Latest Articles

The Climate Post: Warming apparently takes extra time off for holidays

First things first: Our story left off at the COP-15 negotiations, minutes after world leaders released their three-page Copenhagen Accord [pdf], a broad statement of political intent to address the issues that — according to the (old) U.N. schedule — should have been addressed by now. This result begs the question: Did 2009 end with […]

Pesticides loom large in animal die-offs

Yale’s Environment 360 has a new must-read report by Sonia Shah linking pesticides to the high-profile die-offs among amphibians, bees, and bats. What makes this news timely isn’t necessarily the toxicity of the pesticides per se, it’s the indirect effects on these animals of chronic, low-dose exposure to chemicals: In the past dozen years, no […]

The melting of America

This was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Lately, I’ve been studying the climate-change induced melting of glaciers in the Greater Himalaya. Understanding the cascading effects of the slow-motion downsizing of one of the planet’s most magnificent landforms has, to put it politely, left me dispirited. Spending time considering […]

Science confirms that blowing up mountains harms mountains

Scientists would shout this from the mountaintops, but …Photo: farukahmet via Creative CommonsLet’s say you trundle a bunch of enormous industrial equipment into North America’s oldest mountains (an intact temperate ecosystem boasting rich biodiversity, including a number of endangered species), clear-cut the forests, blow millions of tons off the top of the mountains, dump the […]

Coal: Looking Back at 2009 & Ahead at 2010

2009 was one hell of a year!  For the first time in more than six years, no new coal-fired power plants broke ground. It is hard to believe, but we are close to closing the book on one of the most dangerous chapters of the Bush-Cheney era – the ill-conceived 2001 Bush-Cheney Energy Plan that […]

Everyone Poops – – and a few spin gold

Thanks to the global effort to cut carbon, we could soon be spinning waste of all kinds -- including poop -- into big bucks.

Reports of climate bill death are greatly exaggerated

Despite speculation from a few Beltway pundits, recent events suggest that there is momentum for the passage of a comprehensive clean energy and global warming legislation in 2010. Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-S.C.) commitment to work with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft legislation is a significant political breakthrough. Sen. Graham voted […]

Transportation bill could produce environmental and job benefits in 2010

As advocates for clean energy and good jobs evaluate opportunities to advance their issues in 2010 — from a jobs bill that could include energy efficiency measures to a federal clean energy and climate bill — there is another oft-overlooked vehicle that advocates would be wise to consider. This year, Congress will likely pass a […]

Q&A: what will happen with climate legislation in 2010?

By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian’s U.S. environment correspondent What is the state of play for climate change legislation in America? Barack Obama put his reputation on the line at Copenhagen by saying America would act on climate change. Now it’s up to Congress. The House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey bill last June which would […]

Russ Parsons on launching a civil, inclusive food-system debate

Can we all just get along? Image: Tom Twigg for GristIn a recent article, the LA Times foodie pundit Russ Parsons attempted to start a “more constructive give-and-take, the start of a true conversation” on the food system. He argues the debate has congealed into a tedious battle between “hard-line aggies” who are “convinced that […]