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Practice your politics with the BBC’s Climate Challenge

The climate is in crisis. The world is a mess. Think things would be better if you ruled the universe (or at least a developed nation)? Here's your chance to test out that theory.

Play the BBC's Climate Challenge game and you'll take on the role of president of a powerful European nation. Your mission: 1) convincing other world leaders to climb aboard the emission reduction train; 2) adopting a mix of climate-friendly national policies that will neither starve nor alienate the voting citizenry.

Coming tomorrow

If you visit the Drudge Report, you’ll find the following bit of typically breathless hype: NY TIMES PLANS HIT ON GORE, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE: ‘Scientists argue that Gore’s warnings are full of exaggerated claims and startling errors’… Reporter William Broad filing the story, ‘A CALL TO COOL THE HYPE’… Developing… "Developing" indeed. Looks like […]

A petition? That kinda Sachs.

I don’t think it’s exaggerating to call Jeffrey Sachs a moral hero. He’s one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals, and has spent his life pursuing innovative ways to reduce poverty, hunger, and suffering through sustainable development. In Time magazine, Sachs issues a clear and forceful call for action on global warming. He directs […]

It ain’t pretty

Last week, UK’s Channel 4 ran a documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It was standard hackery, exciting and titillating to all the standard hacks. Should you have nothing better to do, you can drop by RealClimate for a debunking of some of the doc’s claims, and also hear from a scientist whose views […]

The Farm Bill

Looks like they've put a pretty sensible package together for the new Farm Bill. Let's see if the Democrats cave to special interests in the Farm Belt on this issue. Seems like another topic worth a call to your representatives. Thank goodness for unlimited cell phone minutes.

A nice profile

In the latest issue of Seed, Chris Mooney has a nice profile of legendary climate scientist James Hansen. Here’s the nut: Yet Hansen isn’t afraid of value judgments either. With increasing stridency, he has been articulating a very political, very moral premise: We can’t take much more human-induced greenhouse warming if we want to preserve […]

Top 10 urban planning and development sites

Planetizen, the unfortunately named but eminently useful urban planning and development site, has released its list of the top 10 planning and development sites for 2007. FYI.

National groups says it will stick with creation care, thanks

In case you hadn’t heard, the National Association of Evangelicals told James Dobson and his merry band of retrograde knuckle-draggers to stuff it. In so many words. In response to Dobson et. al’s complaints about Rich Cizik’s efforts to make "creation care" a central evangelical concern, NAE’s board "reaffirmed a 2004 position paper, ‘For the […]

E.U. plans to slash climate emissions, United Nations to tackle e-waste, and more

Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: 2020 Vision One Giant Bleep for Mankind Circuit Training Now If Only They’d Stop Serving Meat Creation Careless Sister Hazell Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Intent of a Woman Levels of Risk Trash Course

But conservation isn’t sexy and doesn’t make headlines

Over the past few months, Grist has had some great pieces on biofuels, hydrogen power, and plug-in hybrids. Unfortunately, it's as if we've been debating the different types of low-flush toilets while ignoring the agricultural water subsidies that are responsible for 90 percent of the wasted water in America. Essentially, we've been distracted by supply-side opportunities and have dropped the ball on the demand side, which is exactly what the oil and car companies want.