Uncategorized

What Is This “Integrity” You Speak Of?

States undercharging big emitters for pollution In probably the first-ever instance of corporate polluters not being held accountable, a study has found that at least 18 states collected such low fees from big emitters that they couldn’t cover the cost of enforcement programs set out by the Clean Air Act. According to the nonprofit Environmental […]

Congrats to Fargo!

Seattle is in 7th heaven. The Earth Day Network has issued its Urban Environment Report, which "scores the current environmental performance of 72 of our nation’s cities based on over 200 indicators, taking into account those populations which may have greater sensitivity or susceptibility to environmental, health, and social problems." The big winner overall? Well […]

Carbon offsets make for strange bedfellows

I sometimes joke that the one environmental topic that unites the far right and far left is a distate for carbon offsets. This, I should stress, is a joke -- overly broad, unfairly general, etc., etc.* But it is the case that the topic of carbon offsets occasionally makes for strange bedfellows.

The fake controversy over Al Gore's carbon footprint is a case in point. TerraPass recently had the pleasure of being featured on Glenn Beck's CNN program (Glenn Beck of Al Gore = Hitler fame).** We were declared a crock by Sean Hannity, and we were denounced by none other than Rush Limbaugh.

A sensible way to view them

Greg Easterbrook, whom I respect (even though I don't always agree with him) has an interesting op-ed in today's New York Times on carbon offsets.

He examines the issue and concludes that reducing greenhouse gases will be a boon for developing countries because it will be cheaper for us to pay them to reduce greenhouse gases than for us to.

Aristotle in the climate age

Alex Steffen: To think that we can “solve” climate change without addressing poverty, human rights, democratization, conflict, epidemic disease, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, food issues and the like is to suffer from carbon blindness. Any climate plan which does not have sustainable prosperity as its ultimate goal will fail, just as surely as any effort […]

Global Inheritance seeks creative types for new project

The creative minds over at Global Inheritance are at it again with an exciting (and somewhat mysterious) project they’re calling the Energy FACTory. The project will be part of a … ahem … certain live event reaching some 200,000+ people over a 10-day period in SoCal in late April/early May. (My sources reveal that the […]

Cuba’s response to its peak oil emergency

The Orion Grassroots Network just screened this new film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil for a capacity crowd, and I'd recommend it to any organizer seeking to stimulate conversation about how to start to getting our communities off of oil.

An ecotourism success story

Conservation news is generally depressing, to say the least. Apparently, this has been pointed out to the folks at Mongabay and that is why they came up with the "happy-upbeat environmental news" section for those who just can't take it anymore. I really enjoyed this story about two Ecuadorian brothers who turned their land into a birder's paradise rather than a plantation. I know a few birders and they spend most of their vacations looking for new species to cross off their "must see before I die" list. Some are taking it to another level with photos that they can upload to the internet for additional bragging rights.

Blog Against Sexism Day

Today is International Women’s Day, and in honor of that, bloggers are banding together for Blog Against Sexism Day. So what do environmental concerns and women’s issues have in common (and how much do I hate the phrase “women’s issues” anyway? I can’t think of one of ’em that’s not everyone’s issue)? Well, where to […]

Possibly the most important environmental issue out there

Understanding the role subsidies play in environmental outcomes is crucial; I would argue that it is the most important environmental policy issue of all. So here's a very quick primer.