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Vilsack is out

Vilsack, we hardly knew ye. A long shot, yes. But those energy policies … so dreamy.

It’s all the buzz in Europe

Global warming and Chinese pottery to blame!

A dairy giant does the right thing

Erstwhile Gristmiller Sam Fromartz, true to form as an ex-reporter, has breaking news on his personal blog. Sam reports that Dean Foods, the dominant U.S. dairy supplier (you can find a list of its many brands here) has decided not to accept milk from cloned cows, despite recent USDA approval of the stuff. This is […]

McCain:

I’m not Bush! Update [2007-2-22 17:8:54 by David Roberts]: Hilarious. Check out ThinkProgress to see how the right-wing blogs have responded to McCain’s criticism of Bush on climate change. He’s joined the majority of people in the world loony left!

Must one do business with ADM?

Responding to my latest critique of Archer Daniels Midland and its business practices, a reader writes in to ask, “If I want to stop supporting ADM when grocery shopping, is there a list somewhere of what products to avoid buying?” That’s a great question. The short answer is, the best way to stiff ADM is […]

Can a carbon tax neutralize new carbon emitters?

At the Carbon Tax Center, we're forever on the lookout for new and outsized ways in which Americans are using energy. Too often, today's novelty item is just a clever marketing campaign away from tomorrow's sizable carbon emitter. Witness high-definition televisions, or Jet Skis.

If history is a guide, efficiency standards to govern new devices' fuel consumption won't be promulgated until after they have proliferated -- if ever. Carbon taxes, in contrast, could help rein in new products' energy requirements from the get-go, i.e., in the design stage. Where a product has little redeeming social value, the price signals from a carbon tax might even keep it from gaining a toehold in the culture.

These thoughts came to mind when we read an article in The New York Times (sub. rq.) last week about suburbia's latest must-have energy-guzzlers: home snowmaking machines.

Seriously

Commentary seems unnecessary: (hat tip: mean green dean machine)

First thoughts after the Global Green USA pre-Oscar party

Got back to Santa Barbara late last night early this morning from the Global Green USA pre-Oscar party in L.A. and am officially running on organic coffee fumes. Here are a few first impressions of a very eventful night:

• Using celebrities to lure hundreds of people with large disposable incomes into a club showcasing solar panels, natural carpets, and other sustainable building materials -- Global Green USA president Matt Petersen is a frickin' genius!


• Unfortunately, I don't fit into the "large disposable income" category. Do you think it's too early to ask for a Tesla sports car for Christmas?


• Chevy Chase thinks green carpets are cooler than red ones.


• Never got all tingly for Orlando Bloom until last night when he showed up with a new spiky haircut. Keep it up, Orlando -- keep it up.

Stay tuned; a more fulsome post to come.

Take the Grist reader survey

All of us here at Grist are still dying to know what you think of us. Don't keep us in suspense: Take our reader survey. We want it straight up, no sugar added, told like it is. We wanna make Grist better than ever.

If you're not into taking surveys for the warm fuzzies they give you, we'll sweeten the deal by entering you in a drawing to win a solar-powered backpack that can charge up all your electronic doodads.

So really now. Please?

Now and later

Peter Madden asks, "What should greens do about air travel?" The problem is twofold. Planes are responsible for about 3 percent of carbon emissions. But thanks to NO2 emissions from planes, and the fact that water vapor emitted at or near stratospheric levels (where planes fly) acts as forcing and not just as feedback (as at ground level), the actual effect on climate is about triple that from CO2 -- about 9 percent and rising.

Yes, yes, part of solution to all these problems is to tax environmental effects, and to stop massive subsidies of environmentally destructive things (like airports). But what technical means exist to respond to such signals? Is the world going to have become a bigger place again, with less travel?