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Polluted Southern communities ask EPA to address environmental injustice

Environmental justice leaders representing more than a dozen polluted communities from six Southern states met with Environmental Protection Agency leaders this week and asked them to take action to better protect the health of low-income communities and communities of color.

Washington Post mocks Inhofe as "last flat earther"

It must be very lonely being the last flat-earther. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a […]

The weak El Niño appears to be strengthening

Two weeks ago I blogged that NASA reports hottest June to September on record; NOAA says “weak” El Niño “expected to strengthen and last through” winter. NOAA’s National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (and most other models) have been predicting for a couple of months that the weak El Niño would strengthen, but it hasn’t.  […]

Obama announces $3.4 billion in smart grid investments

The President said today that we’re having a debate “between those who are ready to seize the future and those who are afraid of the future.” ARCADIA, FLORIDA – Speaking at Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, President Barack Obama today announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in […]

Sen. Kerry downplays prospect of floor debate this year

  E&E News (subs. req’d) reports this morning: International attention on the Senate’s progress on the issue is heightened given the major U.N. climate summit to be held this December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Underscoring that point, Reid yesterday took a call from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “The secretary general emphasized the urgency of trying […]

CNN Poll: 6 in 10 independents support cap-and-trade

“Six in 10 Americans support a cap and trade” proposal to cut pollution, according to a new national poll,” CNN reports (details at the end).  The recent Pew Research poll also found strong support for climate action: Of course, the Pew poll got a lot of attention for what it said about media miscoverage of […]

Rural Electric Cooperatives: Efficiency measures more important

Here’s a  stunner from Climate Wire (subs. req’d) today: Rural electric cooperatives, which represent many small, coal-dependent utilities in the Midwest and raised a ruckus in the House debate, are eligible for a portion of allowances under the new draft. But at a conference last week, the head of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, […]

Statisticians reject global cooling

A terrific story by the AP’s Seth Borenstein, “Statisticians reject global cooling,” not only debunks that myth — it will make your head spin once again on error-riddled Superfreakonomics (coauthored by Levitt). Have you heard that the world is now cooling instead of warming? You may have seen some news reports on the Internet or […]

Nature: “Dynamic thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheet"

The most detailed satellite information available shows that ice sheets in Greenland and western Antarctica are shrinking faster than scientists thought and in some places are already in runaway melt mode, a new study found…. Using 50 million laser readings from a NASA satellite, scientists for the first time calculated changes in the height of […]

Caldeira on Yale e360

Yale Environment 360: I want to start with this little dust-up over SuperFreakonomics. In the book, you are quoted as saying, when it comes to global warming, “Carbon dioxide is not the right villain.” Is that accurate? Ken Caldeira: That is not accurate. I don’t believe I said anything remotely like that because I believe […]