The internet sits at the heart of what is believed to be the greenest type of economy – the so-called knowledge economy.  Green, because the tools of the new economy – laptops, tablets, smartphones, 3d-printers, etc – are very low energy devices.  Green too, because the digital products – mp3 …

Like Britain, Holland has adopted a policy of shutting down ageing and dirty coal-fired power stations and replacing them with a combination of renewable energy and new gas-fired power stations.  However, like Britain, Holland has to balance these environmental plans against the political imperative of keeping energy bills as low …

One of the more mendacious claims put out by the Vote Leave campaign in the run up to the Referendum on 23 June was that Britain’s energy bills would come down.  This was always a flaky claim given that the world is still heavily dependent upon fossil fuels, and that the cost of extracting …

One of the few pieces of apparently good climate news in recent years was that the growth of new vegetation in the Arctic has helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the crucial Polar Regions.  However, a new NASA-led study has cast doubt on the effect that new plant …

While the heads of Western governments and financial organisations were firefighting the unexpected result of Britain’s Brexit referendum last weekend, a much greater threat to Western economies was occurring on the other side of the planet. According to Denis Dyomkin at Reuters: “Russia and China sealed a raft of energy …

The human population is expected to climb toward 10bn by mid-century; far outstripping already strained global food supplies.  One proposed means of accommodating these extra people without causing huge famines and mass migrations is to turn to the one lifeform that we have so far been too grossed out to …

Chris Faulkner, the controversial CEO of US fracking company Breitling Energy Corp has been charged with defrauding investors out of more than $80millon to fund a lifestyle of decadence and debauchery. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the self-styled “Frack Master” and several other senior Breitling managers with …

One reason why Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen may have been keen to suggest that Brexit would create international chaos is that it diverts attention away from the Fed’s own failings.  Despite claiming that the US economy was strong enough to begin raising interest rates; the one attempt to do …

In a step forward for environmental groups, the German government has followed France, Scotland and Wales in banning fracking “indefinitely”.  However, as in wales and Scotland, campaigners argue that the ban does not go far enough. As Holger Hansen and Andrea Shalal at Reuters note: “German industry is keen to …

The greenhouse effect is not the only thing causing our planet to warm.  Larry O’Hanlon at the American Geophysical Union also points to our own energy use as a cause of excess heating in developed regions: “There is also the waste heat released when we generate and use energy – …