This week, developer Jim Gordon received the news he’s dreamed of hearing for nine long years – Cape Wind is a go. The U.S.’s first offshore coastal waters windfarm, comprising 24 square miles of turbines that promise to offset a hundred million gallons of oil every year, will be situated in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod. Not everyone is delighted at the news (NIMBYs included), and local residents are set for more legal wranglings before building work commences. Nevertheless, the success of the Cape Wind proposal is a milestone in America’s clean energy industry and is sure to catalyze other offshore windfarm projects.

So what will our coastlines look like in a future dominated by coast-hugging wind power? We can catch a glimpse by looking at Denmark’s Horns Rev 2 (91 turbines) or the impressively expansive Robin Rigg windfarm in the Solway Firth off the Scottish coast.

How would you feel about such a view in your backyard?

Further reading:

Offshore wind energy: clean, but anything but cheap – National Geographic.

List of proposed offshore wind projects in North America – OffshoreWind.Net.

Researchers study feasibility of giant deep-ocean wind turbine platforms – Physorg.

Image: phault

The post Cape Wind Gets Green Light: So How About One Near You? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Climate change is nonsense.

If I’m ever lucky enough to bump into millionaire Donald Trump (say at a real estate sale or divorce court), I will rush up to the man and shake his hand. He’s opened my eyes to this global warming hoax once and for all. Addressing an audience of 500 admirers at the Trump National Golf Club (Westchester, N.Y.), he uttered these immortal words:

With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore…Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn’t care less. It would make us totally non-competitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America’s stupidity.

I bet those countries aren’t laughing now!

But if there’s one person who does look stupid, it’s me. All these years believing in the power of science, logic, reasoned argument and differentiating between weather and climate, and now the Donald’s blown that baloney into the weeds. But I can take it – after all, I’d rather get my story correct than support some thoughtless populist prejudice designed to further the political agendas of self-serving elites. Don, you’re the man.

But I want more from our Gore-slaying guru of truthiness. I want him to explain the specifics. What say you to these thorny issues, Mr. Trump?

1. Increasingly extreme weather. Any fool can see that the earth can’t be warming up if it’s snowing! So what is causing all this weird weather right now? There’s only one rational conclusion: the earth must be cooling down. (I’m blaming all these wind turbines, it’s like global air-con).

2. Crops are on the run. Guatemalan coffee growers are moving their plantations, claiming that climbing temperatures are putting their livelihoods at risk. Scottish soft fruit is in danger of getting squished. Indian farmers are insuring themselves against crop failure. To them all I say – what’s wrong with tinned food? This loose food fad has to stop sometime, might as well be now. (And don’t get me started on that organic rubbish).

3. The mountains are thawing. The glaciers are melting on Everest and the Himalayan snows are turning into lakes. What’s that about, Don? No, I’ve got it – summer’s coming! Of course. These things are so obvious if you spend the time to really think them through.

4. The seas are rising. The island chain of the Maldives is sliding beneath the waves, and its inhabitants are responding with heavy investment in a zero-carbon economy. Heavy. See what I’m saying? The heavier it is, the less it floats. (Pro tip, guys: use coal, it gets lighter the more you use it).

5. The ice-caps are melting. The Antarctic ice shelves are breaking up (here’s the latest from the US Geological Survey), making the oceans rise twice as fast as they were doing in the 1970s. The summer polar ice cap is 20% reduced from its 1979 coverage. Where’s it all going? It’s this snow we’re having! Gotcha. The ice isn’t melting, it’s just moving around! Give it a few years and it’ll be right back at the poles again, you’ll see.

Am I on the right track, Don?

Image: Trump Ice Skating Rink in Central Park, New York, by James Trosh

The post Donald Trump Sets the World Straight appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s no secret that the media tends to focus on the negative instead of the positive, feature problems instead of solutions and evoke despondency instead of motivation. Looking to refresh your optimism?

Ode magazine, ” for intelligent optimists”, offers a healthy dose of inspiration. In each uplifting issue, you’ll find stories regarding active efforts towards a progressive environmental, social and economical revolution, not to mention insightful columns by renowned figures like Paolo Coelho, Amy Domini and David Servan-Shreiber.

Take it from Foreign Policy: “Read Ode, and you may just figure out how to fix this crazy, messed-up world.”

But, that’s not all you’ll gain. Your first issue is free, and, if you subscribe for an annual fee of $19.95, they send you a Thich Nhat Hanh meditation CD and plant a tree in Africa to represent your commitment against global warming.

Plus, recycled paper is used to print every copy and a digital version is available online. (P.S. You can get a good news fix right here, too.)

Image: willsfca

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