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Climate skeptics descend on the Copenhagen talks
Cross-posted from MotherJones.com. The Bella Center, the venue hosting the Copenhagen climate negotiations, is overflowing with advocates seeking action on climate change. But their opponents have turned out in force too. They’re a little harder to identify than, say, the activists walking around dressed as trees. But working the crowds are some of the biggest […]
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Can delicious crepes create a buckwheat revival?
Just add Paris: buckwheat crepes in their glory.April McGregerMy love for buckwheat first blossomed in the Soba-ya shops of Japan. Years later, that love was rekindled on the sidewalks of Paris eating Galletes de Sarrasin, or Breton-style savory buckwheat crepes, washed down with hard apple cider in stoneware cups. I found the deep, pleasantly bitter, […]
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Exxon’s man in Copenhagen
Brian Flannery.Photo: Jonathan HiskesI tracked down Brian Flannery today. He’s the top climate advisor for ExxonMobil, a veteran of international climate talks, and a bona fide villain in the eyes of environmental groups. That’s largely due to Exxon’s funding of front groups that sow misinformation about the urgency of climate change. Today Flannery was wearing […]
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NASA climate scientist should come back to earth
Eric’s take on Jim Hansen’s opposition to cap and trade is exactly right. Hansen is a renowned NASA climate scientist. But on climate policy, he’s just lost in space. Now, I’m not going to call Hansen’s support for carbon taxes misguided. Remember, we LIKE carbon taxes. We’ve given BC’s pathbreaking carbon tax lots of sloppy […]
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A global perspective on U.S. climate emissions
To mark the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, I’m trotting out some maps I made a while back. This one has states labeled with the names of countries that are their greenhouse gas equivalents. In other words, Oregon is responsible for the same level of climate emissions as Ireland; Wyoming is the greenhouse gas equivalent of Vietnam, and so […]
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View from Copenhagen: The Zero Sum Game
The deal being discussed in Denmark right now, in the name of climate change, is actually a framework for truth in advertising on a global economic scale. Think FASB on steroids. For example, we spend about three bucks for a gallon of gasoline in the US. In fact, we spend about ten, because of the […]
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Kyoto: Congress’ disgrace, not ‘Al Gore’s mistake’
A specter hangs over the U.S. negotiators at the Copenhagen climate summit: the Kyoto Syndrome. Conventional wisdom holds that the Clinton Administration, and Al Gore in particular, blew it by agreeing to the Kyoto Accords without building the foundation for the Senate to ratify it, which it never did. (See, e.g., “How to Prevent Climate […]
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Meg Boyle weighs in: Why Copenhagen isn't Kyoto
Meg Boyle, acclaimed youth climate leader (though isn’t it time we jettison the ‘youth’ modifier – I weighed in here on this issue last year!) and my comrade-in-arms at whatwedo.org has this excellent new post from COP15. Please offer your comments, and be in touch with her this way: Meg AT whatwedo DOT org **** […]
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U.S. charm offensive at Copenhagen climate conference: Will it work?
COPENHAGEN — Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, pushed through a crush of visitors at the U.S. Center late this morning, stepped to the podium in front of a packed meeting room, and became the first of President Obama’s senior advisors to appear at the U.N. Climate Change Conference specifically to make […]
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Susan Collins (R-Maine) [UPDATED]
Susan Collins Though Sen. Susan Collins seems supportive of climate legislation, she remains a toss-up in the debate over the Kerry-Boxer bill. In this letter sent to a constituent in early December, she calls for “meaningful action” to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, while saying that solutions must be “reasonable”: Dear [Constituent], Thank you for contacting me […]
