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It’s the enemy of the human race

If you care about global warming, you've got to care about coal. Unlike oil and gas -- for which North American production is in decline -- there's plenty of coal left on American soil. And while some energy companies and promoters of "energy independence" see this as an unqualified good, those of us who see most issues through the lens of climate change see the "wall of coal" as one of the scariest things out there.

That's why California's latest foray into climate policy is so heartening:

SOTU hangover

I’m all burned out from blogging last night. What do y’all want to talk about?

Tesco will offer carbon labels

The folks over at Terrapass blogged this story today:

Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in Britain, has announced that it will begin labeling all 70,000 products on its shelves with the amount of carbon generated from the production, transport, and consumption of those items.

Lifts moratorium on Gore movie, still doesn’t get it

Good news: the Federal Way School Board just lifted its moratorium on An Inconvenient Truth.

Unfortunately, coverage in the Seattle Times, the largest paper in the region, was disappointing. It mostly treats the decision as a simple controversy without ever explaining that there is, in fact, only one right answer about the reality of human-induced climate change.

To paraphrase my earlier rantings: this is not a matter of personal opinion for lay people; it's a matter of scientific consensus. And when an article fails to acknowledge that overwhelming consensus, it misleads readers.

A new list will tell you

Mine are only fair -- Duke got a B and Maryland a C. The Rockefeller-funded Sustainable Endowments Institute just released its College Sustainability Report Card 2007 (PDF).

They rate the schools in the categories of administration, food & recycling, green building, climate change & energy, shareholder engagement, investment priorities, and endowment transparency.

Tell us what you think of us.

Now really, folks -- judging by the comments you leave and the letters we get, y'all have a lot to say. So get yourself on over here and sign up for a Grist phone survey. It's quick and easy! Here's your chance to tell us what Grist means to you, and where you think we should go from here. C'mon -- we can take it.

The LNG Kiss Goodnight

Controversial natural-gas terminal in Long Beach, Calif., gets the boot Friends, we are gathered here today to wo0t the death of a planned liquefied-natural-gas terminal in Long Beach, Calif. Citing a city attorney’s conclusion that the environmental review of the project “is and in all likelihood will remain legally inadequate,” Long Beach officials yesterday unanimously […]

Thermal Under Where?

Report encourages investment in safe, clean geothermal energy If the U.S. is going to insist on looking for energy underground, there’s a better option than drilling for oil, researchers say: generating steamy geothermal electricity by circulating water down into hot rocks below the earth’s surface and back up into power plants. An MIT study commissioned […]

You’ve got to see this to believe it

I kept expecting one of the kids to look into the camera and kick this spoof into high gear. I finally realized ... it's real. Too bad, just a few modifications to the script and this film would have been hilarious:

Huge in Boise

Deep in the red state of Idaho, Al Gore was scheduled to speak in at Boise State University, offering the keynote address to a conference on climate change. The school gave away all 1,000 tickets to the venue in ten minutes, leaving almost 1,000 more people waiting in line. Oops! OK, so they moved the […]