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Memo to PBS’s NewsHour: You can do better than that

So Joseph Romm is watching an otherwise interesting story on “efforts to convert algae into clean fuel,” by the otherwise very solid Tom Bearden of PBS’s NewsHour. Then, boom, he drops the media’s favorite wishy-washy hedge.

Arctic ice reaches historic seasonal low

The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished…. “I would argue that, from a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now, because multiyear sea ice is the barrier to the use and development of the Arctic,” said Barber [Canada’s Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba]. […]

House passes landmark health-care bill with one GOP vote

In the first 40 minutes of Saturday’s debate on the landmark bill, representatives from the minority party objected — or threatened to object — no fewer than 75 times, throwing in 35 “parliamentary inquiries” for good measure. The debate was delayed by nearly 90 minutes. Anybody who wondered whether more active involvement by President Obama […]

Three reasons to follow Climate Progress on Twitter

To follow Climate Progress on Twitter, click here.  Here’s why you should: It’s a modern, portable version of a news teletype. I will be in Copenhagen and tweeting. Your (online) neighbors are doing it! Let me elaborate:   1.  It’s like a modern news teletype.  Some may think Twitter is only for dishing out 140 […]

Baucus: 'No doubt' that climate change legislation will pass

Contrary to reports from many in the media, the prospects for a climate bill are as good as ever now that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has finished its work.

One error retracted, 99 to go

Superfreaknomics authors will, in future editions, correct their claim that Caldeira believes “carbon dioxide is not the right villain”

Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?

On Friday, Matt Yglesias made the point that only socialist state control seems capable of creating a robust nuclear power industry. After all, the only countries building nuke plants these days are the ones where governments are making the decisions. David Frum replied with a series of wildly overbroad assertions ranging from false to highly […]

Ask Umbra on climate-skeptic teachers, low-flow toilets, and more

Q. Dear Umbra, I know it’s a little early, but I had this great idea for a New Year’s resolution. Every month in 2010, I pick a certain eco-area of my life and focus on that for a whole month. So far I have: reduce energy consumption; reduce water consumption; reduce material waste; reuse; recycle; […]

To unlock wind power, put a price on carbon

A stone marker in Rugby, N.D. identifies the town as the “Geographic Center of the North American Continent.” No marker identifies the state as one of America’s top two or three in wind-power potential. Yet North Dakota’s vast expanses and steady winds endow it with the capacity to generate more than half as much electricity […]

Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) [UPDATED]

Arlen Specter Sen. Arlen Specter is considered a fence sitter on climate legislation, though on Nov. 5 he sided with all but one of the Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee in voting to move forward with the Kerry-Boxer climate bill.  As Darren Samuelsohn of Greenwire reported: Specter bemoaned his inability to offer […]