Tag Archives: carbon
Facebook Announces Real-Time Data Center Efficiency Stats
Facebook has just taken a bit of internal data center energy efficiency wizardry and made it available to the world. On Thursday, it opened access to the minute-by-minute power-use effectiveness (PUE) and water-use effectiveness (WUE) scores via dashboards for its Prineville, Ore. and Forest City, N.C. data centers, and promises to have its next super-efficient [...]
China Implements Carbon Tax
After smog reached untenable heights in Beijing and other Chinese cities last month, China is moving forward on new rules to clean up the environment. It is implementing a Carbon Tax and mandating that certain industries buy insurance to make sure funds are available to pay for damages and to incentivize them to clean up their [...]
U.S Voters Support Carbon Tax
The last-minute fiscal cliff deal offered short-term salvation for important clean energy tax incentives, but critical programs across-the-board still face “sequestered” cuts starting in March if US lawmakers can’t agree on where to trim the budget. The Department of Energy alone faces an 8.2% cut if sequestration takes effect. A new survey suggests that rather than just slashing [...]
Why Black Carbon is So Important
Drastically cutting black carbon, otherwise known as everyday soot, just became even more important. Black carbon is second only to carbon dioxide in causing global warming and its influence on climate is double that previously thought. In the first comprehensive analysis of black carbon’s role in climate change, a four-year international study finds that black carbon produces [...]
Did You Know? Individuals Can Buy And Trade Carbon Credits
One of the little-known facts about cap-and-trade is that individuals are allowed to buy and trade carbon credits just like corporations can. It’s the same as buying and trading a stock through a broker, but in this case individuals would do so through brokers that specialize in environmental credits. Take California’s first historic cap and trade auction [...]
China’s Air Pollution at Insane Levels
Chinese media has taken a stand on air pollution in China by calling on the government to take action against pollution, which according to the media, have reached dangerous levels in the capital city, which is home to around 20 million people. According to the media, the air quality in Beijing reached 755 on an index [...]
The History of Carbon and Respective Responsibilities
There are massive disparities between the developed and developing world that compound the issue of emissions reduction at COP 18 and beyond. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution CO2 has increased about 41 percent. Research from climate scientists indicates that we need to act now to reduce emissions. The temperature of the planet has [...]
California: The Cap-and-Trade Leader
On Wednesday November 14, California held its first auction to sell carbon credits. For six years that state has been working on its cap-and-trade system, more than six years in the making. Finally California has imposed a limit on the amount of carbon emissions and this limit will be reduced over time so that by [...]
In Focus: Obama’s Executive Green Orders
President Obama has vowed that in the absence of congressional action, he will use his executive privileges to combat climate change. Some who are seeking a pretext to discredit the President have suggested that he is ruling by executive orders (EOs). However, President Obama has signed fewer EOs in his first four years in office [...]