met het opwekken van groene stroom? Tegenlicht stelde een handboek samen met voorbeelden, tips en adviezen om zelf zonne- en windinstallaties aan huis te intalleren. Stapsgewijs leest u hoe u te werk kunt gaan en welke mogelijkheden er zijn.

Follow the Oil Money is an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil money in US politics.

Video of Al Gore's speech on how the USA must change energy sources now: "Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."

Apparaten voor thuis en op kantoor mogen vanaf 2010 niet meer dan 1 watt verbruiken als ze in sluimerstand staan. Vier jaar later moet deze stand van apparaten opnieuw gehalveerd zijn. De maatregel levert een fikse besparing van het energieverbruik op. Di

Article about the fundamental difference between a steady-state economy and continuous growth economy. A steady state — a system that permits qualitative development but not aggregate quantitative growth.

Breakthrough ideas are around the corner, says the Google co-founder. But most of us are failing to take a chance on them.

"Big Solar" may take on a whole new meaning if Desertec, the most ambitious solar thermal plan ever conceived, gets funded. Its architects claim they can build a supergrid of concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP) that can meet most of Europe's current

'De CO2-uitstoot van de internetsector is bijna net zo groot als dat van al het vliegverkeer in de wereld.' Dat meldde onderzoeksbureau Gartner een tijdje terug. Details waren niet bekend dus gingen we zelf op nader onderzoek uit. Uit de openhartige gegev

Open-source knowledge base speeds discovery, research and networking with more than 110 best practice documents and a secure directory of participating government officials from over 450 cities, counties and US states.

Until the development of water and wind power, humanity burned carbon-based fuels like wood and coal to power our civilization. These very same fuels are now polluting the air and water with heavy metals, ozone pollution, and acid rain.

Touted by politicians and industry as "green" energy, biofuels come with a high price tag.

"I'm now completely obsessed with a brand new class of personal lifestyle gizmos - a class that is very much in sync with the emergent energy puritanism that I find myself unexpectedly interested in after An Inconvenient Truth. The class of objects is 'th