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Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) [UPDATED]

Richard Lugar “I don’t see any climate bill on the table right now that I can support,” Sen. Richard Lugar said on Nov. 10, dashing any hopes that he might get behind some version of the Kerry-Boxer legislation that’s moving through the Senate.  “We really have to start from scratch again,” he continued.  Lugar has […]

How 7.4% of Americans can block humanity’s efforts to save itself

A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece on what’s really killing climate legislation: the absurd procedural chokepoints in the U.S. Senate, coupled with an unprincipled minority devoted to obstruction. I’m happy to report there’s been an uptick lately in people trying to draw attention to this problem. From the last week or two: Univ. […]

Lester Brown and I, diavlogging

I recently recorded my first BloggingHeads TV … episode? diavlog? not sure what they’re called … with Lester Brown, focused on the latest edition of his book: Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. My main takeaway from the experience is that I need a much better microphone on my laptop. The sound is pretty […]

Rally at Penn State: Students Taking Lead on Clean Energy

This post was co-written by Kim Teplitzky, field coordinator for the Sierra Student Coalition Today at Penn State University, dozens of students, faculty, and community members rallied in front of university’s coal plant, calling on the university to move beyond coal to clean energy solutions. “Young people have been at the forefront of the greatest […]

Veteran wins groundbreaking claim for Agent Orange exposure at Georgia military base

A U.S. veteran living in Tennessee has won what’s thought to be the first Veterans Administration claim for exposure inside the continental United States to Agent Orange, an herbicide that was used by the military to clear jungles during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange — which got its name from the color of the barrels […]

The night I slept with Jim Hansen

Students take a stand on Boston Common.Ian MacLellanIt seemed like I had just fallen asleep in my bivvy on the hard soil of the Boston Common on Sunday night, when I was rudely awakened around 1:00 a.m. by the voice of Craig Altemose, founder and driving force behind the Massachusetts Leadership Campaign, crackling through a […]

Feed the world sustainably by 2050? Yes, we can!

Adding a bit more data to food system reformers’ arguments, a new study led by Germany’s prestigious Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research takes on the question of whether we can “feed the world” while preserving the planet come 2050. Short answer: Yes! Researchers modeled various agricultural styles, growth patterns, and diets. Here’s what they […]

Biochemist Oliver Peoples explains how his polymer-producing microbes could transform the plastics i

Over at Seedmagazine.com, I have a brief interview with Oliver Peoples, a biochemist who hopes that his new bio-based plastic will upend the petroleum-based industry—and help clean up oceans and landfills in the process: Seed: So you’re turning corn into plastic in much the same way that the ethanol industry turns it into biofuels. As […]

Disappearing slave history

James Island’s grisly connections with the slave trade draw thousands of tourists to this shrinking patch of Gambia each year. In high season as many as a hundred tourists a day take small, motorized pirogues out to this tiny island and hire guides from nearby villages to explain the horrors once endured there. The island […]

Time for the mainstream media to face the factory farm-swine flu link

“Since last spring and the onset of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza outbreak in humans, USDA has consistently asked that the media stop calling this “novel” pandemic virus “swine flu.” By continuing to mislabel the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus that is affecting human populations around the world, the media is causing undue and undeserved […]