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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 […]

Big Ag’s odd obsession with You-Know-Who

I really really really didn’t want to write another post on Michael Pollan. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a big fan. It’s just that reducing the whole of the food movement to Pollan’s work naturally ignores so much else that’s going on. But don’t blame me for this post. Blame Big Ag. These guys […]

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

UN Photo/Marco Castro In a stunning announcement (full text below), “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Obama won, in part, for reversing the immoral efforts of the Cheney-Bush […]

NASCAR and the high-octane American dream

The action at the Talladega Superspeedway.At dawn on a hazy autumn morning, the rising sun spilled over the steel grandstands of the Talladega Superspeedway like foam from a cracked can of Bud. This image likely came to mind because I was lying beneath a tarp in a scrubby Alabama meadow carpeted with empty beer cans […]

Climate Controversy Damages Chamber's Reputation

The high-profile departures from the US Chamber because of its extremist stance on climate, the strong criticism from its own former members and the Chamber’s tone-deaf response to the situation are contributing to reputational damage that is hurting the organization’s credibility. But don’t take my word for it. Others are making the same observation.  Fortune Magazine […]

Apples with a sense of place

One lovely evening a couple of weeks ago, I watched the documentary Food Fight in an outdoor theater in my downtown. The documentary focuses on how the 1960s counterculture — specifically the Berkeley crew of which Alice Waters was a member — led to the current sustainable agriculture boom. The documentary champions the sensual pleasures […]

Richard Wiswall on the business of organic farming

With the economic downturn and increase in the desire for a relationship with our food, farming has become a popular lifestyle among young people opting out of the corporate world. And while these people are new to life on the land, others have made a life of it for generations. But either way, growing food […]