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Cast your vote for the best climate journalism

The climate problem is incredibly complex. Heck, it’s unfathomably complex to most folks, as it involves chemistry, computer models, economic development, and, of course, the weather. This complexity demands strong, explanatory journalism — the kind of fact gathering and storytelling that too many news organizations are ignoring in an era of declining budgets and celebrity […]

Are carbon taxes a viable option?

According to Sen. John Kerry, no. There has been a lively discussion of this topic on James Handley’s blog at carbontax.org. My last comment, responding to Dan’s 11/19/2009 comment, was blocked, but is replicated below: Dan, Thank you for the calculations. This is excellent. One point of clarification, re “As I understand, Ken would have […]

Carol Browner strongly backs bipartisan cap-and-trade bill

A top White House adviser yesterday pushed back against the idea of paring down Senate legislation on energy and global warming and frowned upon emerging talk among some moderates to limit legislative efforts to capping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. “Our position is, let’s do it all,” said Carol Browner, President Obama’s senior aide […]

Uber-ironic 1962 ad touts oil’s ability to melt glaciers!

David Roberts at Grist has the winner of the irony-can-be-so-ironic award: From a sharp-eyed reader comes this ad for Humble Oil (which later merged with Standard to become, yes, Exxon). It may win the All Time Millenial Award for Maximal Irony. It’s from a 1962 edition of Life Magazine, available on Google Books (click for […]

Ecological farms: the only real way to feed an increasingly hungry world

Image: Tom Twigg for GristThere are those who would like us to believe that industrialized farming is the only way to feed the earth’s growing population. Disinformation comes daily from powerful industrial agricultural companies whose profits depend entirely on the sale of chemicals, genetically modified (GM) seeds, and food processing. Furthermore, they maintain that massive-scale […]

Home Economics of the JP Green House, Part 1

More work than anyone imagined — watch a slideshow of the project unfolding.Leise JonesIt is worth noting that the original JP Green House budget for the first year of the project was $25k. In retrospect, this was woefully inadequate, but by no means out of line with the four previous rehabs I had completed. We […]

Clean energy opportunities

Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced $155 million worth of grants to clean energy projects -- specifically targeted to CHP, waste heat recovery, and district energy. There's an even better backstory.

Reinventing the JP Green House

For the last year and a half, Ken Ward and Andrée Zaleska have been rehabbing a 100-year-old former neighborhood store in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. They’re converting it into a home for their combined family, a community gathering place, and a zero-carbon demonstration home to inspire others — and sharing their journey in […]

No to Obama’s agrichemical industry man, yes to Bed-Stuy Farm

This post marks the launch of “Plate Tectonics,” a new feature that highlights ways that citizen action can move the food system in more sustainable directions. —————– How do we stop this thing?Like many people, I applauded when Michelle Obama broke ground on her organic garden–and jeered when Croplife America, the pesticide industry’s main lobby […]

15 people worth watching in Copenhagen [SLIDESHOW]

So who will be the real power players in Copenhagen? The official estimate for official delegates attending the U.N. climate conference hovers somewhere around a gajillion. OK, seriously, it’s a mere 20,000. Then there are thousands of activists, journalists, business leaders, and NGO reps who will be seeking the delegates’ ears. Here are 15 people […]