Uncategorized
All Stories
-
Trimming astroturf from the American Petroleum Institute’s Vote 4 Energy ad
It’s not surprising that the American Petroleum Institute — Big Oil’s premium lobbying entity — is using a synthetic media strategy. Their Vote 4 Energy astroturf campaign spews misinformation like a two-stroke engine belching greenhouse gasses. It attempts to portray ‘real (cough cough) Americans’ who are ‘energy voters,’ which translates to voting for whichever politicians […]
-
How Great Thou Art
When I go out and feel nature’s wonders Wind, water, sun, the earth, the moon, the stars I feel such joy, love and appreciation I thank my God, the Force of Truth You are. Chorus: Then sings my soul, the best I know within How great thou art, how great thou art Then sings […]
-
The five big forest trends of 2012
In the past year, examples abounded of forests being protected or restored on a grand scale. But those successes put the colossal failures and the corrupting forces behind them in stark relief: For too many forests, some combination of rapacious corporate greed, rising global population and consumption (particularly in Asia), local corruption, ignorant or careless […]
-
Midas Triumphant: The Climate Year in Review
Events of 2011 show that no matter how solid the science, some people will never accept that humans are causing global warming. So how can we cut the Gordian Knot that is manmade global warming? by Auden Schendler, reposted from the Atlantic One version of the myth of King Midas holds that he was not […]
-
![]()
![]()
My New Year’s resolution
I'm an analyzer, dissector, chopper-upper, drawn to flaws and inconsistencies like itches that need scratching. But there are limits to that sort of thing.
-
Oops: Gas Industry Study on Industry “Economics” Omits Costs of Water Contamination
Despite spending massively to position itself as “clean,” the natural gas industry has a serious pollution problem it doesn’t want getting more public and regulatory attention. Not only is the industry’s climate disruption footprint potentially heavierthan coal, the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) practice the current gas boom depends on is contaminating our water supplies. The industry wants you […]
-
Federal tax credits may handcuff clean energy development
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Clean energy advocates should cast aside their worries about increasing Republican scrutiny of energy subsidies. The clean energy industry’s foolish reliance on tax incentives has already handcuffed its expansion. Unlike the leading nations in the clean […]
-
Gingrich scraps planned book chapter on climate change
If Newt Gingrich were backpedaling any faster on climate change, he might actually come full circle and turn into Al Gore. But what can the man do? He’s totally damaged his right-wing reputation by believing in science and giving a crap about the future survival of anything. What Republican can run with the hideous heart […]
-
‘Micro-lofts’ are luxury shantytowns for hipsters
Vancouver has come up with a unique solution to the outrageous cost of housing in the city: Murphy everything. A local construction company is building a block of tiny apartments, each the size of a one-car garage, and making them livable by turning their walls into the domestic equivalents of pop-up books. The “micro-lofts” are […]
-
Slum residents get a giant escalator for Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSYAOr0xUUo&feature=player_embedded If you had $7 million to use on behalf of the residents of your poorest slums, how would you distribute it? For Medellin, Colombia, that’s a no-brainer: Blow the whole wad on a MONSTER ESCALATOR. Wait, wait! It’s actually a good idea. The giant escalator helps slum residents get to their hillside homes from […]
