Latest Articles

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The big mist take

One of the most contentious of climate crocks is the role of water vapor in climate change. And climate deniers are always trying to fog the issue. But don’t be scared, Crock of the Week is here, to help make sure you don’t get sucked in.

The U.S.-India climate ‘partnership’

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Singh of India walk along the Cross Hall of the White House towards the East Room for the arrival ceremony.Photo and caption: The White HouseAt least that’s what the White House is calling it. (Okay, okay: Technically, the White House calls it the “Green Partnership to Address Energy Security, […]

What Do Coal and Dirty Dorm Rooms Have in Common?

Know a college student? As this holiday weekend rolls in and many of you might have college kids coming back to your home with huge bags full of dirty laundry, we’ve got something for you. Know a college student with a dirty room? If you’re nodding your head ‘yes’ right now, send them this link so […]

Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success

President Obama announced today that he will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, raising the stakes for himself and all participating nations. The initial goal for Copenhagen was to forge a binding treaty. But that ambitious goal has been scaled back. With American climate protection legislation bogged down in the Senate after […]

Martha Stewart blisters meat industry in Thanksgiving show

Martha Stewart is easy to caricature. But the sister values good ingredients–and has realized that industrial agriculture churns out flavorless crap. That has caused her to ask second-order questions about the food system–and use her immense popular appeal to shed light on the horrors of factory meat farming. She has devoted her latest episode to […]

For McCain, it’s really all about the fake snow

  I’m prepared to fight for this fake snow, damn it. Media hype aside, John McCain was always a self-important blowhard. But didn’t he used to care a little bit about substantial issues–and even once sponsor climate legislation in defiance of an oil-satuarated White House? As Grist’s Jon Hiskes recently pointed out, McCain has completely […]

What to make of the new climate poll

There’s a new Washington Post-ABC News poll out on climate change; Juliet Eilperin’s got a good piece up about it (despite the terrible headline, for which she is not responsible). Having watched this story bounce around today, I’m frustrated yet again by how these polls are discussed. Here’s how I would write the lede to […]

Learning how to count to 350

Cross-posted from TomDispatch. Next month, at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, the wealthy nations that produce most of the excess carbon in our atmosphere will almost certainly fail to embrace measures adequate to ward off the devastation of our planet by heat and chaotic weather. Their leaders will probably promise us teaspoons with which […]

SuperFreak Dubner embraces ClimateGate conspiracy theories

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of SuperFreakonomics, has embraced charges by the right wing that a handful of illegally obtained private emails means that the scientific consensus on climate change is actually a dangerous conspiracy. Dubner lent credence to the fevered “ClimateGate” ravings of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sen. Jim Inhofe […]

Will Africa’s farmland become a ‘resource curse’?

Palm-oil trees in the making, Ivory Coast.In his Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis teases out the mechanisms of famine in British-ruled 19th century India. When a drought would wipe out a grain harvest in one region of India, the price of grain would spike. People all over the subcontinent would suddenly find themselves priced out […]