In the lower 48 states, the potential from wind power is 16 times more than total electricity demand in the United States, the researchers suggest. Global wind energy potential is considerably higher than previous estimates by both wind industry groups and government agencies, according to a Harvard University study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. The new research surfaced just weeks after T. Boone Pickens, citing rising financing costs, scaled back his plans for the world’s largest wind farm in west Texas. Using data from thousands of meteorological stations, the Harvard team estimated the world wind power potential to be 40 times greater than total current power consumption. A previous study cited in the paper put that multiple at about 7 times. In the lower 48 states, the potential from wind power is 16 times more than total electricity demand in the United States, the researchers suggested – significantly greater than a 2008 Department of Energy study that projected wind could supply a fifth of all electricity in the country by 2030. While remote regions of Russia and Canada have the greatest theoretical potential, the […]
States close rest areas to save money By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY If you have to go while driving through some states, you’ll have to go a longer distance to find a rest stop. The recession is trickling down to travelers as states cut back on their public facilities to save money. Virginia plans to shutter 19 of its 42 facilities by July 21, four of them along Interstate 95, a main travel corridor along the East Coast. Vermont, Maine, Louisiana and Colorado have closed rest stops in the past year. ‘This was not an easy decision,’ says Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. ‘But we are facing this massive funding shortfall.’ The department is saving $9 million a year by padlocking the facilities, he says. About 40 million people visited the state’s rest areas last year. ‘You’re going to need a strong back and a strong bladder to get through Virginia now,’ says John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic. AAA is asking Gov. Tim Kaine to reconsider. Roads are safer when tired motorists have somewhere to pull off, Townsend says, and rest stops provide security and sanitation. Other states, […]
During the 20th century, the world’s population nearly quadrupled, from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6 billion by century’s end. In that same period, the world’s gross domestic product ballooned from $1.98 trillion to over $28 trillion (both in 1990 dollars), according to author John R. McNeill. Throughout this period of unprecedented economic expansion and population growth, humanity also transformed the earth. ‘This is the first time in human history that we have altered ecosystems with such intensity, on such scale, and with such speed, writes Mr. McNeill in his book ‘Something New Under the Sun. Vertebrate numbers are down by one-third since the 1970s, according to the WWF. And between 20 and 30 percent of plants and animals are in danger of extinction with the temperature increases that are likely this century, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The plight of other living things aside, scientists worry that humanity’s demands on – and disruption of – natural systems threaten their very ability to support people. Scientists increasingly stress the need for active conservation – not just putting bits of nature off limits, but restoring degraded ecosystems. The question is: Can ecosystems recover after such […]
6.1 billion people currently live on the earth, 3 billion of them in cities. By 2030, the population of the world will have increased by 2 billion (+33%). This increase will be stem almost exclusively from the growth in urban population. Every day, 190,000 new city-dwellers are added all over the world, 2 in every second. In the year 2030, 4.9 billion people will live in cities. But not all cities are taking part in this competition. Whether in Germany or the USA, in Russia or China, in South Africa or Iran, everywhere there are also shrinking cities that the constant media focus on boomtowns and megacities all too easily overlooks. In the last 50 years, about 370 cities with more than 100,000 residents have temporarily or lastingly undergone population losses of more than 10%. In extreme cases, the rate of loss reached peaks of up to 90% (Âbâdân, Iran). In the annals of history, the decline of cities is usually depicted as a catastrophic, exceptional event (Atlantis, Troy, Pompeii, etc.), but an examination of the past 50 years shows a contrary development. Shrinking cities are increasingly a lasting phenomenon. The increase in the population of growing […]
The U.S. spurning of CIT Group Inc.’s aid request suggests officials are betting they’ve fixed the financial system enough to withstand the bankruptcy of a mid-sized lender. ‘I hate to say this, but it was probably expendable, said Dennis Santiago, chief executive officer of Institutional Risk Analytics, a Torrance, California, research firm that studies systemic risk. ‘It may have just missed the boat on federal rescues, Santiago said. Yesterday’s decision to forego a lifeline for CIT came 10 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Lehman’s collapse ushered in the depths of the credit crisis to date, and resulted in the establishment of a $700 billion bailout fund; officials yesterday indicated programs created with that money would help fill any lending gap left by CIT. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, en route to Paris as CIT acknowledged policy makers had turned it down, is also wagering the administration will weather any political fallout. Unlike Bear Stearns Cos. or American International Group Inc., which got extraordinary aid last year, New York-based CIT specializes in loans to smaller firms, counting 1 million enterprises, including 300,000 retailers, among its customers. A Treasury official said the department anticipates losing […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
