Latest Articles

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 […]

President Obama to talk “Cash for Caulkers”

On Tuesday morning, President Obama is expected to add details to a new program that will create jobs and cut needless energy consumption through home retrofits. This follows Obama’s request to Congress last week to create a new program to provide incentives to home owners who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient. I […]

Could AlertMe be the Apple of energy efficiency?

AlertMe iphone app.Photo: Courtesy of AlertMeI’m sitting in a conference room at a PR agency on the San Francisco waterfront when the chief executive of AlertMe, a British energy management startup, pulls out his iPhone to check on a colleague’s kilowatt consumption back in the U.K. The executive, who has the Vonnegutian name of Pilgrim […]

In Hamlet’s Castle, a royal court looks out for itself

Forty-seven kilometers up the coast from Copenhagen, at the narrowest passage between Denmark and Sweden, the 435-year-old Kronborg Castle stands as one of the most magnificent structures in a country that does not lack for stunning architecture. It was the setting where Shakespeare imagined his Hamlet, the clash of rivalries among aristocrats that ends in […]

Sugar and Spice and…Lead and Mercury

Sandra Steingraber is my hero. Her book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, chronicles her own pregnancy from both a scientific and personal perspective. It’s beautifully and lovingly written—yet for a pregnant woman it’s also a tough read. Trained as a biologist, Steingraber meticulously documents the toxic hazards we live with every day, and […]

Don’t watch NYC’s new anti-soda video on a full stomach

Remember NYC’s anti-soda campaign “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat”? Well, prepare yourself. Because the NYC Department of Health has made themselves a YouTube Video. And it’s a doozy: I think I’m going to be sick — which is, of course, the point. So, what do you think — will it stop people from drinking soda or […]

Seasonal Greetings: Lumps of Coal for Blackstone and JPMorgan Chase CEOs

From Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. This post was co-written by Tim Wagner of Resource Media Nearly a year after the Bush administration left office, we’re still dealing with one of their fossil fuel legacies: an attempt to burden our economy and our climate with over 150 new dirty coal-fired power […]

Seasonal Greetings: Lumps of Coal for Blackstone and JPMorgan Chase CEOs

From Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. This post was co-written by Tim Wagner of Resource Media Nearly a year after the Bush administration left office, we’re still dealing with one of their fossil fuel legacies: an attempt to burden our economy and our climate with over 150 new dirty coal-fired power […]