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Friday music blogging: The Avett Brothers

I was bummed to miss FMBing last week, because last Tuesday marked one of the most anticipated events of the year for me: the release of The Avett Brothers’ new album I & Love & You. I FMBd the Avetts almost two years ago, and my gushing then still applies. They play a brand of […]

At SEJ, doom and gloom without the sense of humor

It’s a wonder I continue to show up at Society of Environmental Journalists conferences when you consider how much of a downer some of these panels can be. And that’s doubly true about the ones on climate change. This afternoon’s session on global warming as a national security issue was an even darker affair than […]

Looking beyond Copenhagen, with no Plan B

MADISON, Wisc. — President Obama’s lieutenants put on their game faces as they fielded journalists’ questions Friday, but there was a palpable sense that they know the game is already over going into the global talks on climate change in December. I wish I could say something different, but that’s the sense I got as […]

The future of storytelling?

Recently, I had the good fortune to encounter some folks who may well be the next generation of great environmental storytellers: Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele. They’re producing short multimedia pieces that are just riveting. My favorite is a five minute story about the ways that climate change is affecting reindeer herders in Norway, but there are other gems too […]

National Institutes of Energy needed to fill energy research and development gap

Friday factoids time: The U.S. biomedical and pharmaceutical industry invests between 10-20 percent of revenues in research and development (R&D) and new product development, spending $58.8 billion on R&D in 2007. The U.S. government adds an additional $30 billion per year investment in biomedical R&D through the National Institutes of Health. In contrast, the U.S. […]

Meet your new national parks chief

New Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis: Friendly.Photo: National Park ServiceOne weekend this summer, my wife and I ferried across Puget Sound to Olympic National Park, chose a hiking route with the help of an awesomely smart and patient ranger, and set forth from the highest trailhead in the park. We crossed alpine ridges, dropped into […]

The place to be if you’re young and you care about the climate: Power Shift ’09

Starting on Oct. 9, the Energy Action Coalition is kicking off 11 Power Shift youth summits across the country, where young people will gather to demand climate action from President Obama and Congress and get training and inspiration for on-the-ground activism.  In November 2007 and March 2009, there were big Power Shift confabs in the […]

Dirty energy fuels college campuses

University of Washington campus.Did you know that many of our country’s colleges and universities — places that are supposed to be a source of higher-education and leadership — get their electricity by burning coal? And sometimes those coal-fired power plants are even on the campuses? I think many of us look back in disbelief at […]

Obama’s Nobel: What it means for greens

Dip a toe into the Nobel Peace Prize news and next thing you’re drowning in commentary. Here’s an attempt to distill what it means for greens, by which I mean the types of people who rely on air, water, soil, and other naturey elements. Obama’s nuclear disarmament work won him the award. A member of […]

The Climate Post: U.S. to Kyoto Protocol: just not that into you

First things first: The U.S. Senate is looking at new climate change legislation as the COP-15 global talks in Copenhagen approach this December. These two stories have fed off and driven each other all year. That they are happening together offers a clear view of just how stark differences are on what the U.S. should […]