Latest Articles
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Is Copenhagen a ‘nothingburger’ to the Senate? ‘Not a chance in hell’ says Kerry
First published at Wonk Room. Now that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have returned from Copenhagen with a draft accord committing China, India, and the United States to a new era of climate action, the onus lies on the U.S. Senate to pass ambitious clean energy legislation. “Not a chance in hell […]
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On first anniversary of massive spill, coal ash remains unregulated
On December 22nd, 2008, a quiet evening in the town of Harriman, Tennessee was interrupted when 1.2 billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge burst out of a nearby landfill, poisoning the land and water in its path and causing untold hardship for families whose lives were turned upside down. A year later, the underlying […]
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5 common mistakes in the coverage of the Copenhagen Accord
With the exception of a few hours of shut-eye, I stayed up all Friday night to watch the last hours of the COP15 negotiations. It was absolutely gripping, shocking, heart-wrenching, inspiring and in the end came with some measure of relief. (BTW — for anyone that would like to watch any part of Friday night’s […]
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Rough initial thoughts on the Copenhagen Accord
Copenhagen was obviously a failure — at least if you judge it by “the numbers,” the formal emission targets and financial commitments that are needed to support a fair and effective emergency global climate mobilization. If you judge it, that is, by what is necessary. The more pressing question, though, is whether Copenhagen was a […]
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Top 10 worst Christmas gifts
The Jamaica Plain Green House today released its second annual list of “Top 10 Worst Christmas Gifts.” The list ranges from $2 stocking stuffers to baubles of the super-rich. JP Green House co-founder Ken Ward said, “These ten items achieved high scores on each of three criteria — profligate, unnecessary, and tasteless energy use — […]
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Seven steps to achieving a real climate deal
So where do we go from here? How do we get from the disorganized, disappointing, dispiriting debacle of Copenhagen to a new and worthwhile climate treaty? The world needs solid directions for getting to a real climate deal in Mexico next year.Asking the question recalls the famous joke about the Irishman who, when asked by […]
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Broken promises follow Tennessee coal ash disaster
It was one year ago today that a 60-foot-tall dam broke at a holding pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in Roane County, Tenn., dumping more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash onto a nearby community and into the Clinch and Emory rivers. The largest industrial waste spill in U.S. […]
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Post-Copenhagen pledge: Coal free future begins in Kentucky
This post was co-written by Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, and Ben Sollee, co-founders of the Coal Free Future Project. On the heels of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, we plan to make our own post-Copenhagen pledge here at home: It’s time to envision a coal-free future. It’s time for clean energy independence. For those of us […]
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Christmas and Copenhagen
The huge—and hugely disappointing, as far as the official results—Copenhagen world climate conference has just concluded. Since the worldwide celebrations of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are coming up later this week, I thought I would study the words of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to see if any of what he said there was of relevance to what just happened in Copenhagen.
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Copenhagen Prognosis: The ‘almost overwhelming challenge’ of a carbon-free civilization
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. A new scientific report, the Copenhagen Prognosis, outlines the terrible challenge the world faces from climate change — as well as several paths to safety. World leaders in Copenhagen struggled to come to a provisional accord that would provide a framework for sustainable civilization. But a team of the world’s […]
