Latest Articles
-
What’s the proper role of individuals and institutions in addressing climate change?
This may seem like a trivial question with an obvious answer. But what really is the proper role for individuals and institutions in addressing climate change? An immediate and natural response may be that everyone should do their part. Let’s see what that really means. Decisions affecting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, for example, are made […]
-
![]()
![]()
McMansion modular
Remember when modular homes were going to be part of the “green” future? In the post-Dwell, post-postmodern architecture era, pre-fab was going to be cheap, green, hot and hip. Yes, finally, an antidote to McMansions and an affordable alternative to ballooning home prices. As if that were not enough, these stylish boxes were set to […]
-
![]()
![]()
How many Venezuelan soldiers does it take to change a lightbulb?
An entire army, apparently. El Presidente of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, put in big orders for energy efficiency when he commanded the country’s lightbulbs get swapped for CFLs. Why the power play? A drought of hydropower has the nation in energy crisis and the military armed with efficient lightbulbs, laying waste to every wasteful incandescent in […]
-
Senators negotiate green economy bill with polluters who deny threat of global warming
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. As the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman triumvirate works to craft green economy legislation, they’re negotiating with industry lobbyists who deny the threat of global warming. After meeting with President Barack Obama and a dozen industry-friendly lawmakers, the trio of Senate negotiators sat down with representatives of the fossil-based economy: A cross section of […]
-
![]()
![]()
How the cap-and-trade controversy could lead to good clean energy policy
On Wednesday, bipartisan groups of legislators from both houses of Congress joined together to support a bill: the Rural Energy Savings Program, which would make low-interest loans available to rural homeowners to fund efficiency retrofits. The loans would come with no upfront cost and would be paid off with a small surcharge on utility bills […]
-
Job Creation Begins at Home
Originally published on TheRoot.com Today the Senate Energy Committee will begin debating a weatherization bill known as Home Star that aims to make American homes more energy efficient, while creating thousands of American jobs in the process. Home Star has the potential to significantly reduce residential energy consumption, saving consumers almost $10 billion over the […]
-
Where do things stand on international efforts to address global warming?
It is almost three months after the Copenhagen Accord was hammered out by 28 of the world’s key countries that represent over 80 percent of the world’s global warming pollution and some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (as I discussed here). Given the state of the Accord just after Copenhagen […]
-
![]()
![]()
Old growth, slow gain
Change is often incremental. Good change, usually glacial. That describes the update I recently received from a friend in Poland, anyhow, whose work I had just profiled in Earth Island Journal, here. His group’s efforts to win additional protections for the Bialowieza Primeval Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Europe’s largest lowland old growth […]
-
![]()
![]()
Colbert grows a ‘crisis herb garden’
Funny how everything these days is circling back to the garden. Troubled (in every sense of the word) ex-Housemember Eric Massa went on Glenn Beck recently to … to … self-immolate. Many progressives tuned in, and thus were exposed to an ad for so-called “Survival Seeds” — a kit for helping you grow your own […]
-
Price cannot steer emission reductions properly
In my last two posts I argued two points: emissions pricing is less popular with the public than funding of trains, renewable requirements and other types of public investment and rule based regulation . And the public is right. Clean energy, clean industry and clean agriculture are fundamentally infrastructure. Infrastructure depends much more on rules […]
