Browsing: Renewable Energy

Scuba Features david-suzuki
By

Renewable energy isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than fossil fuels

In their efforts to discredit renewable energy and support continued fossil fuel burning, many anti-environmentalists have circulated a dual image purporting to compare a lithium mine with an oilsands operation. It illustrates the level of dishonesty to which some will stoop to keep us on our current polluting, climate-disrupting path (although in some cases it could be ignorance).

Environmental News david-suzuki
By

Local action needed to resolve world’s biggest problems

Humans are an astonishing anomaly. As many species teeter on extinction, our populations grow in size and complexity. From exploring space to eradicating diseases and other remarkable achievements, human curiosity has pushed the outer limits of our physical universe. Yet our ability to embrace shared values has been challenging. More than a billion people live in poverty, inequality gaps are expanding, and we face unprecedented environmental challenges that threaten our survival.

Environmental News Giovanni
By

Climate Change and Coral Reefs

Now that the weather has stabilised, we are enjoying wonderful dives again at Sail Rock, Anghton Marine Park and Koh Tao, yet I remember the unusual weather we had last January, which let many tourists down. Their frustration was understandable. They came to Thailand expecting sunshine, without considering an unwanted consequence of their own lifestyle: climate change.

Environmental News david-suzuki
By

Carbon dioxide: Pollutant or plant food?

Life evolved to live within limits. It’s a delicate balance. Humans need oxygen, but too much can kill us. Plants need nitrogen, but excess nitrogen harms them, and pollutes rivers, lakes and oceans. Ecosystems are complex. Our health and survival depend on intricate interactions that ensure we get the right amounts of clean air, water, food from productive soils and energy from the sun.

Environmental News dtscomputer2
By

Will growing our fuels drive us to a cleaner future?

The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is occurring mainly at the power plant level. But what about transportation? Can we significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching to cleaner fuels? Or is this just an attempt to keep 20th century technology chugging along while trading one set of environmental problems for another?

Environmental News david-suzuki
By

The Future of Hydro in a Warming World

People have harnessed energy from moving water for thousands of years. Greeks used various types of water wheels to grind grain in mills more than 2,000 years ago. In the late 1800s, people figured out how to harness the power to produce electricity. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, hydropower has expanded, producing about 17 per cent of the world’s electricity by 2014 and about 85 per cent of renewable energy — and it shows no signs of slowing.

Environmental News david-suzuki-header
By

Feed-in tariffs help renewable energy grow

In the early 1990s, Germany launched Energiewende, or “energy revolution,” a program “to combat climate change, avoid nuclear risks, improve energy security, and guarantee competitiveness and growth.” Renewable energy grew from four per cent in 1990 to more than 27 per cent in 2014, including a significant increase in citizen-owned power projects, according to energy think tank Agora Energiewende.