Latest Articles

New research: Fructose increases risk of diabetes, heart disease [UPDATED]

You should lay off the sauce–it’s not good for your liver. [Author’s Note:] This post, reacting to the findings of a University of California, Davis, study on fructose, quoted and relied heavily on an error-laden Times of London story. That said, the post generated a lot of valuable discussion in the comments section below, including […]

Cellulosic ethanol: time to ‘party like it’s 2014’?

Cellulosic ethanol, after 30 years of R&D (much of it on the public dime), is ready to deliver on its promises. No longer perpetually five years away from commercial viability, the technology has come into its own. Unlike pretender energy sources like wind and solar, cellulosic is the “‘shovel-ready,’ ‘fire when ready’ technology for short-term […]

Fossil jujitsu to save climate talks?

This has always been the big duh of climate and clean energy policy: How ‘bout we start by ending subsidies to fossil fuel development?  Clean energy reform is hard enough, swimming against the killer tides of free carbon dumping, car-centered development, and oil-soaked politics.  Can we pleeze stop adding insult to injury by targeting scarce […]

How about we stop claiming environmentalists are “anti-human”

Know what’s really depressing? Dragging out old saws about anti-human environmentalists.In the dark of night yesterday — OK, at 8:02 p.m. — Slate published a piece by Anne Applebaum that calls out the “anti-human prejudices of the climate change movement.” Specifically, she is worried that the news coming from Copenhagen is turning her nine-year-old son […]

Silicon Valley to Copenhagen: It’s OK to fail, if you do it right

If at first you don’t succeed …a lesson from Silicon Valley for climate policymakers.iStock PhotoCOPENHAGEN — At the “To Be or Not To Be” business summit at Hamlet’s Castle over the weekend, one French executive joked about not trusting a business that was less than 150 years old (ah, those witty folk from “old Europe” […]

End TVA's special treatment under law, enviros urge Obama

Representatives from 15 environmental advocacy groups have called on President Obama to end the Tennessee Valley Authority’s immunity from federal prosecution for its Kingston coal ash disaster and other violations of federal law. In a letter [pdf] sent to the president Dec. 14, the environmentalists point to several examples of the utility flouting the law […]

Denialism and the power of fear

There are two types of pesky partisans on the loose right now who refuse to accept reality due to their ideological blindness — birthers and global warming deniers. This realization struck me last week as I listened to Republicans argue that we should let the world boil over, all while they “dithered” over reading silly […]

A report on stimulus investments in clean energy and the jobs they create

On Tuesday, the Vice President’s office will send Obama a progress report on “The Transformation to A Clean Energy Economy” (PDF). It’s a wide-angle assessment of the stimulus spending that has gone to clean energy projects, the private capital that has been leveraged by those investments, and the jobs that will be saved or created […]

Chaos and grumbling outside Bella conference center in Copenhagen

Tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to get in.Photo: Australian Science Media CenterCOPENHAGEN–What requires more stamina? Childbirth or standing outside COP15’s Bella Center for five solid hours in sub-freezing weather in a line of hundreds trying to pick up badges to enter? They’re both ravaging, but at least childbirth has a payoff. On my first day […]

Climate Denial Crock of the Week/Climate Deniers Love the 70s – The Remix

Everyone has a favorite decade, and for Climate deniers, that decade has got to be, the 70s. Yes, the decade of disco, kung fu, and watergate! Because in the 70’s, Deniers will tell you, All climate scientists believed an ice age was coming. Those crazy climate scientists! Why can’t they make up their minds? But […]