writeaboutwarming

March 5, 2017 - China's coal consumption dropped for the third year in a row in 2016.  This, coupled with the country's shift away from heavy industry, could well portend cleaner air and water. As you know, cleaner air in China means cleaner air everywhere. With a population of 1.35 billion people, China currently produces twice as much carbon dioxide in the form of emissions as the United States. Given that the US has a population less than 1/4 the size of China's, their emissions would quadruple our own, if their standard of living matched ours. Thank goodness it doesn't. Be aware, however, that the government of China is transitioning to an economy based on consumer spending. That could spell trouble. In the meantime, China's National Bureau of Statistics indicates that China's coal consumption fell by 4.7 percent in 2016. Coal's share of total energy consumed fell to 62% in 2016, from 64% in 2015. In the United States, by contrast, the government ple...

September 10, 2012 - Sometimes I flatter myself into believing I have a scientific turn of mind.  The basis for such nonsense is that I love to experiment when I'm gardening and cooking.  What I like to think of as major leaps in thinking affect only me and my long-suffering husband, however.  In order to make the kind of progress that affects millions of people, it's necessary to think, not just outside the box, but outside the realm of what we believe to be possible.  I guess if I had a science background, I would know more about what is or isn't possible.  Fortunately, the scientists at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee know how to mix apples and oranges and come up with something wonderful (or at least that's what it seems like to me).  They've extracted a protein from spinach, placed it in an aqueous solution, and poured it onto the surface of a specially-treated silicon wafer.  Voila! In so doing, the resulting photovoltaic cells pro...