Latest Articles

Politico’s anonymous sources slam Barbara Boxer’s “abrasive personal style”

I was going to blog on this umpteenth attack on strong progressive women, but Matt Yglesias beat me to the punch here, so to speak. I’ll add my thoughts to Matt’s comments at the end: I used to think that US Senate Barbara Boxer was an experienced legislator with a solid progressive record on the […]

Will America lose the clean-energy race? Only if we listen to The Breakthrough Institute

The radioactive disinformers of The Breakthrough Institute (TBI) have broken through to the MSM again.  This time they got The San Francisco Chronicle to print their willfully misleading op-ed attacking “Obama and Democratic leaders” for supposedly failing to deliver on clean energy promises.  As we’ll see, this TBI article sets a new record for phony […]

Juliet Eilperin talks climate legislation with The Nation

The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin chats with The Nation about whether or not climate legislation has a snowball’s chance of passing this year, and if the bill currently being debated in the Senate can really “solve the problem.”  

West Virginia, Kentucky miners boycott Tennessee over proposed mountaintop removal restrictions

There will be no more excursions to Dollywood for Roger Horton, a coal miner who lives in West Virginia — at least not until U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) drops legislation he’s sponsoring that would limit mountaintop removal mining. Horton is the mastermind behind a tourism boycott involving miners in neighboring West Virginia and Kentucky, […]

“The Bill”

This little film … … isn’t perfect, but damn is it good. Four minutes and 22 seconds, in German with English subtitles, but watch it anyway. Kudos to Germanwatch, and if anyone wants to pay for an English version, don’t hesitate to write me.

Dow Agrosciences: farm like there’s no tomorrow!

“If you’re going to farm a piece of land, you ought to farm it for all its worth.”–Tim Hassinger, commercial vice president at Dow AgroSciences, quoted in an AP story called “Chemical makers go on the offensive in agriculture.”

Obama admin should bring defense and climate funding into balance, argues a new report

Image: Tom Twigg/Grist With climate change among the world’s biggest security challenges, the Obama administration should be pumping much more money into addressing the problem, argues a new report [PDF] from the Institute for Policy Studies. In fiscal year 2008, the United States invested 20 times more money in developing military technology than in developing […]

Bordering on Chaos: Climate change melts lines drawn in ice

As climate change melts the world’s glaciers, some nations must redefine their national borders. Above, the Basodino Glacier near the Swiss-Italian border.Via Wikimedia Commons Something really rather strange is happening to Switzerland, where I spent part of last week at an international conference. The mountainous country is shrinking as a result of global warming. The […]

From “sexy meat” to fabulous ice cream, tasty morsels from around the web

When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. ———— • Fascinating–and elegantly done–graphic depiction of British food consumption since the 1970s. (Via Internet Food Association.) • You know that nasty industrial meat I’ve been writing so much about lately? Turns out it’s sexy–according to the […]

Blackout: Heinberg on dwindling coal reserves and the siren song of “clean coal”

Blackout: Coal, Climate and the Last Energy Crisis, Richard HeinbergThere isn’t nearly as much coal left as most people think. “Clean coal” will run down limited reserves even faster. If humanity doesn’t begin massive, sustained investment in renewable power sources immediately, civilization could be at risk before the end of the century. And that’s without […]