Latest Articles
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Delegation from oil-afflicted Amazon visits Louisiana tribes hit by BP disaster
A delegation of indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador is visiting Louisiana this week at the invitation of the United Houma Nation, a tribe in coastal Lafourche and Terrebone parishes that has been hit hard by the BP oil catastrophe. The Ecuadoreans have come to share lessons they’ve learned dealing with another oil disaster: U.S. […]
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A Salon debate on cap-and-trade and energy politics: day four
Last week, I took part in a debate at Salon.com on the merits of pricing carbon (and related matters). My debate opponent was Steve Everley, manager of policy research at American Solutions and a contributing author to To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine, by Newt Gingrich. Salon has graciously agreed to let us republish […]
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Portugal’s eco-city, Amazon’s ugly HQ, and more urban notes
Progress toward a sustainable future may be stalled in the Senate, but there’s a ton of news and interesting research happening at the local level on the broad topic of improving built spaces — cities, towns, buildings, transportation systems, etc. A quick roundup from the local solutions beat: Living-PlanIT.comPlanIT Valley: Portugal’s planning to build a […]
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Let’s resolve the oil spill by annoying BP to death
Photo: Adam Quirk Even if you haven’t been paying attention to major events in the news lately, you still might have picked up on two things. There’s a huge, ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and BP is bungling it up taking the heat for it. The rest of the planet is obsessed […]
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Food police have cameo at Kagan confirmation hearing
Update below. Food made an appearance today at Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wanted to explore the reach of the Constitution’s “commerce clause,” which allows Congress to regulate interstate business. (Conservatives like to argue that it has been used to extend government power far beyond what the framers intended. […]
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The man behind the climate models
Warren Washington literally wrote the book on climate modeling. Introduction to Three-Dimensional Climate Modeling, which he co-authored with Claire L. Parkinson in 2005, is the classic graduate-level text in the field. A former head of the American Meteorological Society and an adviser to every president — Republican and Democrat alike — since Jimmy Carter, Washington […]
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Chicken expert Gail Damerow answers newbie questions
Cluck, cluck, cluck. Bwaak! These are not sounds I expect to hear on a stroll in my North Oakland, Calif. neighborhood — the usual soundtrack is more like thumping bass, sirens, and the rattle of fast-food paper bags. And yet chickens are pecking in backyards on practically every block, in converted sheds and rickety but […]
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In Era of Turmoil, The Top Of The World Is Melting
By Keith Schneider In January, when the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged that it was wrong in predicting that the glaciers of the Himalayas could be gone by 2035, skeptics of global warming used the error to assert that much of climate science was a fraud. Next month, though, the Asia Society […]
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Will these critters be endangered by the Gulf gusher?
These congresscritters are top recipients of contributions from the oil and gas sector — and some of its most vocal supporters, even in the face of a catastrophically unpopular oil leak. Might the Gulf-spill mess threaten their survival? Well, don’t bet on it … Photo: Republican Conference via Flickr Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) “I’m ashamed […]
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Passaic riverkeeper sees signs of hope despite the slow pace of cleanup
Andy Willner, activist and advocate of the Passaic.Photo courtesy of al-ICE g via FlickrOn Jan. 2, 1990, a leaking pipeline at Bayonne, New Jersey’s Exxon Bayway oil refinery sent 567,000 gallons of heating fuel into the surrounding waterways and marsh. Andy Willner volunteered to help the affected wildlife. He wound up collecting a truckload of […]
