Latest Articles
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Obama’s key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign
Reported by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian’s U.S. environment correspondent America’s oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama’s plan to build a clean energy economy. The spoiler […]
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“Democrats to Relax House Emissions Bill” — now it gets a B or B- grade.
The first quote is the Washington Post headline today. Can’t argue with the overall message — although I would like to know what those “house emissions” are. Roll Call’s spin is more political, and thus more positive, “Waxman, Markey Announce Breakthrough on Climate Change Bill.” Or you can take Congress Daily AM’s spin, “Energy And […]
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How I learned to stop worrying and love Waxman-Markey, Part 2: In praise of domestic offsets
The two biggest concerns about domestic offsets in climate legislation — the possibility they will be riddled with fraud and/or that they will overwhelm the “genuine” emissions reductions — are I think, largely unwarranted. The fact that Waxman-Markey potentially allows a substantial amount of domestic offsets is no reason whatsoever oppose it. As readers know, […]
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NPR: Industrial ag and India’s ‘cancer train’
Spraying pesticides: how green a revolution? Last month, NPR’s excellent Dan Zwerdling filed two reports (here and here) on the ecological and economic upshots of industrial agriculture in India. Starting in the 1960s, U.S. agronomists–backed by U.S. foundation cash and blessed by the Indian government–introduced farmers in India’s then-fertile Punjab region to the glories of […]
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Straight Talk about Corporate Social Responsibility
Critical thinking about “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) is needed, because there are few topics where discussions feature greater ratios of heat to light. With this in mind, two of my Harvard colleagues – law professor Bruce Hay and business school professor Richard Vietor – and I co-edited a book, Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility […]
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How the ‘OMB memo’ non-story happened
How to cook a non-story…Courtesy Arbron via Flickr Now that the “White House memo” hoopla is over — except insofar as it will live on forever as a zombie Republican talking point — it’s worth pausing to review what happened. It’s a remarkable, real-time example of how the polluter/Republican/media nexus works. And it raises some […]
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Treating climate change as a security threat
Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / Grist Old soldiers, as they say, never die — and at 97 the legendary Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap seems intent on proving the point. But he does not seem to be that interested in fading away, either. For the man who drove out first France and then the […]
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Seattle chef Maria Hines wins James Beard Award for her organic creations
Photo: Ron WurzerSeattle chef Maria Hines has cooked up an award-winning recipe for success: serve sustainable, organic foods from your local area in a welcoming atmosphere with a neighborhoody feel. The resulting dish? Tilth. Nestled in small green home in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, it’s only the country’s second restaurant to receive organic certification from Oregon […]
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Ask Umbra on escalators
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Nice column on elevators. Since most elevators are counterbalanced, there is much less energy use involved than most people would expect. It’s nice to see the addition of hybrid technology to recapture the braking energy, though. On the other hand, those ESCALATORS ….. ! I have seen […]
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Hybrid electric bike …with afterburners
In honor of national Bike to Work Week, I shot some helmet cam footage of my hybrid bike in action. Hills and cars are the bane of bikers everywhere. One problem at a time I always say.
