Energy

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Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct

eastbayexpress.com - by Robert Gammon - August 23, 2013

The massive Rim Fire is closing in on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park and is threatening the main water supply for the City of San Francisco and numerous other Bay Area communities. As of this morning, the fast-moving blaze was about 2.5 miles from Hetch Hetchy, according to a map created by the US Forest Service. If the enormous fire reaches the tinder-dry forests surrounding the reservoir, it could pollute the freshwater with huge amounts of ash. That’s bad news for San Franciscans and other communities that depend on Hetch Hetchy because the reservoir is not equipped with a water-filtration system.

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earth-policy.org - by J. Matthew Roney - July 31, 2013

The world installed 31,100 megawatts of solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2012—an all-time annual high that pushed global PV capacity above 100,000 megawatts. There is now enough PV operating to meet the household electricity needs of nearly 70 million people at the European level of use. While PV production has become increasingly concentrated in one country—China—the number of countries installing PV is growing rapidly.

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earth-policy.org

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?

by Lester R. Brown

At the time of the Arab oil export embargo in the 1970s, the importing countries were beginning to ask themselves if there were alternatives to oil. In a number of countries, particularly the United States, several in Europe, and Brazil, the idea of growing crops to produce fuel for cars was appealing. The modern biofuels industry was launched. 1

This was the beginning of what would become one of the great tragedies of history.

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch4

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep

( ALSO SEE - http://resiliencesystem.org/chapter-5-eroding-soils-darkening-our-future-full-planet-empty-plates-new-geopolitics-food-scarcity )

Image: It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Dr. James Hansen

Today 36 Norwegian organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressing opposition to development of Canadian tar sands by Statoil (the Norwegian state is majority shareholder of Statoil). Signatories include not only environmental organizations, but a broad public spectrum, including, appropriately, many youth organizations. It is encouraging that Norwegian youth press their government to stop supporting tar sands development, given the fact that Norway saves much of its oil earnings for future generations and given the fact that Norway is not likely among the nations that will suffer most from climate change.

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