This time, the heat is really on. From Boston to Washington, D.C., temperatures have soared to 100 degrees or more in recent days, stressing electrical grids, scrambling rail transportation and prompting the swift creation of cooling centers for those who lack air conditioning.

Renewable energies must generate almost half of the world’s power by 2050, up from the current level of 18%, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).

A 4 percent decrease in forest was associated with a nearly 50 percent rise in malaria cases in western Brazil.

The ‘Statistical Review of World Energy’ does not include wind, solar or geothermal in its primary energy forecast, but these sources will be added next year because they are reaching “sufficient weight in a number of countries.”

Hydroelectricity and nuclear remain the largest non-fossil

A report by the Tellus Institute explores four scenarios in response to sustainability demands, and calls for a profound restructuring of global economic priorities.

Concerns about global warming, rising fossil fuel prices, and oil insecurity have prompted calls for a new energy economy, one that replaces fossil fuels with renewables.

GreenBiz

GreenBiz Editors

By GreenBiz Staff

New Delhi - The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today launched the Vision 2050 report (2.6 MB), a study that lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050.

The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year.