Latest Articles
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How to explain Copenhagen to a comedian
Photo illustration / iStock images Comedian Eugene Mirman is going to Copenhagen for Grist to cover the international climate talks. Eugene is a fairly well-informed guy (he at least scans Google News looking for reviews of his latest album), but he’s the first to admit that he doesn’t live, eat, and smoke climate policy. At […]
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Byrd calls tactics of ‘fear mongering’ coal industry ‘morally indefensible’
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The West Virginia coal industry has become a virulent opponent of President Barack Obama’s reform agenda, and the state’s political leaders have cheered it on. In June, West Virginia declared coal the state rock. In September, the coal industry sponsored a rock concert and rally to […]
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America’s greenest mayor, laid off and looking on
Greg Nickels. It was a dark, dreary, drizzly November morning in Seattle when I visited Greg Nickels, the city’s lame-duck mayor and an influential national voice on the need for climate action over the last decade. Outside the LEED Gold-certified City Hall, a gray murk hung in the air, nearly obscuring Elliott Bay five blocks […]
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Developing country action to reduce global warming pollution: Copenhagen (part 3)
“If only developing countries would take action to reduce their global warming pollution.” That is the refrain that was heard in capitals around the world for years. This was driven partly by a concern over competitiveness in some places (e.g., the U.S. and E.U.). And it was also driven by the reality that global emissions […]
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The economics of renewable energy certificates
Tom Stoddard, cofounder of carbon offset firm NativeEnergy, sent along the following response to a recent blog post by Auden Schendler: Auden: In your post entitled “Why Buying Cheap Energy Certificates Worsens Climate Change,” you take the position people shouldn’t buy what are now relatively inexpensive renewable energy certificates (RECs) because $2 per megawatt hour […]
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A quarter-century later, lessons from the world’s deadliest agrichemical disaster
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. The number of people affected, injured, and killed has been the subject of debate. But it seems clear that a half a million were exposed to some degree to MIC and other chemicals released and approximately […]
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The American worker: An endangered species
To the iconic image of a polar bear struggling onto a crumbling ice floe, or that of a condor chick peering from its human-made nest, we must add another image: that of an American worker at his or her trade. Endangered species are a concern to all environmentalists, and the plight of the worker should […]
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Why We Fight
We fight, even against insurmountable odds, because sometimes we win. As I get ready to head to Copenhagen this Saturday for the international climate negotiations, I’m thrilled to see the success of The Leadership Campaign and their efforts to have Massachusetts use 100% clean electricity by 2020. On Monday, Representative William Brownsberger will file their […]
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The most inspiring climate and energy books of 2009
Not that we haven’t been informed. That’s the message from an incredible year of new books on climate destabilization, dirty energy policies, bogus Big Coal campaigns, a vibrant anti-coal movement, a growing coalfield resistance to the tragedy of mountaintop removal, and the still big possibility of renewable energy sources to refresh our survival chances on […]
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Conservative economist Randall Lutter to OIRA?
For a number of days now, we’ve been hearing rumors that Cass Sunstein, President Obama’s “regulatory czar,” was on the verge of hiring conservative economist Randall Lutter to join him at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Few personnel developments could be more discouraging to those hopeful that the Obama Administration will fulfill […]
