The first global study identifying populations at greatest risk from rising sea levels and more intense weather such as floods, cyclones and hurricanes was published April 14 in the journal Environment and Urbanization. The leading researchers were Gordon McGranahan of the UK International Institute for Environment and Development, and Deborah Balk and Bridget Anderson of Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

The text points and slideshow in this article are based on the study and an email interview with Deborah Balk.

TEI isn’t in the business of marketing technology, but we recently had correspondence with Darwin Nunley, the Texas inventor of a low-pollution internal combustion engine. Mr. Nunley offered TEI a description of his invention, the Nunley engine, and we’re happy to publish it as an example of the sort of ingenuity we’re going to need to reduce our carbon footprint and get us beyond fossil fuels.

Picture a side view of a steam locomotive common in the early 1900s. They have two cylinders on each side of the locomotive. Each cylinder has a piston which moves from front to rear and back again by steam pressure, produced by burning coal in a boiler. The power from that comparatively small, four cylinder engine moves the locomotive, the coal car, perhaps 20 freight cars and the always present caboose. People see the black smoke, heat and steam spewing from the smokestack. What they don’t see is the potential of the one piston steam cylinder.

Mr. Nunley’s invention consists of taking the one piston steam cylinder, then recreating it as a very low-polluting, low-cost engine for our time.

Londondery, Vt.- Last week, a Public Service Board hearing officer, Kurt Janson, recommended that the state should not permit a Northeast Kingdom wind farm project in East Haven because of its proximity to the nearly 133,000 acres of preserved land on the former Champion paper company property. He said the four 329 ft proposed turbines were “inappropriate because they would not be in character with the surrounding wilderness.” Wind power proponents argue that the East Haven site is an ideal place for a wind farm because it’s on the site of a former Cold War-era U.S. Air Force radar base.

On Feb. 24, 2006, the town of Londonderry, Vt., held a non-binding Australian Ballot vote to gauge how residents felt about a pending wind farm proposal on Glebe Mountain. Some 638 votes were cast, and the result was 213 for and 425 against. Londonderry, a small mountain town in Windham County, has 1,200 voters on its checklist.

LANDGROVE, VT - Vermont’s only nuclear power plant, Vermont Yankee, currently provides 36 percent of the state’s electricity. Its operating license expires in 2012, and may not be renewed for security, safety or environmental reasons. Shortly after Vermont Yankee’s license expiration date, contracts with Hydro-Quebec, which provides 35 percent of the state’s electric power, will expire because of Canada’s growing power needs.