Latest Articles

President Obama, give us hope again … this time in Copenhagen

On Nov. 4 2008, I was an American in Brussels as I watched Barack Obama turn red states blue and win the Presidency of the United States (not to worry, I waited in a two-hour line to vote absentee before I left the States!). I’ll never forget the next morning, having coffee with a close […]

How to make 1.7 million new clean energy jobs permanent

The challenges facing President Obama and the U.S. Congress have not gone away. Paul Krugman worries that “unemployment is likely to stay near its current level for a year or more,” because “much of the political establishment now sees stimulus as having been discredited by events, so that it’s very hard to come back and […]

The localization of agriculture

In the United States, there has been a surge of interest in eating fresh local foods, corresponding with mounting concerns about the climate effects of consuming food from distant places and about the obesity and other health problems associated with junk food diets. This is reflected in the rise in urban gardening, school gardening, and […]

Annie Leonard misses the mark in her new video, “The Story of Cap-and-Trade”

The greenosphere is all abuzz about a new video from Annie Leonard, creator of semi-famous anti-consumerism video/book The Story of Stuff. It’s being billed as a definitive debunking of cap-and-trade, but it’s more like a perfect representation of all the confusion and misplaced focus that plagues the green left right now. Here it is: Now, […]

Optimistic or pessimistic about the Copenhagen climate talks?

The COP15 climate conference starts next week in Copenhagen, and our panel of experts is optimistic … ish. We asked them, “What’s the mood as Copenhagen approaches?” Many say they draw inspiration from the fast-growing, increasingly diverse, grassroots global climate movement. But they aren’t under the delusion that Copenhagen will produce the comprehensive, legally binding […]

Jonathan Safran Foer on his book ‘Eating Animals’

If you’re a meat eater, don’t read Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book Eating Animals. Unless, that is, you are a meat eater curious about the health of your body, the planet, or the animals you consume. The acclaimed author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer, has been an on-again, off-again […]

EPA punts on raising ethanol ‘blend wall’

I have been following the Great Ethanol Blend Wall fight for some time. In a nutshell, ethanol companies have been struggling mightily during the recession. In response, industry group Growth Energy petitioned the EPA to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol rather than the current 10 percent. This demand also had the […]

December 19 — the day after COP15

Tens of thousands of modern-day crusaders, charlatans, Nobel laureates, CEOs, quick-buck artists, earnest politicians, and assorted movie extras of every conceivable socio-political-ethnic-economic background will descend on Copenhagen for the next three weeks to participate in an orgy of carbon-bashing and flag-waving. The goal will be to agree on a blueprint — not quite the precise […]

Lomborg v. Monbiot: liveblogging the Munk debate on climate change

Editor’s note: The chat’s now over, but you can replay it in full. Today I’ll be liveblogging a debate on how the world should respond to climate change. Arguing for a vigorous response will be Elizabeth May, head of Canada’s Green Party, and noted author/thinker George Monbiot. Arguing for giving climate change a low priority, […]

John Cornyn (R-Texas)

Sen. John Cornyn is expected to vote against a climate bill, and that’s confirmed in this letter he wrote to a constituent.  He argues that the Kerry-Boxer climate bill would “create a massive new government bureaucracy, raise energy prices, increase taxes, and send American jobs overseas.” Dear [Constituent]: Thank you for contacting me regarding a […]