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Obama gives strong jobs speech, defends pollution standards

Obama’s big job speech exceeded expectations. He didn't mention clean energy by name, but he did emphasize that it's a core job-creating industry.

Chris Christie met with Koch brother before pulling out of climate pact

Tape of a secret meeting between Christie and one of the Koch brothers sheds light on Christie's decision to pull out of a regional climate initiative.

The World Bank Still Can't Quit Dirty Coal

This column was co-written by Justin Guay of the Sierra Club International Program. As the New York Times recently reported, coal plants don’t come dirtier than the Soviet-era relics currently in operation in Kosovo. Despite the terrible pollution these plants spew, the World Bank has decided the only option for this young country is to […]

Obama's Job: Protect Us from Pollution [video]

While Obama’s jobs speech is being framed as a turning point for his tenure as President, there is another job I would respectively suggest he concentrate on: his own. Here’s a quick video ad that I think gets right to point: Late last week the President blocked reforms to the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to […]

Representative thinks Obama controls the weather

Yeah, that's Rep. Joe Wilson, of the "You lie!" outburst. Is it possible the reason they don't believe in science is that they actually believe in magic?

This Roller Coaster Never Stops

Waking up every morning thinking about how to move us beyond coal always comes with its share of highs and lows. But last week was an exceptionally wild roller coaster, and it left my brain spinning Last week started with an adrenaline rush as the City of Alexandria, Virginia and GenOn Energy announced plans to […]

An ode to scary mutant fruits

Awl editor Alex Balk found out that farmers have been tinkering with plant genetics to create cross-breeds like "pluerries," and it inspired him to heights of lyrical brilliance:

Please Don't Make The Fruits Do Sex To Each Other

The freakish fruits that Science spawns—
The pros we know, but not the cons
What laws of nature might we breach
By blending apricot and peach?

How Gmail saves energy

There are a lot of benefits to cloud computing. For instance, if you believe the commercials, it lets you replace your family’s heads with better heads! Also, it saves you storage space and means you can access your data with multiple devices. But this might be the best argument so far: Switching from local email […]

The Political and Technical Advantages of Distributed Renewable Power

A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 3 of 5. Click for Part 1 or Part 2. The Political and Technical Advantages of Distributed Generation While technology has helped change the economics of electricity production (in favor of renewables and distributed generation), this new dynamic can as easily be controlled […]

Do individual green actions matter? Maybe not, says New York Times

The Huffington Post's eco-etiquette column yesterday featured a question from “Kimberly,” who writes "I used to be enthusiastic about going green, but now I feel like what's the point? Like a stupid reusable water bottle is going to make a difference…" She got a comforting answer, but if she’d written to the New York Times, op-ed contributor Gernot Wagner might have told her she might as well pack it in.

HuffPo’s advice columnist Jennifer Grayson identified Kimberly’s problem — "You're having a F**k it moment right now" — and told her to step back, take a breather, and "remember that individual actions do make a difference."

But Wagner, an economist with the Environmental Defense Fund, has a different answer for people like Kimberly:

[S]adly, individual action does not work. It distracts us from the need for collective action, and it doesn’t add up to enough. Self-interest, not self-sacrifice, is what induces noticeable change. ...