Prominent Climate Change Skeptic Received Over $1 Million From Oil, Coal Companies
Greenpeace has revealed that one of the world’s most prominent scientific figures to be skeptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1 million in the past decade by major U.S. oil and coal companies. The climate skeptic — Willie Soon — works as an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. Since 2001, he has received money from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Insitute and Koch Industries along with Southern, one of the world’s largest coal-burning utility companies.
Siemens 6 MW direct drive wind turbine in trials
Siemens has developed a 6MW wind turbine fitted with an innovative direct drive and therefore not requiring a gearbox. Altogether, the nacelle and the rotor blades (with a rotor diameter of 120 meters) weigh less than 350 metric tons. Trials to assess its performance and availability are now being conducted on a prototype installed off the Danish coast. If everything proceeds according to schedule, the SWT-6.0-120 wind turbine should enter series production in 2014.
To date, Siemens has installed more than 600 wind turbines in European waters, with a combined output of 1,800 MW.
U.S. Wars in Projected to Cost Nearly $4 Trillion With Hundreds of Thousands Dead
A new report is estimating the true cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end up being approximately $4 trillion — far more than the Bush or Obama administrations have acknowledged. The report also estimates between 224,000 and 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Brown University professor Catherine Lutz is the co-director of the “Costs of War” report.