Keith Schneider | ModeShift

In Tianjin, Fresh Hope For Climate Progress

by Keith SchneiderOctober 4, 2010October 4, 20101

TIANJIN, China – In a gesture that signaled more urgent engagement to cool the planet, the United Nation’s chief climate negotiator today opened this nation’s first international climate conference by sealing a symbolic Great Climate Wall of China with an ancient proverb. Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat and climate expert, who in May was named the new executive secretary for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stamped the proverb – “with everyone’s …

In Tianjin, Making A Small Dent On Climate Action

by Keith SchneiderOctober 3, 2010February 3, 20110

TIANJIN, China — I’m in Tianjin, China today (see pix above) and for the next week to report on the UN Climate Conference, the first ever held in China. I spent much of the day in a Climate Action International meeting with activists from around the planet, though there were many fewer here than attended the UN climate meetings in Barcelona and Copenhagen last year. Everybody is talking about steps forward and preserving the UN …

In Era of Climate Change and Water Scarcity, Meeting National Energy Demand Confronts Major Impediments

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 29, 2010September 29, 20100

Photo Â© Brent Stirton / Reportage by Getty Images for Circle of Blue The All-American Canal, the main water conduit from the Colorado River into the Imperial Dam, flows through the Imperial Valley, Calif. The U.S. consumes about 100 billion gallons of water a day. Nearly 85 percent is used for crop and livestock production. Of the 16.1 billion gallons that remain, half is devoted to producing energy. In November 2009, in pursuit of a …

Before Big China Climate Conference, New Senate Support For Clean Energy

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 28, 2010September 28, 20100

I’ll be in Beijing later this week, and then on to Tianjin to cover China’s first UN-sponsored climate summit, which begins October 4. Before leaving, though, I wanted to note that on September 22,Â a group of Republican and Democratic Senators sent a rare bipartisan signal to the world that the United States has not abandoned the hard work of reducing climate emissions and speeding the clean energy transition. The group introduced a bill to …

A Building Named In His Honor, Stewart Udall Declared “Greatest Secretary of the Interior”

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 27, 2010September 28, 20100

There have been 50 Interior secretaries since the department was established in 1849 and President Zachary Taylor named Thomas Ewing its first secretary. On Tuesday, September 21, 2010, in a Washington dedication ceremony that brought Republicans and Democrats together for an all too rare moment of inspiring reflection, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar formally declared that his predecessor, Stewart Lee Udall, was the “greatest secretary of the Interior in United States history.” SalazarÂ — in pix …

The Next Era of Hydrocarbon Development: Well Underway and Dirtier Than the First

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 25, 2010June 18, 20140

The most direct path to the nationâ€™s newest big oil and gas fields is U.S. Highway12, two lanes of black top that unfolds from Grays Harbor in Washington State and heads east across the top of the country to Detroit. The 2,500-mile route, parts of which were used by Lewis and Clark to open the American frontier, has quickly become an essential supply line for the energy industry. With astonishing speed and influence, American oil …

Cody Bates, My Son, Is A U.S. Marine

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 19, 2010September 19, 20102

My son, Cody Bates, graduated from Marine boot camp on Friday. There were 565 other young Marines there too — and 2,500 or so friends and family members — from states west of the Mississippi who are trained at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Marine graduation, at least for this parent, is a study in the satisfaction of a son’s accomplishment and the lingering dread of what it means at a time of …

Note To Tom Friedman on Choke Point: U.S. Findings

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 16, 2010September 16, 20100

Carl Ganter, the director of Circle of Blue and a colleague, was in China this week attending a World Economic Forum conference. He ran into New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, and talked about the new details Circle of Blue was uncovering about the tightening contest between rising energy demand and diminishing supplies of fresh water. Carl sent a message last night that Tom seemed interested and asked me to prepare a short summary of …

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale Oil Boom and Risks To Water

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 15, 2010September 15, 20102

Over at Circle of Blue, where I serve as senior editor, we’ve been working on Choke Point: U.S., a series of original articles about the tightening contest between rising energy demand and diminishing supplies of fresh water. In our latest chapter, we explored the big boom in oil and gas production on the northern Great Plains, where energy companies are tapping the “unconventional” Bakken Shale. Two miles beneath North Dakota, and below parts of Montana …

Grassroots Opposition to Clean Energy Power Lines in Texas

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 9, 20100

Kate Gailbraith, a reporter for the very accomplished non-profit and online Texas Tribune, has a report from the Lone Star state about grassroots opposition to a new $5 billion transmission line to carry power from all those windmills down there. Texas is the largest wind generating state in the country, with a capacity of nearly 9,500 megawatts at the end of 2009, or roughly equal to 10 big coal-fired plants. Opposition to new transmission lines, …