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20 climate experts call for aggressive U.S. action

A group of 20 U.S. climate scientists and experts sent an open letter to President Obama and members of Congress on Monday calling for aggressive action on climate change. The scientists say that the American Clean Energy and Security Act under discussion in the House marks a “powerful advance and must be enacted this year,” […]

DeFazio lambasts cap-and-trade

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) made one thing clear on Friday: he’s just not that into the cap-and-trade legislation under debate in the House. Peter DeFazio was first elected to the House in 1986. He represents Oregon’s 4th district in the southwestern part of the state.Courtesy Rep. DeFazioIn a speech in Portland, DeFazio decried the focus […]

U.S. is starting to make a down payment on funding international climate change efforts

This past Wednesday (June 17, 2009) the Appropriations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives that has jurisdiction over the international global warming pieces of President Obama’s budget passed a bill that supported increasing US commitments to these needed efforts. The funding will make a “down payment” in helping developing countries deploy clean energy, reduce global […]

Tom Friedman chats with Grist about the green challenge and globalization

At a Grist gathering in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, we were pleased to host New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for a chat on the state of green. Our intrepid video expert was on hand to tape the event. Friedman released Hot, Flat, and Crowded way back in October 2008 — before the worst […]

CBO: Waxman-Markey pollution cuts cost little

This piece was co-written with Andrew Jakabovics, Associate Director for Housing and Economics at the Center for American Progress. Opponents of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454, are acting like out-of-control auctioneers. They’re trying to defeat the bill by raising cost estimates for the bill’s clean-energy and global warming pollution reduction programs. […]

Ask Umbra on sparkling water

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dearest Umbra, We and our colleagues use sparkling water as our substitute for cokes, coffee, beer, etc. We have heard some really bad things about bottled water, and are of course aware of the fact that it is up to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water. But oh […]

Will media and nation bear witness to coalfield tragedy this week?

A historic reckoning is taking place on Coal River in West Virginia this week-and in Washington, DC on Thursday. On June 25th, U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, will hold the first bipartisan hearing in a generation to address the impact of mountaintop […]

Can a number save the world?

500 marshmallows organize for climate action.Robert van Waarden / Spectral QIt can if that number is 350. That’s the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: 350 parts per million (ppm). It’s also the rallying cry of a creative campaign to raise awareness of the climate crisis and build grassroots support for the […]

Marion Nestle takes on the “organics are elitist” meme

“[P]lease don’t blame organic producers for the high prices. Until the latest farm bill, which has a small provision for promotion of organic agriculture, organic farmers received not one break from the federal government. In contrast, the producers of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton continue to get $20 billion or so a year in farm […]

Science diplomacy: An expectations game

In “The Limits of Science Diplomacy,” SciDev.net Director David Dickson argues that scientific collaboration can achieve only very limited diplomatic victories. A conference hosted by the Royal Society in London earlier this month, entitled “New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy” (agenda), seems to have arrived at a similar conclusion. But this view of science diplomacy is […]