So, Bush wants massive new ethanol subsidies. He wants 35 billion gallons of "renewable and alternative fuels" -- the vast bulk of which will be corn ethanol -- online by 2017. Right now, there's basically no opposition to this push. It's got support from industry (mainly Big Corn and Big Auto), legislators from both parties, farmers, environmentalists, national security types, and the public at large. That's not going to last. It's clear that there's just not enough corn, or room to grow it, to get even to Bush's relatively modest target. As corn supplies are stressed, the price of corn …

Photo: Frederic Ohlinger "The miracle meal after the Sermon on the Mount was both loaves and fishes," says author and storyteller David James Duncan. "Not one or the other. Both." It's a sentiment that helps to explain why Duncan and a variety of compatriots were photographed in 13 colorful dories, rowing and casting lines -- into a golden field of wheat. The image appears on a poster distributed by Save Our Wild Salmon, a collaboration of conservationists, fisherfolk, and others interested in the removal of four dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington state. Fisherfolk: Soon to be extinct …

The Pew Center has released new polling data on climate change. The report shows that while 77% of people believe the earth is warming, only 47% believe there is solid evidence that humans are responsible. Political scientists tend to discount the idea of "demand-driven science" -- the idea that, if we provide the general public with more research, their views on policy will change accordingly. While demand-driven science might be wrong in general, I think climate change is a area where it's true. If more people recognized the strong evidence that humans are likely the primary contributors to today's warming, …

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide) Objection: The kind of drastic actions required to mitigate global warming risk the destruction of the global economy and the deaths of potentially billions of people. Answer: Is this supposed to mean the theory of anthropogenic global warming must be wrong? You can not come to a rational decision about the reality of a danger by considering how hard it might be to avoid. First things first: understand that the problem is real and present. Once you acknowledge the necessity of addressing the problem, taking action suddenly become …

Everything's Cool is a 100-minute film resulting from four and a half years of work, thousands of miles traveled, and hours and hours spent following some of the country's most ardent climate change activists. Co-producers/directors Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand finished the final cut of the film just the night before the special pre-screening event at the Sundance Film Festival, and sat down to watch it from credit sequence to credit sequence for the first time along with the audience -- and almost all the characters in the film, who were flown in for the screening. The characters, who …

Super Bowl gets greener, offsets emissions for first time Until this year, we loved the Super Bowl for precisely three reasons: beer, commercials, and ass-slapping. But we're adding a fourth reason this year, as the NFL will be planting native trees and buying renewable-energy certificates to offset greenhouse-gas emissions from the game. Yes -- guilt-free beer farts! "Carbon mitigation: that to me is where the excitement, the challenge, and the opportunity are," says NFL Director of Environmental Programs Jack Groh, who might need to get out more. The Super Bowl has incorporated green elements for 14 years, but the upcoming …

This year, World Economic Forum can't avoid climate change Every year, some 2,000 business and political leaders descend on snowy Davos, Switzerland, for an unrivaled meeting of minds and money. As the five-day World Economic Forum kicks off today, attendees will tackle an issue of great concern: how to get Bono's autograph. Also, some of them will address climate change. In a survey, twice as many participants as last year say environmental protection should be a priority for world leaders, and 17 climate-related sessions are planned. "By putting climate change at the top of the [agenda, the WEF] has focused …

Bush State of the Union address offers tepid energy initiatives Today we have the high privilege and distinct honor of blurbing the State of the Union address. It was largely a muted, desultory affair, reflecting the fact that President Bush is trapped in a foreign quagmire, his Republican congressional bootlickers are abandoning him, and the public loathes him more than any president since Nixon. However! There were a few greenish moments. For the first time in a SOTU address, Bush said the dreaded words: "global climate change." Guess that means it's real. His splashy energy plan is to reduce U.S. …

  The Step It Up 2007 campaign is calling for people all across the U.S. to organize rallies in their communities on April 14, 2007, to demand action against climate change. The goal is to have gatherings in all kinds of different places, in every state: outside churches, along shorelines and riverbanks, in cornfields, in forests, on statehouse steps, on the levees in New Orleans, on the melting glaciers of Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West. Altogether, these rallies will add up to the largest demonstration against climate change ever seen in the U.S. …

Will January 2007 prove to be a tipping point for U.S. climate-change policy? Already this month we've seen a barrage of high-profile activity -- and President Bush hasn't even given his State of the Union address yet. Are we at a tipping point? First there was a rapid-fire succession of four major climate-change bills proposed in the Senate, all of which call for mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions. Then, like a clashing of cymbals after a drumroll, 10 major corporations representing the energy and chemical industries, among others, joined with a handful of major environmental groups in a call for …