Latest Articles

Slideshow: Green dads we heart

When it comes to eco-parenting, mothers tend to get the spotlight — everything from cultural references (Mother Earth and Mother Nature, anyone?) to marketing blitzes (hello, Big Green Purse!). But there are plenty of fathers out there doing their part for both progeny and planet. We showcase a few of them here, including our own […]

Daring protesters target mountaintop-removal sites

Four daring protestors accomplished something today that no high ranking member in the Obama administration involved in the recent mountaintop removal mining policy decisions has ever bothered to do: These four American patriots made an actual visit to a mountaintop removal site. They also went beyond the call of duty. Scaling a towering 20-story dragline […]

Blowing the green whistle on sports

Sports leagues and teams are beginning to take sustainability issues more seriously.If you watch sports on TV, you may be thinking from your perch on the couch that they are a relatively inexpensive, practically carbon-neutral diversion from life’s occupations. But sport is big business, facing many of the same environmental challenges as the manufacturing, agriculture, […]

CBO: Household costs under Waxman-Markey likely much lower than report reflects

Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office answered some questions from Sen. John Kerry about its much-discussed report (PDF) on the costs of cap-and-trade. You’ll recall the report’s principle conclusion: a cap-and-trade program would reduce the deficit over the next decade. Despite that positive outcome, the report contained some scary numbers, like the fact that the […]

What does the CBO report on Waxman-Markey actually tell us? (Not much).

The Congressional Budget Office recently issued its report on the Waxman-Markey bill. The Washington Times soon trumpeted: “CBO puts hefty price tag on emissions plan: Obama’s cap-and-trade system seen costing $846 billion.” This is quite misleading. Actually, the CBO report tells us virtually nothing about the economic costs of the bill or how much consumers […]

Raining on the climate parade

At the Bonn climate talks, environmental groups showed their displeasure with Japan’s proposed carbon emissions cuts by comparing Prime Minister Aso with former U.S. president George W. Bush.Climate Action Factory via FlickrEven the skies wept last week when the latest cold front slammed into the ongoing effort to draft a new international climate treaty. The […]

Enviros cringe as Senate committee approves energy bill

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved an energy bill on Wednesday that has the environmental community up in arms. The plan, enviros say, relies too heavily on fossil fuels and doesn’t do enough to advance renewable energy. The American Clean Energy Leadership Act was approved by a vote of 15-8. The bill passed […]

House ag chief Peterson: what, me worry about a warming planet?

Peterson, right, with combine rep: With climate change and big diesel-guzzling combines, we can grow lots of corn!After researching my story last week about the ag lobby’s attempt to turn Waxman-Markey into a cash cow for the agrichem and ethanol industries, I assumed that Waxman would quietly make some unspeakable deal with House ag chief […]

Bonn was disappointing, and Copenhagen will be too. Who to blame?

Photo: rolandFirst up, the climate talks are not going very well.  After a rousing start in Rio in 1992, from which we returned with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the negotiations have been anything but inspiring.  1997’s Kyoto Protocol defined the rich-world actions – the first steps – that would put meat on […]

It’s time to act “after many years of dithering and delay”

The Administration has put together a terrific new website, globalchange.gov, on its landmark 13-agency report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States.  Every possible summary and graphic you could want is there – heck, they even have the embed codes for their slideshow: GlobalChange.Gov-US Impacts Summary [vodpod id=Video.16092247&w=425&h=350&fv=] If you didn’t catch the live […]