Latest Articles

Never-give-up fighting spirit: lessons from a grandchild

Such negative questions and attitudes are increasing. How refreshing, on cold, windy Thanksgiving Plus One Day, which we spend with our children and grandchildren, when I went outside to shoot baskets with 5-year-old Connor. Connor is very bright, but needs work on his hand-to-eye coordination. I set the basket at a convenient height for him, […]

Prelude to COP15: Climate justice actions sweep the U.S. before Copenhagen talks

Tuesday in the U.S., climate justice activists turned up the street heat to corporations in the financial and energy sectors most responsible for the climate crisis. Initiated by the Mobilization for Climate Justice and the Climate Pledge of Resistance, the day of action came a week before social movements converge in Copenhagen at the U.N. […]

Do diesel-based farmers dream of electric tractors?

Writer George Monbiot’s recent Peak Oil article entitled “If Nothing Else, Save Farming” included this comment: There are no obvious barriers to the mass production of electric tractors and combine harvesters: the weight of the batteries and an electric vehicle’s low-end torque are both advantages for tractors. I read this and immediately tweeted the question […]

BPA Babies and Cash Registers

We’ve known for a long time that bisphenol-A (BPA) is bad for us. Study after study shows the ill-effects of this widely-used industrial chemical on our bodies–and in particular, on developing babies’ bodies. The list is pretty sobering: BPA’s been linked to breast cancer in women, brain damage in children, obesity, heart disease, diabetes… Two […]

Prologue to Copenhagen

As a prologue to the COP 15 in Copenhagen, protesters took to the streets across the country in a national day of climate justice action. From die-ins, to fasts, to streets protests, to locked down acts of civil disobedience, citizens groups called for a halt to new coal-fired plant construction, the abolishment of mountaintop removal […]

Making buildings more efficient: It helps to understand human behavior

If I told you how much energy your neighbors use on average, and whether you fell above or below that average, would that induce you to save more energy? What if, depending on whether you came in above or below average, you got an emoticon on your energy bill? Say, a smiley face if you […]

Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii)

Sen. Daniel Akaka is considered a likely “yes” vote on climate legislation, but in this letter sent to a constituent in late November 2009, he doesn’t reveal much of anything about his views on climate change or what should be done about it. Dear [Constituent]: Thank you for your comments on climate change and energy […]

Copenhagen climate summit (part 1): the expectations

As we are quickly approaching the final stretch before the Copenhagen climate negotiations (just a week to go before it begins), I thought I would try to give a quick summary of where the past 2 years of international negotiations have taken us and where we are headed. As I’ve said before, there are 6 […]

Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Sen. Charles Schumer is an advocate for climate legislation and said in July that he believed such legislation would attract the 60 needed votes.  In this letter to a constituent, Schumer expresses his support for a bill “that gets America running on clean energy, ends our dependence on foreign oil and includes energy incentives that […]

Soil carbon — a blind spot in the debate on carbon

COP15 looks like it may well be a cop out. The world was disappointed when it became clear Barack Obama would not get climate protection legislation through the U.S. Senate, endangering any meaningful global agreement. But a much earlier cop out came when agriculture failed to make it onto the agenda at all. There is […]