Latest Articles

Why it’s worth passing a crappy climate bill

This weekend I was asked to contribute to The New York Times‘ Room for Debate. I was kind of under the impression that the question was, “Is the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill worth passing?” Apparently, though, it was, “Does the climate bill stand a chance?” Obviously those questions have different answers! Mine was geared to the former, […]

Clearing the Clean Energy Innovation Threshold

The latest from the Brookings Institution’s Mark Muro is a perfectly succinct summary of how one should judge the coming Kerry-(Graham?)-Lieberman Senate climate and energy bill, reportedly scheduled for release this Wednesday: What is clear, though, is this: To get to a good bill senators need to deal properly with the revenue–whether from offshore oil […]

Oil spills and human health: Lessons from history

Cleanup crews get the highest exposures to both the oil spill itself and chemical dispersants.Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Oil spill clean-up brings workers and volunteers into close contact with chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health.  As we deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, it helps to brush […]

First look at Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s green cred

Update: Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan hasn’t said much about her environmental views, but she has a solid record of supporting climate law. Here’s the full story on her green cred. Courtesy Doc Searls via Wikimedia Commons—– Well, President Obama picked Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his second Supreme Court nominee. Here’s what we learned […]

No more nuggets: Berkeley schools serve Epic Chicken

In this second, multi-post set of his Cafeteria Confidential series, Ed Bruske reports on his recent week-long, firsthand look at how Berkeley, Calif., schools part ways from the typical school diet of frozen, industrially processed convenience foods. Cross-posted from The Slow Cook. And check out the rest of the Cafeteria Confidential series. My instructions, simple […]

Ask Umbra on the word “green,” DIY laundry detergent, and computer batteries

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Whenever I read the word “green” in quotation marks, I get the same sensation as when I hear nails on a chalkboard. Can you help me understand how this practice came about and what differentiates something as being “green” vs. just plain old green (sans quotation marks)? […]

Al Gore, Bill McKibben and the urgency of now

  Question #1: Who has done more to build the 21st century climate movement, Al Gore or Bill McKibben?   Question #2: Who is doing the most right now to build the kind of climate movement we need?   Short answers: Al Gore for question #1, Bill McKibben for question #2.   Another question: Is […]

50 years after the Pill and this is the best we can do?

Happy 50th Birthday, Pill.The media are making a big deal out of fêting the Pill on its 50th birthday, but forgive me if I don’t see much reason to celebrate. Of course I’ll grant that the birth control pill has vastly improved the lives of many women — more than 100 million are taking it […]

Renewable Energy Solution of the Month – Wind

  That there is power in the wind is not a new discovery, man has been using it for thousands of years. What most people don’t realize is how much experimentation has been going  on in this century.       there is no shortage of energy..  

Obama’s failure on climate change

Last week, Josh Green had an op-ed in The Boston Globe called “Even an oil spill won’t move Washington,” which points out the bizarre fact that the BP Gulf oil disaster seems only to have entrenched politicians in their pre-existing positions. They asked me to write a short response for their website. I did, and […]