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Critical List: Keystone XL delayed; heating your home with firewood

The Obama administration delayed approval of the Keystone XL pipeline! (You probably already heard that, but we're still excited!) The White House says the decision's not political but "based on the process that we've been going through" (that up until enviros started protesting was moving swiftly towards approval). Oh, and the decision will now come […]

Defense insiders: Sustainable communities are key to the future

David Orr.Photo: Lisa DeJongThis story is the second of two pieces excerpted from a feature story in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Read the first piece here, and the full Chronicle story here. Environmental studies professor David Orr has set out to turn the aging rust belt town of Oberlin, Ohio, into a laboratory for […]

Is your stuff falling apart? Thank Walmart

Forever in blue jeans, babe? Not anymore.Photo: bburkyMy friend Tony’s closet is as good a place as any to begin an investigation of Walmart’s environmental impact. Tony has a pair of Levi’s that date back to high school more than 20 years ago. They still fit him and they’re still in rotation. The fabric has […]

Smacking down the latest Solyndra silliness

I’m really getting tired of playing this game.Photo: Thomas HawkI’m as sick of writing about Solyndra as y’all are of reading about it, but somebody’s got to write something sane about this latest chapter, and obviously the political press has no interest in doing so. You may have seen the new rash of stories in […]

We won a temporary victory on Keystone XL, but the fight goes on

Dear Friends, Um, we won. You won. Not completely. The president didn’t outright reject the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. My particular fantasy — that he would invite the 1,253 people arrested on his doorstep in August inside the gates for a victory picnic by the vegetable garden — didn’t materialize. But today the […]

What is the price of an environmentalist’s vote?

Photo: Tar Sands ActionThe Obama administration has decided to delay a decision on the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline until after the 2012 election. This is only a temporary, inadequate victory, but an extraordinary achievement for the thousands of grassroots activists who put ourselves on the line. It’s also clear evidence for the environmental movement that […]

How Coke reversed a bottle ban in the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is very beautiful, except when it's covered with disposable Dasani bottles left by littering tourists, which is a major problem for the park. So the National Park Service decided to ban disposable bottles. But then a bigwig at Coca Cola, which has donated $13 million to the park service over the years, […]

How delaying Keystone XL could kill the pipeline completely

The Obama administration just announced that the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline will be delayed as it studies a potential new route for the project, one that does not take it across a critical groundwater aquifer that supplies water to more than 1 million people. This delay, projected to be 12 to 18 months, might very […]

Are we all toast after 2017?

Cross-posted from Council on Foreign Relations. The annual International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO) was published yesterday with an attention-grabbing headline: The chance of avoiding dangerous climate change will “be lost forever” unless the world changes course by 2017. The basic argument is simple. The world is constantly accumulating more fossil fuel-based infrastructure […]

Using Sustainable Water to Plan for the Next Billion

Last week, Danica May Camacho of the Philippines became the world’s symbolic seven billionth person. The occasion drew mixed feelings in the policy world — what does a booming global population mean for climate risks? To cite one issue, leaders are worried about the declining supply of water in regions vital to economic growth. This isn’t […]