Latest Articles

Child Bearing and Carbon Footprints

Kate Galbraith put up a post in the NYT Green Inc. blog about the carbon footprint of child bearing. According to a study done at Oregon State University: “…a hypothetical American woman who switches to a more fuel-efficient car, drives less, recycles, installs more efficient light bulbs, and replaces her refrigerator and windows with energy-saving […]

VIDEO Update: Coalfield Uprising Grows

This might be a first in the country: The failed West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is emerging as such an embarrassingly pro-coal anti-mountain public relations nightmare for Gov. Joe Manchin that even retired coal miners have taken to the streets against the state’s environmental regulators, calling on the federal EPA and Office of Surface […]

Canada set to close important asset: its prison farms

In February 2009, Canada’s Public Safety Minister and the country’s Correctional Service announced a planned closure of all six of the prison farms owned by the people of Canada and operated by CORCAN – the branch of the Correctional Service that operates the farm rehabilitation programs which also provide employment training to inmates. The excellent […]

Key to climate bill, offsets have plenty of critics

America’s first major stab at tackling global climate change comes in the form of the American Clean Energy Security Act, a massive piece of legislation that would touch nearly every corner of the U.S. economy. The bill, often referred to as “Waxman-Markey” after its principal sponsors in the House of Representatives, contains provisions for clean […]

Renewable energy is more exciting than cap-and-trade!

I’ve long thought that the message framing around renewable energy is much more appealing (Let’s make clean energy cheaper!  Build the industries of the future!  Cool technology and jobs for everyone!  It’ll be like the dotcom boom all over again!  But without the dumb names!) than that of carbon cap-and-trade (Let’s put a price on […]

Bonn 3: Chairman raises stakes

I spend 2 weeks a year in Bonn – but I’ve never been here in August until this year. Bonn is the seat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and today starts the third major negotiating session here this year as countries try to build a new global climate framework by December. […]

John McCain (R-Ariz.)

John McCain Sen. John McCain was, of course, one of the earliest congressional supporters of cap-and-trade, cosponsoring the first two pieces of climate legislation to come to the floor of the Senate in 2003 and 2005. During his campaign for president last year, he regularly touted his support for climate action. But McCain did not […]

More thoughts on cooking, Pollan, and Julia Child

Tool of oppression–or liberation? In his recent essay on cooking, which I commented on here, Michael Pollan basically argues that people need to cook–that they give up more than they gain from fleeing the kitchen. And he suggests that the current generation is really the first to shun cooking. Yet things might not be quite […]

Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes–and questions

This post was written by ProPublica’s Marcus Stern and Jake Bernstein. To supporters, the “cash for clunkers” program miraculously jolted the moribund car market back to life, engendering hopes that it might help revive the broader U.S. economy. Skeptics saw it differently: The automotive industry had hijacked an environmental bill and turned it into a […]

Reps take expensive trip to learn about climate, but still block action

What’s missing from this Wall Street Journal article about expensive taxpayer-funded congressional travel to exotic locations?  The fact that seven of the 10 representatives who spent about half a million bucks to go see climate-change-addled penguins actually voted against the House bill that seeks address the concern. Despite jetting to New Zealand and the South […]