Graphene Organic Photovoltaics: Flexible Material Only a Few Atoms Thick May Offer Cheap Solar Power

While graphene's existence has been known for decades, it has only been studied extensively since 2004 because of the difficulty of manufacturing it in high quality and in quantity.

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com A University of Southern California team has produced flexible transparent carbon atom films that the researchers say have great potential for a new breed of solar cells. Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been proposed as a means to achieve low cost energy due to their ease of manufacture, light weight, and compatibility with flexible substrates," wrote Chongwu Zhou, a professor of electrical engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in a paper recently published in the journal ACS Nano.

Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety

clipped from www.nytimes.com A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems. “This fear was seen to be driven by decisions made in Houston, rather than those made by rig based leaders,” the report said. “I’m petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I’m afraid of hurting anyone (the area is barriered off), but because I’m afraid of getting fired,” one worker wrote. “The company is always using fear tactics,” another worker said. “All these games and your mind gets tired.”

A Worried View of the Amazon From Within its Forest

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Lou Gold, a longtime commenter who lives in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin, is an invaluable member of the worldwide Dot Earth community (people from more than 200 countries have visited the blog). He reacted strongly to my  recent cautiously upbeat statement — made while conducting  an onstage interview with a Brazilian ecologist — about prospects that the rain forests there could persist through this century even as human numbers and appetites crest. Gold posted a series of comments following the Amazon piece, and has consolidated them with a post on his blog,  Visionshare. You can read the full post below.

Your Own Tropical Island Made Out of Plastic Bottles (Video)

On a bad day you might be thinking to yourself, maybe I should do this.

This man has given up his job, family and possessions to build an island that floats on plastic bottles he’s found and used as buoys.

Natural Gas: The New King Of Electric Power

Boom and bust.

clipped from seekingalpha.com On March 24, 2008, Chesapeake Energy (CHK) announced a significant new natural gas discovery in the Haynesville Shale, setting off the ‘great shale land grab,’ natural gas production has grown nearly 14%, which is in sharp contrast to the flat performance of production in the decade before that. While gas production has enjoyed a significant uptick over the last few years, the same cannot be said for consumption.

Steve Cook on Gold

Good information.

clipped from allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com From Steve Cook at CJS Research The price of gold (GLD) traded down last week, touched the lower boundary of an up trend dating from October 2008 and then bounced. It looks like it will open down modestly this morning. All our Portfolios will Add to their GLD position at the Market open. This will bring the size of this position to approximately 9% in each Portfolio.

Night flight for solar plane -- HB-SIA carbon-fiber aircraft

Good slideshow.

clipped from www.reuters.com

Green Building Market to Surge by 2015

clipped from www.jetsongreen.com Over the next five years, according to a subscription report published by Environmental Leader, total United States green building market value is expected to increase from $71.1 billion to $173.5 billion.  The EL Insights report projects a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% in green building market value from 2010 through 2015.  American demand for green building products is expected to reach $80 billion by 2013, according to a separate report by the Freedonia Group, Inc.  The Freedonia report estimated an increase in demand of about 7.2% per year on average over five years.

"Climategate" Leak Report Vindicates Scientists

clipped from www.cbsnews.com An independent British report into the leak of hundreds of e-mails from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved, a finding many in the field hope will calm the global uproar dubbed "Climategate." While Russell's report said there was no evidence to show Jones or any other scientist had subverted the peer-review process, it did revisit the now infamous e-mail exchange between Jones and a colleague in which the climatologist refers to a "trick" used to "hide the decline" in a variable used to track global temperatures.

Energy Needs of China’s Consumers Swamping Efficiency Gains

Already, in the last three years, China has shut down more than a thousand older coal-fired power plants that used technology of the sort still common in the United States. China has also surpassed the rest of the world as the biggest investor in wind turbines and other clean energy technology. And it has dictated tough new energy standards for lighting and gas mileage for cars.

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Keith Bradsher has filed an important story showing how the  energy demands of China’s emerging consumer class are overwhelming the central government’s efforts to cut industrial energy waste and blunt growth in carbon dioxide emissions. The article provides a closeup view of the demographic and economic forces that are destined to make Asia the dominant influence on the planetary greenhouse for decades to come, by almost every analysis.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Photovoltaic Solar Power

Climate Change May Broil Cities

Got a summer home in Bismark yet?

clipped from www.scientificamerican.com SWELTERING CITY: New models suggest that climate change will cause average temperatures in cities to rise; cooler nights will become less frequent. ISTOCKPHOTO Cities were already known to retain more heat than the rural environments that surround them, but new modeling from researchers in the United Kingdom now suggests that urban areas are also more sensitive to changes in climate. Furthermore, they will experience greater increases in average temperature with rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the cooling effects of night will become more of a memory than a reality. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. -- where Congress is debating over whether to pass a climate bill -- is getting a memorable preview of what new computer models are predicting. Last week's temperatures broke a 100-year record, and forecasters expect this June will be the hottest ever recorded in the area.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Photovoltaic Solar Power

Life in 2050 -- Climate Out of Control

Bill McKibben on the Symptoms of Global Warming
The author and activist says we may see out-of-control rises in sea level, enormous shortfalls in crop yields and wars over available fresh water

Why haven’t the solar panels been reinstalled at the White House?

I couldn't embed the video in Amplify so you'll have to follow the link. Look down and click "Why haven’t the solar panels been reinstalled at the White House?" to watch and listen.

Don't laugh too hard. Vote by hitting the recommend button.

clipped from www.whitehouse.gov WhiteHouse.gov is the official web site for the White House and President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. This site is a source for information about the President, White House news and policies, White House history, and the federal government.

A Nobelist’s Energy Pitch for Obama

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com A recipient of the  1976 Nobel Prize in physics, Richter was a signatory on a letter from 34 Nobel laureates to Obama last year pushing for a big and sustained rise in the  federal investment in energy research. (He told me he is unaware of any response from the White House.) He also has written “ Beyond Smoke and Mirrors,” a cogent road map for facing the daunting long-term challenge of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases even as humanity’s growth spurt crests in the next few decades.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Photovoltaic Solar Power

Crude Greed Song

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Crude Songs

Rumor: Google to Take On Facebook With “Google Me”

via Louis Gray

clipped from techmiso.com The internets is abuzz this morning after Kevin Rose dropped a potential bombshell rumor on twitter. According to Rose, Google is positioned to enter the social networking space very soon to compete against Facebook with a new service potentially called “Google Me.”

Mortgage Delinquency Rates 90+ Days (Map)

clipped from allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com Mortgage Delinquency Rates 90+ Days (Map)

Original content Bob DeMarco, All American Investor

America's Richest Oilmen

clipped from www.forbes.com Harold Hamm of Continental Resources owns more oil and gas than any other American. And none of it's in the deepwater. In Pictures: America's Richest Oilmen

Global Heat warmest since thorough record keeping began in 1880

Hot.

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com The National Climatic Data Center has released its  summary of global climate conditions so far this year and finds that the month of May, as well as the period from January through May, were the warmest since thorough record keeping began in 1880. Here’s the way he summarizes the warming-downpour connection: We cannot say that any of this year’s flooding disasters were definitely due to global warming, and part of the reason for this year’s numerous U.S. flooding disasters is simply bad luck. However, higher temperatures do cause an increased chance of heavy precipitation events, and it is likely that the flooding in some of this year’s U.S. flooding disasters were significantly enhanced by the presence of more water vapor in the air due to global warming. We can expect a large increase in flooding disasters in the U.S. and worldwide if the climate continues to warm as expected.

Why James Cameron Is Diving Deep on Gulf Oil

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com In a 20-minute phone conversation on Friday, the film director described the meeting of deep-sea minds, which took place on Tuesday and has resulted in a memo, signed by the participants, that he provided to the Coast Guard and other agencies overseeing BP’s efforts to stanch the seabed gusher. He told me he’ll make the document public once the agencies have had time to review it. Cameron also defended his involvement on the issue and clarified his views of BP, which he said were distorted by media coverage of his talk midweek at a digital media conference. Here are a few of his thoughts: James Cameron, best known as one of the world’s most successful filmmakers, this week found himself slammed in some circles for pulling together a brain trust of underwater technology experts to provide advice to the Obama administration for next steps in the unfolding Gulf of Mexico petro-calamity.