Articles

Battle of the carbon titans

As summer approaches, so do the action-fantasy movies. Last week, the venue was not the local cineplex, but another location noted for outlandish egos, special effects, and scripts that require substantial amounts of imagination to fill in the gaps — Washington D.C. Two titans of the wars to tackle climate change and modernize the nation’s […]

Terry Tamminen Technology

Reclaiming the streets

Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility, as well as increased air […]

Lester Brown Cities

Feeling sheepish: An exercise in small-town networking

Sheep ready to be unloaded into their new pen from the borrowed livestock rack.(Steph Larsen photos)My first experience working directly with cows on a daily basis was not a particularly good one. It was 7 years ago on an organic dairy farm in England, and while most of the 99 Ayrshires were docile, the well-placed […]

Steph Larsen Food

Oil companies fund initiative to repeal California’s landmark climate law

Texas oil companies are funding an attack on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature environmental accomplishment, the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act.Gov. Schwarzenegger’s OfficeBig Oil is nothing if not brazen, so while BP works to protect its tattered reputation in the Gulf, two Texas oil companies are on the attack in California. Their target is Assembly Bill 32, […]

Jonathan Hiskes Politics

Outcomes, not mechanisms: the effects of the American Power Act

The top-notch climate/energy team at the Peterson Institute for International Economics has just released a comprehensive assessment of “the economic, employment, energy security, and environmental impact of the American Power Act” (by Trevor Houser, Shashank Mohan, and Ian Hoffman). I’ll post their main conclusions below, but first a quick point. PIIE’s analysis focuses on the […]

David Roberts Politics

Kerry-Lieberman has zero chance of passing

I recently posted that Kerry-Lieberman is not worth fighting for. It also won’t pass. This proposal is dead on arrival. I’ve heard supporters describe two paths to passage, though they sound more like wishes upon stars. One is that Obama suddenly prioritizes climate, and makes a large scale push to support the bill. I’ll let […]

Gar Lipow Politics

Boost your support for urban agriculture with a rice-growing bra

AFPEager to show your full support for urban farming, ladies? Then try this over-the-shoulder rice-paddy holder: a bra that double-A’s a pot to grow rice, complete with irrigation system (the watering hose is a belt that holds seedlings). The concept was inspired by the recent boom of interest in boob food security. It’s not Victoria’s […]

Ashley Braun Technology

American Power Act — Climate Solutions’ initial reactions

This piece was co-authored by Ross Macfarlane. Sens. Kerry (D-Mass) and Lieberman (I-Conn) finally released the American Power Act (APA) on Wednesday, May 11, after months of internal negotiations, and nearly a year after the House passed its comprehensive climate and energy bill, (the American Clean Energy and Security Act or ACES). Climate Solutions is […]

KC Golden Politics

Rand Paul’s Copenhagen rant and other election notes

Climate and energy issues barely registered in this month’s primary coverage, but Rand Paul (son of Ron) saw fit to take on the Copenhagen climate talks after becoming the Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky last night. “We have a president who went to Copenhagen and appeared with Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chávez and others — Evo […]