Climate Change

Scientists predict that by 2100, thanks to global warming, Earth's oceans could swell six feet higher than they are today. If that happens, melting ice caps would inundate southern Florida and huge swaths of Louisiana, where "there's not a lot of land above sea level," says Linwood Pendleton, an environmental economist at the European Institute for Marine Studies.

Cap-and-trade forces the biggest producers of greenhouse gas — including electricity utilities, natural gas utilities and fuel distributors — to pay to pollute. Low-income Californians feel the pinch when gasoline, electricity and natural gas prices increase. And it’s logical to think that the state’s cap-and-trade program might add to those expenses. But this program is generating billions of dollars to provide an array of benefits to Californians, especially those living in disadvantaged communities.

Adults get most of the credit for structuring and managing the world, but researchers are finding that children play a much bigger role in society than we often imagine.

“It’s great news that PG&E will replace the lost electricity generation from Diablo Canyon with a portfolio of zero-carbon resources, including energy efficiency, renewables, demand response and energy storage,” added Laura Wisland, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), in astatement.

The Aspen Institute First Movers Fellowship Program today announced its 2016 class of Fellows who are working within companies to help solve the world's most challenging social and environmental problems. First Movers is the leading global network of intrapreneurs and equips Fellows with the skills and confidence to drive innovations inside companies that add value to the organization and positively impact the lives of consumers, employees and communities.

For the Amah Mutsun, an indigenous people of the central coast, the land was never ‘theirs.’ They didn’t think of the land as belonging to anyone. Blessed to live along the central coast and eastward, they belonged to the land. They were tender toward it — and tenders of it. Now, after centuries of cultural upheaval, they’re learning to recover their roles as the land’s stewards. ...

Since the Paris Climate Conference wrapped up last December, 50 cities and companies have posted new climate initiatives in a United Nations-sanctioned registry called the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA). By spotlighting some 11,000 commitments cities, companies, regions, and investors have made since 2014, the U.N.

Utilities are increasingly getting it right on the customer satisfaction front, but a rising tide leads to even more competition for the utility industry's top spots. Some industry frontrunners have seen their leads erode over time as their fellow utilities gain ground in the annual review. What can utilities do to stay ahead?

In detailing their much-scrutinized marriage and love story at the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton also took care to list his wife’s numerous legislative and foreign policy achievements. Among them: "She put climate change at the center of our foreign policy. She negotiated the first agreement ever — ever — where China and India officially committed to reduce their emissions."