by Amy McMorrow Hunter | January 11, 2018 | Clean Energy, Electricity, Externalities, Fossil Fuels, Transportation | 1 Comment

Do you want cheaper energy? Maybe you need to go clean. Google "fossil fuels aren't cheap" (with quotations) and you get something like 300+ results.  Why is that? Lots of fossil fuel folks say we need to keep them around because they're so cheap.  Who's right? Well,...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | April 3, 2017 | Decarbonization, Electric Vehicles, Illinois, Transportation | 0 Comments

Just today we're hearing: Tesla Passes Ford by Market Cap Before Musk Delivers Model 3. Ouch, who would've thought! Now you never know if that will stick but it's a pretty substantial moment. Why should we be thinking about electric vehicles (EV's)?  Well, for...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | February 1, 2018 | Circular Economy, Clean Energy, Clothing, Consumables and Resource Use, Energy Efficiency, Externalities, Food, Waste, Water | 0 Comments

The world needs a meaningful measure developed for products (and services) that provide information about life cycle environmental/social impact. How much energy is used, how much waste is produced, water used, if they stay under a certain carbon footprint (or zero...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | August 17, 2017 | Behavioral Health | 0 Comments

Did you happen to see the news about the continuing mental health trauma for people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, since the floods now more than a year ago?  Many died, thousands were forced out of their homes, they still haven't returned in many cases, some people lost...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | May 30, 2019 | Clean Energy, Climate Finance and Investment, Education, Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Entrepreneurship, Get Local, Jobs, Southern Illinois, Southern Illinois News | 0 Comments

Here are some details about the energy panelists and topic areas at the upcoming June 12 event in Carbondale: The Climate Economy in Southern Illinois - Creating Resilient Businesses, Jobs and Communities. Our energy panel is going to help us look at our current...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | October 11, 2017 | Biochar, Carbon Sequestration, Soil | 0 Comments

Have you heard about the permafrost melting? This is soil or ground that's been frozen for sometimes thousands of years, and it covers one quarter of the land in the northern hemisphere. As recently reported, in places like Alaska and others, we're finding out that...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | March 20, 2017 | Circular Economy | 0 Comments

The Circular Economy takes the old fashioned linear take-make-dispose model and turns it circular, designing out waste and optimizing resource use. It's not just recycling, it's more like designing the product from the start to be zero-waste. Businesses save money by...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | April 21, 2017 | Carbon Sequestration | 0 Comments

Some say that we have to focus on not only reducing our emissions, but on capturing carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere or being created by manufacturing and energy processes. This is known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS; check out the Global CCS...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | April 5, 2018 | Biochar, BioEconomy, Climate Change, Entrepreneurship, Jobs, Land Use and Agriculture, Resilience, Soil, Waste, Water | 0 Comments

Biochar is something you make out of dead organic stuff (e.g., wood waste), by bringing it back to life with a new purpose. Biochar has been around for a long time. It's been found in ancient forests, responsible for maintaining the health and productive capacity of...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | May 12, 2017 | Buildings and Shelter, Decarbonization, Energy Efficiency | 0 Comments

I'm not going to be able to say it better: Any successful climate protection strategy must consider residential and commercial buildings, which are responsible for almost 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. From houses and hotels to schools and skyscrapers,...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | September 18, 2019 | Clean Energy, Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Jobs | 0 Comments

According to ClimateNexus, there were about 3,155,933 "clean energy" jobs in the US in 2018: (To increase the size of the text in the images, hit Ctrl and + as many times as you need, then to get it back to normal size hit Ctrl and -.) These numbers match up with the...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | April 16, 2018 | Climate Finance and Investment, Education, Entrepreneurship | 0 Comments

Here's a skill we're going to need more of in the future: Climate SWOT. What's SWOT? It's a tool for competitive analysis. It's a business analysis where you consider: Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats - Read more on Investopedia. What's Climate SWOT?...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | March 20, 2018 | Behavioral Health, Resilience, Start | 0 Comments

It's time to stop pretending that it's not happening. It's time to stop making excuses. It's time to stop saying it's too hard or it's too late. It's time to stop acting like our daily decisions don't make a difference. It's time to stop being in denial that you need...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | May 5, 2017 | Blockchain, Clean Energy, Science and Technology | 0 Comments

If you're interested in computer science, this post is especially for you! If you're not into computer science, you still need to read on... Blockchain, according to Wikipedia: is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of records, called...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | May 16, 2018 | Blockchain, Climate Change, Climate Finance and Investment, Decarbonization, Economics and Finance, Entrepreneurship, Science and Technology | 0 Comments

Well there's a mouthful! It might sound like a foreign language to you, but probably in less than a decade it will be the source in billions of dollars of economic activity. We gave a brief introduction to "blockchain for energy" in a previous post; if you're to...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | September 5, 2019 | Visions of The Climate Economy | 0 Comments

The New Climate Economy's report: "Unlocking the Inclusive Growth Story of the 21st Century: Accelerating Climate Action in Urgent Times" is one of those reports that I'm reading from cover to cover, with lots of highlighting and written-in thoughts and ideas. So many...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | May 19, 2017 | Circular Economy, Clean Energy, Land Use and Agriculture, Waste | 0 Comments

Waste is a huge opportunity. We're talking mainly here about waste from human consumption and daily activities (food, shelter, clothing, etc.). Humans produce it daily by the bucket loads (about 4.4 pounds per day per person according to most estimates). According the...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | November 22, 2018 | Collaboration, Community, Education, Entrepreneurship, Jobs, Resilience, The Natural Step | 0 Comments

The Climate Economy requires a way of thinking that includes the future in every strategic decision. We do this all the time in our daily lives without thinking too much about it. We help our kids with their homework so they can be more likely to succeed in the...

by Amy McMorrow Hunter | February 14, 2018 | Clean Energy, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Resilience, Start | 0 Comments

We are optimists at TheClimateEconomy.com, but we deal with reality and facts. We look at the facts, sometimes unpleasant, right in the face to understand what we need to do. This post is a reality blast in the face. It's alarming, but there's hope. If we...