Latest Articles

Kerry-Boxer Climate Bill: Preliminary Thoughts

*** This is a preliminary summary of a huge bill, so it’s not Sightline’s final answer. Look for a more thorough and polished analysis next week. *** Weighing in at 821 pages, the Kerry-Boxer climate bill introduced into the US Senate yesterday is officially a whopper, though it’s certainly more svelte than the companion House bill that […]

The chemical treadmill breaks down and the superweeds did it

Tom Philpott has been tracking the rise of so-called “superweeds” — i.e. herbicide-resistant weeds — for a while now. He’s talked about the chemical treadmill — “the situation wherein weeds and other pests develop resistance to poisons, demanding ever higher doses of old poisons and constant development of novel ones.” Due in part to its […]

Obama Tells Agencies to Shape Up on Sustainability

Yesterday President Obama signed a sweeping Executive Order that instructs all agencies to step up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save energy and water. This isn’t the first time that the inefficiency of federal facilities has received attention, but it certainly represents the strongest and broadest push towards overall sustainability given to the […]

A rollicking tour of America’s energy landscape

This is a dummy article pointing here: https://grist.org/article/series/2009-10-07-power-trip-a-rollicking-tour-of-americas-energy-landscape  

Confessions of a fossil-fuel addict

The power grid: more feeble than you think.The trouble started on an August afternoon in a remote field in northern Ohio, miles from any town large enough to be marked on a standard road atlas. The only trace of humanity hung above the trees—an electrical cable known as the Harding-Chamberlin Line, carrying 345,000 volts of […]

Ask Umbra on buying carbon offsets

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I’ve been hearing about carbon offsets for awhile and even have purchased some for my car emissions through Terrapass. But I just got an email from my local power company saying that I can pay to offset my own carbon emissions at the low rate of just […]

Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz on the new corporate push for climate action

Timberland CEO Jeff SwartzPhoto: TimberlandCould corporate America finally be stirring from its climate change slumber? Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz believes the answer is a qualified yes. If recent events are any indication, we’re inclined to agree with him. In the last few weeks companies from Apple and Nike to Pacific Gas and Electric have been […]

The economics of 350

There is good news on the climate policy front. The Europeans have ratcheted down their emission targets; the Chinese are getting serious about solar power and energy efficiency; and Washington, after opening a multi-billion dollar stimulus spicket for clean energy, is lumbering towards a carbon cap.  This is progress-inadequate, but still important progress — towards […]

Climate Denial Crock of the Week/Birth of a Crock

      Early in September 2009, at a gathering of experts on global climate change, one of the world’s most respected and experienced climate modelers, Mojib Latif, made some observations on climate, media and human nature.   The message seemed clear. natural variations in the long term warming might be misinterpreted, by the media. […]

Can the USDA really keep our food safe?

Having read and listened to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s attempts at ground beef-related damage control in the wake of the recent food safety revelations, I’m left to wonder if the USDA simply needs to get out of the food safety business entirely. Vilsack himself — in a Minnesota NPR radio interview where he defended the […]