Latest Articles
-
The Climate Post: You heard it here first — Copenhagen a success
First things first: A week of anticlimaxes saw President Barack Obama conducting a less-than-exuberant swing through China, the international community conceding a binding climate treaty at the COP-15 negotiations in Copenhagen, and U.S. lawmakers postponing to the spring of 2010 consideration of climate policy — even as talk of a legislative “plan B” surfaced. A […]
-
![]()
![]()
Global boiling declares war on Thanksgiving
Paul Bakus in a ruined pumpkin patch.Photo: Wonk Room Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Our increasingly extreme climate is devastating American agriculture. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, strengthened by global warming, caused $1.6 billion in agriculture damage in Louisiana alone. Now it appears that a Thanksgiving mainstay — pumpkin pie — is next on the global […]
-
![]()
![]()
A tasting of four meatless “turkeys” for the holiday table
Can such a “turkey” make your holiday feast soar?Photo courtesy of Jason HoustonGiven the ire I provoked in last year’s turkey column, it’s high time that this Grist columnist acknowledges that: A. Meat-centric holidays such as Thanksgiving can be challenging for vegetarians and evoke all kinds of emotions — including, but not limited to, extreme […]
-
![]()
![]()
If Cousteau went to Copenhagen
As we grapple with global warming, ocean acidification, and the possibility that life on earth really is doomed, it is with considerable chagrin that we recall how Jacques Cousteau sounded the general alarm thirty years ago. The celebrated underwater filmmaker, co-inventor of scuba diving, television star, sage of the environmental movement, and bon vivant died […]
-
![]()
![]()
NYT: U.S. Chamber has not expressed support for any proposals to cap emissions
John Broder has an illuminating story in today’s New York Times, “Storm Over the Chamber” discussing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s climate crisis and how Thomas Donohue’s style exacerbates it. Tellingly, the story begins with an anecdote that suggests where the U.S. Chamber gets its tin ear. BACK in the 1990s when Thomas J. Donohue […]
-
![]()
![]()
API and ACCCE spend the big bucks
Coal companies and the nation’s biggest railroad association accounted for 50 percent of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s (ACCCE) $47 million budget in 2008, according to ACCCE’s tax return, E&E News reported on Wednesday. Yowza! Arch Coal, Peabody, and Consol each put in $5 million; Foundation Coal put in just $3 million. Meanwhile, […]
-
![]()
![]()
Reflecting on the lameness of my profession
For the past few weeks there has been the appearance of a flood of news about the Copenhagen climate talks and the clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate. Standing in that flood it’s easy to get caught up in the atmospherics of frantic action and constant crisis. But step out for a while and […]
-
![]()
![]()
Gourmet’s conscience, Gopnik on cookbooks, and other tasty morsels
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. —————- Get ’em while they’re hot. • For years, Barry Estabrook reported on food politics for Gourmet Magazine and its Web site. In a sense, he played the role of the conscience of the foodie set–at the […]
-
Copenhagen is not Kyoto
On the eve of the 1998 United Nations climate change conference in Buenos Aires, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd sent a letter to President Clinton urging him not to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Doing so, he said, would not “do more than plug the holes in one end of a leaky boat, while leaving the biggest […]
-
![]()
![]()
Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations
If someone offered you $100 today or an inflation-adjusted $100 in 10 years, it’s unlikely you’d choose the latter. But if taking the money now cost your child’s generation billions of dollars, that option would seem pretty miserly. The debate over the economics of climate change boils down to that very calculation: how much are […]
