pwarburg

Nuclear fusion remains a highly speculative experiment, yet proponents are touting it as nearing commercial viability.  Challenging this, I call for a stepped-up commitment to solar, wind, battery storage, and energy efficiency – proven technologies that stand a much better chance of steering us away from climate disaster.

Two enlightened enterprises work in collaboration with community activists to bring solar power to a majority-minority Boston neighborhood.

Worried about global warming? Take a good look at cryptocurrency’s explosive energy use before jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon.

It’s time to hold cryptocurrency purveyors accountable for their vast carbon footprint. Would a global tax on cryptocurrency transactions tame this energy juggernaut?

America’s rooftops are a renewable energy goldmine, potentially supplying as much as 39% of our power needs nationwide. Let’s help bring this clean power resource to low-to-moderate income communities. It’s an energy justice opportunity that shouldn’t be squandered.

What America needs is not more people, but more people gainfully employed in reducing to net zero the carbon emissions of our economy. (Scroll down to second letter.)

Note to President Biden: Electrifying our vehicles is not enough. We also need to shrink their mammoth proportions.

GM CEO Mary Barra dreams of an all-electric future. For the climate’s sake, she should focus this dream on sensibly sized sedans, not the SUVs and trucks her company is so busy promoting. (Scroll down to second letter.)

With racial injustice and economic inequality gaining long-overdue attention, we need to look at the gap between established homeowners who have solar power on their homes and people living in more modest circumstances who can’t afford this climate-friendly investment.

In his just-released climate plan, Joe Biden has committed to zeroing out carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035. He also vows to direct 40 percent of all clean energy and infrastructure benefits toward disadvantaged communities. In this letter, I call upon the candidate to serve both goals by bringing solar power within easy reach of low-income households.

Left unabated, commercial aviation by mid-century may produce up to a quarter of the carbon emissions our planet can tolerate if we are to avert the more devastating impacts of climate change. Pulling back on air travel’s throttle will take conscious & conscientious recalibration. Here I share some contrasting insights on the challenges of flying less.

With U.S. air travel down 94 percent, it will be up to us, the millions whose lives are newly grounded, to set a saner pace for commercial aviation’s future.  Steps toward trimming our airborne carbon footprint are explored in this article.

In this Q&A, I am joined by two other Boston University environmental voices in reflecting on what has and hasn’t been achieved in the half-century since the first Earth Day in 1970. We also give our perspectives on the challenges ahead.

Even beyond the current social-distancing ordeal, we may find ourselves questioning a return to 21st century hyper-mobility, looking instead to a renewed embrace of localism. This article explores a few dimensions of that possible transformation, including its impacts on slowing the rate of climate change.

In this series of letters to the Globe, I weigh in along with three others on why fossil fuel divestment is much more than the “narrow symbolism” that columnist Jeff Jacoby ascribes to it.

In this letter, I take issue with Phred Dvorak’s use of solar’s installed capacity as a basis for proclaiming that this renewable technology could become “the world’s largest energy source” by 2040. Solar’s total installed gigawatts may surpass other electric power sources in the coming decades but that does not necessarily mean it will eclipse fossil fuels in the electricity it produces. Dvorak’s article invites undue complacency about the policies and investments needed to make a wholesale shift to renewable energy.

Though Congress has ample reason to impeach President Trump for his self-serving machinations in Ukraine, we all know that the Senate’s blind Republican partisanship will block his removal from office. Given this inevitable outcome, it’s worth considering whether Congress could have targeted a far more consequential cause for impeachment: his utter failure to engage the climate crisis.

In an electricity future substantially reliant on renewable energy, how can we cope with the variability of solar and wind? Energy storage is an essential piece of the puzzle.