Category Archives: Climate Change

India – Lighthouse for the IPAT

India is “hot” now. I just got the recent issue of The Economist (February 21st), whose cover features a personification of India, riding high on a very attractive elephant that has a jet engine strapped to its side. With most … Continue reading

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India – the Global Lighthouse

Toward the end of last year (December 9, 2014), I started a series of blogs taking stock of where we stand, in light of this year’s anticipated Paris meeting (December 2015) that will try (again) to formulate an international agreement … Continue reading

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Addressing a Global Issue –Fall 2015: What Have I Seen, What Have I Done to Take Part?

This will be a short blog. Any collective efforts to make the world a better place for all of us and for future generations have to start with individuals. The purpose here is to attract contributions about some of these … Continue reading

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Extinctions in the Anthropocene

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the first day of classes in my school. I am scheduled to teach two related courses this semester: Energy Use and Climate Change for advanced undergraduates, and Physics & Society for physics seniors and graduate students. I … Continue reading

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Maine: Codfish Adaptation – Fishermen’s Distress and What the Rest of the World Can Do About It.

With a few small changes, the title of this blog could represent (and ring true for) almost anywhere on Earth. I am focused on Maine right now because I think that something can be done about its situation that could … Continue reading

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The Stuttering Energy Transition: Fishing in Maine

As we approached the new year, I started to describe the global energy transition that’s been taking place, which we hope will take us away from fossil fuels and closer to non-carbon-based energy sources. My plan was to study the … Continue reading

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The Stuttering Energy Transition and the Sharp Drop in Oil Price

Economically, the recent global event that has attracted everybody’s attention is the sharp and major decline in oil prices. Figure 1 shows the decline. I am writing this blog on Friday, January 9th, and the price of Brent Crude is … Continue reading

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Assessment: Winter 2015

In my July 8, 2014 blog, I promised to check in with four self-assessment reports throughout the year, at the following times: The commemorations of the American and French Revolutions (first two weeks of July) The Jewish religion’s holy day, … Continue reading

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Stuttering Energy Transitions: Germany – Storage

As I have mentioned before, electric utilities must necessarily store electricity in order to keep up with the fluctuations in consumer demands (July 29 – August 12 blogs). For example, all around the world (where people are connected to electrical … Continue reading

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Stuttering Energy Transitions: Germany – Producers

As I discussed in the in the last blog, the feed-in tariff that was introduced as a key element in the German energy transition has resulted in the Germans paying among the highest electricity rates in the world. It was … Continue reading

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