Latest Articles
-
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 […]
-
![]()
![]()
How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions … all at once!
Most homeowners in the U.S. would come out ahead if they invested in energy efficiency improvements — new insulation, sealed windows, more efficient boilers, and the like. So why don’t they do it? Simple: the upfront costs are steep and the paybacks can take a long time. Many homeowners don’t have access to the capital […]
-
![]()
![]()
Banana briefs are growing on us
Gents, if the thought of pesticides on your privates bums you out, then start thinking outside the boxer. AussieBum has gone down under to pioneer briefs that put a banana in your pants. That’s right, these skivvies are a smoothie mix of banana tree-bark fibers, organic cotton, Lycra (cough), and an “eco friendly flavor that […]
-
![]()
![]()
Breakthrough polymers promise versatile, immortal plastics — a good thing
If you want to build a sustainable street, neighborhood, city, or world, I have one word for you: plastics. The facts about plastic have become part of the green liturgy. More than 30 million tons of the stuff is dumped into the municipal waste stream each year in the United States. Disposable water bottles have […]
-
![]()
![]()
Retooling green jobs for the next generation
When you think “green jobs,” do you conjure images of green hard hats, caulk guns, and tool belts? Well it might be time to start thinking about “green” lab beakers, “green” drafting tables and “green” brief cases as well, because the careers needed to secure competitive clean energy industries will also run the gamut from […]
-
![]()
![]()
Big Oil uses fake ‘Americans’ to attack fake ‘energy taxes’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Big Oil is using fake “Americans” to defend billions in tax subsidies. The American Petroleum Institute is running full-page ads in Politico and Roll Call that attack Congress for “new energy taxes”: Congress will likely consider new taxes on America’s oil and natural gas industry. These new energy taxes will […]
-
![]()
![]()
A recipe for delish disaster: global warming hot apple pie
apocalypsecakes.wordpress.com Just because the planet is turning up the heat, doesn’t mean we should get out of the kitchen. If we’re going to be globally baking anyway, we might as well take a slice out of the life of pi pie of life while we’re at it. So go eat up this delectable recipe for […]
